FINALLY some good news

Honestly, I've been down about the whole adoption thing. We have been on the wait list for 11 months. That isn't counting all of the months we spent getting paperwork ready, but just the actual wait list time. It is so frustrating when there is such a need. Plenty of good news with people from our agency passing court and getting their Embassy appointments to bring their kiddos home. ;) Still, the referrals have been so slow! It seems like there might be one and then it is weeks before another. Soon our orphanage will be empty and I'm not joking about that. My opinion is that things are slower in the referral world b/c our orphanage wants all of their ducks in a row before they match a child up especially when the courts are requiring so much more paperwork.

Today was filled with good news. The biggest news was that there were a few referrals. :) Also, we heard from our agency. Back in March, MOWA was going to only process 5 court appointments a day. We really didn't see this so much. However, it seems to be that our agency was getting processed through a bit faster b/c they have such a good reputation. Well, today we got OFFICIAL word that MOWA will be processing 10 cases a day! :) Woo-hoo!!! Let's get this process going already. ;)

It is nice to finally have some good news. Hopefully we are going to have referrals flying out left and right. We can only hope.

Ethiopia Special Update: June 22, 2011

Update on MOWA Case Processing Dear families, We wanted to share with you all some positive news that we received today from our staff in Ethiopia! Our staff have shared with us that the Ministry of Women’s Affairs (MOWA) office has indicated that they are currently processing 10 cases per day. Of course, this is great news for us all to hear! Now, we may see that this change does take some time to go into full effect, however we wanted to share this great news with you today. Another piece of great news is that we have received word today that one of our pending court cases was approved today after their official approval letter was issued by MOWA. We are excited to be celebrating  this amazing news with the family and hope that you will join us in celebrating the continued movement of our cases and more importantly looking forward to welcoming home more children with their forever families soon! Although we know there are still many unknowns surrounding what the processing of adoptions will look like in the future, and timelines specifically, we are excited to hear about these positive developments! It is our prayer that we’ll continue to see improvement in the coming weeks to months as all parties involved refine and implement the best procedures moving forward for the kids we serve. We will continue  to closely monitor each of our cases as they move through the court process and will keep all of you updated on any new information. In the meantime though we hope this adds a little joy to your Wednesday!

June numbers

We got our official numbers for June. They are 27 for a girl and 16 for a boy. We thought we were going to be at 25 and 15. Well we have someone that keeps track of the referrals. As soon as there is a referral, the lists move. However, as far as our agency goes, it isn't "Official" until those families get their paperwork in. So...for sure in July we will be at least 25 and 15. :)

Things have been very slow in the referral world which is very disheartening. However, many families have passed court. There are also many that have been given embassy appointments which is the clearance they need to go and bring their little ones home. We are certainly rejoicing with the fact that postive things are happening...we just wish there would be more referrals.

This summer has been super crazy and busy. It sure helps to keep my mind off the fact that we aren't even close to getting a picture of our new little one's face. However, even in the middle of all of the chaos, it is always in the back of our minds. What parent would ever be too busy to not think/hope/dream about their newest child?

We got an email from our case worker that really does sum things up well. I'm going to share it with you as it sums things up way better than I ever could. "In closing, Kiersten recently completed her first marathon and in hearing about her experience, it had us thinking about all of you and this crazy beautiful race of adoption you are running.  Particularly for those of you in the waiting stage of the adoption process, this long race I’m sure may seem overwhelming and exhausting at times.  Some of you are now on mile 22 of your wait.  Your knees are giving out, you’re exhausted, and you are ready to stop running.  Others of you are on mile 3.  You are feeling good, strong, but looking up at the long road ahead.  Regardless of where you find yourself at in this race, I’m here with encouraging words to root you on…and to offer you a little “Gatorade” of course!  J  We will, and have, encountered obstacles along this race, but today I just wanted to encourage you to keep putting one foot forward in front of the other.  Each step forward is one step closer to that finish line!"

Please continue to pray for all involved on each step of this journey. There have been some major changes in the Ethiopian program. There have been some positive things happening. There is also still very much uncertainity. Thanks for your love, support, and prayers. They are appreciated greatly.