Wow - after a long month of very little activity (only 10 children were placed in January) things have started moving again. If you remember right before Christmas there was a couple days of huge referral activity - well over 20 of them. Well, those folks are now traveling to pick up their children and this means more openings in the care center!
The week started with a sibling match and then a twins match. Can you imagine getting a referral for a boy/girl set at only 3 months old - wow. I am guessing we will end up with around six referrals and over a dozen new travel dates this week. We are cautiously optimistic that we will still hear something by the end of April.
On another note, my co-worker who inspired us to look into Ethiopia through his adoption of two boys last summer has moved to Madison, WI. This is a true bummer as he was a huge resource for us as we went through our home study and dossier preparations. But the opportunity for his career was one he couldn't pass up and they have a great Ethiopian community in Madison - hopefully they can find someone to help Ryan (their oldest) keep his Amharic current so he doesn't lose that part of his culture.
However, this week I found another family in Fargo who adopted from Ethiopia who lives in Fargo. Actually they have adopted twice, once from S. Africa and their youngest from Ethiopia. I believe the ages are 5 & 3. They finalized their adoption two years ago - amazing how the process has changed and lengthened with the popularity of the program. From the time they started thier homestudy until they brought their son home from Ethiopia only took five months. She has already been so helpful with recommendations of day care - we look forward to meeting their family and learning from their experiences.
Well, better get going, just thought I would stop in and say.
Cheers,
David
