When people offer to help on the adoption

Simplest and best route is to offer to buy supplies for the orphanages involved.

My spouse Vonne suggests the following:

The ideal donations are new, long-lasting clothes like Hanna Anderson, sizes 80-140 cm. Lands' End also has long-lasting kids clothes (to be bought in the same size range).   No winter clothes, just the summer variety.

An important donation to improve the medical diagnostic process would be stethoscopes and/or otoscopes like the Littman Master Classic II Stethoscope and the Pro-Fiberoptic LED Otoscope (Amazon links).  

If you want to help us out, the process would be to buy them directly yourself and ship them to us (c/o Barnett Consulting LLC, PO Box 970, Franklin IN 46131). We'd then carry them over in our luggage on either the early-mid June or early-mid July trips, dispensing them to the orphanages via our highly-reputable agency.

I'll put this post on the FAQ page as well.

Thanks to anyone who chooses to pitch in.

Big news, bigger decision-point

Got a referral today (two hours ago, actually) for two Ethiopian sisters.  Won't offer any more details than that.  We started this particular process 9 months ago, but we have been in various processes for close to five years now, so disappointment and patience have been our watchwords for so long that this news--this possibility--comes at us like an Indiana tornado.

We have days to make a decision, which will include remote consultation with an international adoption specialist physician.

If we say yes, we travel for the first time--probably--in June for the initial court date.  We would then return within weeks, following the completion of local legal proceedings.

They are distinctly beautiful children, with lovely names.

We are decidedly forward-leaning on this decision, but this is our fourth country try after being ruled out--by new rules--passed in China shortly after we adopted Vonne Mei.  

That just means we know what it's like to have it all work out, and what's it's like to have it all fall apart.

You don't just adopt two sisters, you bind your family to a number of Ethiopian relatives for the rest of your collective lives.

It is a big decision, then.

So we are guarded but optimistic--excited yet mindful.  International adoptions are--by definition--a collision of significant tragedy and supreme hope.