USCIS Stakeholder Meeting on Ethiopian Adoptions

If you are adopting from Ethiopia-
USCIS Stakeholder Meeting on Ethiopian Adoptions - Friday, October 28, 2011 at 10:30am (EDT)


U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) would like to invite you to attend a stakeholder call to discuss USCIS processing of Ethiopian adoption cases which the U.S. Embassy in Addis Ababa is referring to USCIS as "not clearly approvable".
Recently, the U.S. Embassy in Addis Abbaba, Ethiopia, has identified a number of adoption petitions (Form I-600, Petition to Classify Orphan as Immediate Relative) that it has determined are not clearly approvable (NCA), and thus, must be referred to USCIS for adjudication. USCIS would like to explain what “not clearly approvable” means and how the processing of such cases will unfold once the cases are referred to USCIS.
To Participate in the Session

Any interested parties may participate in this event by telephone. All participants must respond to this invitation. Please contact the USCIS Office of Public Engagement at public.engagement@dhs.gov This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it by Thursday, October 27, 2011 referencing “Ethiopian Adoptions” in the subject line of your email. Please also include your full name and the organization you represent in the body of the email. Once an RSVP email has been received, USCIS will provide you call-in details.

Guess who turned 9?

Today is a big day.  We are on our way to Ethiopia!!  We cannot wait to see our girl!  Today is also Igor's birthday.  He turned 9 years old today.
Last night we had a party for him.  He was sooo excited to celebrate a day early.

 








his Star Wars LEGO ship





We were able to pick the first tomatoes of the season before we left! 









we hope to post pictures of our gotcha day tomorrow!!

Ethiopia here we come!!

We are packed and ready to go!  We've had quite a week of trials and hiccups but we are ready. 

The first part of our trip will in Kombolcha where our church and other families sponsor children through Children's Hope Chest.  We have your care packages, jump ropes, soccer balls and more packed for the children.  We pray they will be a blessing to the children.  With the help of the One Child Campaign and private donors we were also able to purchase a guitar for the discipler assigned to Kombolcha.  The children will learn bible songs and verses to music!  Hundreds of children will be blessed by this purchase!

On the second half of our trip we will meet our daughter!  We cannot wait to finally be with her.  We will go to court to gain custody of her on May 18.
Please pray for our children and Rob's parents who will be caring for them.  Also for our meeting with our daughter.  We would love it if you would pray that MOWCYA (it's similar to social services in the US) will write a favorable opinion letter to the judge and it will be on the judge's desk the day of court!  We cannot pass court without a MOWCYA letter.
Thank you all for your support and prayers.  I hope our next post will be from Ethiopia!

Agency conference Call

This week the USCIS held a conference call on the findings from a joint trip of USCIS and Department of State officials to Ethiopia in January 2011. A hand out from this meeting can be found through the following link here. Our adoption agency held a conference call yesterday to go over the status of adoptions in Ethiopia and the findings of the USCIS and DOS visit.

It was a long call here are the highlights:

• The Ethiopian government, judges and MOWCYA are all committed to international adoptions.
• The infrastructure is not there for the number of international adoptions taking place. They are doing the best they can. They are committed to ethical adoptions.
• MOWCYA is not stating the number of letters it is writing each day, but it appears to be processing a good number per day.
• Our agency is hearing conflicting reports on whether or not the number of MOWCYA letters will be impacted for families whose court dates were issued after that date.  They should know more in the next few weeks.
• The court is being more meticulous with the documentation needed to complete an adoption. In some cases judges have asked for additional documentation. While this can be frustrating to adoptive parents AWAA supports this as the judges are trying to make sure all adoptions are ethical. 
• USCIS and the Department of State has reviewed the process and adoption program. They did some baseline analysis based on 4000 cases. They were looking for abnormalities. Generally, they did not find fraud but some paperwork was not 100% complete. The process may need some refinement and they are working with the Ethiopian government.
• The Department of State sees some weakness in the processes. They have proposed a voluntary option (this is not in place now and no dates were given) which would allow the Embassy to do it's investigation after the referral but prior to the family's court date. This may slow the issuance of a court date but could make the court to Embassy visit faster.

Overall, the call was positive and AWAA stated over and over the Ethiopian is not closing the international adoption program.

If you were on the call and I missed something major- please feel free to comment.\
Thanks!

US Department of State Update 4/5/2011

Today the US Department issued the following alert click here or see the text below.
Our agency- America World Adoption sent an e-mail today about the release saying:
We are continuing to monitor the situation in Ethiopia and will be in touch with families as we confirm information.
Since the reports of MOWCYA changes in early April, America World has continued to see many families pass court in March and April. The recent staff turnover at MOWCYA has led to many families successfully passing court at their first scheduled appointment. Additionally, we know the court is committed to continuing to process adoption cases in a timely manner.

The US Department of State's alert sounds alarming but I am taking a deep breathe and turning it all over to God.  Currently the number of AWAA families which are passing court on the first court date is a very high percent.  Three families passed court today on their first court date!  Things may slow down so please continue to pray for officials at MOWCYA.

We are asking for prayers for the families who have had a court date (in January, February and March) but did not pass because of the MOWA letter was not present.  These families files are in a backlog.  Please pray the judges would work through the backlog quickly.  Please also pray the judge would issue our cour date.
thanks so much!

US Department alert:
Notice: Significant delays remain likely for cases presented to Ethiopia's Ministry of Women, Children and Youth Affairs after March 8, 2011
The Government of Ethiopia's Ministry of Women, Children and Youth Affairs (MOWYCA) told the American Embassy officials that adoption cases presented to the Federal Court of First Instance prior to March 8, 2011 will be processed expeditiously. However, cases presented to the Court after March 8 will be processed in a more deliberate manner to allow greater scrutiny and oversight. Based on their March 8 announcement the American Embassy anticipates that MOWYCA will process these cases at a rate of approximately 5 per day.
 
It is unclear whether there will be an official announcement from the Government of Ethiopia regarding the plan to reduce the number of cases adjudicated daily.
 
Prospective adoptive parents who did not reach the court summons stage before March 8, 2011, should expect significant delays in the progression of their paperwork through the Government of Ethiopia. Prospective adoptive parents should be in close touch with their adoption service providers to confirm the status of their cases.
 
The U.S. Embassy continues to work with Ethiopian government officials and adoption agencies to gain a clearer understanding of these procedures, and will continue to post information as it becomes available.

Two families passed court today!!

Great news- Two families with our agency passed court today - on their first court date!!  We are delighted for these families and their children!!

We do not have a court date yet.  I have been assured by our agency they have everything they need to obtain a court date.  They hope to receive one soon.  We hope and pray for the same thing.

I read a fantastic blog post about abandonment and institutionalization of an orphan.  You may read the post here.   This week we have been living out some of the impacts of institutionalization.  I have thoughts about the blog post but I am still processing them. 
 
I should be getting baby girl's room ready- cleaning out the guest room, moving everything out and putting her things in but I'm in some weird holding pattern.  I walk in the room, open the closet and slowly close the door... perhaps everything in there will mysteriously disappear on its own??
Next week is spring break.  My sister is coming for a visit.  Maybe I will be more motivated while she is here... or we'll take the kids to the zoo!