October Blues

Have I mentioned lately that referrals are slow?

We moved one spot this month.....

I refuse to lose hope! I know were are called to Ethiopia and are exactly where we need to be right now. I know God has a plan and a purpose and in His perfect timing our child will join our family.

That being said, please understand that those are very hard things for me to hear right now. When your heart is desperately longing for that child God is hand picking just for you, you know that while you wait they wait too, only with even less understanding! After all we have been through to get to this point, those are very hard words to hear

So what do we need right now?

1) Prayer! Lots and lots of prayer! Prayer for us, our hearts, our finances, our child, our preparations..everything, please just cover this whole adoption in prayer! Just not patience please....I'm still trying to deal with the last dose I prayed for ;)

2) Patience and Understanding from all of you! Most days we honestly try not to think about our adoption. We "try" to enjoy the time we are being blessed with to grow as a couple before children. But as you can imagine, that's not always realistic. Our adoption has grown from just a way to grow our family into our family mission to "defend the fatherless"; God has opened our eyes and our hearts are literally breaking for the things that break God's heart. It's nearly impossible to not be focused on adoption. So when we seem bummed that our number hasn't dropped, or we are rambling about adoption stuff in general please try to understand we are just excited about what God is doing in and through us and we really want to share it and for you to be a part of it!

3) We are still in super savings mode to get all our funding. So if you have some neat ways to save money or fun fundraising ideas we'd love to hear them. But please, keep nasty comments to yourself!

Aside from that we are doing well. Looking forward to the upcoming holidays and time with family.

Confessions

This month has been VERY trying for us! I don't know necessarily that it has been the "worst" because there are so many factors that play into any given time frame and circumstance.

When I first started writing this post it was long and emotional. I want people to just "get it". I want you to share my passion for orphan care, I want you to journey with me, to experience each new wave and revelation, to grow and mature in your faith in the ways that I have! I want you to understand our struggles and our pain. But it just doesn't work that way! No matter how many ways I try to explain it you can never fully "get it"....and that's OK!

God is so amazing and He made each person so unique. While we all are sinners in a fallen world and only He is the answer...He uses so many different things in our lives to mold us and to develop our faith. How boring would life be if we all shared the exact same struggles and never experienced anything new to stretch and grow us?

Adoption is HARD! The process is hard, the waiting is hard, the financial aspect is hard, the adjustment once they are home are hard and the circumstances that put the child in the position of needing a new family are HARD!

So, in an effort to avoid the post with TMI about our specific journey I just simply ask that you pray for us. Pray that we have peace that passes understanding, that our hearts would continue to break for the orphans around the world, and that God will prepare and equip us for the journey He has laid before us. And we will pray for you too! We'll pray that you are being molded and your faith is growing as you walk the path you have been placed on and you fulfill Gods calling on your life.

Wait List Update

It's the rainy season in Ethiopia which means the courts are closed. Why you may ask? Because when it rains A LOT for a long period of time the roads wash out and you just can't always get to work ;)

So what does this mean for our adoption?

Children have to be "paperwork ready" in order to be referred to a family and this goes through the court for approval. Sometimes there are children who are referred during court closure because their paperwork was already complete and they were just waiting to be matched with the best family for them. But, this month there were zero referrals :(

Courts are expected to re-open in mid to late October. We hope to see an explosion of referrals in October!

Also, beginning with the courts re-opening, the new PAIR process will take effect. 

Our number remains the same:

Update

It's been a super slow month for referrals. BUT, just as I was preparing myself for our first month with no referrals I was surprised with the email indicating we moved one! One is not much but it is way better than zero.

Please pray BIG, that God would move mountains and get our child home soon. Specifically we are fervently praying to have a picture by Christmas or before.

Praying BIG

Some of you may recall our wait chain that we made last September. We started out on "the list" at number 87.

Here is a picture of the chain from Sept. 2012

Today we received our new updated number......drum roll please!

That's a drop of 15 on "the list"!!!!!!!  We have been praying for BIG movement and God answered!

Here is a picture of the links I pulled off our wait chain today...

And here is the chain now....

Prayer Requests:

Praise for all the children who now have a forever family.

