wait times

Dear Brian & Anna,

As the wait time trend has continued to increase, we see the need to amend the timeframe in order to better represent expectations for families receiving referrals. The wait times are increasing from 14-18 months to 18-24 months for a male or female infant or toddler. We do not have as many families requesting children four years and older and thus the wait for those families will likely be shorter than the current wait times.

Paperwork, specifically clearances, is still the main contributor for the slowdown in the Ethiopia program. If we have a child in the transition home who is completely paper-ready, but does not have a clearance, we need to wait on that final document before referring the child to a family. Unfortunately, the clearance process is still one that is intensive and can be drawn out over many, many months. If clearances for children continue to be processed at the current rate, wait times could increase again in the future. The final clearance could take one month or a year or more. This is a process that is out of our hands and is contingent on the governmental bodies in Ethiopia.

We know this is not an easy email to receive. Please know America World is doing as much as possible to process and petition for paperwork to be completed in the most efficient manner possible. Our hope is to match families with children as soon as we are able, while being sure the process is being completed in an ethical manner.

America World is still very supportive of the Ethiopia program. Our Senior Director of Programs, Anna Graham, was in Ethiopia last week. She was very encouraged by the officials’ continual support and positive regard for international adoption. The officials want to make the adoption process in Ethiopia a good one and have a commitment to adoption, which has encouraged America World. We will continue to work diligently throughout this process and are thankful for the referrals we have received in 2012.

Blessings,

Africa Program Staff
America World Adoption

overjoyed

Today has been so wonderful and I just haven't been able to contain my excitement. Over what you ask? I have no idea. LOL! Lately things have been moving fairly quickly with the adoption front and has been steady rather than sporadic. This has lifted my spirits quite a bit and given me hope again. There have been many referrals, court dates issued, embassy clearing families, much progress in the southern region, etc. The last couple of nights I haven't been able to sleep all that well. I have woken many times during the night and feel urges to pray. I know I should never have stopped praying for our son, but I did for a while. I had lost so much hope and just didn't know what to pray for anymore. Every time I would pray over something, I would look back and see that my prayers and timelines just didn't match up. Good thing for me that God's and my timeline are not the same and those prayers were not waisted. That urge for prayer has returned and I just love knowing that God's glory is shining down on our and His son. Today has been crazy. I don't ever think I have had excitement overpower me like it has today. Let me clarify that we did not receive any news that indicates anything new for us today; however, I know that something big has happened today in us adding our son to our family. I am so giddy you would think I just got the call. Part of me writing this post is for me to remember today so that I can look back at our son's story and see what happened today. This is very bold to state this assurance with such certainty, but I just feel it. I went to God in prayer and felt His assurance in me feeling this way. I feel Him smiling down on me and saying you can rejoice and it will be soon. I am so spun up right now I could probably run a marathon. THis is going to be one of those things that separates how people see things. There will be those who get it and those who think I am functioning on too little sleep or coping mechanisms or any number of other explanations. As for me, I am glad I get it. How sad would that be if I let doubt steal this incredible joy God is giving me. I can't wait to bring the glory back to God when recounting this story down the road and say see. This is what it was and it was God! How cool will that be. I have had glimmers of meeting our son and just get overcome with gratefulness and thankfulness for this journey. This waiting and uncertainty and lack of control has been the most difficult thing I have had to face, but I am so glad for the trials. These trials are making the joy even greater. All I have been able to do is smile at God today and say THANK YOU LORD!!!! I will close by saying that I truly believe all of our plans lately have had purpose, things are lining up financially for us that are absolutely not a coincidence and I am beginning to see God slide our puzzle pieces into place. It is just so cool to see God preparing our family for His new plan to be executed. GO GOD!!!!!

