Time marches on....

I can't believe it is Saturday already! Time is really going by fast. One example is when my doctors start looking as old as my oldest children! Uff da! I went to the chiropractor yesterday for a much needed adjustment and this young fella comes in saying he's the doctor. I mean, I'm not old but he looks young! It is confirmed now, though, I have a stiff neck. I've lost the curvature in my upper neck and need to get my exercising moved up on my priority list! Exercising is unfortunately one of the things that I let slip when things start getting crazy in my life.

Another example of time marching on is that it has been a year since we received our original referral. Our first referral was also two girls and a boy, except the boy was the youngest. Their mom took them back home from the orphanage in early June. I hope they are well. The day we lost the referral in June was the day we found out about Abraham, Diamond and Kindness. At the time, we were told our adoption shouldn't be delayed. However, a lot of things have happened since then and we are still waiting. We've been trying to get more specific information rather than the very tentative time frames that we usually get. When we hear anything, we'll post. The 'few more months' line is getting old fast.

The problem is that Liberia is revising their adoption policies. This is a result of the new American consulate that started her two year term late last summer. This new consulate tightened up all the procedures which was a good thing but this also slowed down the adoptions. These improvements on the US side highlighted the need for Liberia to improve their rules and procedures. This is great for adoptions so that everything is legal and by the book. Unfortuantely, we are stuck in the middle of all these changes along with some other families and consequently, our adoptions have been delayed.

Liberia is working on improving their adoption procedures right now. One thing that Liberia is considering is making all families travel twice, once to see their child(ren) before adoptions and the second time to pick them up. The other tentative requirement being discussed is to have DNA matching done on all the children. A friend found this information in an adoption magazine but there hasn't been any official word yet. More on this later...