Matching Meetings

Well, it's been a month since my last post and not much has gone on other than waiting.  This is basically what we will be doing for the next few years I'm sure.  Hm…. this blog is probably going to really get boring!   In an effort to post something I thought I would write a bit today on how the referral process works in Lesotho.

In Lesotho they run things differently than Ethiopia and other countries and they have what are called "matching meetings" every 3-4 months.  Each agency that they work with will have a certain number of files (dossiers) in the country and the social workers in Lesotho will look them over and find a family that they see as the best match for the children that are available for adoption.  Instead of just going based on a numeric list of whose dossier got to the country first and then matching them to the next available child, Lesotho seems to take a much more subjective approach.  Or at least this is my understanding of the process!  In some ways, I like this process more than the way things were done in Ethiopia.  Lesotho completes very few adoptions and things seem to be much more controlled, monitored, and in the end ethical.  I also love that there are family reunifications that take place and are even celebrated from the orphanage that our agency works with.  There was also one local adoption that was completed this past year (a Basotho couple adopting from within Lesotho).

Just after I wrote my last post I received an email from our agency saying sorry but you were not matched at the meeting that was held this week.  Of course, our file had just arrived and I would not expect it to have even been read over let alone matched!  But it does feel crazy to know it is in the hands of their social workers now.  I received an email this week saying that the next matching meeting will hopefully be today.   Crazy!  I highly doubt we will be matched but part of me thinks that if there is a child with the exact medical needs and age range that we said we want to adopt then maybe we could be getting a phone call!!!  Oh man, this is going to be a long few years...