Our agency hasn’t had a referral for Korea for almost a month. We are, therefore, still number eight, but with the heightened expectation that a big bolus of referrals has to be coming in any day now.

There are so many more sources of information on referral activity now than the first time we went through this. Our agency has always had a recorded “hotline” message that they update every few weeks, but last time I didn’t find out about this until just before I got our referral. Actually, we were planning on adopting from the Philippines, but we decided to fill out the additional paperwork for Korea because it was a low level of effort (one form) and we thought Korea would be a good back-up. It wasn’t our first choice because we were told the wait was 18 - 24 months, and the Philippines wait was 5 - 9 months.

We had been waiting 5 months on the Philippine program when our social worker called us and said, “So, are you still planning on filling out the Korea paperwork?” We had filled it out 5 months before, but it never got to its destination. So we re-sent it and got on the Korea list much later than we had planned, making the likelihood of a baby from Korea seem even more distant.

We had been waiting 9 months on the Philippine program with no end in sight when I stumbled upon the hotline and decided, just for grins, to see what was up with the Korean program. I heard, “The next family on the list waiting for the referral of a child of either gender has a program application date of…” and then our date.

I called the social worker right away. “Are we next on the list from Korea? How can that be?It was supposed to take 18 months, and we’ve only been on the list for 4 months!?”

She said, “Well, I remember seeing something in my e-mail that the Korean program was going quickly…let me check.”

We were next. The call came three days later, and then we had to explain to everyone that we were getting a little boy from Korea, not the Philippines.

Now, with all the message boards I consult on a regular basis, there’s no chance of such a surprise. I know what position I am in line and even the names of some of the families in front of me, so when they post their referral news I’ll be able to gauge how far up we’ve moved. I even know that a baby was scheduled to be arrive at Logan tonight, and that referrals are often sent with escorted babies; I was at Logan for a meeting this afternoon, and I was actually checking out the terminal for arrivals, thinking maybe I could spot my referral as soon as it landed on US soil.

We’re still number eight, but we’re getting closer. I am so excited.