serious slow down

This was posted on our May/June DTC board today by a friend who just returned from adopting her daughter. This is not our agency, but another reputable one.

I can't verify the veracity of the below letter, but saw this posted somewhere else. It is allegedly a letter from the Harrah agency to its clients about the slowdown. Again, CCAI has not confirmed this (nor have I asked them). So, take this with a grain of salt. It's a bit of a bummer but at least it provides some information (if true).
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Dear Friends,

Our Beijing representative has spoken with several of the directors at CCAA about the slowdown rumors. He confirms that CCAA will be slowing down the LID to Referral timeframe in the near future. There are several reasons for this including the new, greater responsibilities given to CCAA, the internal restructuring of CCAA, the preference of social welfare institutes for finding domestic families to adopt children (it is easier for the orphanage to complete a domestic adoption since it involves only the local Civil Affairs office and not Beijing or a foreign country) thereby reducing the number of children who can be adopted internationally, the greater number of dossiers being submitted to CCAA by US families and other foreign countries, the reluctance of the Chinese government to increase the total number of adoptions yearly, and other factors.

It can be expected that CCAA will continue to refer half-months' worth of dossiers until the time is expanded to ten to twelve months from Login to Referral. This lengthening of the overall process will be done gradually and will apply to all non-Waiting Child families. As far as anyone knows currently, there will be no similar slowdown for Waiting Children.

Reluctant bearer of bad news,

Jackie Harrah