While we don't have any new updates for our specific case, it sounds as though India is taking note of the sluggishness of the adoption system at this point. CARA, India's branch of government that regulates adoption closed things down last fall as they implemented several new guidelines with the hope of streamlining the adoption process. I cannot say what it has done for in-country adoptions, but a year later, things certainly do not seem to be "streamlined" on this side of the globe.
CARA has announced that they are once again putting a hold on all new adoption registrations as of this past week. They have announced an invitational gathering ("The Meet") to reevaluate some of the new guidelines and hopefully make some changes that will, in fact, make the adoption process much smoother. Until then, no new applications are being accepted. We are under the impression that those of us who are already registered will continue to move through the system. While I feel terrible for families who are just getting started (because we were there last fall), I am relieved that CARA is not going to continue to flood the system with cases when it is not doing a great job of handling the cases that are already in process. I do know that they want to look good in front of everyone at The Meet in February, so I hope that means they are motivated to continue to iron things out in the meantime. Of course, "motivated" to me probably has a much more urgent efficient course of action attached to it than it does for a foreign government.
Sadly, while we have heard that many RIPAs (orphanages) simply move slowly over there, the truth is that they have very much had their hands tied on inter-country adoption by the 80/20 rule: being forced to maintain the ratio of 80% in-country to 20% inter-country adoptions. There could very well be children who are available for international adoption in our RIPA (having been rejected by three Indian families), but the RIPA is unable to refer them to us if that would upset the ratio. Rumor has it that the 80/20 rule is one of the regulations that will be reevaluated at The Meet. I know there are a lot of prayers going up that it is done away with completely.
In the meantime, we are still waiting. We were told under the old regulations that a referral was estimated to take 9-18 months. Although under the new rules, there was a delay in our ability to be eligible for a referral (we thought it would be in January upon completion of our home study, but it wasn't until we were matched with a RIPA in April), we are still only seven months out from entering the "line". That is obviously well within the range, even though we are the guinea pigs and no one really knows how long the wait for a referral will be under the new rules (particularly since they keep changing). However, it is devastating to know that there are many, many children who desperately need families, and are spending unnecessary months and years in orphanages instead of loving homes, all because of bureaucracy and inefficiency. I hope and pray that we have good news for at least one of those precious children very, very soon.
