Changing direction

     In November 2011, Allan and I took a leap of faith and applied to adopt a child from Ethiopia. In December 2011, Allan lost his job but we didn't let that stop us from beginning our paperwork process. Like always, God provided all the money needed to start the journey. We had so much paperwork and had to rely on a lot of people to make sure it was all done correctly! It took us a long time to get the paperwork completed because of some unexpected health problems Allan experienced during our physicals for the adoption. On March 22, 2013 our paperwork was sent to Ethiopia and we officially became paper pregnant! 
     With a lot of help from friends, we held all sorts of fundraisers over the years. We made crafts to sell, Allan made bracelets and I made earrings, we had numerous yard sales where people donated items for us to sell, bake sales, Bingo, Zumba,Texas Roadhouse dinners,a Chili cook-off was organized by our friends, Both hands where we had the opportunity to clean up a Widows house. At each of these events in some way we were able to share our story and what God was doing in our lives and were able to hear other people's stories. We helped people's eyes become open to the need for international adoption, we had people praying for us and for our child in Ethiopia.
     We prayed for our child over the years, prayers that they were being taken care of and loved until we could bring them to us. We made a book about Ethiopia to learn about their culture, we bought a baby book, and Ethiopian flags; we wanted to be prepared! The expected wait times continued to increase and that made things so hard sometimes. But, we continued to trust in God's plan and His timing. It helped to know we had so many people praying with us! We always saw God's hand in our adoption, we had a family sell their car and donate the money to us, we had a family who just had a baby donate a large amount of money to us, we had the exact amount we needed to pay on the adoption given at just the right time! That was all God, He provided everything we needed exactly when we needed it. Adoption does cost a lot of money, it's sad but it's a reality. 
      In February 2014, I found out that I was expecting our first child. That was a miracle in itself because we didn't think we would be able to after 6 years of infertility. Our social worker approved that we could continue with the adoption but that we needed a bigger house because each child has to have their own room and we only had one spare bedroom. So, we began the journey of getting a bigger house for our growing family. All the while, the wait time for Ethiopia continued to increase and the government decided to start changing adoption policies. 
     At the end of 2015 our adoption agency started suggesting that families in the Ethiopia program start looking into other countries. Again, we trust in God's plan and started praying about what to do moving forward. There are so many children that need a family in Ethiopia but our hands are tied because of the government, the paperwork, the legal stuff.
     So, Allan and I have been praying for several months as to the direction we need to go and we are being led towards helping another family bring home a child. The couple we have in mind is still praying as it is a big decision. If they decide that adoption isn't what they want to do then we will seek another family to help. This isn't quite how we expected to end our journey but at the same time we trust God's big plan. We have had an amazing journey and God has taught us so much through these last 5 years. We are so thankful for everyone who has supported us and been by our sides. We had the privilege of doing countless fundraisers with our family and friends and sharing the gospel along the way and now we get to give that money to help another family bring home their child, how cool is that?! :)

      We are mourning the loss of what would've been with our child in Ethiopia.We had a room prepared for him or her. We have prayed for our child for years so it is a grieving process as we move forward. We can and will continue to pray for the orphans. We trust in God and his amazing plan and rejoice that in time a child will be placed into a forever family even if that family isn't ours.

    We will update everyone with who will be receiving the money as soon as we know. There is a lot involved in stopping an adoption process when money is involved, we are not keeping any of it and are doing our best to return to those who want theirs back.
     I know some people might not understand our decision and that's okay, but understand that this wasn't an easy decision for us and sometimes we don't always understand what God is up to but we just trust and move forward.
     Thank you to everyone who has prayed with us, for us, supported and loved us, followed our blog, donated time and money, etc. You all helped us tremendously and now we are able to pay it forward and help a child be placed into a forever family!!
                                

Update

I have been meaning to update for awhile but never seem to have the chance. 

 I'm sure everyone has been wondering about the adoption. It has been months since my last update and I apologize for slacking!  

Currently, we are seeking God's wisdom in our adoption process. There are many changes going on in the Ethiopian adoption policies including potential changes that could cause us to not be able to pursue Ethiopia anymore. It's almost to the point of Ethiopia closing the door on international adoption and our agency has recommended that families look into another country to adopt from. Not that our agency isn't fighting for the children in Ethiopia but they see first hand what is going on and how the government continues to delay the process. 

As we have been seeking God's wisdom on what path He would have us take, we have been led toward donating the money to another family for them to start the adoption process. We have spoken to that family and they are praying about it and we will see what God does with it all. Nothing has actually been decided yet. We just want to do God's will and whether it's our family or another family, we want a child to be given a forever home. 

We continue to pray for Ethiopia and the children waiting for their families. We know God can do mighty things. We ask that you pray for us and the other family that God's will be done. 

