Where We've Been:
We have spent the last year training, completing piles of paperwork, and preparing to adopt from Ethiopia. God was preparing our hearts for something BIG and we felt confident. Then the Ethiopia program was placed on hold for 7 long months with no adoptions being processed. Orphanages were investigated. And laws were changed. The wait time to adopt a younger child from Ethiopia increased from 18-24 months to 3-5 years.
Where We Are Now:
My heart aches for the Ethiopia children waiting in these orphanages and all of the families waiting to adopt. When our social worker confirmed the wait time is up to 5 years I wanted to cry, mourning for the loss of something I never had. Our paperwork has not been submitted to Ethiopia yet so we are closer to the 5 year spectrum. After lots of prayer we decided the Ethiopia program is not right for our family at this time. We may revisit this later, but right now we can't continue to invest in a program that has experienced so many changes in such a short time. How much more will change over the course of 5 years?
The Road Ahead:
We still have a heart for adoption, and adoption is still in our future. We started training for foster-adoption with our local state program. And we are praying that God will lead us in the way that we should go.
What About The Adoption Funds?
Let's face it, I know some of you are wondering this, I mean we just did a t-shirt fundraiser. Honestly, we don't have much in the adoption fund. Most of our funds have already been paid to the agency and there are no refunds at this point in the program. What little we have in funds will help us prepare for foster care (provide a bed, clothes, etc for the child) and we will donate some funds to other families in the adoption program or to our church adoption fund. We will continue to support International adoption although we are not currently pursuing International adoption.
