LA said YES!!!!!

After our disastrous meeting with our LA on 28th April, I had lost a lot of hope that we would be allowed to try to change our application to Ethiopia. Then LA Team Leader spent AGES coming to a decision about whether or not we could proceed, and as each day passed I slumped further into a depressed, pessimistic state, convinced that she would say no, and our dreams of adding another child to our family would be over. The last communication we received from Team Leader was that she would let us know the decision, this week. And today I finally cracked, I couldn't stand waiting any longer and rang her up. I fully expected her to be "in a meeting" or "away from her desk" but I was put straight through!!! Her first words were that she had an email almost ready to send out to us, and would I like to know what it said?? WOULD I!?!?! Stupid question!!!! She said that after the meeting and after all the information I had sent her (bombarded her with more like!!) since the meeting the dept had decided that we could be reassessed with a view to applying to Ethiopia. I cried and sniveled, Team Leader checked that I was ok to carry on with the conversation, of course I was!!! She said that as our initial assessment is over a year old, they would not be able to just present an addendum to Panel and we would have to be fully reassessed (urgh!!!). And that as second time adopters the fee would be less for this (can't remember if she said 2/3 or 3/4 of the initial fee). She also said that they would have to charge for the Panel visit, and as ours is an independent Panel it is expensive. She said that the LA were allowed to charge us for Intercountry Adoption work, but not allowed to make a profit from that charge. She is just waiting for confirmation that she has worked out the fees correctly and then she will send the email. She also confirmed that our original sw is available and willing to do this reassessment, which is a huge relief as she knows us and although very thorough, is a very efficient and quick worker - which might make up for the fact that our LA is the slowest EVER!!!

I'm not sure how I feel right now! I've had since last February (when we first told the LA we wanted to change country) to get myself worked up that they wouldn't allow it, and now against all the odds they have said yes! I think I'm still in shock!!! Hopefully that will wear off soon and I can be excited! I am greatly relieved though, and feel like a HUGE weight has been lifted from my shoulders. We can move forward positively (although probably grindingly slowly!!) and know (as much as you can in ICA) that we will be able to adopt our newest little one. I was never, ever certain with China that we would actually get to adopt! Partly a reaction to our first experience, and partly because the slowdown was well underway by the time we were LID. Off to start knitting :-)