going to ethiopia...twice

well, we got some [yucky] news today.

the ethiopian government announced today that all prospective adoptive parents must travel twice to ethiopia -- once pre-court date or for the court date [i've heard different things] and another time to actually pick up their kids to bring them home. how are we feeling? well, cwa emailed us about a month ago to say this was a possibility. i didn't expect a decision this soon, but i'm glad we weren't completely blindsided by the news. what is very unfortunate about this news [besides the fact that many families will now be faced with a new financial burden of paying for 2 trips instead of one and the general of hassle of making 2 trips] is the circumstances which brought it about. the ethiopian goverment became [rightfully] concerned about the high number [41 to date] of families who passed court but then refused their child once they got to ethiopia. yes, i said refused their child. i'm not really sure what happened in these cases, but my guess is that people had no clue what they were getting into. the ethiopian government's aim with requiring 2 trips is to ensure that parents are aware of the culture and the circumstances from which their child comes.

i can't really blame the government for making this decision. it will be a hassle. for many families, it's just one more piece of bad news. and it's hard not to be mad at those 41 families. but, in the end, the children's best interest is of primary concern, and we're trying to see it that way. we haven't talked to our case manager yet, but we're going to ask her about whether we should wait for siblings. if we still pursue unrelated kids, there is a chance that their cases could get separated and we'd be looking at 2 different court dates [and thus the chance that one could pass court and be ready to come home, and the other not pass and have to wait for another date].