the infamous clocks

i'm not sure that i've mentioned these clocks on here before. they're on our agency's website, and they help waiting families see what month cwa is in for making referrals. for example, the next referral for a girl will go to a family whose dossier was in ethiopia in september 2009.





we are a february family, and we are watching all the clocks closely since we are open to siblings or unrelated children. the scenarios regarding a referral for us are wide open, particularly since referrals for girls have started picking up (when we signed on with cwa, you were guaranteed a boy unless you specifically requested a girl. now there are families who specified no gender who have been referred girls). the sibling clock is a little more complex than it appears because it includes families who want 2 boys, 2 girls, or 1 of each. therefore, that clock won't move until all october families wanting siblings have referrals. but it's possible that if a referral for brothers came in and there were no october families open to 2 boys, a november family could get that referral even though the clock is still in october. we have heard from our case manager that a referral for unrelated children can come to us in 1 of 2 ways: either we will wait until we reach the top of the infant list (meaning one of the boy or girl clocks would be at february) and be matched with the next infant and next toddler or we could be matched with a toddler and then receive a referral for the next infant even if we're not at the top of the infant list. it all sounds really confusing, i know.

we're a couple days shy of waiting 6 months. when we started out, the wait for a referral was 4-6 months. so yes, we expected a referral by now. but we really do know and believe that this journey is bringing us to the 2 specific children that God created for us at the beginning of time. and surprisingly, we could have a daughter. in my heart, i have a goal that we'd have a referral by thanksgiving so that we can at least buy our kids christmas presents and perhaps even meet them before the year ends. would you pray that God might graciously fulfill that?