Latest Travel Information

The latest information that we have received gives us a new adoption schedule that looks something like this:

Referral: (June?) We will receive information about a girl 0 -12 months (or, a sibling group under 3) who is available for us to adopt. We will have 10 days to review and accept this referral. 2 - 3 weeks after we accept the referral, we will both travel to Ethiopia to meet our daughter and sign the adoption contract. Our agency plans to stagger travel groups, with “first trip” (contract signing) groups one week, “second trip” (taking children home) groups the next. With travel time, both trips will take 6 - 7 calendar days.

First Trip: (June/July?) Both Jon and I will spend about 3 days “on the ground” in Ethiopia, visiting and bonding with our daughter at the Hannah’s Hope transition home. We will not be permitted to leave Hannah’s Hope with her because we will not yet be her legal parents. We will have an opportunity to experience the culture, including meals and shopping. Then, we will return home and our daughter will stay at Hannah’s Hope for approximately 8 weeks - the time that it takes for her case to work its way through the Ethiopia court and U.S. immigration systems, verifying her eligibility for adoption and our eligibility to adopt, and finalizing the adoption under both Ethiopia and U.S. law.

Second Trip: (August?) At least one of us will spend another 3 days in Ethiopia, bonding with our daughter (we will have full custody, keeping her with us at our hotel) and going to our embassy appointment to obtain her U.S. IR-3 VISA. Because of the first trip, she will be a U.S. citizen when she enters the U.S. - no need to complete an additional citizenship application once we return home. Re-adoption in our state of residence will still be necessary to obtain a new birth certificate. If her birth mother or extended family is available, we will meet them during this trip as well.

As we consider taking two trips to Ethiopia over the course of a few months, we continue to pray that the requirement will be lifted or that there will be an immediate “good” that will come out of this for us. Whatever happens, however, we know that all things are being worked together for good - “to them that love God” is about perspective. Even while we groan under the burden of an additional trip, we have “peace . . . which passeth all understanding.” (Phil. 4:6-7)