Please pray, spread the word and ACT!
As you may have heard, Joint Council recently released a Statement regarding the announcement by the Ethiopian Ministry of Women’s, Children’s and Youth Affairs plan to reduce intercountry adoption by 90%. We do not have a lot of detail on why or if this is going to be temporary or permanent. JCICS has issued the following Call to Action in hopes that MoWA will reverse this decision.

Please help! by doing the following:

1)Sign the petition to the Prime Minister of Ethiopia, Meles Zenawi – and pass it on!

2)Have you adopted from Ethiopia? Please send us up to 3 photos and 50 words or less with what you would like the Ministry to know about your child – we’ll compile the information and send a book to the Ministry of Woman’s Affairs. Send your photos and stories to advocate@jointcouncil.org by Sunday, March 12, 2011 to be included. Please note that sending photos and stories gives Joint Council unrestricted right to use the information you provide.

3)Share…Please send this Call to Action to family members, other adoptive parents, and everyone you know! Post, forward and share your adoption stories via Facebook, Twitter, and blogs. Make sure you include us in your posts so we can all hear your stories! Here’s links to our pages: Facebook, Twitter and our blog.

4)Stay informed: Get up-to-date information regarding the situation in Ethiopia by signing up to receive information from us: click here to do so, make sure you choose “country and issues specific information” and “Ethiopia.” And don’t forget to follow us on Facebook, Twitter and our blog!

5)Help ensure our advocacy can continue: Joint Council is a non-profit and receives no government funding. Please join us in ensuring more children live in safe, permanent and loving families. Donate today!

Update!!!

Today we got update #2! I heard my special ring for our social worker and my heart skipped a beat, hoping that she was calling with a court date?! But the update is GREAT!
A is doing good. When we received our first update (3 months after referral) she had lost 6lbs. That's a lot of weight for a little girl to loose. So our hearts were very happy to see that she has gained back 1 1/2 lbs. She is getting her 3 regular meals everyday plus she is on a supplemental feeding to help with her weight gain.
In the update they said she is "a very beloved baby in the orphanage". It makes me so happy to know that the nannies are loving on her=)
Each update gives us a little better glimpse into what her personality is like. She seems very sweet and gentle from what we have heard. We just can't wait to meet her in person! Come on court date!!!!!!!

On a side note... During these very rough weeks we had been going through I was reading to the kids the children's version of Pilgrims Progress. The Lord was using that book a ton to minister to my heart. One scene in the book was when Christian gets caught by giant Despair. He is held there for a long time before he finally escapes. When he finally does escape and gets back on the Way of the King he is exhausted and weak as he continues his journey to the Celestial City. This is EXACTLY how I was feeling. Beaten up, worn out, exhausted and numb.
I was able to go to our women's retreat this past weekend. The theme was ' A Heart set on Pilgrimage' from Psalm 84:5. I know it wasn't a coincidence! In the book, when Christian is on his journey to the King he goes through some VERY dark and scary places. He can't understand why the King is allowing this or that to happen. But as he travels further down the Way of the King he can see the purpose more clearly. It doesn't make those times any less scary or difficult but it does help him when he comes to the next dark place (and he will come to another dark place) to remember what the King brought him through already.
I was sharing all this with my girlfriends during one of our breaks and when we came back in for another session guess what was laying on the table?=) As a gift to all the women everyone received the book Pilgrims Progress! Our God is so good! So faithful to come and mend our broken hearts and set us straight on The Way of the King!!!!

Bethany Joy

Taking a break from our regular scheduled programing to brag on one seriously cute chubby 18 month old=)

Finished the picture book

I'm thinking it was because of the good news we had today. I finally got the desire to finish A's picture book. We get to leave this book with her during the time we have to leave her after the first trip till we pick her up for good.
It's a fabric book so she can't tear the pages=) I'm praying that she will enjoy these pictures as much as we are enjoying the pictures of her!!!

Good news!!!!!

I FINALLY have good news to report!!!! Talked with our social worker today and our case has been submitted to court!!!! YEA YEA YEA YEA!!!!!!!!!!!
Now we wait 2-4 weeks to get a court date...but i'm totally okay with that=)
Just so happy to be out of the nightmare wait!!!!!!!!!!!!

4 months

I almost hate to post anything at this point. My blog has been so sad for months now. But so we can keep people up to date on whats happening and also to chronicle our journey to A....here we go....
What should have been a few weeks waiting to get submitted has now turned into 4 months of waiting still with no hope of when our case will get submitted.
And here we head into another week..............

I made friends with lots of other families on the Bethany Boards and two of them are currently in Ethiopia and working on our behalf. One of the families is asking around about our case and whats holding us up and the other is taking pictures and videos of A for us. I'm so thankful for all the support we have been given from people we have never even met in person! Please pray that Monday (late Sunday night) answers will be given to help us determine what is happening with our case.
We also have a conference call scheduled with HQ here in the states to see what we can find, but that isn't until the 22nd.

We are working at 'counting it all joy' during this VERY hard time. Who knew having patience and endurance worked into you could be SO incredibly painful!

Oh my goodness........

Are we really going into ANOTHER week of waiting?! I suppose we are...........
I barely have words to describe the pain we have been feeling over these last 3 or 4 weeks. It's like one of those horrible nightmares that won't end and just keeps going over and over. I guess the movie Ground Hog Day is the best way to describe it.

Monday we hope for this coming week that finally our case will move.
Tuesday we shrugging off doubts and continue to hope.
Wednesday we start questioning why we hoped.
Thursday we feel that hope slowly slipping away.
Friday as stephen says, "I crawl into bed pull the covers over our head and cry"

And that has been the case every week for the last month and a half. I know unless you have REALLY been in our shoes you can't understand. Even for most other adoptive families that we know, few know the pain of waiting this long, this early in the process. Having your case stuck in one step of the journey for months on end. Knowing that you still have month of waiting in front of you before you can bring your child home.

To make matters worse we have really been concerned with all thats been going on in Egypt. Ethiopia is not really that far from Egypt. Our concern is that there could be some kind of political unrest there and cause huge delays with getting A home or worse...

Last week was really hard because I guess we had more hope since corporate said that we should be getting submitted to court. But by friday night we realized that it was just another week, same as every week before. And here we are at the beginning of week 16 and we feel that hope creeping up on us. Everything in me wants to tell it to go away, that there is no hope, but I know there is.

At the end of each week when I feel as low as I possibly can, the Lord has been faithful to come and minster to my heart and prepare me for the coming week.

So here we are starting another monday. This week is going to be extra challenging for several reason....
-Several families with similar DTE's and Referrals are traveling to meet their children.
-We again are told to expect to submitted to court
-But we also are going to be celebrating little A's 2nd birthday on Tuesday the 8th.
We are excited to be planning a little birthday party for her here but also just realize how far away we are from bringing her home.....which is very hard

Since all of my posts have been sharing the pain in my heart I wanted to give thanks for one happy thing. Two fellow adoptive family were in Ethiopia last week and took some pictures and video for us. We haven't gotten them yet but hope to sometimes soon. I'm so excited to be able to see the video of her, I'm sure it will make me cry again but it will be good crying=)

So if you would join us in praying for
-the Lord to allow our case to move forward
-A to have a wonderful birthday
-that A would be able to gain the weight she lost during her time in Awassa. She will be turning 2 but she only weighs 16 lbs....she lost 6lbs in 3 months!