Moving Up On “the list”

Apparently, today was the day for referrals. Everyone in the Ethiopia program has been on edge a little bit because referrals are scheduled to stop June 1 (which is a Sunday, which really means May 30.) although last year they stopped referrals June 15 but still squeaked in another group of about 15 referrals after the 15th of June and those people all made it through court before the courts closed in early August.

Here’s a rundown of what happens - you get a call for a referral. Once you accept the referral you wait for a court date in the Ethiopia court system. It can take anywhere from 2-6 weeks to get a court date but they average about 4 weeks. Once you make it through court the baby is yours. Your names are on their Ethiopian birth certificate as the parents. Your visa is processed and you are officially allowed to bring the baby out of the country. After you make it through court, you are given a travel date (Children’s Home Society has people travel in groups). Your travel date is usually about 2 weeks after your court date. You book tickets and go and pick up your baby.

Today there was a crazy amount of referrals given out. For the past 2 weeks there have been 3-5 referrals coming in a week. Today there were 12. And that’s only counting the people who are on the forum and announcing them. I have a feeling there are at least that many more going out to people who are not in the forum.

As of this morning we were #59 on the unofficial list. We are now at #48. And the really good news? The people who got referrals are waiting for infants (like us) and they are not people in the top 20. They are all over. The waiters at #49 & #51 both got referrals today. It gives me just a tiny bit of hope that maybe we won’t have to wait until fall for our referral either.

Update: We’re up to #47. If tomorrow brings as many as today - we could end up in the 30’s by the weekend. That’s amazing news.