Jumping For Joy

We have great news to share today!  I opened my email this morning to find a note from our agency with the subject line “Accepted”.  I was so excited I could hardly contain myself to even open up the email to read it.  It said that ICAB has accepted our dossier and that we are now officially on the waiting list to get a referral.  Our dossier was mailed to the Philippines on October 28th and officially accepted on December 31st.  I immediately called Jason to let him know and then my mom and dad and then Jason’s mom and dad.  I almost feel like we are now officially expecting.  We now know that no matter what, we will get a child.  We just don’t know how long it will be. 

Another great bit of news that I heard recently from my adoption group was that a new law has just been approved in the Philippines that will work towards helping orphans become adoptable.  Right now if a child is abandoned the orphanages have to wait a minimum of 6 months before a child can be considered adoptable and then the paperwork is sent to the courts to be signed and made official which can take months and sometimes years.  The new law will change the wait to a maximum of 3 months after abandonment to become adoptable and then the social workers will have the right to sign the papers to make it official, so it will no longer need to be dealt with in the courts.  This will allow so many more children to be placed for adoption every year and will make the process for those waiting to adopt a much shorter process.  I have no idea what this will mean for us, but I have a feeling that we will not be waiting 3 years to get a referral.  All that is left in order for this law to come into effect is for the President of the Philippines to sign it which will hopefully happen in the next month or two.  

If I had to put in a good guess on when we would be given a referral, I would probably say in July of 2010.  That would be 18 months which seems to be about the average wait for those without Filipino heritage.  I’m not sure I will have much more to document in the coming months before our referral, but I will try to come up with some things to write about so I do not neglect this page.