Come on down....

My head is swimming (for two reasons). One, I am fighting a nasty upper respiratory infection (my 3rd in 2 weeks, apparently) and it feels as if my head is filled with a sloshy gelatinous goo. Two, we continue to struggle in our adoption. We received news yesterday about Ethiopia, but it does not give me much additional confidence. According to the adoption coordinator (who, I am assuming, is native to Ethiopia), "there will be a change from 5 cases to 20 cases per day report." This is not the 90% we had feared, but closer to a 60% drop, which may suggest an additional year or more to our wait, with no promise that no changes will occur in the future. I contacted an adoption expert and asked for her advice about continuing in Ethiopia and were told, " I anticipate that the waits will increase significantly and that the process will be unpredictable. For most folks, I would recommend choosing a different country." So, it appears that we are now focusing our energies on a China Special Needs (or Special Focus) adoption. I am concerned about meeting the strict criteria that China places on prospective parents (mainly, their large net worth requirement). I have been going back and forth with our agency worker at IFS (after two emails, I have yet to hear from our home study worker). She has been kind enough to perform a preliminary review of our information, to see if we would even qualify. I sent her our 2010 income and estimated bills. She also asked that we estimate the value of "anything else that could be turned into cash in an emergency." This has caused me to play a reverse game of The Price is Right. Anything could be turned into cash in an emergency, but how much is everything worth? How much would our massive DVD collection fetch? What about Craig's antiques, toys, and tools? Are the glass bowls we received as a wedding present worth $200 or $201?
As always, we remain in a holding pattern. I'm going to wait on the preliminary review of our financial info before sending another email (regarding the homestudy revision) to our home study worker. If I do not hear anything after the third email, I will try my best to make a polite phone call.