Oh goodness, I am sorry it has been so long since I’ve blogged. I was going to blog a few weeks ago that we had nothing new to share and that we were hoping for an update soon. Well, we received our update on our sweet baby girl last Thursday, October 2nd!!! Hooray!!! You will see us refer to her as E or baby E, as that is the first letter of her given name.
We are so excited to see how much baby E has grown! It’s amazing how much of a difference 6 weeks can make. She has gained about two pounds and in a couple of the photos, she is leaning forward and holding herself up on her arms. She is about 8 1/2 months old now and looking so much older!! We are incredibly grateful for this update and that we should continue to receive photo and growth updates each month. So many adoptive parents see their child only at the time of referral and then wait months to see them again in country. To think we have these photos of her to document this time in her life. I just don’t even have the words, thankful isn’t enough.
As far as the process is concerned, our agency is still preparing paperwork and will be submitting our application to start the PAIR process in the next couple of months. PAIR is a Pre-Adoption Immigration Review that Ethiopia implemented, together with the US, about a year ago. According to USCIS, this process helps by “ensuring that prospective adoptive parents and courts have all available information when considering whether intercountry adoption is in the child’s best interest.” This used to be done between the first and second visits to Ethiopia (between court and embassy) but it is now done prior to both and PAIR approval must be submitted with dossier. So, once baby E is approved by the USCIS, we will receive an approval letter and send it to Ethiopia along with our dossier. In the meantime, Ethiopia will do its own investigation. After approval by MOWA (Ministry of Women’s Affairs), we will await a court date. At least this is how I understand it anyways. I know PAIR is more complicated than that one approval letter and I know every case is different. But this is generally the order of how things will happen. Our court date will determine when we travel for the first time.
In other words, we really don’t have a clear timeline as of yet and do not expect to have one for months. We have our hopes but as with all things, we leave this in our Father’s hands. We are prayerfully awaiting the meeting of our sweet daughter, baby E, and dreaming of Ethiopia! Please join us in prayer for her, for the process and for all adoptive parents and children, as we wait.
Blessings,
Morgan
