An update on the long road ahead…

Image credit: photos.anthonyordille.org

We spoke with our case worker, Sue, this week. She was very kind and informative and will be fun to work with. She had some good information about the process from here on out, and had also had the information we’ve been waiting for. What’s the wait time??

For context, when we applied to the Ethiopia program in June, the wait time for a referral was 2-5 mos for a young boy and 6-9 mos for a young girl. I will not lie when I based my projections and hopes upon the SHORT side of that time frame. From referral, the wait time before travel was usually about 4 months. So, I figured we could travel as early as July. Well, God’s plans are not always our plans! By the end of our conversation, our question was “will we travel in 2010?” to which she said “I really hope so!”. So, the wait is a lot longer than we had desired and preferred.

We’re in the “waiting room” with 55 other families. Sue said we shouldn’t think of it as a “waiting list” because we all have different specifications. Average wait times for a boy under 2 yrs is 6mos right now. Average wait time for a girl under 2yrs is 9mos right now. That’s for the referral! They are getting 2-3 referrals a week, but last week they only got 1! And since we’ve been in the program, the wait time from referral to travel has also increased from 4mos to 6mos on average. Our lives, and our adoption, are in the Lord’s hands. He ordains our steps (and our wait!), so we’ll seek patience… and your prayers!

A few items for prayer:

• Please be praying that we get our USCIS approval soon. Based on when we applied, it should be any time. BUT, these were the docs (and fingerprints) that originally had my maiden name on them. We can’t really be considered for a referral until that approval comes.
• Please be praying for the process in Ethiopia. Since June, there has been a much greater workload for the Ethiopian workers – they have the same amount of employees handling this huge influx of dossiers and referrals.
• CWA just partnered with two new orphanages. Only one has started giving referrals. We’re praying that God uses this partnership to speed up the process of bringing kids into their forever families.
• We haven’t taken our names out of the “young siblings or twins” pool. And we found out that it is a very small pool. A referral with young siblings or young twins is very rare, but should the Lord provide one, we’d be one of the first to be called with information about them. Please pray for wisdom.
• Most of all, please pray for our hearts to rejoice in the Lord along the way! We want to trust Him for every turn. I know that it will get hard (especially if we’re looking at another year or more before we meet our little one(s) – but I know God can sustain us if we put our faith in His promises.