Prayers Needed...

I know it has been months since last updating the blog, but as mentioned below, nothing much has been going on during this "waiting period." Well, as of this afternoon, our "nothing going on" has turned into some pretty discouraging news. Instead of trying to explain what is going on, I am just going to copy the following email that we received this afternoon: (Note: if you don't want to read the entire email, the important parts are in bold)

Ethiopia Program Families:

Our in-country staff were notified today by the federal courts in Ethiopia that a new policy has been implemented, effective today, requiring all adoptive parents to travel to Addis Ababa, Ethiopia for their court dates before their adoptions can be finalized in court. This policy does not affect any families who already have court dates scheduled. This policy is effective immediately for any families who receive future court dates. This policy will now require families to travel to Ethiopia twice during their adoption process (once for adoptive parent/s to appear in court and once for adoptive parent/s to pick up their child/ren to come home to the United States).

We anticipate that the first trip will be an approximately 5 day stay in Addis Ababa for adoptive parents to meet their referred child/ren and appear in court. For two parent families, both adoptive parents will be required to travel and be present in court. For single parent families, the adoptive parent is required to travel for both trips. It is our understanding that if there are delays in a family’s court process, the adoptive family will be able to complete their court appearance on the first court date and will not be required to stay in-country or return again for subsequent court date(s).

The adoptive family’s second trip to Ethiopia will occur after the adoption is finalized in court and when the family is scheduled for a U.S. Embassy interview to process your child’s immigrant visa. At least one of the adoptive parents is required to travel to Ethiopia for the second trip. Based on current time frames, the second trip would occur approximately 3-6 weeks after the court date when a family’s adoption is finalized, and the sec ond trip would be an approximately 7 day stay in Addis Ababa. The timing of the second trip depends upon the day of the week that families’ adoptions are finalized; the number of families who are approved in court at any given time; the number of children that the Embassy can process at a time; the time required to obtain children’s court decrees, passports, and birth certificates; and the Embassy’s schedule with appointments every other week. Adoptive families will be given their finalized travel dates for the second trip after their adoptions have been approved and finalized by the courts in Ethiopia.

In order to provide you with this information as quickly as possible, we are notifying all families immediately of this change, but we are still working to coordinate the logistics of how this will impact each of you. We ask that you please be patient with us as we are talking with our in-country staff and anticipating questions that you might have in order to provide you with as much information as possible.

Words cannot express how heavy our hearts are with this news. We have so, SO many questions that it really is hard to know where to start. We have been instructed by Gladney to hold all questions for a few days while they sort through all of the changes, but honestly, being "quiet" is really hard. And, if we can be totally blunt, some of this is just unacceptable to us. However, instead of ranting and raving, we are just asking that you please pray specifically for the following concerns/requests:

* This goes without saying, but traveling to/from Ethiopia twice, doubles our travel expense. God has already proven to us throughout this process that He is our ultimate Provider. However, in our flesh, this added expense is a bit overwhelming. Please just pray that we focus on our Provider and place total faith in Him.

* Over the next few days we are supposed to receive a few more updates concerning these new procedures so please pray that some clarity will be given. The idea of us traveling to Ethiopia, meeting our son, going to court to finalize his adoption, then leaving him there for 3-6 more weeks while we wait on an appointment with the US Embassy, is simply not o.k. Please pray that the Holy Spirit will drop some common sense on those who (obviously) need it. :)

Thank you for being a listening ear and most importantly, for your precious prayers. We totally know that God is in control of this and nothing has caught Him off guard. In the end, we want Him glorified and if this is one more avenue for Him to be exalted, then we are willing to take the journey.

AAHHHHHH...it just stinks, though!