It's been a busy month in Ethiopia in the adoption world, so busy in fact that we only moved one spot on the wait list. I'm a little bummed about the lack of movement, but I do at least understand why there were fewer referrals this month. Let me try to explain.....
We are working with several different agencies who are working with several orphanages in Ethiopia and they all have to work together with their government and ours. Because we had not decided on which country we were adopting from when we started, we had to have our home study completed by an agency licensed in the state of KY, and for various reasons we chose Adopt!inc. They are licensed to complete Hague home studies for international adoption but they do not have an international program so unless we chose domestic adoption we were going to have to work with at least one other agency.
Adopt!inc
After we prayed...A LOT, we decided to adopt from Ethiopia. Since we already had a home study completed by a licensed agency in our state, it didn't matter if the international agency we chose was licensed in our state as long as they were Hague Accredited.
As it turns out Lifeline is licensed in our state, Hague Accredited, AND with Ethiopian adoptions!!
Ethiopia only allows so many agencies on the ground and it's extremely difficult to obtain a license there. So we had to add..sort of, yet another agency. For the Ethiopia program, Lifeline partners with West Sands adoptions. Now you may ask why we didn't just choose to use West Sands directly rather than go through another agency to work with them. Well, we interviewed both and they would both would be fine to work with but, Lifeline has an office in Louisville and West Sands is based in Utah!
Since West Sands in the agency on the ground in Ethiopia, they are the one who must be licensed there. Ethiopian law requires that license's be renewed every two years. The catch is, the license must expire BEFORE it can be renewed. Well, during this time, those agencies can not submit cases to court for adoptions to be finalized, cases that have been to court can not be cleared at the US Embassy and so on.
There was very little danger that West Sands license would not be renewed, but working with a government in a third world country is always tricky.
So not only was our agency in the process of license renewal, nearly all of the Ethiopian orphanages were as well. There are two types of orphanages West Sands partners with in Ethiopia. Those that are private and supported by US missions, like Lifeline, and government run.
When an orphanage is going through license renewal they are not able to get the paperwork ready for children to be referred. Also, to my knowledge, because their license also must expire before being renewed they can't even hand out referrals they have ready.
All this to say.......I think almost all the orphanages who were up for renewal are finished or nearly finished, West Sands in now re-licensed and everyone on the wait list has all sighed a huge breath of relief!!
This past month, 5 children found their forever home and we moved 1 space on the waiting list.
Please continue to pray for the child God has for us, that they will be protected, loved, and cared for until we are given clearance to go meet them. Also, for lot of movement on the list! We are currently at #63 and REALLY REALLY want this to be our last year of holidays, events, etc without our child!
