2 trips?

The U.S. State Department recently made an official announcement to confirm that families adopting from Ethiopia are now going to have to make two trips to complete adoptions: http://adoption.state.gov/news/ethiopia.html

And although it does say that only one parent is required for the first trip, if both go then it is much cleaner from a VISA/citizenship standpoint.

While the timing and implementation of the new procedure is on one hand frustrating to those in our position because of the unexpected hassle (and cost) of making two trips to Ethiopia instead of the one we were planning for, we have to keep in mind the purpose, and that is to make sure that the children being adopted are truly "orphans" and also to allow the adopting family an opportunity to meet the actual child(ren) they will be adopting (not just pictures) before the child(ren) officially become(s) theirs under Ethiopian law.

The new policy may seem a bit heavy handed, but the silver lining is that it should give adopting families even greater peace that the governments of Ethiopia and the U.S. are doing everything they can to look out for the welfare of the children of Ethiopia.

Our agency has informed us that discussions are ongoing between agencies and the U.S. Embassy to discuss current Embassy procedures in regard to the procedure and time frame between court and Embassy appointment and issuing visas. Agency representatives will also be asking about the possibility of changing the Embassy appointment procedure. I think the pie-in-the-sky goal would be to make the Embassy appointment close enough to the Court Appointment so adoptive parents could stay for an extra week or so and get both done in one trip.

In any event, we are accepting this news as just one of the unexpected bumps in the road of our adoption journey that we have come to expect. We continue to trust in God to see us through.

Keep praying for the orphans in Ethiopia and around the world.

Praise Jehovah Jireh. He will provide.

Thanks for your continued support!