Wait List movement and...uncertainty...

We moved up a spot!! We are now #12 with 4 families on hold in front of us...so we're sort of #8. That is the exciting news of the week!!!

The difficult news of the week is MOWA (Ministry of Women's Affairs) in Ethiopia announced they are cutting their processing from 50 cases a day down to 5 a day...threatening to reduce the number of adoptions approved from 4,000 per year to as low as 500 per year (those are world-wide numbers, not just the adoptions to the US). This becomes effective on March 10th. There are rumors that this may be temporary, but currently no one really knows. There is a US State Dept. conference call on Friday for the adoption agencies to address the issue. Also, a coordinator from our agency is on her way to ET to try to figure out what is going on. Hopefully we'll know more in the next few weeks. If this becomes a permanent policy with MOWA it will most likely become a significantly LONG wait.

more movement today -- we're #13!!

A little boy was matched with his forever family today, soooo that means we moved up one more spot to #13. Congratulations to the happy family!

List movement today!

Whew!!! We were starting to get a little bummed, but finally some good news...we moved up one spot today, so we are now #14. There were actually 2 referrals accepted today, but only one of the families was on the sibling list. So happy for both of those families!!

Good news today!

Woot woot!! We found out this afternoon we have moved up one spot and are now #15!!

We received an email from our coordinator about 2 1/2 weeks ago telling us there were 3 families 'on hold' in front of us so our numbers could change at any time. This means there are 3 families in front of us currently not able to accept a referral for some reason, so we are sort of #12.

The ET government (and the US embassy) have added on additional paperwork requests and additional investigations, so it seems to be slowing things down a bit. While it makes the waiting for us a bit more difficult, it is certainly for the best to maintain ethical practices!

Wait List Movement today!!

Yippee!!! We moved 2 spots on the sibling waiting list today...we are now #16!!!

New Requirements from ET

Gosh...the Ethiopian government has been busy with new requirements throughout the past several months. They are now requiring the I-171H paperwork (the approval from US Immigration to adopt a child internationally) to be a part of the dossier. This also must be notarized, then certified by the Secretary of State's office in Topeka, then certified by the US Secretary of State in DC, AND then authenticated by the Ethiopian Embassy in DC, AND THEN it can be sent off to Ethiopia to be added to our original dossier. What are the chances of that one little packet of papers making it through all of those steps to our original dossier already in Ethiopia??!! Oh, and also by the way, that will be another $180 please. Goodness ET govt, no more pieces of paper that cost more money, please!

So after another trip to Topeka this morning, hopefully our dossier will be complete...again!! I raced the snow there and back, and still had time leftover to shop for scrapbook goodies again with my mom -- sorry Craig.

Referral news: Well...we have NONE for us...big, big bummer!! However, in the last 2 days two babies and one toddler have been accepted by their forever families which is sooo very exciting. Unfortunately for us, those families were not on the sibling list so there was only movement on the infant lists and toddler lists. Such amazing news for those kiddos and families though!!

Happy New Year!

Happy New Year to everyone! A forever family received a referral for their baby boy today, so there was movement on all of the waitlists today!! We are now #18. We've moved up 7 spots in 2 months...hopefully that means only 3 or 4 more months to wait for our referral.

I'm trying to get motivated to get the kids scrapbooks caught up before adding 2 more kiddos!! I'm just a little less than 2 years behind -- all the pics from vacations really slow me down!! Maybe we should nix vacations for awhile until I get everything caught up. :)