Sorry About That

Yes, I did try to post something today and for some reason, I couldn't get the words to line up on the page correctly. Half sentences were dropping off of the blog. :)

Maybe that is how I feel anyway...kind of halfway there.

Last Friday, we received some great news and then we were socked in the stomach that night before we went to bed. We are still in line, closer than #9 now. But the wait could be very, very long.

A group in Ethiopia called MOWA (Ministry of Women's Affairs) is the primary adoption authority in Ethiopia. They decided that as of March 10th (today), the will no longer going to be writing the normal 30-50 letters needed in order for the adoption to be processed, they'll instead write only 5. So this decreases the adoptions out of Ethiopia by about 90%. We will get a referral within the next few months, but we could be waiting to bring our daughter home for 2-3 years.

Last weekend, we didn't know what to do. Should we hang on to all of the paperwork that we worked so hard to gather, or send it off in our dossier, knowing that it could be all for nothing?

God directed me to Hebrews 11:1-2. And He told me to hold my head high and hope in the promise that he has given us. So we are hoping. And praying. And hoping. And praying.

Alright. So maybe this does not all make sense. It's hard to explain something that I just started trying to understand 3 months ago. And it's hard to post this right after our exciting news in the last post. But PLEASE pray with us and with the many adoptive families and orphans. Pray, especially, for our friends, Tory and Kedra, who have a court date on the 15th and are hoping for the MOWA letter to be ready so that they can bring their daughter home.

While this seems like a huge mountain, God is much, much greater and our trust is in him. Hadassah has a family waiting for her no matter where she is or what the timing is.

I'm putting the latest update below in case some of you can speak educated language better than Amy language. :)

(From National Council for Adoption) NCFA Issues Statement Regarding Ethiopia Adoptions

At the end of February 2011, the Ethiopian Ministry of Women, Children and Youth Affairs (MOWA) issued an unexpected directive indicating a dramatic reduction in the number of inter country adoption cases to be processed by the Ministry. This directive is scheduled to go into effect by Thursday, March 10, 2011.

In 2010, more than 2,500 Ethiopian children were adopted by American families. Should MOWA implement the recent directive as indicated, the number of adoptions from Ethiopia could fall as much as 90%, although the full impact of MOWA’s decision is unknown and cannot be predicted at this time.

This ruling follows a year of significant progress in improving and increasing transparency in the Ethiopian adoption process. Following several safeguards enacted last year, NCFA’s confidence in the Ethiopian adoption system has grown significantly. Additional protective measures may still be necessary, however, to increase global confidence in the process. MOWA’s recent decision appears to have surprised many Ethiopian government officials, as well as the Central Adoption Authorities in the U.S., Italy, and Spain. Many within the adoption community, including the U.S. Department of State (DOS) and the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Service (USCIS), members of Congress, child welfare officials in many countries, and the National Council For Adoption (NCFA), have criticized the MOWA directive as unfair, unnecessary, and harmful to children in Ethiopian orphanages who await permanent families.

NCFA is grateful for the swift action taken by the U.S. Department of State, led by Special Advisor Ambassador Susan Jacobs, to communicate with Ethiopian adoption officials in an effort to reach a favorable resolution that will serve the best interests of abandoned and orphaned children in Ethiopia.

“We are encouraged by the advocacy taking place behind the scenes and hopeful that these collective efforts will bring clarity and an immediate adjustment to this unjust and unnecessary ruling, which has the potential to negatively impact so many vulnerable children,” said NCFA president and CEO Chuck Johnson.

Unconfirmed reports indicate that personnel changes within MOWA have resulted from the rogue handling of this decision, and because of this, NCFA is hopeful that new leadership will offer opportunities for better communication and a swift resolution to this looming crisis. NCFA respectfully calls on MOWA to amend its recent harmful directive and ensure that subsequent reforms reflect a comprehensive child welfare policy that retains the option of inter country adoption for Ethiopian orphans while ensuring policies and procedures that serve the best interests of children.

NCFA’s website contains the most current information they have: https://www.adoptioncouncil.org/