Adoption Update

Waiting.

We have been in process since December 2010. Our paperwork has been in Ethiopia for 22 months. When we started the process Ethiopian adoptions were estimated to take 9-12 months (once paperwork was finished) at the longest. The current wait time is quoted at 24-36 months with a trend towards increasing.

Why the increased wait? There are a variety of factors but the main reason lies in the fact that the Ethiopian government has decided that all orphaned children need additional clearances before they are eligible for adoption. It used to be that children only needed four levels of clearance and now they need five. That additional paperwork, in a third-world country, takes more time. The good news - less mistakes will be made and only children who are true orphans will be adoptable. The less good news - longer waits for perspective parents and children spend more time in institutionalize care before finding their forever families. 

A group of adoptive parents from our agency keep an unofficial list so that you can somewhat gauge when you might receive your referral. When we sent our paperwork to ET we were #97 overall/#55 for an infant girl. We are currently #38 overall/#21 for an infant girl. 

No matter how many ways I crunch the numbers I am certain we will wait about one more year before receiving our referral. In some ways a year seems like forever; but, when I think about the fact that Parker is nearly a year old already, it seems like a millisecond. A year is not much longer than a biological pregnancy. I can finally see the light at the end of the tunnel!

Now that we are somewhat approaching the end of our waiting period RJ and I have realized that it's time to start thinking about fundraising. We have been blessed to have the funds to get this far but International Adoption is costly and we are relying on God's faithfulness, often manifest through people, for the rest. Which is why you might have noticed so many AMAZON links on the blog lately. 

I love amazon. (That is not a paid promotion!).

So we joined Amazon Associates as a way to help fund our adoption. (Amazon is not affiliated with our adoption.) We are choosing to direct all revenue earned directly towards adoption costs. All product links and reviews are the honest, personal assessments and not paid for by Amazon or any of their affiliates. All products purchased through this site do benefit our family directly. Thank for your support. 

It takes a village. 

XO

(Please always know that I love talking about my kids - bio and adopted. So please email me if you have any questions about our adoption, fundraising or anything else!)