The Journey

Yesterday, I posted on Facebook that there were some decisions being made in Ethiopia about international adoption. After posting for prayers, we waited to hear from our adoption agency. Today we final received word on what was happening. This is the information we received from our adoption agency. Over the weekend in Ethiopia a multiday meeting was held by the House of Representatives along with MOWCYA ( Ministry of Women Children and Youth Affairs) officials. Around 400 people were present.  A research paper prepared by MOWCYA in conjunction with Parliament was presented regarding issues of sexual harassment, drug abuse and adoption within Ethiopia.  After the presentation, those in attendance were divided into six groups to discuss and respond to 15 questions.  Seven of the 15 questions were directly related to adoption. Our adoption agency is in the process of translating the research paper and questions.  Each group had a mixed representation of parl...

Tomorrow marks one year DTE. In adoption world, DTE stands for Dossier to Ethiopia. This means tomorrow marks that all our paperwork has been in a desk, in a file, in an office, somewhere in Ethiopia for a year. When we started the program, we thought that today we would be much closer to our baby than where we actually are. When we started the program, we were told that people were waiting around 12-18 months to receive a referral for their baby; sadly, these wait times have changed drastically since we started. Internationally adoption as a whole has really decreased in the last few years due to a number of different reasons. To give you an idea, in 2010 our adoption agency was able to match and bring home 80 infants and 52 toddlers in the Ethiopia program. This year 17 infants and 8 toddlers were matched. That is a huge difference in just a matter of three years. With these numbers, you can imagine that we are slowly moving up the list to receive a referral. To be honest and giv...

This week, my dear husband posted a picture of me holding a sign with the time that we have been waiting. This count is from when we were accepted into the Ethiopian Program with our adoption agency. My heart has been ready for adoption for much longer, but this was when the true wait began. I think sometimes people forget that I have been waiting for so long because I don't look physically uncomfortable, but I am so ready for this wait to be over. I am also a visual learner, so I appreciated his visual representation of our wait. Thank you all for your sweet and encouraging comments and prayers. We love you. This has been the most challenging, frustrating, emotional, beautiful, and exciting time of my life. I can't wait for the day- whenever it may be.

Yesterday, we listened to our adoption agency's monthly conference call. I will say that these conference calls can be very discouraging. There hasn't been one referral the whole month of November, and there was only one in October. With our government and the Ethiopian government both having shut downs, things have definitely been moving slowly. Not to mention that there is now another step that we have to go through with our government. We are praying for a flood of referrals to come soon! We were happy to hear that several families have cleared embassy and have brought their children home during this drought of referrals. I assure you the referrals have nothing to due with lack of children. There are plenty of children who need homes; they just are paper ready to be placed with a family. This process is confusing, frustrating, and challenging, but we know in the end it will be so worth it. One thing I am sure about is that I do feel we picked a great adoption agency th...

Last night, my family watched the new Superman movie. Although most people probably wouldn't really focus on the adoption aspect of the movie, it obviously gripped me. Don't get me wrong, I loved the special effects (especially on my parents' 3-D TV). In the movie, the story starts in Krypton where Kal-El's parents have to make the tough decision to send their baby to a world far far away. As you watch the movie, you see how this was a difficult decision for his mother. She had after all just carried him in her womb and gave birth to him. She clearly loved her son, but knew he would not make it in their world, so she chose to send him somewhere else. I think sometimes as an adoptive mother, it can be easy for me to feel the pain and longing for this child who has a special place in my heart, but to forget that adoption comes from a much more painful place than just my waiting. I never want to forget about the woman who is probably enduring so much more pain th...

              With November being National Adoption Month, I wanted to                   provide our friends and family with simply ways to educate                themselves about adoption and orphans. My goal is to write at least                one opportunity a week. Some weeks I may get a little ambitious                  and write more than one!                This week is easy. All you have to do is watch a movie. Months                  ago, I told you all about a...

Wow! First of all, I am sorry I have been such a blog slacker. Life has been rather chaotic lately. As you know, the month of November is a time of year where people express their thankfulness maybe a little more often than other times of the year. People do the daily thankful post on Facebook, they may sit around the dinner table and talk about what they are thankful for, and a wide variety of other ways to show their gratitude.  At first glance and looking at where we are in the adoption process there can seem very little to be thankful for, but as I look deeper into what we have learned throughout this year, we have so much to be thankful for. 1. We cannot be more thankful for the friends and family who have stood with us as we stepped into this crazy journey. You have prayed for us, encouraged us, and financially supported us. We could not be where we are without all of you! On days that have been tough, some of you have come with just the right words. When we have had fu...