Since confusion is the thought for today, I might as well go the whole hog on it and take my befuddlement all the way to China.

As we all know, unless the past year has been spent as the unhappy guest of aliens intent on learning how humans tick ... we don't ... China revamped their adoption regulations and put new restrictions on international adoptive parents into place in the 1st of May.

Parents must now be lighter, younger, prettier, healthier, happier, smarter and richer than they had to be before May. One reason often given for the upping of the ante has been that there are markedly fewer children available for adoption.

Brian Stuy, on his Research China Blog ties increasing time frames for adoptions to a decrease in the number of children saying: At the end of the day, the wait times are increasing due to too many families seeking to adopt too few children.

We have looked at the impact female infanticide may have in lowering the numbers of girl babies in orphanages, and the historical background of the strong gender preference for boys in China.

We can see from the demographics of the country that aside from a dramatic shift in the ratio between males and females, not much has changed.

So, where are the adoptable children that China previously had in legions? Are families not better able to afford additional children? Are additional children now allowed? Has domestic adoption increased so significantly lately that orphanages are emptying?

One answer may come in this article in the China Daily. Obviously meant to impress with announcements of more care for children, the bottom line may tell us more than intended.

The government is putting up $145 million to set up 350 shelters for homeless children by 2010. This will be in addition to the 130 shelters now 'offering support' to more than 110,000 homeless kids.

Do I hear 'tip of the iceberg' from anyone? What would be a safe bet, do you think? Maybe 10% of homeless kids being included in the shelter numbers? Less?

The last line in the story says: By the end of 2006, about 45,000 orphans - 10 percent of the total - were housed in 249 welfare institutions.

That would indicate almost half a million orphans.

So, can someone please explain how even five or six thousand hopeful adoptive families have made a dent in the number of children who could so do with a family?