New Experiences

One of the great joys of going through an intercounty adoption, is having the opportunity to learn and try new things and really push ourselves out of our little 'rural' comfort zone. Cory and I are busy in the 'paperwork phase' of the adoption. This means that we are busy getting fact sheets, physical examinations, copies of birth certificates, marriage certificates, and countless things notarized!!! We are also in the midst of doing countless hours of training. One of the workbooks that we are going through really makes us focus on the everyday life of adoption. It really makes us think on many levels on what we may experience before, during, and after the adoption while also trying to picture what our child is experiencing as we bring them home.

One of the 'tasks' to do was make an Ethiopian dinner or go to an Ethiopian restaurant.  If you know me, I was ecstatic about this assignment. I LOVE food....and I LOVE trying new food - I may not always like it, but usually I will at least try it. Many people always ask us about the food during our trips to Haiti, and Cory and I have no complaints. It's different and it's good! I mean, in Haiti, we get to eat PASTA for BREAKFAST - that is seriously a little piece of heaven for me!!!

So, Cory and I headed down to the Cities this weekend to help cheer on the MACCRAY Boys' Basketball team, so it was a perfect time to force, ask our friends to go with us and try some Ethiopian food.

We found a restaurant that was close to where we were in downtown Minneapolis. Our friends, as great as they are, weren't very sure about the Ethiopian food so we first stopped at a bar and grill for some hamburgers. After they were 'full', they were more willing to go with Cory and I on our experience.

We ordered the sampler platter because we figured that would give us the best overall experience of trying many different things. I'm sure our faces were priceless as they laid the plate down in front of us. I've been doing some looking on the internet, so I knew what to expect....our friends did not. They were looking around for the silverware until I explained that there is not silverware, you eat the food by breaking off pieces of a bread called Injera. Then you just scoop up the food in the bread and eat it. Again everyone was a little hesitant, but they were all willing to at least try it!

I, for one, didn't think it was that bad and enjoyed sampling all the different meats and vegetables. Some of our other friends also really enjoyed it....some said they were full and couldn't eat any more food :-) We also enjoyed a glass of honey wine and an Ethiopian beer.

Overall it was a very interesting experience and I'm very proud and thankful for our friends who are willing to share this experience with us!!! They are all amazing!!!

I wanted to take out my camera for a picture, but I figured I would look a little strange in doing that. If you are really curious, look it up on the interent. I'm sure it will make you all extremely hungry!!!

Uplifting News

Many prayers have been answered - as my brother Justin's cancer was found to be SHRINKING!!! Halleluiah!!! Heidi's scan also came back looking good! Now we continue our prayers for Cory's dad, who has his next scan set for April 11th!

For Ethiopian news:

We've been updated with some encouraging news - or we are taking it as encouraging news!  When we were notified of the drastic reductions potentially coming to Ethiopia, we knew some of the reasons stemmed around corruption. We also found out then that within days of that announcement, the director of MOWA and several other staff members were terminated.

The Joint Council has since reported that MOWA has completed their staffing changes and are working at full capacity to complete adoption cases. They are not putting any restrictions on the number of cases each day so we continue to pray that their drastic changes will not go into full effect.

It also appears that new cases continue to move forward. It is still unknown whether or not MOWA will issue a formal statement regarding how they will process cases, but it does not look like to be at the drastic decrease they originally proposed. The hope is that many groups will come together to support the government of Ethiopia in strengthening the process for ethical adoptions to continue. The main focus is not necessarily on the numbers that they will process each day, but in staff doing their jobs.

So Cory and I continue to plug away during the paperwork stage of our adoption.

Prayers for my family...

Today, we ask for prayers for our family. My brother Justin and his wife are both headed down to Rochester today to get scans done tomorrow. May Heidi continue to have a clean bill of health, and may we find encouraging news with Justin.

We will be praying...

What does this mean...

What does it mean...

First I want to THANK EVERYONE who has gone and signed the petition.  We don't know if it will make a difference yet- but if it does - then each and every one of you can say that you MADE A DIFFERENCE in the life of a child (or thousands o f children)!

There are still many unknowns at this point. There are many advocacy groups, including Joint Council on International Children’s Services (JCICS), working in Ethiopia right now to hopefully find a 'better solution'. This is the advocacy organization for families and agencies in the field of international adoption. Over the last few years JCICS have been very involved in Ethiopia and the result of this involvement has been very positive.    

