More Changes . . .

One of the first things we learned about international adoption is that nothing is for certain. You have to go into this process knowing that the rules can change at any moment.

When we first looked into adopting there were several countries to choose from. Now a couple of those countries have closed to adoption or severely limited their programs. Ethiopia was only requiring one parent to make one trip and now we are both required to go and need to make two trips (adding about $5,000 to the cost). The wait time has doubled since we first started considering adopting.

Now we find there is another change. The US Embassy is requiring more background information on every child and doing a longer investigation into their background. Several families with our agency were planning to go pick up their children this month and they had to cancel their plans just days before they were to leave. Everything has been on hold while the embassy enacts their new procedures.

Our orphanage is full so no families picking up their kids means no open beds for more children to come in. That means we are frozen on the waitlist. As frustrating as this is for us, I can't even imagine what it is like for those families that were leaving to get their children. They have already gone to Ethiopia once, spent time with their children, and in the eyes of the Ethiopian government the children are legally theirs.

We heard today that the embassy "cleared" these waiting families so hopefully they will get to travel soon to bring home their kids. My best guess is that the new policy has delayed everything at least a month.