Waiting Update

Week number one of patiently waiting is about over. We've done good so far. We filed our I600A today which is the last peice of paperwork we have to complete before we travel to Ethiopia. The I600A is the paperwork we file with the US Customs and Immigration Services which basically is approval for our family to adopt a child. We have been approved by our agency and social worker but our wonderful government wants to have a say in it. We should get scheduled for our fingerprinting appointment in the next couple of weeks and after that we should have a short wait no more than a month to get our approval. After that we are still waiting for a referral.

We did get some updated information this week on the program and a more definite timeline. There have been very few referrals from our agency the past month and it turns out a computer glitch is the reason. Who would have thought it?? Apparently a nasty virus took over their computer system and they are still several days away from having it fixed. It's amazing that something like that could slow them down but technological resources aren't plentiful in Ethiopia.

They did officially adjust traveling times once you have a referral. The referral is where the agency sends us a packet of information regarding a child that meets our request. We will review the referral and choose to accept or reject the referral. Once we accept a referral our agency will start the court process in Ethiopia to make our adoption official. The entire court process will take approximately three months from when we accept a referral. Travel is an estimated one month after clearing court. So we will have at least four months from the time of referral until we travel. A little longer than initially thought but our agency is new in this country and still working out the kinks.

A few more tidbits....

1) Electricity isn't real dependable over in Ethiopia. They have a day without electricity every four days. It appears that it is even more sporatic now and that is causing some delays for people in the court system.

2) Our agency got their care center up and running this week. This should hopefully speed up the referral process and allow them to place some children with their forever families soon!

3) The orphanages over there are in desperate need of supplies. One example given is they use cloth diapers over there but don't have plastic pants for them so they tie plastic bags around the diapers. Truly heart breaking.

4) While our agency is new to Ethiopia they have been complimented regarding their paperwork for the court system. That's no surprise based on Holt's past history.

Sarah and I are traveling to her parents house for Mothers day weekend. We are looking forward to a break and will hopefully have some fun and rest over the weekend. Hope everyone has a great weekend and I will post next week.

Some of you have been asking and I will unleash my political blog on May 19th. That is purely a random date but some of you who know me will know I work much better under a deadline!

Adam