A lot has happened in the last few weeks. Duane and I watched again as no sibling referrals came through, knowing that there are a few families in their 16th month we felt frustrated so we set up an appointment to speak with our caseworker at WHFC, while we waited for that day- we attended the conference call for children waiting in Russia, China and Horizon kids. As we listened to the call, we did not feel the same draw to Russia (while they really need families, we feel connected to ET) as she spoke about Horizon kids that interested us a bit, but with the age piece we were not sure... after the call came the weekly update, so we decided to look more indepth at the Horizon Kids, WOW- we felt a strong connection to two different pictures, how does this happen, I mean it is just a picture and a blurb...but we felt it.
So the next day was our call with caseworker...we initially spoke to her about the wait- why is it so long- she told us due to all the families waiting, I pushed a bit on this...letting her know that the frustration is not on how many people are ahead of us but NO referrals! She explained that there are so many agencies and that orphanages do not work with single agencies therefore- the list of waiting parents is endless! She told us for referral through bringing home it could be a total of a 2 year wait...while of course that could change, she did not seem optimistic.
As we began to explore with her about the Horizon Kids we started to think that we could open up our parameters a bit. We began to research on a few different pieces and try and decide what direction we wanted to head into.
We have made a decision and are now in the process of finding out more about a horizon child! We are trying to be cautious- as there are a few more steps we go through and things to find out before we move forward to a referral match. But we are pretty excited!! I should know more in the next couple of weeks!
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Very exciting and wonderful news! Keep us all posted! So exciting! We saw some of the Waiting kids while in Ethiopia 2 weeks ago. They seemed like a sweet bunch!
ReplyDeleteThanks for being concerned about us "16-monthers!" We, too have looked at Horizon kids a few times, but ultimately come back to where we started. I'll be interested to hear more about your journey. (And, yes, I think you can feel a connection to a picture, and even more so once you've seen their complete file.)
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