A Referral Surprise for 22 Children's Hope China Families

St. Louis--When their social worker Christina Ortwein showed Charles and Julia Holmes photos of their new daughter, they could hardly catch their breath...neither could their daughter Avery. Expectant of this special referral day, Avery wore her panda pen, emblazoned with the words "big sister" in Chinese. The family joins 21 additional Children's Hope families celebrating this referral day, after waiting 21 months from the day China entered their adoption paperwork in November 2005.

Children's Hope received 22 China referrals today, including four referrals for our Chinese expedited families. Twenty-one beautiful little girls and one very handsome little boy made up the group matched with Children's Hope families today. These children are now waiting to meet with their new families in the Anhui, Guangdong and Hunan provinces, in approximately 8 weeks. They range in age from 7.5 to 20 months, one 26 month old (parents requested 1 - 3 years of age), one 27 month old (parents requested 12 to 24 months old) and one 37 month old (parents requested 7 to 36 months old). These families had waited 21 months since their paperwork was registered in China to this day; the Chinese expedited families waited 14 months.

This group of referrals covered the 11/15/05 through 11/21/05 "log in dates". Congratulations to these families and all our China families who are that much closer to their own referral day!