Deciding out loud about two kids

Looks like I'm going to able to follow up those musings and questions posed in the previous post with some answers! Ally and I heard back from Gladney on one of the sibling groups they do have in the orphanage. Our case worker called us two weeks ago and told us what she knew.

Unfortunately, events conspired to keep us from hashing it all out right then. Allyson had just returned from out of town and promptly fell ill. That same day, someone kicked in our door and stole stuff (TV, guitar, vacuum cleaner, and--get this--my electric shaver) while we were at work. And so it would be a week later until we found the first opportunity to talk things out.

Our case worker said that they had identified two cousins in one of their orphanages which they were trying to keep together and thus would be a possibility for us to adopt. Both of the cousins were a bit older than we had requested, but not by much.

As we talked things over, it became clear that we both had reservations. I think if either one of us had been feeling really positive about it and ready to charge ahead, the other could have jumped on board. But that wasn't the case. For me, it was maybe a realization that, not being a parent yet, adopting two at once really is overwhelming.

Long story short, we decided to adopt only one child at this time. Allyson called back our case worker the next day and asked her to look for a little boy around 6 months old for us! We are totally excited and at peace with this decision. We are also relieved that we have been able to come to a decision on this and now move forward.

I will say that the decision was made easier by some unexpected gifts of incredible generosity on the part of friends and family. We received two HUGE checks in the mail to help with adoption, totally out of the blue, and totally unexpected, on the same day. What are the chances of that? There is only one who can orchestrate gifts like that...it helped us come to where we're at now with excitement and anticipation.

Now of course our adoption agency can't make us any guarantees on timelines, but we have observed several other families travel 10-12 weeks after the point we're at now. Ally and I are really hopeful that we could travel in July. The biggest risk factor here is the rainy season in Ethiopia, which apparently starts sometime in August and more or less shuts down the country for six weeks. This means no court dates and thus no processing of adoptions. We remain optimistic that we can travel before then. Please join us in hoping that we do!