What is a referral and what happens after that

Sometimes in the adoption world, we toss around words that are foreign to most people who have never traveled this journey, so I wanted to take some time to explain the process and terms that are used on this blog frequently.

First of all - what is a referral?

A referral is when a family is matched with a child. When a family first begins the adoption process, a significant amount of time and money is spent accumulating required documents, meeting with a social worker, and forming what is called a dossier. A dossier is basically your adoption resume or profile. All of the paperwork is grouped together and labeled "dossier". The dossier is sent to Ethiopia and the family is officially put on the list of waiting for a child. The dossier will be reviewed by our agency, Ethiopian adoption officials (MOWA) and eventually the Ethiopian court.

What is a transitional home?

In Ethiopia, once a child is abandoned or relinquished, he is generally placed into an orphanage. Our agency is affiliated with several orphanages in Ethiopia, so when a child is placed into the orphanage, our agency is contacted and custody is transferred to America World, our agency. The child is moved to a home (basically like an orphanage) that is owned and operated by our agency. There are full time nurses, nannies, and staff that tend to the children. A doctor visits the transition home every day to make sure that the children are well cared for. Once a child arrives at the transitional home, medical testing begins. Once all the results are available (many tests are sent to Germany for processing to ensure accurate results) and a medical profile is available, the process of matching a child with a family begins. Each family has specific requests such as gender, age, health conditions, etc. that they are open to adopting. Much prayer goes into matching a child and a family. A recommendation is made by the in-country Ethiopian staff and sent to the office in Virginia and the decision is finalized. After a family is chosen, the family receive the call of a lifetime - this is the referral call.

What information is available at the time of the referral?

After a family receives a phone call stating that they have been matched with a child, they receive an e-mail. The e-mail contains 1 or 2 pictures of the child and as much information as is available. The children are tested for HIV, Hep A and B, etc. Generally a family will know an approximate age, weight, height, and sometimes information about the biological family. The family reviews the information and then determines whether or not the referral will be accepted. If it is accepted, then more documents are signed and a very large check is overnighted to America World. Once the document is received by our agency, then more paperwork is completed by our agency staff in Ethiopia and they began efforts at securing a court date.

What is involved in court?

Once we have a court date, our agency will do everything possible to make sure that our case is approved by the judge on the first hearing date. It is very important to note that not all families have successful first court dates (approximately 30% do not). The reasons for failing vary from case to case, but oftentimes it revolves around getting birth family members to court or getting detailed information from the police about abandonment. Every effort possible is expended to ensure that the child is truly an orphan. We will not be present for court. We have signed powers of attorney so that our agency can go to court on our behalf. We will not prepare to travel until we know that our case was successful. When we travel, we will already be the legal parents of our child - praise God for this (no repeats of our Ukraine nightmare)!

Court dates are generally scheduled 8-16 weeks after the referral . Our agency stated today in the conference call that they are anticipating that families receiving referrals by the end of May should be able to have at least 1 court date before the Ethiopian government shuts down at the end of July for the rainy season. The courts will be closed from the end of July until the first part of October - we are praying and hoping that our case will be heard and successful before the closures or else, we will have to wait until the end of the year to travel to Ethiopia.

After you get your referral, when do you travel?

After successfully passing court, we can expect to travel within 2-4 weeks. Our stay will be approx. 5 days. During the time between referral and travel, we will be able to send care packages to our child and receive monthly updates. Also, we can sign a release and send it with traveling families so that they can take pictures of our child for us while we are waiting to go get her...this is wonderful! Once we do pick her up and arrive back home, we will begin the process of readoption here at home....fortunately, this isn't an area that concerns me ;) and I can't wait to show-off my baby at our local courthouse!