Just a quick mini update. We are extending our deadline. I actually called my agency last week to tell them that we had a deadline at the end of this month. Our caseworker strongly encouraged us to stick it out a little longer. She confessed that one orphanage that exclusively works with WACAP has several children (rumor has it there are 12) pinned for WACAP families and they are just waiting for their paperwork to be processed.
Now, hearing this type of news (when we are at the top of the list) this time last year would have sent Husband and I doing cartwheels around the house, but now it is sort of like, "Well.......".
This orphanage is in the southern region of Ethiopia where paperwork is a messy process that moves at a snail's pace with no guarantees. It could be completed in 6 day, weeks, or months. This children may not even end up qualifying as orphans (if find a living parent, etc). And then with that, there is still that dread that their little lives will not survive the process.
I admit that we still find that tiny ounce of hope that one of those 12 children IS our daughter. In all seriousness... the odds are hugely in our favor that one of those children is a girl. We have boxed away our emotions regarding this prospect with with lock and key for now, but it is enough of a glimmering hope to make us know that we could not walk away right now.
