Our Daughter from Ethiopia
We recently arrived home with our daughter from Ethiopia. Looking back, everything fell into place exactly as planned. We did not realize this until looking back at the very hard experience we had with our old agency. The country of Vietnam closed to Americans adopting. Our agency offered us no solution other than to just wait. Our life had already been invested two and a half years, so saying, “just wait” was not the answer we needed to hear. We just wanted to adopt a child, not be caught up in such a mess.
The search for a new agency began. Google searches, blog searches, YouTube searches etc. I really had no direction other than thinking we must move forward. Adoption Ark came up a few times. I lingered on the site reading families stories and making a few half-hearted emails for info requests. Then, a reply! Miss Linda, from Adoption Ark, the breath of hope we needed. She said, “Trust us, I understand what you have been through”. I was not very trusting. I asked a million questions getting all our bases covered. If she did not know the answer, she got back to me. I had done my homework. I had followed many families adopting from Ethiopia with other agencies. What I did know was the world of International Adoption is changing so fast, requirements are harder, good families are not qualifying for numerous reasons. I knew if an agency would work with us, we would get everything submitted as soon as possible. So many people wait on the sidelines to see if a program is successful before taking that leap. But by then, it may be too late. We lived that scenario. Those few phone calls back and forth with Linda set in motion a wonderful path to our daughter.
After we got the necessary application sent in, we were introduced to Ally. She carried us the entire way. We were the first family in Adoption Ark’s Ethiopia program. We both learned a lot along the way. Follow the directions you are given, have Ally double check your work. It’s truly as simple as that. Most importantly, get your “to do list” done fast. The wait is so hard. The wait really does not start until your documents reach Ethiopia. The documentation process you have some control over – the waiting time is completely out of your control. Our timeline was about seven months from first contact with Adoption Ark to bringing our daughter home.
The staff in Ethiopia was wonderful! We felt like real people. Our case was treated with respect. The staff truly understands the good work they are doing for adoptive families and children needing homes. Never did we feel lost in the process. We arrived in Ethiopia in the middle of the night and were greeted at the airport with a fresh smiling face calling our name. Our in country contact took us under his wing, made us his priority for our entire stay. He waited in a very hot meeting room for our case to be heard, while we enjoyed the cool air outside the American Embassy. He did little things like this to make us more comfortable. When we arrived at the orphanage, all the children greeted him. It looked to me like they were greeting a father. A few days later in the hotel room, we received a surprise phone call, “Hello Kim, its Ally. How are you? How is the baby? Is everything Ok?” What a nice thing to do. I was speechless. Never in a million years would I expect a call like this.
We are still in the honeymoon stage with our daughter. Each day is filled with milestones, the little girl we met just 3 weeks ago is transforming before our eyes. She greets her father coming home from work with squeals of excitements. She makes sure mom is kissed a million times before she falls asleep. She hugs her siblings until they fall on the floor! We are totally in love with her.
If asked to refer Adoption Ark, I would 100%; they have kept the families and children the most important part in adoption.
Sincerely,
Kim and Miguel Ortiz