Latest Happenings

***If you haven’t read the previous blog post, please do! There are still approx. 30 kids still needing sponsors when I last heard.***

This isn’t unexpected that we really don’t have many updates during this waiting period. Our movement hasn’t really changed in a few months which is a bit discouraging but not that all surprising. This is what we knew we were signing up for with international adoption: unpredictable, uncontrollable, can-change-at-any-time. I think we were surprised to see how much of a rollercoaster it really is….getting good news, bad news, awful news, great news….it is changing all the time. Thankfully, the news we are receiving seems to be that the country of Ethiopia is moving in a good direction for their precious kids to improve the integrity of their processes.

Right now we are still at #57 but we are optimistic for the changes that have been happening in Ethiopia. Our hearts go out to the families who have been stuck in the middle of this transition time and have had referrals for way too long but are not getting court dates to travel. Ethiopian officials are aware of those cases that haven’t moved and they are working to resolve them.  We are encouraged by that display of concern for the kids and adoptive families. In other news, effective immediately within Ethiopia orphanages are now required to seek out domestic adoptive families for two months before the child will be considered available for international adoption. This means a child will need to be in the orphanage for a minimum of two months before his/her adoptive paperwork can be generated. This was a bit hard to swallow at first but we realize this is in the best interest of the Ethiopian children and we hope the new way of doing things is a smooth, quick transition.

Even if things don’t pick up and we continue creeping along at this pace, we are confident in God’s sovereignty in this process. Something we have picked up also is that we haven’t met an adoptive family yet who doesn’t truly believe in “God’s timing”. We know there is purpose in the wait and continue to seek what the Lord has for us to learn as parents and individually during this time.  He alone knows the day our child will be brought home and I can trust Him to make the detail fall into place to make it happen. In the meantime, I arm myself with scripture that tells me God’s promises and we know those are certain, true, predictable, and trustworthy.

!!! Attention family, ahem, MOM, grandmas....etc.!!!
Since it is obvious we don't post much and it will probably stay that way until we get a referral/are travelling, you can receive an automatic email when we've posted a new blog post if you sign up on the right sidebar of the full web version. Input your email where there is a box that says "follow by email". Wouldn't want you to miss any exciting news because you aren't checking this daily. :)

For my own records:

Notable things we’ve done in anticipation of our next child:

1- went to a meeting about doing African hair by an adoptive mom/hairstylist by profession- challenged accepted, great tips
2-seminar on attachment disorder by Kurt Ellis-excellent info, highly recommend  

3-introduced to an adoptive family (x2 from Ethiopia) right at our church