November Update

We are excited the list seems to be moving, but not so much with baby girls. However, any movement is good. Our church is having an adoption worship on Saturday the 13th so we are excited about that. It will be a great time to learn about the Bible's teachings on adoption and to meet other adoptive families within and outside Calvary.

Here is this months update:

Let me start by saying that the adoption process in Ethiopia is going well for most cases. There have been a few problems that we are working out one by one but 19 children’s cases passed court during the last 10 days of October. It is working out very well to have the family appear at court the same day as the child’s bio family so there is only one hearing date. The families may or may not meet each other at that time, but where possible a goodbye visit will be arranged when the adoptive family returns to Ethiopia to receive the child.

We have found that the U.S. Embassy is becoming more and more strict in their scrutiny of each case. We believe all of our cases are solid but random investigations are being done (not just with AAI cases) and when this happens it causes delay. We are sorry but feel we can’t complain too much because we all want to know that cases are being handled correctly.

The network of adoption agencies in Ethiopia has restructured itself and the former president and vice president are continuing to serve in those capacities, but a board of seven people representing various agencies was elected. Temesgen of AAI received the highest number of votes. We are very proud of him and we think that this speaks well of the respect the other agencies have for him.

We made several referrals of little ones this week. We referred slightly older babies to families whose dossiers went to Ethiopia in June and July of 2009. We still have families from May 2009 waiting for younger baby girls though.