Excitement Abounds

Okay, I will admit that when waiting for a referral, nothing can compare to your own personal referral. However, friends getting their referrals is way up there in my book, but what ranks a little bit higher than a friend's referral is a family members referral. No, I'm not announcing that any family members has gotten their referral, but it's getting really close.

First, for those who may not know much about the process of adoption from Ethiopia, let me just say that the time frame between dossier submission and referral is very dependent on the agency. Our agency has quoted 5-6 months to referral for some time now, other agencies quote 18-24 months and yet other agencies quote time frames in between. Our referral came in 5 months, but we do have family members with a different agency who have been waiting 18 months now. Needless-to-say, they've been on a very long journey to their child and as the end of their wait nears, I am barely able to contain my excitement and anticipation. I've even written my referral prediction on my calendar just to see how close I am.

Not only is it exciting to know that I'm going to become an aunt again, but to know that Lili and Naomi will have a little cousin from Ethiopia is too exciting for words.

Of course there was hope that we would receive our referrals about the same time and find ourselves in Ethiopia on our pick up trips at the same time, but we knew the likelihood of that happening was extremely small.

Even though I know you don't know them, I'm now asking each of you to humor me a bit and make your predictions as well.

When do you think our family members will receive their referral?
Will they be referred a boy or girl?

By-the-way, they are currently #4 on an unofficial wait list.

I don't have a prize for the winner, but it will be fun to play along and then you'll have the satisfaction of knowing you won :-)