Change in Ethiopia adoptions

Today, the government in Ethiopia put in place some major changes to their adoption procedures. With Gavin, we traveled to pick him up after he was already legally our son. Our agency, AW, represented us in court.

As of today, BOTH adoptive parents must appear in Ethiopian courts and state their desire to adopt the referred child. Then, after passing court, the parent (s) return 10-12 weeks later to bring their child(ren) home.

So, it looks like Mike and I will get an anniversary trip this year after all. Please pray about this change for many families:

1. This will raise the cost of adoption significantly, as parents must pay to fly to Ethiopia twice.

2. This will allow parents to meet their kids before court-which is good- and then leave them for 10-12 weeks-- this is the hard part on both families and children.

3. This will simplify the readoption process, as the children will be issued an IR--3 visa and will be US citizens immediately upon landing on US soil. This will save us several thousands in readoption expenses.

SO- this policy is probably a good thing, even though it means a little more work on our part. Please pray for us, that everything else will be done in a timely manner, so we can weather these delays and still bring the children home quickly.

Thank you.