Friday, January 27, 2006

Gong Xi Fa Cai! Happy Lunar New Year!


This Sunday is the Lunar New Year and much of China will be closed for the week while people travel home to see relatives and friends in celebration of the season. An interesting description of the festivities and traditions is available (http://www.duckdaotsu.org/gongxifacai.html).

While we won't be partaking in any of the house cleaning rituals, Kohji and I have decided to celebrate my making a pilgrammage to Mont Tremblant! Ok, well, the Tremblant excursion has nothing to actually do with Chinese New Year, but it's as good an excuse as any for the moment.

As for progress on the referrals, I'm afraid there is little to report this week. As suspected, Children's Bridge is not expecting any February referrals, so there is no news on that front. However, the CCAA website does report that they have reviewed all the applications registered with their office in June 2005 (which would include ours). This means, in theory, that our dossier has reached the mythical matching room. The CCAA also reports that they have matched all the dossiers registered on or before May 13th.

For what it's worth, here is the latest update from Children's Bridge:
"CCAA will close for a week for Lunar New Year. This means the next group of referrals likely will not come until early March. Then we expect to receive groups 230, 231 registered on May 16th and, if our luck changes, Group 232, registered in China on May 31st. Time lines from registration at CCAA to referral is now at ten months, with travel about two months later."
April, therefore, remains the anticipated referral month (for the moment). We'll keep ya posted as things change.