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...