I just learned that Holt has changed the policies regarding referrals. “Referrals” are when the agency refers a child to you. Its basically when the agency says “okay here is your kid- do you want him/her.” According to all of the adoptive parents I have spoken to- that when it feels all very real and when you start falling in love!

So Holt changed  its policy so now you get referred to a child much earlier in the process.

Before Holt used to give you your referral after you completed your dossier.  The dossier is the giant list of legal documents that you have to do to adopt a kid from another country. It takes about 5 months to complete

NOW Holt gives you your referral about a month after the home study. Which we can do anytime (once we save up some money for it). So we can essentially be referred to our bambino really soon. We still have to go through the Dossier stuff- but I bet its a LOT more motivating now that you know your baby is literally waiting for you. Also I have the info, so I can start working on the dossier now. To speed up the process.

While you are doing all the documents- Holt sends info on how your babe is doing. The kid also gets moved to the bigger (and fancier) orphanage in Addis Ababa- where we will pick him/her up! Horrah!