Prayer Request

Dear Blog Friends and Followers,

I wanted to give you an update on our adoption and some potential really good news for us. As you know, we were told recently that our adoption would now require 2 trips to Ethiopia – the 1^st trip to approve our adoption in court and the 2^nd trip for the US Embassy paperwork and bring them home. This would be hard on a number of obvious levels. Yet we obviously haven’t signed up for our adoption because it’s easy or predictable. We’ve been doing our best to trust God in the process, knowing he knows best for our kiddos and us.

But we got an email from our case manager Friday that explained that families who’ve already received a referral and had medical documents and paperwork submitted to the courts before May 9^th would be exempt from the new 2 trip policy. So I asked our case manager if we got our referral this week if there would be any chance that we could escape the 2 trip requirements. She just emailed me back this morning and said,

“There's only a very slim chance that if a referral came this week, it would be ready to submit before the deadline. We serve a mighty God and He can do anything He so desires, so bring it before the throne and lay it at His feet. It would be something extraordinary for a case to proceed that quickly. Keep it in prayer.”

I think it’s worth keeping in prayer!! I’m going to fast a couple times this week about this request and wanted to ask if you would join us in fasting and prayer? In my mom’s words, “this whole 2 trip thing has never sat right with me and I’ve prayed more about this than most other requests.” Call it mother’s intuition or last nights’ dinner, but all of this doesn’t feel like something to be taken lightly.

At the same time, I really am trusting God with this one. I’m sacrificing my time lines and agendas on the altar so God can do his thing and get all the glory.

Ethiopia Squared

It's kinda funny [in a dark, twisted way] because just this morning I was talking with my brother about how okay we are right now in this waiting process. In fact, I told him that out of the past nearly 3 years of trying to start a family, I've never been so content or "okay" as I've been this past month. So, it's "funny" that we received some unfavorable news today.

The Ethiopian government announced today that all prospective adoptive parents must travel twice to Ethiopia: 1st time for the 1st court date + 2nd time to finalize their Ethiopian adoption allowing us to bring them home. Gratefully, this is not a surprise to us. CWA informed us over a month ago that this was a possibility because of 41-to-date prospective parents who've rejected their approved children upon picking them up in Ethiopia!!! I can appreciate Ethiopia's protection over their children, but it sucks for us!

A barrage of emotions and thoughts about this news...and subsequent prayer requests:

• This change is a test - another stretching - of my faith and trust in our Sovereign God. I'm so much stronger than I was a year ago, but obviously still have some room to grow!
• In my friend/boss' words today, this will enable Brian and I to see Ethiopia twice - to absorb, observe, taste, smell our babies' birth country. That will prove invaluable I'm sure as we raise them to love their history, birth country, and culture.
  
• The additional expense for this 2nd trip sucks! I'm figuring it will end up costing an additional $4000-5000.
• Bright Spot: because of the domino effect of this change, our kiddos will be U.S. citizens upon entering the country, instead of having to do another process.
  
• The hardest thing for this momma is that we hold our babies, kiss them, and fall in love with them only to leave the country without them. I can't imagine that 30-hour plane trip home. Not to mention how that would affect our babies' emotional well-being to have us come and go...

That's all we know for now. Our case manager will let us know of more details specific to our case, but for now that's the skinny.

At the end of the day, the truth is they are worth it!! Our babies are worth every hassle, change of plans, false start, dollar spent, interruption, tear, moments of frustration, and immeasurable confusion. They are worth it. So we will continue to wait. And pray. And hope.

My prayer tonight [stolen from another adoptive momma's blog]...

PHILIPPIANS 4:8-9, "Summing it all up, friends, I'd say you'll do best by filling your minds and meditating on things true, noble, reputable, authentic, compelling, gracious—the best, not the worst; the beautiful, not the ugly; things to praise, not things to curse. Put into practice what you learned from me, what you heard and saw and realized. Do that, and God, who makes everything work together, will work you into his most excellent harmonies ."

CWA Prayer Request

Friends, we need you to pray with us on something...this is just another example of the challenges that come with adoption.
On February 15, CBS Evening News chose to air an attack against our agency in regards to their adoption practices. CWA could not defend itself against the false accusations made by adoptive parents, which were further distorted and manipulated by the CBS and a previous Australian broadcasts.

CWA has issued an updated statement regarding the CBS broadcast, which provides some answers to these unfortunate pieces of sloppy journalism. Read CWA's most statement HERE.

From our case manager: "I want to assure all our families that CWA continues to be held in high regard among the government officials in Ethiopia, and they are having nothing but good things to say about our work there. Bob and Tomilee Harding [CWA founders] have been there this past week, meeting with representatives from the top levels of government and are excited about the future of our work in Ethiopia. In a meeting with the top official of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the Hardings were assured that they are “very pleased” with CWA. The Ministry of Women’s Affairs is also writing a letter in support of CWA.

The Hardings also met with a U.S. representative from the Department of State, who was there to investigate the allegations made in the recent media broadcasts. While the DOS takes these matters quite seriously, we can assure you that after an hour’s meeting with both the US Embassy and the Hardings, Bob and Tomilee were given assurances that they were supportive of CWA."

Bob and Tomilee were also excited to report that construction of the children’s building for Acacia Village is within weeks of completion! They picked out curtains, furniture, and paint – and their description of the first building to be completed was that it is “phenomenal!” We look forward to their return and the opportunity to see new photos of the building that is designed to provide housing for up to 250 children as the Ethiopia program continues to grow."