Court Date

I received an email from my adoption agency on Tuesday telling me that I have a court date.  They didn't even call I was so surprised when I opened my email and saw what it said.  I go to court in Ethiopia October 13th.  I have to be there no later than the morning of October 11th and can leave as early as the evening of October 14th.  I am going to try to stick to these dates the best that I can because I want to use as little vacation  time as possible.  I found out last week that I can only use my vacation time for the adoption and not my sick bank.  I only have 5 weeks vacation left this year.  I was planning on staying in Ethiopia to spend time with  Lennox for 7-10 day and then take 6-7 weeks off when I actually bring him home.  So now I am working with getting every done with only 5 weeks of vacation.  I can legally have 12 weeks of FMLA but adoptions only allow vacation to be used.  I would have to take a couple weeks without pay if I wanted to stay home the full 7 weeks.  Anyway back to the adoption news.  I am working with a travel agent now to figure out how to get to Ethiopia!!  I will keep everyone updated on this next exciting step. 

FYI.... The latest update on Lennox is great.  His lab work came back good, he does have pink eye right now though.  He also is not one of those little orphanage kids that many of you are picturing in you heads.  He is a healthy 20 pounds, 27 inches, and is 7 months old. He is going to be a big boy just like Kadin.

more later

jessica

What next?

So it has almost been 1 month since filling out my paper work for Lennox to become my son.  The court system in Ethiopia closes August 8th until mid September.  August 8th is rapidly approaching and therefore I believe I will be traveling in September or October.  The agency will let me know when Ethiopia has scheduled me a court date.  I will then call a travel agent and schedule my flight.  I will meet Lennox a couple days into the trip and then go to court to see the judge.  I will then be able to see Lennox a couple hours a day until I come back home.  The judge should tell my agency if I pass court or not.  The ministry of Womens Affairs (MOWA) has to put a letter in my file saying that they support the adoption.  This letter is taking the longest to get into my file because MOWA is not looking at as many cases as they used to.  I plan on staying in Ethiopia for 7-10 days in order to spend time with Lennox.  I will come home without Lennox and wait for the court system to get my paperwork ready and apply for a Visa for Lennox.  I hope to travel 2 months after the first visit to go pick up Lennox and bring him home.  As soon as I get my first court date I will let everyone know. 

more later
jessica

Referral Day for Lennox!!!

So today is the day that I got my referral for my baby.  For those of you who are unsure of what this mean, let me tell you.  I turned in my paper work about 6 1/2 months ago requesting a relatively healthy baby less than 18 months old.  Well I went to work this morning and received a phone call at 9:30am.  The conversation went like this. 
This is Jessica.
Jessica this is Claire from Children of All Nation.
NO!!
Jessica are you sitting down?
NO!!!
Jessica you need to sit down I have something important to tell you
You have to hold on.  (I run down the hall like a crazy person to get to a more private phone)
Okay it is Jessica again.
Are you sitting down now?
Yes I am, please tell me this is real?
Jessica I have a referral for a 6 month old little boy, he is healthy, his birthday is Jan 1, 2011, and he is so cute.
NO WAY!!!
Jessica I am going to email you his picture along with his information.
OK OK OK I am ready.


She continued to talk about the little history that the agency knows and I was shaking so hard I could barely write it all down.  My friend Kristin was sitting next to me the entire time crying.  And for those of you who know me, yes I did cry.  I was finally getting my baby.  I hung up with Claire and the minute went by so slow as I waited for the email that was going to show me my sweet baby's face.  I finally got online about 10 minute later and saw his handsome little face.  The entire world stopped as I got to look into his amazing big brown eyes.  He might be the only baby in Ethiopia with fat cheeks.  He is absolutely AMAZING!!!   So the big question of the day is "What happens next?".  Well I get to fill out more paper work and send it to Ethiopia.  Ethiopia then will set up a court date for me.  Once I have the court date I will get to travel and see his cute  little face in person.  I will only stay one week with him and then I will have to leave my son in the arms of the Nanny's at the orphanage.  I will then wait for court approval to go back to pick him up and bring him home.  I don't have an exact timeline, but cross your finger with me that it all happens this year.  I would love to have him home for his first birthday. 

I will update you more later

Jessica

how much more waiting?????

So around the middle of March Ethiopia stated that they were only going to process 5 adoptions a day.  They were doing 50 adoption a day which meant I would get a referral for a child around 8-12 months after my paperwork reached Ethiopia.  Well the slow down meant that my adoption could be pushed back up to 4 years before seeing my child's face.  I asked my adoption agency if they have any updates from Ethiopia and this is what I was sent. 
    "So far, we have not witnessed any slow down in processing of the referral or the court hearings.  However, there are rumors circulating that MOWA will slow down to 5 cases a day soon (this has been the "threat" all along but it is just now be carried out). We are taking the process day by day to see how it will play out with our future families.  We hope to continue to receive MOWA letters in a timely manner after the first court hearing.

We have 4 families traveling in Ethiopia right now and three more that leave this week to meet their kiddos and attend court!"

So in my naive thought process the longer they keep processing 50 a day the shorter my wait will be when they start processing 5 a day.  So all in all this is pretty good news.  My paper work has been in Ethiopia for almost 6 months now.  If the process stays the same then I could get a referral for my baby in a couple of months.  This is the only real update I have for now.  I will keep checking in monthly with my agency to see when Ethiopia is actually going to slow down. 

more later
Jessica

This is one of my favorite Ethiopian adoption videos!!

Another one of my favorites.  I could post a hundred of these videos, but I won't post anymore video until I get to post my own. 

jessica

Ethiopian facts

I have not posted anything in over a month because I don't know anything new.  I sent an email to the agency today in order to see if they can give me an update.  While I am waiting for them to respond I thought I would post a few facts about Ethiopia.

Facts about Ethiopia

Total population: 77 million

The average income in Ethiopia is US$100 a year. Almost 82% of the population lives on less than $1 a day.

Malnutrition levels are among the highest in the world.

Ethiopia is home to 5 million orphans

More than half a million of these were orphaned as a result of AIDS.

Literacy rate: 42.7% age 15 and over can read and write.

Only 18 percent of children reach grade five.

Ethiopia's neonatal mortality rate is one of the highest in the world - 49/1000 births with tetanus infection being the second major cause of infant/neonatal death.

1 Birr = 100 cents

Main exports: Coffee, hides, oilseeds, beeswax, sugarcane

Major languages: Amharic, Oromigna, Tigrinya & Somali

Major religions: Christianity & Islam

Life expectancy: 46 years (men), 49 years (women) (UN)

I will post more later when I get an update.


jessica

Ethiopian changes.....

I posted about the possible changes in the Ethiopian adoption process during my last post.  Well it seems as though the changes have occurred to a degree that nobody can agree on.  Different website are stating that MOWA is only processing 5 adoptions a day which would push my timeline from 6-8 months to possibly 4 years.  I talked to my adoption agency last week and she said that MOWA is still putting out referrals and processing 25 adoptions a day.  This a a 50% decrease but at least my timeline is only going to be a year or two instead of four.  I am not sure if everyone will understand this post, so basically the process is going to take longer than I had originally thought. 

more later

jessica