UPDATE: Prayers Needed...

We just received the following update regarding the new policies set in place by the Ethiopian federal courts:

Dear Gladney Ethiopia Program Families:

We received some additional information from our in-country staff today. The federal courts in Ethiopia an­nounced today that they have decided to postpone the effective date of the new policy requiring adoptive parents to travel to Addis Ababa, Ethiopia to meet their child/ren and appear for their federal court dates. The effective date for the new policy is now set for April 9, 2010.

This means that an adoptive family who receives their federal court date before April 9, 2010 will not be required to travel to Ethiopia for the federal court date and will only be required to travel to Ethiopia for one trip to pick up their child/ren and have their U.S. Embassy interview appointment. Therefore, an adoptive family may receive a court date on April 8, 2010 that is scheduled for after April 9, 2010, but they would not be required to travel and be present for their court date because they received their court date before April 9, 2010. An adoptive family who receives their federal court date after April 9, 2010 will be expected to travel once to Ethiopia to meet their child/ ren and appear for their scheduled federal court date, and then they will be required to travel for a second trip to Ethiopia to pick up their child/ren and have their U.S. Embassy interview appointment.

Obviously, this is better news than we received on Wednesday. We are asking that you pray specifically that we receive a referal for a child and get a court date BEFORE April 9th. Thank you for being our prayer warriors during this time. It is such a breath of fresh air to know that so many are praying on our families behalf. We will keep you updated as we are updated.