spring 'break'

ok, so this has been a really LONG week for me. Thankfully it is nearing an end and I have some great news! I made it, Myles made it, Michael is scheduled to be back late tonight from his 9 day trip to Paris, Ethiopia has new staff members processing adoptions, and they are NOT restricting the number of cases they are processing!!

So at the beginning of the week we were in a lot of uncertainty with our adoption since we're still in the paperwork process-which got slowed down with some documents I have to redo :( and Ethiopia reducing the no. of adoptions they processed by 90%. I talked to our helpful social worker, and case managers this week and was very encouraged to keep working and trusting the Lord to bring about His perfect will. And at the end of the week (I still can't believe it's only been a week!) we got notice that there is a new staff at the Ministry of Women's Affair's (MOWA-the people who process intl. adoptions in Ethiopia) and they are working hard to make up all these cases the last group of folks left and are going to be processing cases like 'normal' with no drastic cut backs!!

Please pray for these new staff members who are undoubtedly 'swamped' right now. Pray for the children and the families to be patient and understanding and for ethical adoptions to be the foremost concern.

Glory to the Lord! And thank you all for praying!! Here's an bit from an email our agency sent out on St. Patrick's Day!

At this time, all Foreign Staff on the ground in Ethiopia are reporting that MOWA has completed their staffing changes and are now currently working at full capacity to complete those adoption cases currently re-scheduled or assigned a court appointment through the courts of Addis Ababa. Our staff believe this to be around 800 cases they are working at full force to complete with no restrictions on the number of cases processed each day. This is great news! We are thrilled to hear these drastic changes do not seem to be going into full effect.

We are also pleased to report that for new cases moving forward; it appears the original changes proposed by MOWA will not be implemented to the degree of 5 cases a day. At this time it is unknown whether or not MOWA will issue a formal statement regarding how they will process cases in the future, but from all discussions it will not be a drastic decrease from before. Through the continued work, meetings, and advocacy of many Foreign Staff members in Ethiopia, it appears any future changes within the case processing for MOWA will avoid sweeping and disproportionate alterations to the number of cases processed each day. Rather, the hope is that MOWA, Joint Council, Adoption Service Providers, the US Department of State and other NGO organizations can come together to support the government of Ethiopia in strengthening the process for ethical adoptions to continue while also improving the general social structures to assist with family preservation in Ethiopia.