Not too much to report, however, we have just found out that it may be that we will have to travel TWICE to Ethiopia. The court system there is discussing the idea of having adoptive families be present for the court hearing at which the children are adopted to us. This is currently done with an agency representative being present instead of the families. It has been that we travel about 3-6 months after this date for the "Embassy" date when we take our child home. The Embassy date is when the child receives her visa, passport and birth certificate and then we can take her home from there.
It will be very expensive to travel twice, as well as very hard emotionally, having to meet our baby and then leave her again for a few more months. We are hoping this will not go into effect...please say some prayers for the Ethiopian Courts to realize this may decrease the number of people that will be able to adopt from their country due to the travel costs and time off work that will be involved. We are in it now, so I don't see this changing anything for us. It's just not what we would want. When we signed up for Ethiopian program, one of the reasons was because we only had to travel once, where as some countries require two or more visits. I'm sure that the Ethiopian Government has a good reason for discussing this change in their policies, I just hope that it is what is best for children and their forever families.
We'll continue to keep you posted. Lots of Love,
Heather and Tom
