More things crossed off the list this week: physicals, blood work, random paperwork stuff. I'm very aware that we are in a hurry up and wait scenario. I'm surprisingly okay with that. We received an update from the African Director of America World today. She recently spent a month in Ethiopia to see first hand how things are working over there. Positive things happened during her time there including our agency working with a new orphanage. Here are a few excerpts from her email that I thought would be interesting to share with everyone:
As most of you know Adoption from Ethiopia has grown popular in the past year. In the last two years the number of adoptions from Ethiopia by US citizens has increased by 100%. While there were only a handful of US adoption agencies working in Ethiopia two years ago, there are now over 30. Most people are attracted to the program for the same reason: compared to other countries it has proven to be the quickest and there is a need for adoptive families as there are many orphans. Because of this increased interest families should expect to wait longer for a referral than some of the families who adopted a year ago when the number of prospective adoptive families applying to the Ethiopia program was not so high.
As most of you know, power is currently rationed throughout Ethiopia because of the lack of rain. There is no power two to three days out of the 5 business days. This has created all processes to slow down. For instance MOWA cannot write recommendation letters to court on some days because of power outages resulting in rescheduling of court dates. Or the Vital office cannot issue a birth certificate because of the same problem. Families should expect some delays after a referral and leading up to travel because of these reasons.
The current wait time for both infant girls and boys is 7-9 months. The wait time is also 7-9 months for toddlers and children up to 5 years old.
So if you think of it please pray for rain for Ethiopia, not even because there's no power but because people are dying from lack of food. Crops won't grow, food costs are astronomically high and there is literally nothing to eat. It is a desperate situation for an already desperate country. Read more here if you're interested.
And one more thing...I have had a number of people ask me recently if there would be a chance that the child we adopt will have HIV. My answer was no and I explained that Ethiopia doesn't allow children who are HIV positive to be adopted out of country. Children that are put up for adoption are generally tested twice for HIV. I read something today that contradicts that information so after a bit more research I discovered that I have been misinforming people. It is possible for Americans to adopt HIV positive children if the petition for and receive special permission from both the US government and the Ethiopian government to do so. With that said, it is not our intention to adopt an HIV positive baby at this time. I stand corrected and I apologize to those I misinformed!
-kate-
As most of you know Adoption from Ethiopia has grown popular in the past year. In the last two years the number of adoptions from Ethiopia by US citizens has increased by 100%. While there were only a handful of US adoption agencies working in Ethiopia two years ago, there are now over 30. Most people are attracted to the program for the same reason: compared to other countries it has proven to be the quickest and there is a need for adoptive families as there are many orphans. Because of this increased interest families should expect to wait longer for a referral than some of the families who adopted a year ago when the number of prospective adoptive families applying to the Ethiopia program was not so high.
As most of you know, power is currently rationed throughout Ethiopia because of the lack of rain. There is no power two to three days out of the 5 business days. This has created all processes to slow down. For instance MOWA cannot write recommendation letters to court on some days because of power outages resulting in rescheduling of court dates. Or the Vital office cannot issue a birth certificate because of the same problem. Families should expect some delays after a referral and leading up to travel because of these reasons.
The current wait time for both infant girls and boys is 7-9 months. The wait time is also 7-9 months for toddlers and children up to 5 years old.
So if you think of it please pray for rain for Ethiopia, not even because there's no power but because people are dying from lack of food. Crops won't grow, food costs are astronomically high and there is literally nothing to eat. It is a desperate situation for an already desperate country. Read more here if you're interested.
And one more thing...I have had a number of people ask me recently if there would be a chance that the child we adopt will have HIV. My answer was no and I explained that Ethiopia doesn't allow children who are HIV positive to be adopted out of country. Children that are put up for adoption are generally tested twice for HIV. I read something today that contradicts that information so after a bit more research I discovered that I have been misinforming people. It is possible for Americans to adopt HIV positive children if the petition for and receive special permission from both the US government and the Ethiopian government to do so. With that said, it is not our intention to adopt an HIV positive baby at this time. I stand corrected and I apologize to those I misinformed!
-kate-
0 comments:
Post a Comment