Time for a little update. Actually more like a little explanation for those outside the adoption world. Some friend or family members have asked me, when is she coming? Do you know her? How old is she? And many other similar questions. Sometimes my answers might have sound kind of evasive but, the truth is that for a long time nobody knew the answer, including me, and even now I don’t have some of those answers… so I’ll try to explain:
Most international adoption take from 9 months to 4 years, yes, a few take less time and some have taken more than that. The factors that create that range include:
• Country where the adoption is coming from.
• Gender and age of the child.
• New laws and regulations for international adoption.
• Time needed to obtain, notarize and certify all paperwork.
• Agency being used.
• And many others, but these mentioned give a good idea.
Our Story in a few words,
My wonderful wife and I made the decision to adopt a little girl from Ethiopia by the end of 2008 (in some countries you can’t choose the gender), in early December we sent the first application to our agency “Children’s Hope International”
After four long months (actually it was quick, is common to take longer than that) of collecting all our paperwork, the big pile of documents, called “dossier”, is sent to our agency and we are placed in a waiting list on April 13, 2009. During this time, all we know about our child is that is a girl, no name, no age, no DOB, not even aware is she has been born.
From there the main thing left, besides keeping up with immigration paperwork, is WAIT and WAIT and WAIT. The wait in our case was supposed to be between 6 and 13 months. We waited 9 months!! No complains. During all this time no new information is produced, nothing happens except getting closer; and the long answer to the “do you know anything new?” question is: “no”
And then… the most expected phone call for the last many months happens! And we are told that we have a referral, which means God finally tells the agency who is going to be our daughter and all the basic information is revealed; now, besides gender we know age, DOB, place of birth and we can see her face in a picture. Se bring them on, we can answer some questions now, not all though! [We are here at this time]
Still doesn’t mean we can hop on a plane and go to get our girl. Our girl has been chosen but the court system in Ethiopia has to make it legal. That means another wait of six to ten weeks. Once we pass court, the adoption is legal and she is officially our daughter.
Here we can plan our trip to leave in 3 or 4 weeks, stay a week or so in Ethiopia and return home with our daughter and start a new phase in our lives. Our son (from The Philippines) will likely come with us on this trip.
I hope this explain to a point the adoption process, not as simple as you can see!!!
Blessings for everyone!!!
