Moving forward...

We are finally moving forward with our adoption! Our home study had been on hold until Darren and I finished our training (10 hours each), which we did about a month ago, and until we made a definite decision about which country we want to adopt from.

As you know, we had been trying to decide between Uganda and Ethiopia, and leaning towards Uganda. But in the last few months there have been some issues in the courts there, pretty much putting all international adoptions on hold. Also, I had received an email from Jalia at Royal Orphanage saying that the boys she had recommended to me, Rogers and his brother, are going to be adopted by their sponsor. There are other boys available, of course, and I'm confident that the issues in the courts will be worked out; but because of these things, we had been thinking more about Ethiopia.

As I was thinking about Ethiopia, I first emailed my friend Eileen who had sent me information about the two brothers at Kolfe Boys Orphanage that she really wanted to find a family for. But she said that actually another family is in the process of adopting those brothers - which is a great thing for them! - but a closed door for us.

Then another friend, Deanna, who has adopted three children from Ethiopia, sent me a newsletter from an agency called Adoption Advocates International (AAI) about three siblings, two boys and a girl, who are available for adoption at Layla House, their orphanage in Ethiopia. When Darren and I read over their information, we were really drawn to them. I contacted the agency, and they told me that a couple other families are also interested in these children and are farther along in the process than we are. But, we still felt that we should pursue adopting from Ethiopia, and were impressed by this agency. We had to make sure our home study agency was willing to sign an agreement with AAI, which I found out on Friday that they did; so now we can move forward. I am mailing our application to AAI on Monday, and hopefully we can finish up our home study in the next couple of weeks.

Another interesting thing is that as I looked at the AAI website, I realized I had heard about Layla House before - I read about it in the book There is No Me Without You a year or so ago. This is a book which had a great impact on me in terms of beginning to think about adoption. And it turns out that our book club is reading this book right now as well!