the wait in china these days for a referral for those waiting is LONG...to put it in perspective for those not in the china adoption community our papers went to china end of August 2005 and we got referral end November 2006 - so 15 months wait ...In the last 21 months since we came home with Nelly they have only managed to clear 5 months of paperwork ...the wait is getting longer and longer...numerous explanations and theories - many to do with the number of children in institutions, lower abandonment figures, the trend towards domestic adoptions within China etc etc ...whatever the explanation it would seem that there will be fewer and fewer little ones from China and for those waiting it seems will only get harder and harder...I just hope that the theories and explanations are true ...