So what's the hold up?

As mentioned in the last blog, there has been a major slow down in Ethiopian adoptions in the past months. We have been assured that the issues are very close to being resolved. In fact, they gave 3 referrals in March so we moved up 3 spots on the wait list on April 1st!!! The major issue yet to be resolved is which local governmental office will sign the paper that officially states that a child is indeed an orphan and that there are absolutely no in-counrty options for this child to be cared for. At this point the child can be referred to a family such as ours for adoption. Both offices feel that this is the responsibility of the other office and so here is our hold up. The orphanages and adoption agencies in Ethiopia have been pressing the government to come to a solution for this as the orphanages are getting too full with no adoptions going through. Thus, a meeting is set for tomorrow to hopefully resolve the issue.

Please pray with us that the meeting tomorrow is successful. Meaning that whatever is best for these children will be established as the best procedure so that those who truely need a home will be placed with their forever familys soon.

In other baby news, I am now almost 12 weeks along with the child within. :) We heard the heart beat for the first time yesterday! We are all healthy and doing well!

Double Pregnant

That's what I call it...... 1. Paper pregnant - We are still eagerly anticipating our adoption from Ethiopia! 2. We are very excited to say that I am 9 weeks pregnant! We feel very blessed to be sharing this news! Moses is begging me to have a boy, although I have tried to explain to him that its already been decided and I am not the one who decides! Grace was so excited that she wore her "Big Sister" shirt for 3 days and even slept in it! I finally had to insist on washing it.

We do not anticipate this to change anything with the adoption. There are two things the adoption agency considers when a client becomes pregnant. 1. That there be a minimum of 6 months between birth of child and accepting a referral. We are estimated to receive our referral around April 2015 and bio baby will be 6 mo old by then so we are clear on this one. 2. They prefer all the children in the home to be at least 6 mo apart in age so they would most likely refer us a child who is 12-24 months old. After we receive our referral it will still be 6 months before we take the 1st of our two trips to Ethiopia so bio baby will be at least 1 year old by then. In the end, we trust Gods timing with everything!

There has been some delays with adoptions in Ethiopia in the past 6 months but Ethiopia is not closed. Some new policies and procedures were implemented in Ethiopia this past November that have slowed things down but have also made the adoptions more "legit" so to speak. These new procedures have also increased the wait time between the 1st and 2nd trips we will take to Ethiopia upon receiving our referral. The increased wait times can seem discouraging to us at times but we do not lose hope because we know that God asked us to do this and His plan will succeed in His timing. Whoever and wherever our child is we continue to pray for him/her daily and believe God will bring him/her into our home soon!