Status Update

Well impatient Adam finally broke down and called our agency for an update. It's been almost two months since there has been a referral and I wanted to see what was up.

As talked about earlier it's what they call "rainy" season in Ethiopia. I guess it rains so much and so many roads are not paved that they bascially shut down a lot of functions during rainy season. Also during this time period the government reviews adoption laws and also adoption agencies. There is always a potential for law changes during this time period so Holt has decided during this time period they are holding off on referrals until any changes are made official. The good news in this is our director told my that there are children in the center that they are waiting to refer and that as soon as they had a clarification on any rules they would make referrals. She told me today that there are 7 familes with dates ahead of us and one that submitted the same day we did. She said depending on the ages of the children waiting to be referred that there was a chance we would be in the first group of referrals when they start making them again. Hopefully that will be true!

Other than that not much going on. Getting Leah's room and the nursery ready are next on our to do list.

Adam

Checking In.....

Just thought I'd take a few minutes and check in with the blog and update the world with where we are at. As with the last few posts we don't really know much new. We are STILL #9. There has been a lack of movement the past month and a 1/2 and as patient as I've been I'll have to admit the past couple of weeks the wait has started to get to me. We are officially in our referral window which is 3-6 month. We have waited over three months so it could come anytime. It is what they call "rainy season" in Ethiopia right now. As developed as we are in the USA it's hard to imagine that rain would slow someone down but with the roads and other infrastructure less developed it basically shuts down the country of Ethiopia to the extent that they stop processing adoptions over that time period. So where does that put us? Our agency does plan on doing referrals during the rainy season but we will have to wait until the courts open back up to hear our courtcase. That is scheduled to be October 4th. There tends to be a lot of back up on court cases when the courts open back up. Thanks to the wonderful agency we are using we have pretty much been told that will not apply to us. Something else that is a trend in our agency the past few referrals is the quick turn around time between actual referral and then travel time. The last few have been at around six-seven weeks from referral to travel. That would be awesome for us! So how long of a wait for a referral do we have? Well the care center holds 20 children and all the families that have been matched should have traveled and picked up their children by the end of this month which should open up the possibility of up to 20 referrals coming sometime soon. This is VERY optimistic and not likely but best case scenario. Our agency did confirm to someone they plan on doing referrals this month. They have typically come in batches of 6-7 so we are fairly confident we won't get one the first batch but hopefully in the second batch. We are still hoping to be home by Christmas.

We did cross one thing off our list a couple of weekends ago. Thanks to Steve and Hollie we have a completed swingset for Leah in the backyard. I'll try and post a pic soon but it is so nice to have that done and we couldn't have done it without their help. Thanks guys!!!

Talk to you all later.

Adam

Chapman Family Interview

Most of you reading this probably know that back in May Christian singer Steven Curtis Chapman lost his daughter in a terrible accident. In the family's first interview since the accident you see a wonderful testimony that we have in Jesus Christ. Check it out here. Some of you will need tissues!!