I also wanted to share a little more 'history' behind this possible change. There are two primary issues as to why Ethiopia may be looking at such a drastic reduction, 1) the assumption that corruption in intercountry adoption is systemic and rampant and 2) the Ministry's resources should be focused on the children for whom intercountry adoption is not an option.

If the Ministry continues to plan on processing only five adoption cases per day, it could mean that our adoption would now be a 7-year process!  They will be processing only 500 adoption cases vs. the 4000 they are currently doing each year! That is 3,500 children who could be with their forever families that are now going to be living in orphanages.

Hearing this information was obviously quite a blow for Cory and I, so we ask for continued prayers as we navigate our hearts through this journey. May we have discernment in knowing the difference of where God is leading us, versus what our own hearts are so badly wanting. We are hoping that within the next few weeks, we will have a better understanding of where these changes may be going...

Asking YOU...to SIGN the Petition

Hello friends and family ~ This is unfortunately not a blog post that I wanted to be writing about so soon. We found out over the weekend that there have been rampant rumors about 'changes' coming to the Ethiopia program. What 'changes' they were - we didn't know and we didn't know how they would affect us - and we didn't want to be sharing incorrect information.

Today we received an email from our adoption agency with some of the possible changes coming. We are asking for PRAYERS and HELP from our family. If you watched the video in our previous post - it sums up some of our hearts pain. We have a CHILD that we CAN NOT get to! It brings me to tears right now feeling so helpless so we are reaching out to you. Please continue reading below...

The Ethiopian Ministry of Women's Affairs (MOWA) has announced a proposal to decrease the number of adoptions they will process and approve—even by as much as 90%. They are planning to accomplish this decrease by limiting the number of approved cases to only 5 per working day (they were currently doing around 50 cases per day). This change is currently set to begin on March 10, 2011.

Please know that no one fully understands this proposal yet. Our staff, led by Almaz in Ethiopia, are still sorting out what this could mean for each of the children and families that we work with. These children are their passion and they are working on the front lines in this advocacy. Also, this is not limited to AGCI. This will impact every agency and the families that each serve. This means that all agencies are working together in their advocacy making a very strong force that is working on the behalf of children and families. Currently, all agency staff are waiting for the Director of MOWA to return to Ethiopia. Once she returns they will have a chance to sit down and talk over the implications of this proposal.

To attempt to counteract this proposal, the Joint Council on International Children’s Services (JCICS) has put a “Call to Action” in place. This sort of international advocacy is what JCICS does, and they do it well.  It is so important that we are all united in this effort!

Thank you again for all that you are doing at this time. You are all valued and important in this process of promoting and preserving the best interest of children in Ethiopia and around the world.

JCICS Call to Action March 8, 2011 Joint Council: Emergency Campaign for Ethiopian Children What You Can Do: 1) Sign the petition to the Prime Minister of Ethiopia, Meles Zenawi – and pass it on! Thank you for taking the time to read this. I will post any new changes as we are informed of them. We have a lot of anxieties and fears right now... Cory and Ashley

Our News!!!

We are excited to announce that we are expecting!!!

A beautiful little girl from Ethiopia!

We are sooooo excited to inform our family and friends of the call that we feel God is leading us too. We know it will be a long journey and we are asking for prayers during this entire journey. Our hearts are over filled with joy to be welcoming a child into our home and we can barely contain our excitement!

After MUCH research and prayer, we applied for adoption through All God's Children International out of Portland, Oregon and were accepted February 4th for a child that is 18 months or less in age.  The whole process will take around 18 – 20 months, so we would be looking to bring home a child starting in Summer/Fall 2012.

I plan to use this blog to keep you all informed of where we are in the process and to reach out for support when necessary. I've also attached a link to a video that has been floating around the internet for the past few months. I've probably watched it a dozen times and I still get goose bumps. I realize that not every family is called to adopt and that is not the point of the video - it's just a way to share some of what I am not able to express in my own words. This decision is not a decision made by just Cory and myself - it was a decision made for us as a family even before we were a family.

I will write more soon with some answers to questions that I'm sure many of you are having...

Cory and Ashley