Time for an Update

I know it has been a while since we posted, but not much has been happening. We are currently in the waiting phase, which understandably involves a lot of, you guessed it, waiting. We are starting to think that our "prediction" may be a little off. Referrals for our agency have really slowed down (or perhaps been nonexistent) for the past couple of months. AAI has been really good about keeping their clients in the loop about what is going on though. Here are a few things we have been told.

AAI recently discontinued working with one orphanage due to trouble obtaining clearance from the Ethiopian government office for additional referrals. This means that AAI is currently working with only 4 orphanages. One of these is rather small and hasn't produced many referrals, but it is currently in the process of working with another larger location and should be able to have a good number of referrals through them. If all goes as planned, hopefully this will happen within the next month.

AAI also recently participated in a teleconference to discuss the current status of adoptions in Ethiopia and to come up with solutions as to how to move forward to ethically and transparently better protect children, birth families, and adoptive parents. Some orphanages are currently being investigated by the Ethiopian government due to unethical practices or poor care, but of the ~200 orphanages in Ethiopia, only 77 are licensed for international adoption, and very few of those are under investigation. This has nonetheless contributed to the recent slow down of referrals, not only through our agency, but also through agencies across the nation. AAI relayed that everyone involved appears to be committed to finding solutions to these problems and that completing adoption cases with integrity and transparency will continue to be top priority for the agency.

All this to say that our adoption may take longer than what we had hoped. When we initially applied with AAI we were told that the time frame from dossier submission to adoption finalization would be 6-16 months, and we have no reason to believe that has changed. Of course everyone always hopes that it will be closer to the short end than the long end, but we continue to trust God and His timing.