Home Study

Finally!! We received the completed home study in the mail yesterday. I've been a little frustrated because I rushed to complete everything I could in early February for our social worker and she has taken a very loooooong time to get her part done. She said she had it finished a month ago but never sent it out to me. But, it is here and I have forwarded a copy to the Department of Homeland Security along with our I-600 orphan petition. Now we'll wait for approval and an appointment to be fingerprinted. Yay! Another step closer.

A few weeks ago we received some disappointing news out of Ethiopia. The Ministry of Women, Youth, and Children's Affairs announced that it would be decreasing the number of adoption court cases that would be heard from 50 per day down to 4. Yes, 4. They cited a lack of staff and an increase in corruption among Ethiopian adoption officials. The government is still working through the issues but has already increased the number of cases from 4 to 25 per day, so we are hopeful that things will be resolved soon. Hopefully they will remove the officials who are promoting anything that is unethical so that the 4+ million waiting children will not suffer any longer because of it.