Court Closure Decision

Well, we got some interesting news from CHSFS today. We get a monthly newsletter that gives us updates on the Ethiopia program. The court closure date is looming so CHSFS has given waiting families a couple of options.

If you receive your referral before June 1st, they will try and push your accepted referral through with the hopes that you will get through the court process before the closure in the first week of August. This will not (almost definitely) apply to us. We are too new to the wait to receive a referral by this date.

Now, where it gets interesting is after June 1st. In the past CHSFS has stopped handing out referrals around June 15th in order to allow for the court closure and so that families don't have their referral information and have to wait for the courts to reopen. The courts are scheduled to reopen in the end of September.

This year CHSFS is giving families the option after June 1st to consider a referral during the court closure. What this means is that they could refer a child to us and we can have everything checked out by a doctor, accept the referral and then just have to wait for courts to reopen in the fall before anything else could happen. In essence, we would have picture of our baby but that child couldn't become officially ours until after our court date in the fall. Yes, it would be hard to know what our child looks like and know that they are waiting for us but the plus side is that there is a chance that we could travel this year. I know, crazy but possible.

On average from accepted referral until travel is averaging about 12-14 weeks right now. If we were to consider a referral during the court closure that time would increase since nothing can move forward until the courts reopen. And then even after the courts reopen, it takes a little time for things to get up and running again since they may be new judges and a big back log of cases.

We have decided to consider a referral during the court closure. We were going to have to wait out the closure anyway so we figured we have nothing to lose. We know that if it does happen it will be hard to look at that adorable face for so long but we think the risk is worth it. We also realize that there are still a lot of families ahead of us on the waiting list so if they are all open to this option it may not make a difference. However, if there are families ahead of us that wish to wait until the courts reopen, we could skip over them. Those families ultimately don't lose their place on the list but could get skipped over during the court closure and then once the courts reopen CHSFS goes back to the master list and everyone returns to their place. So we could move ahead or if enough families elect to go with this option we could stay where we are.

I am a firm believer that everything happens for a reason and if we are meant to receive a referral during the court closure then we will and if we are meant to wait then we will wait. It is exciting though to think of the possibilities. It could make for an interesting summer or it may not. I guess we will have to wait and see.