The Most Incredible Friday

Last Friday, was the most remarkable day in Pouch Land. For those of us in the adoptive world the pouch carries much value. Every week it comes to Canada from Nairobi and is opened. It carries the Medicals and the Visas for the waiting children.

After our children go through Court and become ours, we are then waiting for the infamous Medicals and Visas which are needed to bring the children home.

In the last 9 months that I have been on the Yahoo group, we seem to see an average of 2-4 medicals or visas a month. Last Friday was an incredible day. All day long I was getting emails coming in with posts saying, "I got the Medical for.... " or "I got the Visa for... we are travelling..." By the end of Friday we had FOURTEEN children coming home!!!!!!!!!!!

Our government has listened to our pleas. A couple months ago, many, many parents wrote letters asking for the Canadian government to take notice of the fact that when children were adopted from Ethiopia they sat in the orphanage a further 6-8 months waiting to come home, simply because of lack of manpower in the Canadian High Commission in Nairobi.

I am thrilled to say that we have had personal reports from *within* the Canadian Immigration Centre in Ottawa telling us that they care about our kids and are making every effort to bring them home in an expediated fashion. They have even asked us to visit them at the High Commission in Nairobi if any of us are there. We are truly seeing caring, personal staff in our Canadian government!

They have come up with ways to identify the Visa applications that come in that are Adoption related. Before this, the Adoption applications were lost in the hundreds and thousands of general Visa applications at the High Commission. This was not good, because it states on the CIC website that Adoption applications were considered priority, but yet, they had no method to bring those priority files to the top of the pile. So we are so thankful to know they have come up with a working plan.

Is it going to work? Well, the proof is in the pudding!

When we originally wrote that cover letter to the government, back in December, our Friendly Adoptive Parent Writers asked that the High Commission be able to issue a Permanent Resident Visa in 4 weeks. This would be down from 6-8 months!! It sounded like we were asking for a miracle.

We are seeing it coming true!!!! The Medicals were taking up to 21 weeks to issue (part of the PRV process); we have now seen them come through in 2-12 weeks!!!! They are even coming through before Court is done, which further speeds things along.

Well, these Visas that came through this Friday showed us that they are hustling in Canadian Immigration!! Fourteen children coming home in the same week! Unbelievable!!! The Transition Home is going to be 25% emptier!

One lucky parent had her Court date at the end of March, and she got her Visa in under 3 WEEKS!!!!!!!! That particular document usually takes about 5-6 weeks. Another Mum was planning to go and get her daughter in August or September; she is leaving in a few days!! This is so incredible!

No more 8-9 months - now we are down to 4.5 - 6 months!!

Now come on Court Date!!