4 months down.....

4 months on the waitlist. 20+ to go. To say our October waitlist numbers were disappointing is an understatement. Our official #'s are Girl 116, Boy 100, and siblings 50. Not much movement.....hardly any referrals have gone out in the last couple months. The "veteran" adoptive parents I am in contact with say that this is the norm. When I say that I am disappointed about no referrals are going out, I want to mention that I in no way wish that a family be broken so that we can get our child.....It sounds kinda bad when I replay it in my head. :-) What is disappointing is that while there are plenty of kiddos that NEED us, most of them are "unadoptable". Read on......

I want to explain some things about the waitlist and referrals. So far, the number one question folks ask us about our adoption is "when will you get your child?". "What?! 2 years? why so long? Aren't there millions of orphans?' The answer is yes. There ARE millions of orphans.They all need families.  And, while there are not enough families to cover all the orphans (sadly), there are plenty of families waiting to bring one or MORE of these littles into their family. I wish it were that easy. Unfortunately, the USCIS (dept of homeland security) is VERY peticular about allowing a child to be adopted. There has to be documentation that the child is an orphan, and they are very meticulous about this. The Ministry of Woman's Affairs in Ethiopia has also, in the last year, slowed waaayyy down in the number of adoption cases they process daily.  And, to add to that, the agency that we have contracted with has it's own set of rules about the children they accept into their orphanage. AGCI has to feel that the child will clear embassy with no difficulty before they accept that child. Which means that they do their own research about the background of the case on top of the research already done by the government. So, you can see now why it takes so long. There was a time a couple years ago when an adoption could be completed and the kiddo would be home in 9-12 months. Our agency is telling new applicants now to expect 24 months, and LONGER. Ugh.

While the wait is tough, we are so glad that we chose the agency that we did. We like their approach to adoption. They are in it for the children, and there to find families for children, not children for families. They partner with only select orphanages, and do not seek out children.

Did you all know that it is National Adoption Month? Is it coincidence that it's the month to be thankful as well? ;-) So, If ya know any adoptive families, give them a shout out, will ya?!

Thanks for following us, all!! Stick around, the best is yet to come ;-)