Two Months DTE

Another month has gone by.  We have now been DTE {Dossier to Ethiopia} for two months.  The month went by rather quickly with Christmas to celebrate and take our minds off of the waiting.  Here I am with my two sweethearts on New Year's Eve.  My heart is desperately aching to add our son to our family pictures.

Unfortunately, we are not much closer to that being a reality than we were two months ago.  Referrals have been few and far between.  This is for several reasons, most having to do with a back log in paperwork.  Paperwork is absolutely necessary to make sure that the children are protected during this process; so, we try and wait patiently.  

Another reason for the delay is that several referrals have had to be taken back.  We moved up in line when the referral was given, but when the agency had to take the referral back, the family was placed back in line to wait for another child.  This moved us back in line to our original position.  You are probably wondering why a referral would be taken back?  We don't have all of the details on these situations but for the most part it is because siblings were located or a birth mother was located and her circumstances had changed and she was able to keep her child.  These are actually wonderful things and the result of all of the extra paperwork and checks and balances!  As much as we desperately want to meet our child, none of us want to take away the opportunity for a birth family to stay together if it is possible.

So our numbers have changed only slightly this month.  We are still tied for 27th in line for a boy 12 months and under and we are 6th in line for a boy 12-14 months old.  Our Yahoo group has been fasting and praying for movement non-stop.  Hopefully next month we will have more exciting news to report.