Country Update

The Country Update came from CAFAC today.  I was very excited to see that fifteen referrals were given during the last month.  It was a pleasant surprise.  I skipped over to the last page to see where we were on the list ... only to see that we are at about number twenty-four.  Fifteen referrals and we went from 31 to 24? 

For those not in the adoption world that don't understand the math, it's because families can be skipped over if their referral request doesn't match.  We're wanting at least one girl so if a bunch of referrals came for boys, we'd be skipped over.  Comprende?

The courts are now closed for the Ethiopian New Year.  That means that things pretty much slow down now.  People can't get Visas or pick up their children until they've passed court.  

The first of the families attending court, as per the new legislation that came to pass in May, will be in November.  It will be interesting to see how that progresses.  I'm glad we're not one of the first families to have to endure that.  I'm also very thankful that CAFAC is still able to attend court before us to do all the paperwork with the courts.  If they couldn't do that, we'd have to attend multiple court dates ourselves.  

So the news pretty much sums up that we'll be lucky if anything happens for our family in year 2010.  So much for the assumption that we'd be bringing home our daughter in year 2009!!  Now we'll be lucky for 2011.  Referrals can't be given when the foster home is full.  The foster home won't empty out too much with no court dates happening.  There is still potential for a referral before 2010 ends but, even that's slim.

Am I depressed and upset?  Surprisingly, right now I'm not.  It's pretty much old news about anything happening in 2010.  I'm still hugely surprised to hear that fifteen referrals happened in August!  Woo hoo!!  Congratulations everyone!