Yesterday afternoon we found out that the family that had been sitting at the #1 spot for quite a few months and had been on the waiting list for 16 months......finally got "The Call"! Yep....they are now parents-in-waiting to a precious 1 month old baby girl! So this bumps us up to the #4 spot. Since this is the second referral that I've heard of in the last couple of days I am hoping that there will be more to come. Another waiting family mentioned last night that they were told by our agency that there are currently 8 babies with paperwork pending....but only 2 of them are girls =( So I am not holding out any hope that our referral will come within this batch of referrals but at least we are moving up closer to the top of the list!
Another development in the Ethiopian adoption realm is the policy change of PAP's (prospective adoptive parents) to have to make two trips to Ethiopia! This is huge because your talking something like this adding anywhere from $2,500-$5,000, or more, added to your list of adoption expenses! Rumors started trickling in a few weeks ago on this but everyone was holding out hope that it wouldn't really go into effect. What has happened to cause this is that there have been parents that have traveled over there to bring their child home and when they arrived they found themselves in a situation that they didn't expect. Their child (that is legally theirs at this point) turns out to be in a totally different state of health than what their agency or orphanage proclaimed them to be. I read stories about a couple of families that this happened to, one family didn't bring their child back home and one actually did but ended up finding another home for the child later. These kids were found to have many undisclosed problems, a few were severe, and the families weren't approved for (by their homestudy social worker) or equipped to handle a child with special needs.
At the beginning of this I was thinking "Why would just a few families make this big of a change in Ethiopian policy"? Then I talked to my social worker and she told me that it was actually about 45 families in a 6 month period!! Unbelievable! So my immediate thought is that this must have been because of just one dishonest agency....but it wasn't! There were a few agencies and several orphanages being investigated and the end result was that 9 orphanages had their licenses suspended and all of the children were relocated to other facilities.
So the way it stands now, until further notice, if you don't have a court date before May 9, 2010 you will have to travel to Ethiopia to meet your child and attend the court hearing where your child becomes legally yours. Usually you give your agency's lawyer power of attorney and he/she stands in for you so that you don't have to be there. But it looks like we will be traveling twice and the worst thing of all is the fact that we will have to leave our child there and come back home for 1-3 months while the rest of the paperwork is being done. Ugh. THAT'S gonna be tough. I don't mind having to go over there twice....that just gives us more time to spend in Ethiopia....and I really love traveling.....what I do mind is the added cost, having to leave my other kiddos here at home, and also having to leave Amayah after being able to finally hold her and kiss her......
Guess I'll just make like Scarlett O' Hara and "I'll think about this, tomorrow".......
Have a good day.....
Wendy
7 comments:
What encouraging news! Congrats on your jump from 5 to 4!!! I am so excited to hear about the EIGHT babies ready to be referred soon! I don't think there have been any healthy infant boy referrals in a LONG time and I was beginning to hit that "it will never happen" phase. I prayed last night that some referrals would come soon and Thank you Jesus that prayer has been answered! We still have a LONG way to go, (DTE 1.21.10) but we rejoice with each family to has enduring the long wait and can celebrate their referral!
Congratulations on moving to 4th position! This waiting for a referral is so hard. We are also on the waitlist thru AAI for in infant boy. I was curious how you found out what position you are in? I have asked at least three people at AAI what position we are in but have never gotten an answer. We were told that we should be getting a referral this month so I am thinking maybe one of those 6 baby boys that are waiting for their paperwork to be completed might be ours! This is an assumption though since I have no idea how many families are ahead of us but I am praying we get the call soon!
Well now I have to confess to blogstalking. It was going to happen sooner or later!
We're also on the waiting list for a boy and can't seem to get an idea of where we are on the list. Does AAI call you at some point to give you an idea or do they just blindside you with a call?!
I was all peaceful and content with waiting and now I'm getting impatient again!
Congrats on being number 4!
So glad you all stopped by and left me a comment! Here's how I am guessing that we are #4 on the list:
Have any of you been invited to join OAEG? That is our smaller AAI forum group of families that are around the same time frame. We have families that are back with their kiddos all the way to families that are just starting the process. Let me know if you didn't get an invite because we would love to have you join!
Ok....through this group we have been keeping track of the "numbers". We know it's not totally accurate because there could be families that don't participate in any of the AAI groups but between hunting people down and from all of the info we get from the AAI office----each of us separately and also from the In Process updates and such---we guess-ta-mate where each of us is in line.
We actually could be as close as #3 if the family that needed a replacement referral already receive one.....we haven't heard about that yet. I know of only 2 families above us and that family needing a replacement. We also know what each of us in the group are requesting as far as age gender etc. So I think our system is about as accurate as you can get because you won't get that kind of info from the office!! We understand that the process is so variable and it's hard to put a # on families that are waiting...so they don't. This is just our way of keeping track.....and it's been pretty accurate for the most part.
Sooo if you haven't got an invite to our "small" group....let me know! When I get time I will pop over and see what's going on in your neck of the woods! =)
Have a good day!
I'm guessing this other group isn't the yahoo group. I'd love to be involved! After 7 months of lurking I'm ready to socialize. :)
And it would be great to have at least an idea of where I am on the list!
So... total blog stalker... I would LOVE LOVE LOVE an invite to this group! I think someone should write about it in the yahoo group so people know it exists... or is that wrong?
I would love an invite to the group. I am getting pretty obsessed with trying to figure out when we will get the call. :) I agree it is hard to be patient, I think about it every morning when I wake up. I am trying to keep myself busy so I don't sit by the phone all day. ha ha After almost a year of waiting I am so ready to see our baby's face. Praying we all get our referrals soon!
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