The second message told us that the Ethiopian government has just changed its court procedure. Now, once you accept a child referral, instead of one court date to complete the adoption, there can be up to four, with various other ministries and police agencies involved. These expanded rules are to protect the children and ensure that they are not being taken illegally from birth families who are willing and able to keep them. How much time it will add on is unknown, but one thing is certain, it will add to the already very long process. At this point, we may well be into Spring 2010 before we would possibly be travelling to Ethiopia to get our little one.
On the other end of things, we have an appointment with a counsellor from the CAS in 2 weeks. She sent us an information checklist to help us sort out the kinds of behavioural and medical issues we may face adopting through the CAS. Still, I'm excited about this route. It still feels right. (Even when we've been up with sick kids 3 nights in a row!)
