Adoption Update…

I’ve had lots of people asking me lately about the adoption and where we are, so I figured it was time to give an update!  The last month to 6 weeks has been quite trying on the adoption front.  Right before our yard sale the first weekend in March, an announcement was made that Ethiopia was going to cut international adoptions by 90%.  There were many reasons for this, but I am not educated enough about them to go into detail.  When we heard this news, we felt that the breath had been knocked out of us.  We felt so certain that Ethiopia is where God called us to go, but then with this roadblock, we weren’t sure what to do.  We sat tight for a few weeks just to let the dust settle before we made any decisions.  We began praying and seeking God’s will about what to do, and the Lord began speaking clearly to us that Ethiopia is where our child was…no doubt, and we decided to proceed with Ethiopia.  Our next step was choosing an agency.  We had chosen an agency previously, but we decided to change after we found out about a policy they had that if you get pregnant at any point in the process, that you are immediately terminated and you lose any money that you have paid up until that point.  Michael and I both felt very uneasy about this.  We certainly are not planning on getting pregnant, but it could happen.  So, we began the search for a new agency, and the Lord opened a door for us there.  To make a long story short, I got re-connected with a friend of mine that used to live in Oxford that now lives in North Carolina.  She and her husband are adopting a little boy from Ethiopia, and they are using the agency Children’s Hope International.  After looking into them, we applied and found out today that we were accepted into their Ethiopia program.  So…we are SO excited to be back on track and start moving forward again.  We are almost done with our home study, then we will begin working on our dossier so we will be “paper ready” and be able to get on the waiting list!

We are learning each day that adoption is a long process with lots of decisions, but the Lord has been faithful every step of the way.  We know that this is what we are supposed to do, and we know that our 3rd baby is in Ethiopia and we can’t wait until we can bring him or her HOME…no matter how long it takes, we are in it for the long haul!  We continue to covet your prayers for our family.  We simply want to be found faithful.