Adoption Tidbits

It seems today was a big day for a lot of families that have been referred in the past few months. They either found out they'll be travelling to pick up their kids (in 1 1/2 to 3 weeks) or that their files will not make it through courts before they close this month. The courts, and most everything else closes during the rainy season because it is just so hard to get around in Ethiopia. Families that didn't make it through court have almost a 3 month wait before they will get to go pick up their kids. The courts open again in October, and are a bit backlogged at that time. So needless to say, that was pretty hard news to get.

At the same time, we are all so happy for Sharon and Karen (who had their cases caught up in the recent investigation and have waited almost 5 months to travel) who will be bringing their kids home this month. So will Liz, and I'm sure a whole lot more people that have been keeping quiet on the list serv today.

Supposedly, during the court closure, there are still referrals given out. But, things slow way down because kids' paperwork cannot be done and families aren't picking up kids from the orphanage (capacity can become maxed out). So even though there has been a real frenzy of referrals in the last month, I don't expect it to be anything like that for the next two months. Which is good, since we moved half way down the numbers in the last 6/7 weeks, if it kept up at that pace I'd be in trouble.