Ethiopia has entered the third millenium! Yesterday, the Ethiopian calendar (7.5 years behind our calendar) turned over from 1999 to 2000. The Guardian did a very good article with an audio slide show showing people in London and in Addis celebrating. http://www.guardian.co.uk/international/story/0,,2167505,00.html?gusrc=rss&feed=travel Because of the celebrations the Ethiopian courts will be closed for the remainder of the month. I had previously thought that this may adversely affect our process, but the CAFAC staff disagree. In an email update yesterday we were told, "Despite court closures- it is still the response time by Nairobi Kenya’s CDN IMM office that decided when a family can travel. So for those of you worried about the closure affecting child proposals or travel times if you have an adoption in process, please be assured this will not likely impact you." There was also information regarding wait times. Currently the wait time for infant girls is 14 months. Originally, we had expected to have a child proposal this month, but after calling the staff yesterday, it sounds as though we won't hear anything now until October. This is due in part to the New Year celebrations etc. I do know for sure that families whose paperwork arrived in August have begun to get proposals. That means that there are only 4 or 5 more families ahead of us. We are trying very hard to be patient. The staff at CAFAC, have been wonderful and we have been assured that we are in the home stretch of our wait. Yesterday's email also had some very good explanations as to why the wait is so long. I have included it below. "Sometimes there is a misconception that there are millions of children that are orphaned or in trouble so it should be an instant process to receive a proposal. As has been the case for several years with many country programs - at the time a family applies for a child under 12 months of age, their child is not yet born. The child they will eventually be matched to is not part of the statistics that are given by World Health Organization, Unicef, etc.
The infant under 12 months of age not being born yet is the case for most families when they send their paperwork to Ethiopia. Most matches to our families in this age range are 1-4 months of age when proposed. A sequence of events must occur in the child’s life before they can be placed for adoption: birth- loss of birth family through abandonment/death of birth family - legal process to be declared available for adoption - matches to specific agency and family. While there are millions of children in crisis and orphaned all over the world- these children that exist now are not all available for adoption, and are almost always school aged.
In context of USA agencies that are similar to CAFAC in length of time with a program in Ethiopia, and with more than 60 families coming home each year- web site information on wait times for Adoption Advocates International, Wide Horizons, Children’s Home Society, and Spence Chapin, - are given as 5 months to one year, and appear to be the normal wait times for proposals of infants under the age of 2 years old for agencies who are not new in Ethiopia.
With Ethiopia ‘s program as each family waits for their match there will also be the usual issues with children who do not pass health screenings, or lab testing to be matched to a waiting family, and must be refused adoption placement altogether, and other issues which might mean they cannot be matched to CAFAC families.
Our next largest group of match requests are for families who want siblings under 36 months of age. The wait time for many of these families also fluctuates- between 8 – 13 months as well. Keeping in mind that siblings must be born in this time frame, PLUS have been kept together by their family of origin, have losses within their birth family that bring the child into care, it is more easy to understand waits for matches. Relinquishment for adoption is still viewed as a last option, after all other options have been considered, by all those involved with any child’s case.
Other match requests for preschool aged children, or older siblings are usually met in under 12 months - and often we have more children from
4-10 years of age offered then we have applications for. Families approved for older children are finding that they get proposals in 2-8 months.
We have been pleased to see that many families’ response to slower time frames have allowed them to consider opening up their age ranges through a simple addendum process, so they can be considered for infants/ children who are older. For the children who are or will be matched after this change, this decision means the world to them. "
Part way through our process, we considered changing our age range. However, in the end we felt that it was important not to alter the birth order of our children, by inserting a sister before one of the boys. All along, they have been told they are getting a baby sister... to suddenly have a big sister would be a really big adjustment for them (not to mention us!).
PS For those of you following the renovation saga, the tile on the tub is up but not grouted. The drywall needs one more coat and sadly we still have no sink or flooring. The big thing for me will be to be able to shower again! Hopefully that will transpire this weekend. Oh yeah, we still have to frame in a closet, so I guess we are not really close to being done with the drywall. The upside to this reno is all the "character" Jeremy and I have been developing. I'm going to eventually post before and after pictures... we just have to get to the after part...
