The final stretch

Word came on one of the mailing lists I'm on that some people have received their Post-Adoption Birth Information. The government's revised target of 12 weeks will expire this Friday, so it's no surprise that my obsession about this has heightened to near-epic levels.

I have the sort of job where I could, if I really had to, just toss off an email to my boss and say "I'm working from home today." It's not without consequences, but I could get away with it if I had to. And so every morning this week, I've thought to myself "should I stay home today to wait for the mail?"

I haven't done so yet, and what purpose would it serve really? But it's hard to fight the temptation. I concoct elaborate plans for just how and when I'll open the envelope (take a day off work, go for a long contemplative walk, and open the letter over a Scotch?) and what it will reveal. I agonize over the thought of getting a veto, or even of having only information about my birth mother and not my birth father.

Updated disclosure and contact veto stats

In July I posted a summary of numbers from the Ontario government about forms relating to adoption disclosure. Today's copy of the Cornwall Standard-Freeholder has an interesting reunion story which includes some new stats from the government which are good till July 24, so I've included them in an updated summary and corrected some minor errors from before:

Forms relating to adoption disclosure received by MCSS, Sept 2008 to present

		Sept–Dec 2008	Jan–Apr 2009	May 2009	Jun 1–19, 2009	Jun 20-Jul 24	Total
Disclosure Veto	All	921	1,490	2,243	1,367	~400	~6,400
	Filed by birth parent	543	490	?	?	?	?
	Filed by adoptee	358	1,000	?	?	?	?
No Contact Notice (contact veto)	All	1,050		265	152	~50	~1,500
	Filed by birth parent	650		?	?	?	?
	Filed by adoptee	400		?	?	?	?
Notice of Contact Preference	All	1,500		151	219	182	2052
	Filed by birth parent	625		?	?	?	?
	Filed by adoptee	875		?	?	?	?
Post-Adoption Birth Information		0			3,443	2,791	6,234

(The ? symbols indicate a lack of information on my part.)

(Note that the Standard-Freeholder story credits the reunion to the new law; I doubt very much that this is possible. The government is certainly not at the stage even now, where a one-week turnaround time is possible, and they were hugely backlogged in June. Plus, if this were through the new law, it would be the adoptee doing the calling, not the Custodian of Adoption Information. Much more likely is the explanation that this was done through the old search service offered by the Adoption Disclosure Register and the timeframe near June 1 was just a coincidence or an effort to clear old backlogs before everything changes!).