UPDATE.. Below is part of an email from our agency... Hope this helps you all understand where we are in the process... Please keep praying as we have been encouraged to wait to see what the final outcome will be. We are waiting and praying and hoping you guys will join us!
I,erin, am experiencing many different emotions daily. It is easy some day and hard others. I am finding that the hardest part is learning that the Lord's ways and timings are not my own. All I can simply do is let go and trust that He will provide and move at just the perfect time. Hard concept to grasp sometimes!!!


THE EMAIL FROM OUR AGENCY!

Citing the need to work on quality and focus on more important strategic issues, the Government of Ethiopia’s Ministry of Women, Children, and Youth Affairs (MOWCYA) will reduce to a maximum of five the number of adoption cases it processes per day, effective March 10, 2011. Under Ethiopian adoption procedures, MOWCYA approves every match between prospective adoptive parents and an Ethiopian child before that case can be forwarded for a court hearing. The U.S. Embassy is working with Ethiopian government officials and adoption agencies to learn more about this change in procedures. We will continue to share information as it becomes available.



Given MOWCYA's current caseload, the U.S. Embassy anticipates that this change could result in an overall decline in case processing of some 90 percent. If this change is implemented as proposed, we expect, that parents who have begun the process of adopting from Ethiopia but have not yet been matched with a child could experience significant delays. It is not clear if this change in procedures would have any significant impact on cases in which MOWCYA has already approved matches.

Please pray!!!!

We are asking for urgent prayers as we are learning about adoptions in Ethiopia! We aren't 100% sure of all the details but things are yet again looking bleak. Rumor is that adoptions are going to slow down from some 50 adoptions daily to around 5 per day. This, first of all, means many children will wait for that family to love them. This detail breaks my heart! Also, this means that many families, including us, will have to, yet again, wait. I am trying to remain positive! I don't long for the 'miscarriage' feelings that come from delays. Please just pray! Pray first for the children and then the families that long to adopt! We will update as we learn details!!

friday report

Friday we met with our social worker and did the finishing touches on our home study. It was a nice feeling to actually put action towards our adoption considering over a month we have just been in waiting. We still have a few steps before all of our paper work will be officially completed to send to Ethiopia, but actually taking steps makes this process much easier.
Thanks for praying and giving during this amazing time in our lives. We long for that sweet baby God has picked out for us!

Home Study completed... well soon=)

Sorry that I am not a good blogger. I look at a lot of other blogs and realize that my blogs are pretty lame. I am not a good writer, and my creativeness only comes at others' expense. Oh well, this is me, and this is our adoption story no matter how great my blog is our how creative it may or may not be....

So January is almost over and I can't believe that we have been in Hammond for almost two months. Things are going really well here and we are settling in nicely. We are starting to make friends and learn our way around this town. It has been fun thus far. Students came back this past week and it was SO nice to see them and get to know them. They really are a cool group of students and I think we are really going to enjoy doing ministry with them.

As far as the adoption, we will finish up our home study next Friday! We are so ready and glad that it will be done. We were hoping that the move wouldn't set us back too much and we are thankful that it only set us back about a month and a half. We are constantly blown away by the Lord's timing and KNOW that this is all up to Him. We rest in Him knowing that His time frame works out perfectly even when it sometimes drives us nuts!! Once the home study is completed we will be able to do a few things. 1. Send our last mailer to our agency. 2. Apply for grants=) 3. Finish our fingerprints. 4. Send our paper work to Ethiopia and wait for a referral.(which is a wait of 2-12 months)

We ask that you guys join us as we pray for our little sweet baby. We think about him/her a lot and long for the day when we get to bring him/her home!!

update on shirts: as of right now they are put on hold.=( sorry....
update on status gender: when we were adopting from Rwanda we felt peace about a girl. With Ethiopia we don't feel that same peace so we are going to take the first available. That means we could get a girl or a boy..

yet another needed update!!

So Christmas is over and we are preparing to finish our home study. Once that is finished we will be able to send our last packet of information to our agency and be ready for our final fingerprints. After that we sit and wait! We are anxious and ready for this part of the process to be over. Thanks for praying and giving so generously. We will send a HUGE payment at the end of the month and without your help we could not have made all this really happen! Please continue to pray for us as we prepare, save, and wait!

an update...

So we are in Hammond and all moved it. As for the adoption we will complete our Home Study after the holidays and then be ready to send all of paper work to our agency to get our dossier completed. It is all coming together and the move has only set us back a little bit. We are just so thankful to be in the process and long for that sweet child more and more each day!! Thank you for all of you who keep up, ask questions, and supported us!! We are forever grateful to you!!

The Bidding is Over

Thank you so much for the bids you placed on the print from Robyn Crumby for the adoption. The bidding is over and the print is sold! Thank you much!