So it's been a bit of a ride these last couple weeks. As we approach 8 months of waiting (and 1 year since we began the process), we received notice from our agency that the estimated wait time was extending to up to 24 months. That means up to 16 more months until we are matched with our child. We also received news the wait time after referral was extending to 6 months (to when you can travel to bring home your child).
That means we could be potentially be waiting another 22 months until we bring our daughter home. Almost 2 years. I couldn't wrap my brain around that kind of timeline. A lot can happen in 2 years. The fact that I'm an impatient person doesn't help matters. We had to consider other options.
I re-looked at the agencies we had researched when we first started the process. There are only 3 agencies that I consider to be on par with each other in terms of ethical adoption practices, humanitarian efforts, and level of child care in Ethiopia. After talking with others who had direct experience with both our agency and others, after researching agency reviews, and after speaking to the Program Director, we are switching to Holt International.
So here is where the ride starts. Holt has many children in its orphanage, and not many waiting families right now. That means we are looking at a relatively short wait time for referral. Possibly only 1-2 months. That means we could know who our daughter is by January, and then travel to get her summer, 2010 (although I have learned never to count on anything in international adoption).
So Holt adds you to their wait list upon approval of your
homestudy, prior to submission of the dossier (the 100 or so pages of legal documents). So we will have to get the dossier back from our agency and likely re-do at least some of it, but that can be done while we are officially on the
waitlist.
A couple questions I had to have answers to before considering this switch. Why the short wait time? How can one agency have a wait of a couple months while our agency is looking at 2 years? Holt is fairly new to Ethiopia and they do not have nearly the number of
waiting families as our agency. Our agency has close to 400 waiting families while Holt has a very small number in comparison. And Holt happens to contract with an orphanage that has seen a large number of relinquished children.
The next question surrounded their in-country practices. Holt doesn't consider poverty alone to justify adoption. They even offer assistance to allow the birth family to remain together. They also are involved in many humanitarian efforts within Ethiopia itself.
For these reasons, and many others, we felt confident that switching to Holt was the right decision for us.
So the ride continues! As one of my close girlfriends said:
This little squirt is giving you guys a wild ride already ... her soul is as anxious as yours to finally meet you - her mother! ... But you know she's also laughing as she'll be the greatest teacher you'll ever have and this 'lesson' is only the beginning of what she's got in store for all of us ... the path is laid but the blinders are on ... try to enjoy the journey using your other senses.
I hope my next post is to share the news that we are officially waiting (again) for our daughter.
