Switching Agencies

During the paperchase for Lili's adoption, our agency informed us that Guatemalan adoptions were becoming increasingly uncertain and they strongly encouraged all families adopting from Guatemala to come up with a Plan B should the worst happen and adoptions stop. Although adoptions have stopped and it is certainly having negative effects, it didn't have much effect on our adoption of Lili (fortunately). Of course when our agency told us to come up with a Plan B, we had no way of knowing what would happen so I started researching information on other countries. This research required that I contact some other agencies and one agency in particular was very helpful. For a matter-of-fact, I've traded emails with one of the program coordinators off and on since the Spring of 2007 about a couple different country programs. Last week I received an email from the program coordinator and as we traded emails I discovered they have an Ethiopia program. She sent me information regarding their program and answered several questions for me. I liked what I read and as Dave and I discussed the email conversations I realized just how much time and effort this woman had put into answering my many questions over the last year. We weren't clients of this agency, yet no other agency I had ever dealt with had given me so much information. I researched the agency and was again pleased to find that several families were very pleased with the agency. So much so that some had completed 2+ adoptions with them. We decided to make the switch and I'm now working on our application and hope to have it submitted within the next couple of weeks.

Because we're moving to an agency with a smaller Ethiopia program, our timeframe will most likely shorten by 3-4 months which means this time next year we may be getting ready to leave on our pick up trip. Things are always changing in the world of International adoption, so I'm not going to hold my breath on that one, but I also realize it's a distinct possibility.