The Referral Process

We got news today that another family from our agency received and accepted the referral of a little girl. This is another 2009 family, and Bulgaria is working hard to get referrals out to all these families that have been waiting for quite a while.

I know that a few of you had some questions about the whole referral process so I thought I'd attempt to explain it as simply as possible. First off, the agency receives the referral and then passes it on to the family to consider and either accept or reject. The referral must reviewed by an international pediatrician during the review process. The pediatrician will review the available medical records and try to determine if they are somewhat accurate.

Once a family accepts the referral the parents will travel to meet the child in about 30 days. The parents spend a week in Bulgaria bonding with and getting to know the child. Then the parents return home for 4-6 months. The court date is during this period. The length between the 1st and 2nd trips depends on a lot of factors including which holidays fall between the two trips. During the 2nd trip the parents stay 7-10 days, and ultimately the child gets to come home with them.

As far as waiting to receive a referral, we are basically on a waiting list within our adoption agency along with other families with the same criteria as us (geeze, that's a confusing sentence). Each time a family receives a referral we move up on the list.

Our agency has had three referrals in the past three weeks which means we are moving up the list. But there are still quite a few families ahead of us, and we fall into the longest waiting list. We have requested what is to be considered a mostly healthy toddler girl. There are some special needs we will consider, but I'm not going into all that right now. I still seriously doubt that our referral will come any sooner than 18 months, and I'll be shocked if it comes in less than 24 months.

While we expect referrals to continue, once the holiday season gets into full swing there will be more holidays and vacations for the Bulgarian judges and officials. As a result referrals will once again begin to slow down.

Irregardless of where we are on the list or how long our projected wait is, we celebrate with each family that receives a referral. Not only does it mean we move up on the list, but it also means that a family, that has in many cases been waiting for years, gets to bring their child home. And most importantly, it means a child gets a forever home.

Hope that makes the whole process a little clearer.

Have a great weekend. I'm off to stress over the final game in the World Series when I could care less about baseball the rest of the year.