How things are goin'

People ask us all the time, "How are things going with the adoption?". I love that they ask because I know that they really care how things are going. But sometimes it's tough to give the same answer all the time. "Things are good. We're just waiting." Waiting.... You know, waiting is hard, but it can be good too. Waiting teaches us things. Waiting reminds us that God is in control, and that the outcome is up to Him. I find comfort in the fact that the waiting will be soooo worth it! God is working in ways that we can't see right now to unite us with our baby at just the right time.

Our agency had a conference call a couple of weeks ago, and it came at just the right time for me. I'd been feeling a little discouraged with the process. I read on an AWAA blog that the wait time would be increasing from 5-7 months to 7-9 months for a boy or either gender request. I was discouraged by the added wait time, and a little confused by the fact that now the wait for a boy and the wait for a girl were equal. Though we requested either gender we assumed we'd get a boy because the wait was longer for girls than for boys. So we've been talking mostly about our little boy. We've picked out his name and we use it whenever we talk about him. But with the wait time even-ing out for boys and girls, getting a girl is more of a possibility than it was before. That is fine with us. We requested either gender because we always wanted to be open to whichever gender God wanted to give us. But it was a little disorienting to suddenly feel like we couldn't say "when Jonas comes home...." when we would refer to our baby. We started thinking about girls names again. We're starting to say things like "I can't wait to meet him...... or her." In the midst of the confusion and discouragement I started looking at other agencies that have adoption programs in Ethiopia to compare wait times. I read on one agency's website that their wait time was 3-5 months for either gender. I found a blog of someone adopting from that agency and they had just received their referral after waiting only 3 months and 1 day. I felt like it wasn't fair. So, that brings me to why I felt better after our agency's conference call. Our program director had just returned from spending a month in Ethiopia. One of the things she was doing there was looking for other orphanages to partner with. She shared that child trafficking is starting to be a potential issue in Ethiopia, and she said that she didn't feel comfortable with a lot of the orphanages she visited. If they seemed too eager to "find" babies for us, she didn't enter into an agreement with them. She reminded us that their goal as an agency is to find homes for children that truly need homes, not to be a baby factory. It reassured me that our agency is being thoughtful and cautious about this.

The good news is that AWAA did partner with a new orphanage, called Gelgela Orphanage. We've already had some referrals for familes out of that orphanage this month. I think the total number of referrals from the 3 orphanages this month is 8. That's more than most other months so far! It looks like we might be able to expect a referral around the end of August or September. Our agency has told us that if we receive a referral during the court closures (Aug. 7th-Oct. 7th) we can expect to travel about 12-16 weeks after we get our referral.

So, that's how things are going with the adoption. Thanks for asking! :)

Mighty to Save

Hello, everyone. It sure feels good to have finished my master's work. I'm looking forward to being able to focus on family and the work God has for me to do at the church.

Many of you in the yahoo group are most likely already aware of this, but Lisa and I wanted to let our family and friends not on the group to know of the drought and famine conditions currently facing Ethiopia. Here are two links to CNN articles about it:

http://edition.cnn.com/2008/WORLD/africa/05/21/ethiopia.hunger.ap/index.html
http://www.cnn.com/2008/WORLD/africa/05/20/ethiopia.children/index.html

As you might imagine, we've been wondering if our baby has been born yet and how much this crisis might be affecting the baby and his or her birth family. This makes the situation very real to us, and we wish we could do something to change it -- not just for our child and his or her birth family but for everyone. Of course, the one thing we can do is pray, and we ask that you would join us in praying for Ethiopia and its people.

The lack of rain during the rainy season has caused a drought that affected this year's crops and is causing the famine. It has also affected hydro-electric power to the point where scheduled black-out times are in effect, and no power causes delays in the adoption process because emailing, faxing, court hearings and other things dependent on electricity cannot take place. So not only our wait but the wait of many other "expecting" families might increase. So we ask that you pray for all of us expecting from Ethiopia as we trust in God's timing.

I've been thinking a lot lately about the song "Mighty to Save" -- probably because we sang it at our annual conference meetings this past week. The chorus has just been playing again and again in my head; it says:

Savior, he can move the mountains
My God is mighty to save; He is mighty to save
Forever, Author of salvation; He rose and conquered the grave
Jesus conquered the grave

These words have been such an encouragement to me lately, reminding me that nothing is too big for my God. I mean, the situation in Ethiopia -- he can change it. The prospect of waiting longer for our baby -- he can get us through . Trusting him as I wonder about my future -- he can give me peace. And he can do the same for you. He is mighty to save.