Keeping You in the Loop

I just thought I'd share with you the latest news that our agency updated with us today (posted below). We continue to pray that God would move mountains! What I find the most interesting in this update is that it was announced that the Head of MOWA was terminated effective next week! Hmmm?!?! I pray this is a good thing and that God would expose evil where darkness lies and shine light over what is good! 


I received an incredibly encouraging email yesterday from the sweetest gal, Bethany Ardnt, that was jammed packed full of truth and wisdom to hang onto during this time. I just wanted to share one of the quotes that was in her email that was my favorite... "Waiting for the Lord is an expression of faith. When circumstances bear down on us, it is tempting to orchestrate our own relief effort. Yet if we will tenaciously trust the LORD, He will renew our spirit and strengthen us for any challenge." unknown author. Love it! 

With all the craziness going on, it doesn't come as much of a surprise that our monthly call letting us know what our official wait list number is, from our case worker is going to be delayed a bit. Their work load right now is no doubt insane! So be in prayer for the amazing Ethiopia case workers at AGCI, they truly do bust butt to keep us up to date and informed with facts on a regular basis! I'm so grateful to be with an agency that rocks! That being said, our list serve however does post the "unofficial" numbers every Friday, so that we can have an idea of the movement that is taking place as referrals go out. I'm so excited and encouraged to share that in the midst of uncertainty, movement is happening- referral's are still going out and court dates are still be assigned! For every referral that is given, that is one less orphan, a life, forever changed, and given a forever family! So, without further ado... our official number for the month of February was #55, and NOW for the month of March, our "unofficial" number has dropped to #46!!! This makes me smile! Just wanted to share! I'll keep you posted when we hear from "K", our case worker, what our official number is! 


Okay, onto the most recent update from today... 

Ethiopia Update: March 11, 2011

US Department of State Ethiopia Adoptions Conference Call Update Good morning families! What a week this has been for all of us! Thank you so much for your commitment to getting the word out about the petition for the children of Ethiopia these past few days! We are hopeful that the voices of these precious children will be heard. As we had shared in previous communications, there was a conference call that we participated in this morning with the US Department of State to discuss the changes the Ministry of Women’s, Children’s and Youth Affairs (MOWA) announced. Not all Adoption Service Providers (ASPs) were able to join the call due to the number of adoptive parents on the line. According to Joint Council, it was understood that this conference call would be geared towards informing ASPs specifically about these changes and how the US government would react. Unfortunately, the call ended early and several ASPs were not able to address more detailed questions geared towards the ramifications of these changes for the program as a whole. While we admire adoptive families’ desires to be a part of these discussions, we are looking forward to opportunities to connect more exclusively and candidly as a professional network with the US Department of State and Joint Council as they learn about these details in the coming weeks. This will allow us to better communicate with you factual information about how this impacts your family’s adoption more specifically while also being mindful of Ethiopian adoptions as a whole. Again, though, as evidenced by the feedback in this call by the US Department of State, at this time there is little to no information that is being disclosed. Here is what we did learn: Although this change has been supposedly confirmed to have gone into effect on March 10, 2011, there is no information available on what the process could look like moving forward, what cases it impacts, and if and for how long it will remain in effect. It was mentioned that cases already registered with the Ethiopian court could possibly experience up to an estimated 12 month delay. It was made very clear by the US Department of State that this was dependent on a number of factors, all of which are yet to be determined, i.e. how many cases are registered, what cases this change will impact, if this change continues to be in effect, etc. There is a vast amount of rumors going around related to this change, and none of them are able to be confirmed at this point. The head of MOWA has been terminated, effective next week, for unknown reasons. We are hearing that there will be meetings between the US Department of State, US Embassy, MOWA, network of ASP Foreign Service Providers, and Ethiopian government offices during the next week. We believe these meetings will begin on Monday, March 14th; however, there is no way to know if there will be concrete solutions that develop. At this point, we are all still in a waiting stage to see how this change will be implemented. We have greatly appreciated your prayers and understanding as we have all tried to grasp this announcement. As we continue to pursue a better understanding, we encourage you to be wary of rumors that you hear about this change and know that we will continue to keep you up to date on the information we receive. Along with being updated through our office, you can also continue to stay informed by monitoring Joint Council’s website at http://www.jointcouncil.org/. We continue to do our best in addressing your questions and concerns as quickly as possible and appreciate your patience. Our primary goal remains to facilitate the progress of your adoptions, which continues to show movement on a daily basis. Despite all of this uncertainty, we hope you go into this weekend feeling hopeful and staying focused on preparing your hearts for the road ahead.