A little update

So dusting off the cobwebs here to share some excellent news that we received regarding the progress of bringing "S" home!

As most of you know, we accepted his referral in October and because we missed the September 1st deadline, we were under the new PAIR (pre-adoption immigration review) process.  This is a US side of the process that means another investigation into the documents surrounding "S"'s case. So in the timeline of things, we accepted our referral and were waiting to be cleared to submit paperwork to USCIS for our PAIR review.

If you follow me on Facebook, you know that on December 26th, we were made aware of a meeting that took place in Ethiopia regarding the future of adoptions. During this meeting, there were many people present on both sides of adoption and child welfare issues. It was proposed that adoptions from the country be closed all together.

While we fully believe in "first families first" (birth parents raising their children even if it doesn't look like it does in the US), we also believe that adoption should be an option for children who have no other options. Our son is one of these children. Due to privacy regulations, I cannot give specifics on his case until he is legally ours and even then, some of his history won't be shared publicly for the simple reason that it is his private story and we wish to respect that. However, there are things that I am eager to share about the miracle of his birth and his life so far. I look forward to telling you these details but I simply cannot at this time. That being said, we have no doubts about his case and the event surrounding him landing in an Ethiopian orphanage and know that without adoption, his life may be in jeopardy.

So, at this meeting, it was proposed that a committee be formed to explore adoption issues further. A 10 business day deadline was placed on this committee and we are expecting news by January 16th on the future of adoptions from Ethiopia. There are many possible outcomes and of course we are praying that whatever the outcomes may be, that they keep Ethiopia's children's rights at the forefront.

At the same time as all of this went down in Ethiopia, we were told that we would not be waiting to submit to PAIR before we submitted to court in Ethiopia. So, we were told that we would go ahead and submit to court and then soon after submit to PAIR. So here is the flow chart for those that have no idea what I' saying here (don't worry, it's taken me 4 years to understand)...

accept referral -->submit to PAIR--->submit to court in ET---->wait for PAIR clearance---->MOWCYA in Ethiopia writes a letter clearing your family---->travel to Ethiopia for court----->come home and wait for embassy level clearance---->travel back to Ethiopia to pick up S.

Ok sorry that's basic but I'm burning dinner as I type so...

Back to our case.. I was waiting to hear the magic words that we had been submitted to court. When I got that phone call this week I was beyond shocked to hear that we HAD been submitted to court....IN November!! Due to some things literally getting lost in "translation" and the Thanksgiving break, we had been submitted to court several months ago! THIS IS HUGE NEWS! This puts us so much farther along in the process than we thought we were. Also, we were able to submit to PAIR and our submission arrived at USCIS on Monday! So that's two steps further than we thought we were! For those following the flow chart that is steps 1,2,3 already complete and currently on step 4.

We expect to wait on PAIR for approximately 6 weeks if no issues arrive in our case. We could travel for our 1st trip in about 3 months! If we have issues and the good people at USCIS find issues or request more information, we could be looking at significantly longer delays.

At this time, we are rejoicing that our case is still moving despite the news that we received regarding the future of adoptions. The Lord has provided a miracle in the fact that we were submitted long ago and didn't know it! I can't say a lot on such a public forum but we do believe that if adoptions close, we may still be able to proceed. Of course there are no guarantees and Ethiopian officials certainly have the power to close adoptions whenever they want. We are however hopeful that the number of steps completed means that we may be allowed to move forward!

And now dinner is really burning.... but..

I really want to THANK YOU for the amazing ways in which you have reached out to support our family through all of this! We feel incredibly loved and lifted up through this time that has been confusing and
heartbreaking for all of us. Please, please, keep praying! God is moving and we can feel it!!