Another Adoption Hurdle

Our adoption adventure continues, and we are as excited today as we were in October when we began this journey. We completed the mountain of paperwork in near-record time (19 wks 1 day), and our formal adoption application arrived in Ethiopia two weeks ago. We are in the early stages of updating our Home Study now that we’ve moved to California for my command tour. We are still hopeful to have our son by the end of the year.

Two days ago the Ethiopian government changed their international adoption process that has thrown us a curve ball we weren’t expecting. The Ethiopian government now requires adoptive parents to personally appear in court to testify to their desire to adopt the child. Before this change, an adoption agency representative (as designated with a power of attorney) would represent the adoptive family in court. While we will meet our child when we’re in country for the court date, we cannot bring him home then. We must travel back to Ethiopia to get him – probably 8-12 weeks after the court date. The reason for the time delay between the court date and picking up our child is to allow time for the government to complete all of the required paperwork and investigations.

The added travel to Ethiopia is the reason for this posting. This will add around $5,000 to our overall expense. As I posted earlier for prospective adoptive families, our expenses are right on schedule with AWAA's estimate. I think this recent change will put the overall expense around $35,000. If my schedule allows, we are planning on both of us traveling to pick up our son. For families considering Ethiopia (or who just joined the program), the expense obviously is reduced if only one parent travels to pick up the child - which is allowed.

As you may have noticed at the top right of our web site, we partnered with a fair trade coffee company months ago – Just Love Coffee – as a fundraiser to help defray some expenses. We haven't actively brought this to everyone’s attention until now. We’re asking you to consider purchasing a bag or two (or even get on their periodic delivery program if you’re a coffee addict!). There are a variety of coffees. Most bags are around $13 (plus $5 shipping), and we get $5 for every bag purchased. Even if you’re not a coffee person, they can make great gifts.

If you're a prospective adoptive family, we think this is a great fundraiser because everyone either likes coffee or knows someone who likes coffee. I know it's less-than-perfect to pay around $17 for a bag of coffee (once shipping is included), but this is a fundraiser after all and I think friends and family will see it that way.

We don’t get a list of who purchases the coffee. Unless you tell us, we can’t see who orders so thank you in advance! Just know every order will be much appreciated!