New Adoption Policies

Today we found out that we will have to travel two times to Ethiopia to complete the adoption process.   About three weeks after we receive and accept our referral (in about 8-12 months), we will travel to Ethiopia for about a week to meet our future daughter and to sign adoption contracts that will begin the court process in Ethiopia.  Then we will come home and wait for the court dates and processes to take place before travelling back to Ethiopia to pick up our daughter.  There will be about 2 months between the two trips.

There have recently been 41 initially accepted referrals in Ethiopia (not with our agency) that have then been rejected by the adoptive families.  This new process has been put in effect to help prevent that from happening. 

Our agency had about an hour long conference call today to explain these changes.  So love how great our agency is with communication and how apparent it is that they love what they do--helping children around the world.  Love them and am so thankful for all they do.  I'm also so thankful for processes that support the integrity of the Ethiopian adoptions.  It would be awful to be a part of a corrupt system.

Still processing what all of this means.  There are some positives--we get to experience Ethiopia more than once within a short time frame, we'll get a trial-run at the whole travel experience so that we'll be better prepared for the second trip and we'll get to meet our future daughter face-to-face and hand-in-hand for the first time much earlier than we normally would.  But that leads me to the biggest challenge--meeting her and then having to leave her there for 2 more months...  Ugh...  Will definitely need some good perspective on this one.

Again, so thankful for all of you fellow adoptive families/bloggers--love reading your stories and outlooks.  Crazy but amazing journey--so worth it all!