I will do my best to keep everyone updated more often. 

Updates

I have been without a computer so I haven't been able to update like I wanted.

The yard sale went really well, we set up around 6am but no one really started coming until about 8am and it was pretty steady til about 10:30 and then we packed up and left. Things are different now with a little one along who needs naps and lunch, but we considered it a success. We are so thankful to everyone who came out to support us and for everyone who donated their "junk" to us to sell! :) We were invited to participate in a multi-family fundraiser next month so we look forward to going and selling some more! God continues to provide the money needed to continue forward with the adoption.

We received this e-mail last month, but I wasn't able to post it. I will kind of summarize but have copied it below if you'd like to read it. Basically things are continuing to slow down and becoming harder to adopt in Ethiopia. The PAIR process which was supposed to help speed the process up has actually slowed it down tremendously.  They have offered families to switch programs and move forward to adopt in other countries, we did look into the other countires but for now we will continue to wait in Ethiopia. America World continues to provide and care for the children in Ethiopia who are in need but it is becoming expensive with the wait times continuing to increase and they need help. Please check out www.awaa.org if you'd like to donate to them.

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Dear Allan & Elizabeth,

Thank you for your continued support of America World Adoption’s Ethiopia adoption program. As you may be aware, the environment of international adoption from Ethiopia has dramatically changed in the last several years and is continually changing. The U.S. Department of State’s Office of Children’s Issues publishes the adoption statistics each year and we continue to see a sharp decline in the number of international adoptions completed around the world each year, as well as in Ethiopia.  Yet the number or orphaned and vulnerable children in the world continues to increase each year.  America World is committed to all of our international adoption programs, especially our successful Ethiopia adoption program.  However, to be fully transparent, we continue to experience increased difficulties working in Ethiopia. 

Many agencies have closed their Ethiopia programs for financial reasons and the impact of long delays in the paperwork and referral processes.  We were deeply saddened to hear that All God’s Children closed their Ethiopia program last week.  The cost of supporting our partner orphanages, maintaining two transition homes in Ethiopia and providing quality care for the children in our care, has become more and more difficult to provide. The amount of time it takes to process adoptions in Ethiopia, including the amount of additional paperwork that is required has increased significantly to the detriment of the children and families.  This increase also leads to longer timelines for adoptions to be finalized thereby increasing the timeline to care for children in our transitional home while they wait for their adoption to be finalized.  Amidst the increased timelines and expenses in adoptions, the time and investment needed to maintain positive partnerships with the orphanages in Ethiopia and the Ethiopian government has increased as well.  The PAIR (Pre-Adoption Immigration Review process that was implemented on September 1, 2013 to be an addition verification to confirm children are truly in need of being adopted) has intensified the amount of time and paperwork involved in processing adoptions from Ethiopia.  This process requires that even the most common clerical mistakes made by regional offices and remote locations of government agencies be corrected each and every time.  This is an extensive process as it relates to time, cost, paperwork and political challenges.  Many of these regional offices and remote government agencies do not share the same sense of urgency and need as the agencies, families and children affected by international adoption. America World is committed to ethical and transparent work in Ethiopia. 

Currently, America World spends roughly $1.2 million per year on our in-country operating expenses to run our Ethiopia adoption program.  With the increased wait times of additional years to the slowdown in the number of referrals issued each month, it is becoming more and more challenging for us to maintain our program in Ethiopia at the level at which we are comfortable.  We come to you, with the intent of being fully transparent  with the challenges that we are facing and our commitment to serve the children in Ethiopia.  Our ultimate goal is to not increase the already high costs for adoptive families in our Ethiopia program, but we have come to a time that we need to examine how we will continue to keep transition homes open, continue to serve the families in our program by maintaining orphanage partnerships and place children into families. Most importantly, we are committed to serving as many children as possible in Ethiopia that are in need of a forever home. 

Our heart’s desire is to keep adoptions from ET as financially reasonable as possible for adoptive families that have responded to the call to adopt. Therefore, we come to you to ask if you would be willing to invest in our Ethiopia program and support us fundraise in our work in Ethiopia.  Our support is an investment in these precious vulnerable children and the families that open their hearts and their homes to the “least of these”. Our financial need is significant and in order to continue to run our in-country program in Ethiopia we have set a goal to raise $250,000 by September 30^th, 2015.  America World will continue to be diligent to cut where ever possible within our Ethiopia program while still maintaining high standards of work and care.  Your support will allow us to continue in this critical work.

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Please join us in praying for America World, their finances and their heart to love on the children until they can be placed in their forever homes,  for the government to speed up the process and for these precious children who so desperately want and need to come home! We know God is in control and He has great plans!