August Conference Call

Each month Gladney has a conference call. These conference calls are made to keep adoptive parents up-to-date on what is going on in Ethiopia: average wait times for referrals, court dates and travel times; a monthly topic; and Q & A session. I always look forward to listening to this call hoping the wait time decreases. Well, this month the average wait for a referral is now 8 months. I wanted to cry. When we started our adoption almost 12 months ago I really thought we would have her home by this September.

I don't know why this wait is bothering me so much lately. It's not as if I don't have a million things to keep me busy. Koen is getting ready to start pre-school in a week. I have been reading and racking up my CEUs thinking about going to work part time at St. Joe's critical care unit (very part time - don't want to go crazy). And when Frank is home we squeeze every minute of daddy-time out of him that we can get.

I just want to see her face. This adoption is like the longest pregnancy ever.

Four Months

Today we have been on the waitlist for 4 months! So hard to believe!

Next month it will be one year since we started our adoption. Last year when we started the process with Gladney the average wait time for a referral was 4 months. When we got on the waitlist in April the average wait was 5 months. Then a month went by and the average wait became 5 1/2 months. Another month on the waitlist goes by and the average wait became 6 months. So now today marks 4 months waiting and the average wait is 7 months. It's all good. I will continue to be patient; continue to stalk the Gladney FBI list; and continue loving what I already have been blessed with.

Speaking of stalking the unofficial waitlist (Gladney Ethiopia FBI), we are 20th on this list of waiting families and 10th for those of us waiting for a girl/either gender from the age zero up to 24 months. This is an unofficial waitlist but it gives waiting families the opportunity to meet other families who are going through the same process. It's so exciting to read about other referrals and then to follow the family as they bring their child/children home from Ethiopia. So thank you Grace for the FBI list!! Love it!