One year waiting for Japanese Willow

So it has now been exactly a year since we got on the waiting list for the Japan program. I thought it would be good to give a recap of where we are.


We got on the waiting list on 4/22/10 as #4 in line for a baby girl. In May 2010 (less than one month later) there was a baby girl referral, moving us up to #3 on the list. This, of course, made us very excited--thinking our wait might not be very long! In reality, though, other than the baby girl twins born last month (which didn't move us up in line, unfortunately), there haven't been any other girls born over the past year. That means we are still #3 on the list.

That being said, there have been around 10-12 little BOYS born over the past year, so there definitely has been movement. If we were to change our minds and be open to a boy referral, we would actually be NEXT in line, and so would likely get a referral pretty quickly. We are pretty set on having a daughter, though, so we don't anticipate making that change.

We've been told multiple times that there is no reason for the gender discrepancy (2 girl referrals vs. 10-12 boy referrals), so we are hopeful that it is just random luck. If it is indeed random luck, there could very well be multiple baby girls born over the next couple of months. Or there could be zero born in the next year. The point is, though, that we have no idea when we will get our referral--what has happened in the past (i.e. 10 months between baby girl referrals) should have no relevance on what happens going forward. Technically it could be this summer, or it could be another couple of years. It just literally depends on how many baby girls are relinquished.

I hope this overview helps--I know it is kind of confusing, and it is certainly frustrating to deal with. We are confident, though, that sometime (whether it be 2 months or 2 years from now) we will have our Japanese daughter :)