So What's Next?

We've had a lot of questions lately about what the next steps are in our adoption, so I thought I'd give a brief update. After all, S has been legally declared our child by Ethiopia, right? Well, yes...but now the US Embassy gets involved to ensure "orphan status" of our little guy before they will issue a visa for him to enter the US. It's a good idea...it's just a little backwards in actual practice right now. Rumors say that the Embassy is hoping to change procedure in the near future and begin proving orphan status before a case ever makes it through court in Ethiopia, and that would be a very welcome change. With the way the system currently works, if the Embassy denies a Visa, the child in question is stuck forever in an orphanage, unless the adoptive parents decide to move to Ethiopia to raise the child.

We learned 2 weeks ago that our case had been submitted to the US Embassy, and then last week, we learned that they were requesting an interview with S's birth mom. This is standard procedure for all cases where there is living birth family. S's mama has a scheduled interview on Monday, June 4th. As long as she shows up and tells them the same information that is already in the file, they will likely clear his case that day, and then Almaz will schedule an Embassy appointment for us....probably within the next week or so. In two weeks from right now, if things go smoothly, we should have custody of our second son! We can't wait to see him again. In the meantime, we are requesting your prayers....for the process, for S and his beloved birth mom as they say good-bye once again, and for Yikealo as we prepare to leave him behind for a week or so when we travel.