The Unofficial List

I’ve been connecting with other people who are adopting from Ethiopia on an adoption forum (and most are from a Wisconsin and Minnesota and going through Children’s Home Society like us). It’s been nice to talk to people that are at the same phase in the process as us and understand what we are going through.

A couple years ago, someone on the forum created a list of waiting parents. It includes information on when the dossier was approved, what age/gender, if you’re waiting for a sibling group, how long you’ve been waiting, etc. They keep track of who was added to the waiting list when and then have created a best guess list of what number waiting parents are in line to get a referral for their child(ren). There are about 100 people on the list. When Kevin and I were added to the list we were at #80 now we are up to #72. I know it doesn’t sound like much, but it’s a good feeling to see our names move up a few notches every week or so.

There’s been a little bit of a dry spell in referrals lately. But the people who have traveled in the last 1-2 weeks have commented on some major blackout spells in Ethiopia (they’re telling current travelers to pack flashlights) which means no information is leaving Ethiopia, meaning even if they have a stack of referrals, they can’t get word to the US. However, today, there were 3 people on the forum who got referrals. Things are looking up.

We want our referral before June 15. After that Children’s Home Society stops referring children so that people with a referral can get a court date (which allows you to bring your baby out of Ethiopia) before the courts close in early August. The courts don’t re-open until October which means referrals don’t start up again until September.