ICAB temporarily suspending new applications for adoption of chidren aged 0-36 months

Okay, there has been a rumor going around that ICAB was going to stop accepting adoption applications for children ages 0-36 months as of May 1st, 2009. I read on the website that there's a grace period though. Our resource person Anik never contacted me and I hadn't heard it from any official source, so I figured it probably just wasn't true! At least, I really hoped that it was just a rumour.

I just saw on Tangie's blog (thank you for the info and for giving such a quick update!) that the rumor has been confirmed. I went to go check out the website of our adoption agency, and indeed there is an official message explaining the situation. The Philippines will no longer accepting new applicants for adoption of babies ages 0-36 months. Apparently, they had a lot of applicants this past year, and now they're really back-logged. In order to accelerate the matching process, and to encourage the adoption of older children over the age of five, they're closing application for the adoption of younger infants temporarily. I guess most families want a baby, but they need people to adopt the older children too. There is no official date for when they will open again, but they have stated that they will remain closed until 50% of the families whom already have files open with ICAB have received a referral. It is not clear what will happen to folders already in progress...

I have to admit I had a bad feeling about this...I have been seeing families on various blogs waiting longer and longer, and I figured something might be up. It doesn't affect us in that our file is in the Philippines and we've already been accepted, but our wait will likely be longer than we thought :0( Then again, maybe this news will help speed things up...I guess that is the point, after all. We'll just have to wait and see...

Of course, I should not complain. There are so many families out there in the process of preparing their files right now, and they will have to wait till the Philippines re-opens. No one knows how long that might take, but it could be anywhere from a few months to a couple of years. Or perhaps they can choose to adopt an older child? What about those who just sent off their files and are waiting for ICAB approval? They are left in the dark for the moment as to what will happen. My heart goes out to all of these families! I can't imagine how frustrating and painful this must be. I feel very lucky to have received ICAB approval...
At the same time, thinking of the other famiies, I feel kind of guilty too!

I'm a bit discouraged at the long delay that lies ahead of us. Time has been flying by so far, and I was very optimistic that our wait would go by fast and that we'd get a referral really quickly...this is a wake up call! I realize now that there are a lot of other couples in the same position as us. As I wrote in my last post....I know it's a simple numbers game! There are only so many babies available for adoption in the Philippines, and there are soooo many families wanting to adopt...
I am actually surprised to see how many families are turning to international adoption.

We originally wanted to adopt from China, but we were told to expect to wait five years so we decided to look into the Philippines. I guess we weren't the only ones to have this idea...

I wish everybody the best!