News Article

So many people have asked me why the adoptions in Ethiopia have slowed down so much. Someone posted a great article on our America World Adoption group today that explains a lot of it: http://www.worldmag.com/articles/18357 It also mentions our agency specifically as one of three who are doing very thorough investigations into each orphan, which adds to the wait. I would rather wait longer and make sure our child/children is a true orphan than have to ever question that fact!

Request Change

Dennis and I have felt for 18 months that God was calling us to adopt two
children, siblings or unrelated. Our request is for 0-16 months and 0-5 years,
one girl and one boy. In order to get unrelated, which is what we have assumed
would happen the quickest, we had to wait until we were #1 for the infant girl
AND no one else can be on the list for the older child AND they had to have both
children at the same time, they don't "hold" one. So, with the adoptions
slowing down (they are doing intense, thorough investigations on all orphans now), and with so many people on the list for older children still, we just
don't feel like this is going to happen now. So, after weeks of praying and
talking many times to Caitlin, our coordinator, we have decided to accept a single infant girl request 0-16 months. After we get our infant girl referral, Caitlin said we would still be open to accept an older boy if one becomes available before we go to court. We have a room ready for an older boy, our kids are still expecting him, he is still in our hearts, but maybe God has other plans. Maybe His timing for us to have our son is different than right now. Maybe He will still bless us with our son before we go to court. I will trust that whatever His plan is, we will be at
peace with it.

and waiting...

OK, I just can't believe we're still waiting:) 11 weeks now as #1. We called our social worker a couple weeks ago, and she unfortunately told us that someone else is on the list to adopt a boy or girl 2-6 years old. In order to get 2 Unrelated children, we had to wait until we were #1 for infant girl, then if NOONE else had requested an older boy, we would get both referrals at the same time. Well, someone else has requested that older child, so they would be ahead of us for him. So, we don't know how long our wait will be for 2 children. We are still #2 on the list for siblings. If we changed our request to 1 infant, we would have the next one for sure. But, we really feel God is calling us to adopt two, so we will continue to trust in Him and know He will get us through this time.

Also, they have said this week that for those of us that don't have referrals yet, we will most likely not get a court date before the courts close in Aug and Sept. So, it will probably be October before our first court date and Dec. before we can bring them home. It would take a miracle to get them home this summer still, but God is a God of miracles, you never know:)

and still waiting:)

Since so many people have asked lately, I thought I'd update our website and say: Yes, we're still #1! Almost 7 weeks now, but time really is going so fast. May is sooo incredibly busy. I can't believe that Carter turned 7 on Sat. and I can't believe there is only 2 more weeks of school-yah! Summer! I'm sure time will continue to go way too fast and as far as our referral, I'll say what I've been saying for months: "Maybe tomorrow:)"