Another week has sailed by. Halloween decorations are up in our little neighborhood.

As for adoption news... no news in terms of process... We did talk to our agency director on Wednesday. He said that the coordinator for NN needs another week to determine if there are two girls for us in this region. I was reassured that he knows our preferences (3-6 bio or non-bio girls) but we will consider girls up to 8 years old.

Our agency does have other referrals - but they are all for "single" children in various regions, and another brother-sister combo. I really hope through this blog and in real-life we aren't coming across as too picky. Since we've only been waiting three months since re-accrediation (add another three months when our dossier was done in April) we want to wait it out for two girls for now.

That said, being analytical-types, we have done some calculations and have realized that there really aren't that many 3+ year old girls coming to USA from Russia. (Our calculations put it at 200-500 per year.) Yes, there are something like 750,000 children in orphanages right now but only a small percentage of them are available for international adoption, and make it through the process to find a new home. To me, this is tragic.

Add to the fact (via recent discussions with our agency director) that there really aren't that many 3+ year old referrals to begin with. He explains the reasons this way. Most families are looking for infants. So the coordinators in Russia are focused on finding those infants, and forming relationships with the baby homes. This means that they aren't spending the time in the orphanages where the older children are, and building those relationships. These orphanages do not like to commit to an "international adoption program" unless they know that there is an opportunity to place a bunch of their kids. Most people aren't looking for older children. So it's a catch-22. Right now, they learn of the older children through the MOE, and I'm not sure how else.

When we started the process, we were told that there are many older children "waiting" and our referrals would be almost immediate, if not before the completion of our dossier. Then the re-accrediation thing happened, which closed many regions for over a year. Foster care programs in Russia are apparently affecting children this age. Plus it's been slow getting things up and running and getting information about the available children. But consistent news from our agency suggests there do seem to be an increase in referrals just not what we are requesting.

So long story short, there really don't seem to be alot of 3+ children available and we will need to readjust our wait time expectations unless we decide to go younger OR decide to pursue a boy/girl OR something else changes with us.