Woo hoo! Our agency just handed-out 2 infant girl referrals! We are so excited for the Lunceford and Bowman families!
We have a Yahoo chat group that is only comprised of America World families adopting from Ethiopia, and we have formed our own little spreadsheet of families' requests (boy, girl, either, sibling groups, ages). Although there are many families who do not participate in this group, it does help families to forecast per se where they are in the line-up. Our agency has stated that if a family states that they are willing to accept either a boy or a girl, then they will more than likely receive a referral for a boy because little girl referrals are not as prevalent. Based upon the KNOWN families, there are 15 families in front of us for a little girl, so that gives you an idea of where we are at on the list!
We are praying for lots of referrals this month because referrals have been slow the last 2 months due to a packed transitional home, closed courts, and a slow down in paperwork that determines whether or not a child is truly an orphan...no stolen babies for any of us! The first time frame we were given for referrals was 7-9 months but last month our agency said that until referrals start moving again, they are anticipating the wait for girls to be 9-11 months. We are truly praying that the time frame will be reduced so that forever families can be formed!
