We've made a decision?

I know it seems crazy, but I think we've made a decision on the "which agency should we move to" front. You are thinking, or rather, I would be thinking if I were you, that its only been a week so what's the rush and how in the heck could you have adequately researched everything in that time period. Well, it's actually been longer than a week, but it's only been a week since I've said anything publicly, or rather, privately since this is a private blog. The rush is that we haven't yet submitted our dossier. Once you submit your dossier, you are pretty much set with your agency, because you don't want to lose $4000-5000. If we switch NOW, we will likely receive our program fees back, and will only really be out our application fee.

How was this decision reached? Well, let me start by saying no FINAL decision has been made and we haven't "fired" our agency yet. We won't make a FINAL decision and tell our original agency until after we sign a contract. The decision to leave was relatively easy once we found out (via various websites, personal discussions, and blogs) that many things we were told were Ethiopian rules or laws, were actually agency rules. For example, Ethiopia does not have a "2 year marriage rule", that was just our agency's rule. Which means, we have literally wasted this past year. We could already have our child, had we originally gone with another agency. We were never told this was an agency rule, and never told other agencies didn't have this rule. Honestly, I feel both hurt and stupid, because I should have researched this independently. But who would ASSUME their agency was lying to them? Additionally, ETH doesn't have a "birth order" rule, or even an "age of youngest child in household/ 3 years between siblings" rule. These were all agency rules. On top of that, other agencies are bringing healthy babies together with their forever families sooner and have shorter waiting lists. So the decision to leave became easy.

What agency to go to? I read websites, blogs, literature. I read ratings sites a la Hotels Dot Com. I called new mommy-to-be friends who have switched agencies. I emailed directors and reviewed fee schedules. Today, I had a conference call with the director of Adoption Avenues
and really, really liked him. He is a physician, his wife (co-founder) is also a physician. They have dedicated their lives to uniting orphans with their forever families. This guy was non-nonsense and really spelled out the facts for me. I was impressed with him and his organization. So, I think, I'm pretty sure, about 95% sure right now, that we are switching to this agency. When we are 100% sure, I'll let you know, but I'll admit, it's looking good.

Yes, we do have to re-do, change and obtain some new dossier documents, but it won't be a problem getting them before Immigration sends our Golden Ticket. I figure we have a good month to go on that.

Here's the kicker people: we will receive a referral within 1-4 months after our DTE. The average time now is 6-12 weeks. Yes, WEEKS. Not months, WEEKS. Wow. We will likely have our baby home by the end of May. Can you believe that?