FULL SPEED AHEAD......TO ETHIOPIA!

Well, given that my last post was a bit of a downer, I thought it best to "uplift" our blog with our renewed excitement. The news of Ethiopia (ET) becoming a 2 visit country for adoption was a bit hard to take, but once seeing the good it will do for the children, well, we were able to eventually accept the news with grace. Somehow God found a way to open our eyes to that which is beyond our own personal desires of being united with our son as soon as possible.

We have learned that some parents commit to adoption only to come to ET and change their mind, thus, leaving the child in a most unfortunate situation. In the "old" ways of adopting in ET, once a family committed to adopting a child at court date, all was final. The child was officially adopted, and the family then came to ET to bring their child home. However, if the parents then changed their mind for any reason, the child became unable to be unadopted or readopted, leaving him or her in a very sad situation. Although these new rules will delay the time in which parents can be together with their son or daughter, it will ensure children are united with their FOREVER families and not be left behind with no possibility of having a family. Understanding this makes the new rules easier to accept.

Some have wondered if this hiccup in the process has made us consider changing our direction and seek a child from another country. Although we understand you are just trying to make things less hurtful for us, you must know that we are confident that we are pursuing God's ordained path for us. Although we have not met our son, we know that we know that God has Divinely chosen who our little boy is, and we will not ~ cannot ~ turn our back on him. We love him already and we know that God will bring us together! The adoption process may not be easy, or go according to our timeline, but we trust that all will go according to His plan. God is never late. His timing is perfect. Even when it doesn't match our desired timeline.

A wise member of our yahoo group reminded us that God is not surprised by this new rule. He knew this would be part of our journey to our son. He will provide for us what we need to handle a longer wait, as well as bless us when we meet our son, and comfort us ~ and him ~ when we have to part for another 2-3 months. I cannot imagine HOW God is going to get us through such a time, but we are trusting that He will provide for us all that we need to endure all that He asks us to face.

Besides, if this is what it takes to brings us together FOREVER with our son, it will all be worth it in the end! Just as birthing pains seem to wane from a birthmother's memory, I am told that these "paper pregnancy" pains will fade once our son is in our arms as well! I look forward to that day with excitement! Thank you, God, for bringing us to this place of joy and peace again. May it stay with us throughout our journey to our son. THANK YOU for your prayers.