still moving up

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Watching God Move Mountains

Ahhhh. This is a glorious post. After waiting for so long, feeling defeated for so long, I am now watching God move mountains. God has been moving mountains, but until now, it all was behind the scenes so to speak. Just over a month ago, we received an email from our family coordinator stating that the Kilil clearance (5th level of clearance for Ethiopia's southern region) has put into effect a way to process clearances for children from this region. They were unsure how long it would take for us to see them process clearances, but it was up and running. About 2 weeks ago, referrals started to be issued. It has been what seems like eternity since we have seen any referrals other than those from the waiting children's list. The 1st 3 referrals were for baby girls. These families have been waiting the longest and was such a blessing for them. Although our list didn't budge, it was so reassuring to see movement. On Tuesday we received 2 emails from our family coordinator. The 1st email stated that they were increasing the wait time for males to 14-18months from DTE. At 1st I was miffed that I was being reminded of how slow things are moving, but then I was overcome with peace. This might have been partly due to me opening up God's word and not just hiding behind the Bible Studies I was working on. Anyways, the increase in wait time really meant nothing and this was the 1st time it was increased, but we stayed within the range. Every other time the wait time increased, we were pushed further from the range or removed from the range. Not this time. Although we are at the start of the range, we are still in the range (14.5 months). For this, I am rejoicing. The second email stated that our home study has expired and that our I-171H is about to expire. My 1st thoughts were those of inconvenience, but quickly began to seem like no big deal. We needed to update these anyways to allow us to adopt an infant. Because our original request was for a 1-3 year old, we are not approved to bring a boy under 1 into the US. I don't anticipate these updates to be a big deal and contacting our social worker is on my to do list today. We have decided to ask our social worker to approve us for as many kids of both gender and of as big of an age range as she will allow. This is something we wish we had done from the start. It will be interesting to see what she sees fit for us. Once the home study is updated, we will send it to USCIS and they will issue us a new I-171H with our new request on it. This does not change our request with the agency. I believe we will leave that at one boy 0-12 months; however, if we should change our minds again, the approval will already be there. Yesterday, there was all sorts of good news.
#1, a fellow adoptive family asked there family coordinator about the kilil clearances. This was the response they received:
"America World has received a clearance for a child from the southern region and
are aware of others that have been issued. We anticipate receiving more
clearances in the near future and therefore hope to see more referrals issued
over the next couple of weeks. For confidentiality reasons, we will not note if
children are referred from the Southern region but we can share with families
the rate at which we see clearances being issued. We hope to have more
information to share by the time we have our February conference call."

Sounds good to me :)

#2 On the yahoo group, an encouraging note. It is so easy to get wrapped up in the DTE list seeing our number stay the same or worse yet, get bigger. Many of us waiting don't view the needs at a glance list, which stated families court dates, embassy dates, etc. This parent pointed out that on the NAG list, families of 24 or more children have been submitted to embassy and will soon be taking their children home. This frees up space in the transition home for 24 more children who need to be referred. WooHoo!

Finally, #3 A families referral for a 4 month old baby BOY! This puts us at number 10! We are finally in the top 10!!!!!!!!!!!!!! My heart is rejoicing. I am so hopeful (which I really needed) that things are going to move really fast now. This is the flood so many of us were waiting for. I know this is dumb, but I just can't help myself. My new guess is that we will have our referral in 2 months. We shall see.

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Happenings

I know I don't post a lot lately, but there really has not been much to post and most days, I do my best to put the adoption in the back of my mind to keep sane. It is very hard to anticipate things progressing day after day and see nothing. Yes, I know it is in God's timing. Reminding me of this makes it no easier and to be honest, I feel like I am getting spit on when someone says that to me. I have a close relationship with God and communicate with Him often. I don't need anyone telling me His truths. I already know them. All I want is people to listen and pretend like they understand how hard this journey is. For this I am very grateful for our agencies yahoo group. We may not have met each other in person, but we understand what each other are going through, pray for each other, shed tears for each other, and rejoice together. I know God enjoys seeing His children loving each other in this way. A while past, the southern region of Ethiopia added a clearance children needed to go through to be paper ready. Although this other step was added, there was something preventing them from being able to process this clearance. I'm not really sure of all the details. Last week, we received an email from our family coordinator stating that this other office (?) is now up and running. WooHoo. The agency did not know how fast they would process clearances or how long things would take. Obviously I would like to know details, but am very happy for a big glimmer of hope. This was good news number one. Good news #2 is that a family who was trying to get an expedited visa to bring their daughter home, was just granted one. YAY!!!! They will be able to leave Ethiopia Wedn or Thurs night and get her to a hospital in the states to have tests done. Praying big for this family that they get answers and treatment so their little girl gets well. The last good news to report is that a family in line for a little girl got a referral yesterday. Praise God! They have been DTE since the end of Aug. 2010. I am very happy that they can see their daughters precious face. Well, that's about it for now. We are still hoping that the flood gates open and the referrals pour out..... soon. We are still number 11, but will post as soon as that changes. Bye for now.

A great day

Today is going to be a good day. This has nothing to do with events that may or may not happen, but about how I make it in my mind. I could choose to look at all the difficult circumstances or I could choose to look at all my blessings. I am grateful for the Lord and for everything He is. The peace that I receive through Him surpasses any temporary gratification that the world can provide. It's easy to keep up with routines and forget about Satan's influence on the world, but when you step back and pay attention, it is so real. Satan doesn't want what is best for us like God does. Instead he feeds us with lies to steer us away from God and His peace. While these lies seem small and harmless, they add up and steer us further from our creator and protector. Today is going to be good because I am aware of Satan and his schemes and I will conquer his lies with God's truth. When I see greed and selfishness creep in, I will go to my Father for strength and humbleness. It is not about us! We are all better off loving others as ourselves and putting others first.