On Saturday I went to a transracial adoption seminar at the agency and brought my sister-in-law. I had gone to another seminar at the Missouri History Museum (huge exhibit on race right now) and was really impressed with one of the speakers. He was adopted as a child from India, and had gone back to look for his family a few years ago. He currently works with older kids in the foster care program. My director was at the same seminar and apparently was just as impressed because she asked him to speak with us. Also there, she (the director) said that we were very close. We had an appointment to re-certify our home study (some Dept. of Homeland Security rule after one has been waiting so long) earlier today, and the social worker said we were very close.
I think we are very close. 
I did update the blog over the weekend with some links that I look at pretty regularly. I have been looking at other parents’ adoption blogs, but not often enough to justify including them right now. Maybe later.
After a few weeks lurking on the messageboards, I can see how they can become overwhelming. So much information, most is useful, some not so much, and yet some information is downright scary.
One scary thing would be this story that was on the CBS Evening News - http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2010/02/15/cbsnews_investigates/main6210911.shtml?tag=contentBody;featuredPost-PE
No one has pointed it out to me yet (probably because most people don’t watch the CBS Evening News). However I figured I better address it. Basically the story was about a family being referred to 3 siblings. Mom was dead, and dad dying of AIDS. Once the adoption was final and the kids were home, the parents, to their horror, found out that not only were they lied to about the kids’ ages, but dad is alive, doing very well, and was paid off to give up the kids.
I found it absolutely horrifying, and unfortunately this isn’t the first time I’ve heard of an agency collaborating with orphanages do this very thing. Unfortunately this is a risk one takes with international adoption. However, you can mitigate it most of the time by thoroughly checking out the agency you are dealing with. I’m convinced for many reasons that the agency we are using has integrity and is extremely ethical. Also it’s a Christian agency in the truest sense of what it means to be a Christian. Further, they aren’t required to give the transracial adoption seminars, or any other training other than what the state and Hague treaty requires, but they do and then some. Any time I’ve e-mailed a question, I have gotten a response within 24 hours.
One of the reasons our adoption is taking so long is (because good things come to those who wait and) our request for siblings of a certain age group. According to Ethiopian law, the siblings must be true siblings and within the ages of our preference. Unfortunately I have heard of other agencies putting two kids together and calling them siblings when they are not. Our agency does everything in its power to work within Ethiopian law and only with agencies with the same ethical and legal standards - and we are updated weekly on everything they are doing. Everything we have seen so far in the process has convinced us of that. Being on the messageboards have convinced us of that as well. There are negative comments, but none have accused our agency of doing anything wrong. No one has gone on there to say that they were not given who they thought they were referred, or that any information was wrong or misleading.
Another thing our agency does that stands out, is that they have a whole other section that does nothing but mission work for the people of Ethiopian (and the other countries they work with). They do work to keep families together, and to empower and educate the disadvantaged to be self-sufficient and earn a living. They build schools, and provide supplies to those schools. In other countries their work might be slightly different, but the same principle.
I’ve also joined another messageboard group that has nothing to do with our agency, and have read so much about other agencies that also convince me that we are working with a good agency. I do hope this one bad example from CBS doesn’t ruin it for the rest of us.