No news....

We are so grateful for so many of you who are praying and checking in on us and our adoption situation.  As they say, adoption is not for the faint hearted....TRUTH.

The recent visits to Washington D.C. by some Ethiopian Adoptive parents were well received and we feel good about what happened there, the results and the support of some of our Government officials.

Currently, there is no news about our specific case.  There have been updates on the adoption situation from various sources, but unfortunately, nothing really for us to grab on to.  The news and updates we receive seem to make us hopeful and then take the wind out of our sails, all in the same day.  And this seems to be happening every other day at least.  It's a bit exhausting and we try not to hang our hopes and hearts on any of it so much.....probably for our own protection.

As always, we plead for your prayers on behalf of our boy, our family and the over 200 other U.S. families in similar situations.  We continue to put our trust in God.....not in man.  Please join us in praying and knocking on Heaven's door as we continue to pray for a summer miracle!

Big Stuff = Big Prayers

The journey continues.....there is potential for some big happenings tomorrow with the Adoption situation with Ethiopia and all families involved could use some BIG prayers ALL day long....

*There are 4 adoptive Momma's in process of Ethiopian adoptions spending the day tomorrow in Washington D.C.  They have scheduled meetings with 7 Senators and 2 Representatives.  Some of those they are meeting with are on the Foreign Affairs Committee or Adoption Council.  These meetings start at 10 a.m. and the last one starts at 4 p.m.  At each of these meetings they will be leaving a "one sheet" from all families that sent them one (Yes.  You know we did!) These "one sheets" have pictures of our families and information about our adoption process/status.  I believe these amazing Momma's will also have extra copies available for impromptu meetings they hope to have with other politicians that they might run into.

*There is also a phone call scheduled at 2 p.m. tomorrow that Senator Blunt (MO) said he is participating in specifically about the Ethiopian Adoption situation.  In addition to your prayers, we'd ask you to CALL YOUR SENATOR OR REPRESENTATIVE MONDAY MORNING AND ASK THEM TO PARTICIPATE IN THIS PHONE CALL with Senator Blunt - or to at least call his office for more information.  Thank you!!

*We do have a Huge PRAISE from this past week.  A few years ago, the Democratic Republic of Congo had a similar situation with all of their adoptions.  The parents of DRC parents heard about the Ethiopian situation and started to reach out.  They have been a wealth of support, encouragement, contacts and ideas on how to navigate this process.  The meetings and "one sheets" for tomorrow mainly come from their wealth of knowledge.  What an amazing part of the details that God has worked out!

Please spend a few minutes out of your Monday and PRAY BIG for our boy (feel free to set your cell phone for 12:24 and pray for him everyday).

PRAY BIG for the government officials involved in the U.S. and in Ethiopia.  Pray for soft hearts with a passion for children to be loved and in families.

PRAY BIG for all of the parents on this journey....it is hard to explain how we can all love kiddos we haven't meant, but God does that in our hearts and it's an amazing, beautiful, miraculous thing.  And, when we parents love Big, the heartache and worry is big right now too.

Thank you!!

Prayers and Politics

We knew Adoption was a roller coaster....

If you haven't seen our Facebook updates, here is the latest~

On April 21st, the Prime Minister of Ethiopia declared a suspension on all intercountry adoptions. This suspension was declared with no advance warning.

We were able to participate today in a phone call with the U.S. State Department and USCIS.  They are actively trying to get answers for all of the families currently involved.  There has been no reason given by Ethiopia for the suspension and no idea on how long the suspension will last.  The State Department is actively advocating for all cases which currently have a referral/match - of which we do.  We went into this phone call with pretty low expectations and after completing it, those expectations were met.  There just doesn't seem to be a lot that can currently be done and doesn't seem to be much currently happening.  From our understanding, this is the situation of a little over 200 other families....some of whom are currently in Ethiopia with their children but can not take them home (some are even formally adopted).  It doesn't make sense and surely doesn't seem right for any of these kiddos who need a home and family.  This is just so beyond our understanding!

So - when the politics of this world don't seem to make sense - we turn to prayer.  We'd ask you to join us in setting your phone/watch to pray every day at 12:24 for our boy.  We have committed to do this until he is HOME.

Here are some of our prayer requests:

*That the powers that be in Ethiopia would change this adoption situation as soon as possible.
*That our boy (who knows he is to be adopted by us) would not be worried or concerned with the amount of time it is taking for us to get there.  Pray that he would have peace.
*Pray for peace and joy for us....this is a dark cloud with us all the time.
*Pray for financial issues.....even though there is a suspension in place, we are still making monthly childcare payments, etc.  We had planned to do this, but can only do that for so long until we need to do some more fundraising.
*Pray for the uncertainty....and that we can enjoy summer, make memories, possibly vacation if we don't travel to ET.  It's just hard to plan anything right now.
*For all the children and families involved.
*For our adoption case workers - they are often the messengers of bad news like this and it is beyond their control.  They still press on tirelessly to try to help children and families...but they get weary and discouraged too.
*Pray that our case would be expedited due to the special needs and age of our son.  He's been waiting many years for a family.....it's so unfair that he needs to keep waiting.
*That's the big picture of it all.....PLEASE JUST PRAY.  PRAY.