Well, this whole adoption roller coaster just keeps getting bumpier.  Might be back on track for the Marshall Islands.  Updates to come soon.  Better fasten my seatbelt already!  Just when I started switching gears, the train kept on a similar course...

So, after starting on the home study process we got word from LSSMN that the wait to even enter the RMI adoption program is 12-18 months.  This was far different from any other information that we'd read.  Seems like the RMI program has gotten quite popular since 2012!  They recommended that we hold off on our home study until we get closer to the time when we'll be invited to apply to the program.  We decided to continue with our home study and enroll in a different country's program for now.  If we get an update that invites us to enter the RMI program, and we still haven't been matched with a child from another program, we'll make the switch.  I'm disappointed because it looked like the time frame for this country was so much faster in the past.  Patience, I've decided, is the key to adoption.

Welcome to our site.  A little about us.  We are a family of four, but hoping to become a family of five through adoption from The Republic of the Marshall Islands.  My husband and I met in college.  We went on to graduate school and now have two biological daughters.  Why adoption?  We have traveled extensively both before children and after.  I see such poverty in the world.  Young children without stable home lives.  We support international charities but I feel deeply in my heart that we were meant to open our home and hearts to child in need.  So, why RMI? We spent a lot of time considering domestic vs international adoption and felt that international fit quite well with us as a family. We fell in love with the RMI program on so many levels.  It's open adoption, which in the international world is pretty unheard of.  You also have the opportunity to adopt infants, which is also pretty uncommon.  We also love the Marshallese view of adoption whereby you are blending two families.  Adoption builds a larger combined family, it doesn't make one family smaller.   Why blog? Well, in my research about RMI adoption, I came across several blogs, but none of them were recent.  I wanted to help current families who are considering RMI adoption, better understand the current timeframe for when things might happen.