UP:
Liz, our newly assigned social worker from Frank, called today!

DOWN:
No, no referral (but butterflies just the same!). Just wanted to introduce herself and explain a few things.

UP:
The wait list is VERY short, we will receive a referral almost immediately when one comes in matching our criteria!

DOWN:
Russians consider the first two weeks of January as vacation time (celebrate New Year on the 1st and 14th); the main office is skeleton-crew, the coordinators are on leave. We will probably not receive a referral until third week of January.

SMALL UP:
Sometimes sketchy information will come through on a child; if it matches our criteria, she could be calling anyway! But don't count on it.

SMALL DOWN:
Many of the children they're receiving referrals on are in the 6-8 month range; which means they could be 6-8 weeks older than that by the time we bring him home. So we have to talk about an age limit cutoff - if we have one.

UP:
Travel time is getting shorter; the wait between referral and first trip is looking like 1-2 weeks; the first trip is 4-5 days.
The wait time between 1st and 2nd trip is usually 2-4 weeks (we had been told previously 2-8 weeks); and the second trip is being streamlined, and is usually only 7-10 days (rather than 2 weeks, which we were told previously).

Liz will not phone us again, but will contact us via email or unless we ask her to call specifically. This is to keep hearts and butterflies from being raised every time she calls. :)