Continue to pray BIG that we have a referral by or before Christmas (tomorrow is good for me)

That God will provide the finances for us to be fully funded. God has provided so far through prompting friends to give and guiding us in ways to save and plan. We still need to last 1/3 of the total adoption expenses. It's a number that overwhelms me but I know is possible.

Pray for our families. 

Fundraising:

I posted this last time, but if you want to be a part of our adoption journey please consider sponsoring a piece of our puzzle to bring our child home.

If you have ideas or want to help plan a fundraiser with us please let us know. We are open to just about anything other than home party type sales, I know some of you have expressed dislike for those events.

Puzzle Funds

For several months we have had some info in the side bar about our puzzle fundraiser and a few have asked for more details.

Here is the puzzle

We are asking that family and friends sponsor a piece of the puzzle for $20. Each donor will have their name written on the back of a puzzle piece. 

Once the puzzle is complete it will be hung in a double-sided frame in our child's room. It will be a great way to show them all the many people who have prayed for them and help to bring them home! 

Our child will have lost everything when they come home to us, their biological families, culture, etc. As they grow older, we hope that the many names will bring some comfort that in their loss, they gained so much love and support from a new and larger family.

As always we are so very thankful to everyone who contributes to our adoption both financially and through prayer. We absolutely need both and would not have made it this far without you!

Big things are happening! We are so blessed, and I know you will be too, in this journey!

Wahoo!!!!!

Got our monthly wait list number today and was in total shock! We moved 8 spaces to number

Now some of you may remember a couple months ago I was super bummed because I asked prayer specifically that we would drop into the 40's the following month. Well, as I am learning, God's timing is not my own and while it was not "when" I wanted, it was exactly what I wanted and I'm sure that while I don't specifically know why I had to wait longer, there was a reason and it will all work out to the good!

Now for some even more exciting news, though we moved 8 spaces, 10 children were matched with their forever families!!! That's 10 fewer orphans in the world....wahoo!!

6- Infants
1- child over age 6
1- sibling set ages 6 & 10
1- Special needs child

Our Specific Requests:
1) We have been so blessed by the donations and prayers from friends! We are still in fundraising mode and need quite a bit more to be fully funded. Please pray that we will be directed to fruitful ways to raise/save funds.

2) Please pray for peace over our hearts. Seems like everywhere I turn another person is welcoming their child home through either birth or adoption and while I'm ecstatic for them, I'm ready for my turn.

3) While the PAIR process does make the adoptions more efficient and safe, it did add A LOT of time on to the process. Please pray there are no further "hiccups" in the process.

4) Finally, please pray for the birth mother. I don't know if our child is even conceived yet but she is going to have to make the hardest decision of her life. A decision that will give us the gift we have longed for, and a life for her child she could not provide. But more importantly, pray that in this process someone shares with her the love of Christ.

PAIR Letter

So what is a PAIR letter? Fantastic question! I'm not totally sure yet but, at the moment with my limited knowledge I'm really nervous and scared about it.

So before this requirement, the process looked something like this.

-referral

- preliminary hearing (families do not travel for this)

-if you pass, a court date is set up three months later and you travel to the country 

-once you pass court they are legally yours by Ethiopian law

- US Embassy investigates orphan status and issues visa's and passports

-Return to country 2-3 months later to bring them home.

The total process from referral to home averages 5-6 months.

Now with the PAIR letter, the process will be extended by 2-3 months. This letter must be in place BEFORE the preliminary hearing and is issued by US Immigration and it takes 8-12 weeks to prepare and get in place.

The purpose of this letter is actually really good. Although very rare, there were families who were clearing court but not embassy so their child never got to come home. This letter states that the child meets the requirement of orphan status and should make the embassy process smoother.

I guess I am happy that the process is a little more efficient, I just wish that it didn't mean taking longer to get them home.

Our current number on the wait list is 56! 

Prayer Requests:

-Referrals will boom over the next few months 

-Peace over our waiting and eager hearts, but not patience ;)

-We are considering the possibility of opening our parameters to siblings but that will require LOTS more savings and fundraising which we can't do without support of family and friends. I'm positive if this is the path we should take it will be made abundantly clear and our needs will be met but, we need you all to cover this in prayer.