Crazy Amazing and The Wait...

Wanna hear something crazy amazing, humbling, knock your socks off, totally God's faithfulness, good?!?!... Have you checked out our fundraiser meter thingy on the right hand side of the blog lately?!?! Seriously, we ONLY have $211 to go before we are FULLY FUNDED towards bringing Isa home!!!!!! It was last May that we sent out our very first letter to friends and family letting them know we were jumping into this crazy journey of adoption! We had no idea how it was going to be funded, but we knew God said to jump, so we trusted that He would provide! In ONE YEARS time God has provided $27,789 through people like YOU! This is HUGE and almost too much for me to wrap my mind around! It is so true that God funds His callings and moves mountains to accomplish His work! Clearly He is passionate about orphans and determined to not let anything get in the way of making sure they are placed with families! Each and every penny of this journey has been documented and is attached to a name written in RED on our calendars- the above photo is of our May 2010 and May 2011 calendars that have been hanging in our kitchen. If you were to flip through the pages of both, you would find a years worth of God's story chalked full of names of dear friends, family, and complete strangers that have each been used by God in one way or another to accomplish His plan of bringing Isa home! I'm humbled and forever grateful every time I break out the RED pen and scribble a name in that dated little square box! 

The wait. I've had several people ask me lately, "How much longer do you think it'll be before you'll bring Isa home?". Heck, Jude has been asking me the same thing here lately! Fair question... just wish I had the answer! I actually just spoke with our AGCI case worker today, "K" (who, by the way, I love and is quite possibly the sweetest person ever to chat with on the phone! I kind of wonder if the polite folks at Chick-fil-a that always smile and say, "My pleasure" and the case workers from our agency, all go to the same training school?!). She was just calling to check in to see how we were doing and keep us up to date with how things are coming along in Ethiopia.

As you might recall, in March, the Government of Ethiopia's Ministry of Women's Affair issued THIS statement that they would be processing only 5 cases per day. In essence, this would be cutting the number of adoptions by nearly 90%, which in turn makes this mama's heart sink! Since then, the head of MOWA has been terminated and there is entirely new staff in place (which is a good thing from what I can gather). That being said, MOWA has yet to reissue a new statement to counter the one issued in March. You can read the latest update HERE from the Department of State website. So as it stands, the Ethiopian government is still only processing 5 cases a day. Here's the catch though- the movement and cases actually being processed would suggest differently. As of yet, we've seen no significant delay and families are still passing court (PS, I'm so excited for all the families that passed court this week!). So... the issued statement and what we're seeing actually happen aren't really matching up... BUT, I'm totally cool with their actions not backing up what they're saying, as long as it means- we're still moving forward! Regardless, we're still in this weird phase of wait and see, and time really will tell how this is all going to pan out. With the uncertainty of it all, our agency has upped the time frame from dossier acceptance until referral of a child to up to 18 months. However, current families on the list that have recently received referrals waited between 11-12 months. So.... in a nutshell, there is no real way to nail down a timeframe for when we could expect to see Isa's sweet face! Trust me, I hate that answer more than you do! We went on the wait list back in October, so... I guess anywhere between this October and next April we could get our referral call?!?! Talk about making me appreciate pregnancy with Jude and knowing that after 9 months, it was a sure fire deal that he would be here!

So there you have it folks! The most vague answer ever! But hopefully it gives you a better idea of where we're at in this journey!