So Derartu and Abdu are both officially Koesters. Abdu just turned 3 in September. We are very excited to have him as a part of the family as he is a silly, michevious little guy that will fit right in.
Now for the frustrating. We passed court on November 11th for Derartu and then there has typically been 6-8 weeks between passing court and receiving an Embassy appointment to return and bring the child home. Well it has now been 8 weeks and we have no idea where we stand. Since our court date there has been a big "stink" made in Ethiopia about corrupt adoption agencies and orphanages. So the Ethiopian government and the US Embassy have, without warning, decided all of their requirments are being tightened. Not for new cases, but effective immediately for everything in the pipeline. This has resulted in paperwork requirements that are new, which caused our agency to have to run out and get more documentation at the point they were ready to request an Embassy appointment.
This has caused confusion for everyone, including our agency. Let me be clear that AAI is a great agency but we haven't been able to get clear information out of them during this process. We sit here today with absolutely no clue as to when we will return to bring Derartu home. We could get a call today or it could be weeks from now. Our agency couldn't even answer the question as to whether or not our case was submitted to the Embassy and whether or not there are any issue with it. Beyond that, apparently the Embassy is now assigning specific dates to families which is a new process. Every day some new requirement or process comes out which just continues to drag things out. We accepted Derartu's referral in July and now we are almost in February and she still isn't here. We feel hopeless and helpless.
Let me just say that we are completely on board with Ethiopia and the United States trying to clean up any corruption and/or fraud that is taking place. We wouldn't want to be a part of any of that and we also don't want ANY children to be "orphaned" because of corrupt practices. Our frustration stems from us simply wanting our children here so we can begin the process of providing them love and security. To make them feel a part of our family and to get to enjoy them every single day. At this point we feel like this whole thing is a rapidly moving target and the result is that we are losing time with our children.
Pray for us. We need patience and understanding. We need to trust that all things will be done according to His plan, not ours.
