7 months of waiting and several more to go....

Tomorrow will mark 7 months of waiting since our paperwork was shipped off to Ethiopia. I don't think I've said it this plainly yet - but reality has been revealing itself to me and I really don't believe we will see our Lulu face to face in Ethiopia until this time next year....

Here's how I've deducted this:

There were 3 or 4 girl referrals in January - but all of those families had passed the 9 month waiting mark. This is also the highest number of girls referred in one month that I have seen, so it's not realistic to think there will be that many each month. We are at least number 14 in line - I say "at least" because there are likely "mystery" families in line ahead of us (families who are not on the YG for our agency so we have no way of knowing if they exist since our agency doesn't tell us the official waiting list - we just have to figure it out as best we can). 

Our agency has already increased the wait time from the original 7-9 months to 9-11 months - but since the families who just received their referrals were already in this new time frame and there are more people with DTE's in Feb, March, and April than most of the previous months it's likely that we won't see a referral until at least the 12 month mark - which would be June for us.... so why am I saying travel to Ethiopia this time next year???.... Well, the families who just received court dates don't have court until March 13. This means that after referral there is almost a 3 months waiting period before the paperwork can go through court. It seems that many (if not most) families do not pass court the first time (for the silliest things like mispelled names which were mispelled by the MOWA and not the families or agency - or their paperwork just didn't make it through the expected date). And if they don't pass court the first time it's possible that they can't get a court date for another month.... But let's just say for our situation that if we got a referral in June we would most likely not get a court date before court closure. The court close Aug -part of October. Then there is a backup of cases due to the closing. So then I would finally get a court date sometime between mid Oct and Nov. and IF we passed court the first time we would travel the next month  - so that puts us traveling to ET anytime beween Nov 2009 and Jan 2010.... Did I just write the numbers 2010??? ugh.

I am actually handling this fairly well. It does, however make me not want to answer the question "where are you in the process" or "when will you go to Ethiopia".... I just don't have a solid answer and it's hard to say it out loud because I don't want to believe that it will be this late.

On a positive note - I know God can move mountains and changes for a faster process are possible. So, if I keep thinking it will be a year from now before I meet Lulu in ET then anything sooner will be THRILLING!

So - here's to reality in 2009 - the year that we might not, afterall, fly to ET and bring home our daughter. And here's to the same year that I am still blessed and enjoying the daughter God has so mercifully given me so far.