Well, this summer marks 3 years of officially on the waiting list for a referral from Ethiopia... 3 1/2 years or so of beginning the process. We felt like we should update this to let everyone know that YES we are still adopting, YES we are still waiting and YES we are continuing to pray and sense this is where the Lord desires us to be on this journey. We would have never pictured this process to look like this but over these years one of the main lessons we have learned is Waiting Upon the Lord and Trusting in His Perfect Ways, even when it doesn't seem to makes sense to us personally.
Proverbs 16:9 - The heart of man plans his way,
but the Lord establishes his steps.
Proverbs 3:5-6 - Trust in the Lord with all your heart,
and do not lean on your own understanding.
6 In all your ways acknowledge him,
and he will make straight your paths.
Psalm 31:14-15 - But I trust in you, O Lord;
I say, “You are my God.”
15 My times are in your hand...
Habakkuk 2:3 - For still the vision awaits its appointed time;
it hastens to the end—it will not lie.
If it seems slow, wait for it;
it will surely come; it will not delay.
Here is a recent update from our agency in where we stand with adopting from Ethiopia. It breaks our hearts to talk to our case worker and hear the orphanages are overflowing with children, yet the government is at a standstill not approving cases. PLEASE continue to pray with us for our adoption to come to fulfillment and for the children in Ethiopia who need a forever home.
Thank you for continuing to walk on this journey with us and continuing to pray...
"It has been 6 months since our last match and 8 months since adoptions have slowed / stopped in Ethiopia. Back at the end of December, when this all began, we envisioned the disappointing several months of relatively no movement that we have now faced. The very discouraging news is that where there have been some positive steps in advocating for adoptions, we are seeing every agency and all regions effectively stuck with current cases or not seeing any new matches. Folks speculate that perhaps after the summer recess (and the Ethiopian New Year) there will be more of a concerted effort to make the changes necessary for the Regions to have to confidence to continue their approval of new child files.
So, what am I supposed to do with this information? this all basically boils down to: there are no children being approved for adoptions at the current time, we don’t know when that will start happening again- but we are very confident that it will.
The reason for this confidence is that the government has had every opportunity to close adoptions but they haven’t done so and have even gone on record (repeatedly) to confirm that they are not closing their adoption program. On several occasions, officials have commented that adoption is an important piece of their orphan care work. But we also know that there are deep hurts related to adoptions and abuses to the system. The lack of approvals for new cases is very political and complicated…"
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