Where We Are in the Adoption Process

Now that I have recorded all of our trip details and made our long awaited announcement I have decided to give you a run down of where we are now.  One of the families that we became friends with called the AAI office just before we left for Ethiopia and found out all of this wonderful information!  It's really great to be able to get a handle on what's going on pertaining to your process.  So here it is in a nutshell:


1) After passing court, the clerk’s office will release the hard copy of the adoption decree.  This could take anywhere from  5 -20 days.
2) Once our agency has the decree, they will translate it and get it legalized.
3) Our agency will then issue a new birth certificate listing Todd and I as the adoptive parents.
4) Next, the immigration process will be completed for Amayah's passport and a letter of support is obtained from MOWA--Ministry of Women's Affairs.
5) All of these documents must be submitted to the U.S. Embassy two weeks in advance of an embassy interview.  This is what we are now waiting for as far as Amayah's case goes. We were told that our embassy appointment would be either on January 12th or January 26th.  There is a chance that things could get pushed back to February but we are hoping that won't be the case.  I just spoke to Gail, the director in Ethiopia, about Z's case and she said something about "when we come to get Amayah in January"....  so I'm pretty sure that we are pretty safe planning for a January date.

Before we traveled over to Ethiopia we learned that each agency is given a day of the week for embassy appointments (AAI's  appointments are on Wednesdays).  Depending on how the days of the month fall, our agency could have 2 or 3 embassy dates....also, other things could effect this, such as holidays or other Ethiopia type disruptions...power problems etc.  I also learned from a family that traveled a while back....I believe that our agency only takes up to 10 families at a time on each given embassy day.


We were hoping for a December embassy date because a family that had just gotten back from Ethiopia was told they would have either a December 1st or December 15th embassy appt.  We were so hopeful that we too would be told December.....but we weren't that fortunate.  We decided later that it was probably better this way because we wouldn't have to travel in December when the flights were so expensive and also we wouldn't be bringing T home to the crazy holiday season!  Everything will be overwhelming to her so Christmas would most likely send her over the top.  


Amayah is only used to being in the Layla compound, she doesn't even really know what's outside the gates of AAI.  Riding in cars is also going to be a big ordeal and there is a possibility that she may get car sick easily.  We will need to keep things pretty low key for quite a while after we get home to help her with her adjustment process.  So taking her out and about, going shopping, or attending various events will have to wait until she will be able to handle it better.


When we decided to add Z to our adoption process, we were hoping that he wouldn't be very much farther behind Amayah's process but we found out yesterday that Z will be about two months behind Amayah.  So we are faced with the decision to either leave her there for two months longer than she would need to be there or pay for two more trips to Ethiopia......one for Amayah and then one last trip to bring Z home....which would most likely be in March sometime.  There's good and bad to this news. 


Take one trip
*Amayah has to stay there longer, this will not be the best thing for her, and I'm wondering if  it would be fair to her.
*It will be so much harder for us to continue to wait and to watch her get even older.  She is already 3 months older than when we accepted her referral and she will be five months older at the end of January.  We would have to wait at least two more months after that.
but...
*We would save money.
*We get to bring the kids home together and Z could translate to Amayah for us if we needed him to.
*Z won't  feel left behind when we leave with Amayah only.


Take two Trips
*We get to have Amayah home sooner, she needs this because she has been there for about 15 months and it is better for her, especially at this young age to be in a home, not in an orphanage setting.
*We get to spend more time in Ethiopia
*We can visit with Z one more time while he is waiting for his process to be completed which will break up his waiting time and help to get the bonding started....we can most likely take him out of Layla and let him stay with us at the guest house while we are in Ethiopia.  This would be a wonderful experience.
*Amayah will have time to be the "new" child here and we can give her the attention and help she needs on an individual level to get settled and adjusted to her new life with us.
*We will be able to give Z the same attention because he will also have the chance to be the "new" child.  I think this will be good for both of them.
but....
*It will cost more money
*Todd will have to take more time off of work...unless he decides to stay home for the last trip.
*After spending time with Z we will have to leave him in Ethiopia and that could be harder on him than if we were to just hold of traveling until the end.


This is a hard decision to make, but my gut says to travel twice.  It may cost more and Z may be sad that he has to stay there longer but I think in the long run, it will be the best thing for both of them.  The money will be replaced in our 2011 tax refund.....we will just have to do without it for a while.  =(


What would you do if you were in our shoes?