O’ Happy Week!

Besides being on cloud nine all week from my own referral last week, 3 more families received referrals this week. Congrats to the G. Family (no blog), the Bottomly’s, and Tam and Kai!

It’s so wonderful to see so much movement happening. Those at the top of the list waiting for baby girls . . . hang in there! Your call must be just around the corner.

Referral! (revised)

I had to make a few revisions to my post below because I wasn’t supposed to post his name (oops!).

Apparently eight is exactly enough because we got our referral today! Exactly 8 months to the day that we were put on the wait list. 

It’s a baby boy and he’s a little over 12 months old. He’s described as sweet and gentle. He has the same name as another Gladney family that just recently received their referral as well. For now, we’ll call him Baby “H”. I can tell you that his name means, “a rich man” and in the orphanage they refer to him as Baby “H” Big because he’s the older of the two baby “H’s”. He has big beautiful eyes and is just adorable! I can post more info and pictures once we pass court in a couple months.

My mind is totally mush right now, so I’ll do a separate post explaining how we got “the call” and will also post our referral video as soon as it’s edited. So stay tuned for more . . .

Eight is enough

Today marks eight months on the wait list! Is eight enough, or will nine bear it’s ugly head? Things change so quickly, you just never know what will happen. I’m praying for all the families at the top of the list that have been waiting well over nine months for baby girls. Your call must be soon. Hang in there!

Not much else to report, other than I’m lovin’ day light savings! Wahoo! I thought we’d never get through the dead of winter. Having a few hours of sunlight after work and knowing that Spring is just around the corner, gives me the extra boost I need right now. Thank you Jesus for the newness of Spring. Now bring on the referrals!!!

Oh, and Happy St. Patty’s Day everyone!!!

Movin’ on up!

We have moved up on the unofficial wait list to the #2 slot for a boy! Yipeee! Congrats to Coco and Kota on their referral! I am officially out of the funk that has been attached to me all week. Bring on more referrals!

BTW, our latest poll results are tied. 50% think our referral will be a boy and 50% think we’ll receive siblings. I’m with the 50% that think it’ll be a boy since referrals for siblings tend to be much longer than the average, but we shall see? Hopefully we’ll have an answer to post in the next 3-4 weeks!

Cha-cha-changes

3 things:

1. Wait time – Average wait time is now 9 months with the longest waiting family waiting 10 months. This makes me a bit nervous because if the wait goes up again, we could be waiting until the fall to bring our baby or babies home. Remember the Ethiopian government shuts down during the rainy season (sometime between July and October).

2. New Regulations – Many may already be “in the know” but there has been some recent controversy in Ethiopia surrounding human trafficking and ”recruiting” (meaning agency workers are allegedly going into villages and recruiting parents to give up their children for a chance of a better life in America). Watch the video below, it’s simply disheartening.

Having friends that had a positive adoption experience with the agency in question, it’s hard to know what’s truth and what’s embellished by the media. Perhaps it’s not true and it’s just the enemy’s way of stopping a good thing from happening. It’s hard to know for sure, but at any rate . . . there needs to be more regulation surrounding Ethiopian adoption to prevent such corruption from taking place.

In light of recent controversy, the US State Department announced new requirements regarding visa processing for children adopted from Ethiopia. Basically, a new form needs to be completed verifying that the child is indeed an orphan. These new requirements will cause a delay between the time we pass court and the time we bring our child home. Sad to hear about another delay, but if it means that checks and balances are being put in place to help alleviate corruption and to allow only “true” orphans to be adopted – then waiting a bit longer is worth it.

3. Travel - Ethiopia is now requiring parents to be present at the court hearing (before someone represented us by power of attorney), which means we will now be traveling twice. Once for the court hearing and then again for our embassy appointment and to bring our child(ren) home. At first, I was sad by the news because I do not get paid adoption leave from my company – which means I’m relying on stored vacation time and the money we have in savings. Ugh! Another week’s vacation and $4000 for plane tickets taken from savings. Hard to swallow.

After wallowing for a while, Travis and I are determined to make lemonade. How fun that we get to kiss our child’s face that much sooner (although we have to say goodbye for a short time)! We are also exploring the idea of working remotely from Europe during the wait between passing court and embassy. A lot has to fall into place to make this happen . . . like approval from our bosses, affordable housing while in Europe and finding someone to watch our house and our 2 dogs while we are away. So if you are reading this and have any connections and/or ideas . . . let us know!