One of the things about adoption that's a bit like having kids the biological way is that there's this interminable period of waiting between the point when you know you're supposedly having a child ("Oh, the strip turned blue!" compared to "Oh, we're finally DTC!" ((which is "Dossier To China" for those new to this game)) ) and the point when said child appears on the scene demanding milk and attention. Unlike the biological variety, the paper pregnancy is prone to stretch out so that it measures years rather than months, or can suddenly contract into something that feels like weeks. The most whimsical of whims are bureaucratic whims.

I was thinking about this the other day while reading an editorial called The Adoption Morass. It's an interesting bit of writing, in that it seems to explain the reasonable reasons behind the recent stretch in wait times while still condemning the slowness with which wait times stretch. Basically, it all comes down to the implementation* of the Hague Convention on Intercountry Adoption by the U.S. as well as various "sending countries," like Russia, Guatemala and China. It's a process that started back when Bill Clinton was being impeached, and still hasn't reached its conclusion. But we're nearly there. The recent restrictions China made on who can adopt when is just part of that long legal (and, in some cases, largely symbolic) process.

(*Note the way this typist avoids using the word "adoption" here.)

The Hague Convention should make the world a better place for families, which is the ultimate goal of this whole enterprise. And once that's implemented, everything will be smooth sailing, since transactions between American citizens and the government of China always run like clockwork!

After all, it's not as if future presidential candidates are outlining their campaigns to strike poses against China. Or, well... yes, it is.

Perhaps if they start making actual campaign promises about the Chinese menace, it'll take just as long to get them implemented - and we can figure out some way to make things work out peaceably in the meantime. Before real restrictions get implemented on either side.