Yes. No. Maybe.

Just in case anyone thought that the picture of a roller coaster was an exaggeration, check this out.

Some things were coming together. Rumors held out the possibility of imminent referrals. Matches had been made (babies paired with parents.) Our agency took the unprecedented move of emailing us on Wednesday, indicating (albeit cautiously) that a package was on its way from the CC@@, and that they had reason to believe that it would contain our referral. They reiterated the general process: generally mailed on a Wednesday, received by Friday, followed by translation, etc. In short, get ready!

We woke up the very next morning to a post on Rumor Queen that European agencies had received word that the CC@@ will be making no referrals for the month of November - none, zero, zip. Rumored reasons included a newly installed head at the CC@@, end of the fiscal year, H1N1 concerns, etc. We contacted out agency, who said that they were following up, and would be in touch.

Last night we saw another post to the same general effect; i.e., no November referrals.

Today, our agency confirmed its understanding that packages were ready to be mailed on Wednesday, but were not, for whatever reason. They will be mailed, but when, no one knows. Ugh.

So here we are, tantalizingly close, just over four years after starting the process, and well over three years of working our way through the system in China. We are a family, if only on paper, and in our hearts. Will somebody pleeeeaaasssee drop that package in the out-going mail?