Ethiopia Update

For those of you who have been praying for our adoption and our Prayer 911 -- a little update:

• We have heard from our agency and other agencies that the director of MOWA has been replaced.
• That there have been many staff changes and even a new name.
• That the Ethiopian govt. has been very supportive and pro-adoption.
• That the new staff is being diligent about going back to write the letters needed for those cases that have been back-logged with multiple court appearances (800 in the pipeline).
• That so far all changes appear to be positive and in the best interests of the children.
  

What we are hoping is that with things finally moving forward, and hopefully moving smoother - the process will begin to pick up and actually begin to 'work' with parents passing court vs. having to struggle through the emotional roller-coaster of multiple court dates and failures, usually due to MOWA not having written that recommendation letter on those court dates.

What we don't know is how the changes may affect cases going forward. MOWA gives no indication of reinstating the 5 per day letter policy (GREAT news!). But as new regulations are being put in place, we are not sure how much time will be added to, (or taken away) from current times from referral of our baby to the day we have to travel to court. Before this recent episode, the time from seeing her picture to going to meet her and appear in court was from 8-12 weeks.

Friends, please continue to pray for our little girl. The news so far has been positive, and we are hoping that the referral train will start moving again. But right now, things have just seemed to drag since last November - I really seriously thought we would have a referral by February. And according to last year's time-lines, I believe we would have. Now I am hoping for late April at the earliest. I know God has it all in His hands and Olivia will be ready for us when we are ready for her. But it still is enough to cast gray clouds on many days as the process is taking us so long. August will be 2 years of waiting ...

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In other news - Tony has left the unreliable field of sales in a crappy economy. He has been blessed to be given a new position as a school resource officer under our new Sheriff and will be going to the academy the first of April. He is excited beyond words and we (especially the boys) are very proud of him. I think that with his background and life experiences - he will be a wonderful role model and encouragement to the elementary school kids he is in contact with every day. It will also be nice to have some stability in the insurance and job department! And also nice to know that he will be in an elementary school vs. out on patrol for the most part.

But I have told him that if our referral comes in while he is in the academy and not able to accept phone calls - he had better believe I am taking that phone call with or without him!!! I told him I might wait until he gets home to open the email and see her photos.. maybe.

To catch a leprechaun..

You take one little boy with a class assignment ...

Add 30 minutes of quiet time (where did he go???) .....

And without an ounce of parental assistance or direction .....

You get the Leprechaun Holiday Inn - Braeden style!!!

Prayer 911

For those prayer warriors of you, for those who like to send up mini post-it note prayers throughout your day, and even for those of you that really haven't prayed much before ---

we are asking for your help. Seriously, and urgently.

This past week the ET (Ethiopia) adoption community started flipping out as it was leaking out that MOWA (think- 'Ethiopian DSS') has decided that due to staffing problems, they were cutting down from 50 adoption permission letters a day, to FIVE a day. Add to that an extremely biased news article (with misleading facts and errors) that sent us all into a tail spin quoting wait times for adoption to increase by a year, and for ET adoptions to to the US to decrease from 2,500 to 500 a year.

An explanation: when we, and other families go to court, a letter from MOWA is required to be there waiting for you, on that day, recommending your adoption. If it isn't, your wait for that letter and court passing could be anywhere from weeks to months waiting on it to show up on the perfect day.

So now for those parents waiting to pass court and legally be declared parents to a child they have already met and fallen in love with, the wait could be much, much longer. We could possibly receive a referral for a perfect 4 month old baby girl, go to ET to meet her - and then watch her grow up in an institution with only updates and photos every month. I know the nannies who care for my child love her very much - but they still aren't her mother and every month apart is a month of a family's love that my child has been cheated.

BUT - our agency emailed the following statement on Friday which seemed to indicate that this situation still could be rectified and will be discussed in the coming days:

We are writing to ask your family to join us in prayer for the Ministry of Women and Children's Affairs (MOWA) regarding the number of cases they will be able to process each day. They have made statements that they desire to decrease the number of recommendation letters they write each day. We understand that because of these statements, the Court and MOWA are in the process of meeting to discuss and work out any potential changes or new processes regarding adoptions in Ethiopia. We want to blanket these meetings with prayer and ask you to come along side us in this....

If you could (well, even if you don't want to - do it anyway!!!), could you take a moment now, or in the days to come to pray for these negotiations and the thousands of children who are patiently waiting for their parents to come and bring them home. MOWAs job is to make sure all ET adoptions are ethical - and it has been shown that still corruption exists within shady agencies. (Ours is one of the top in ethics and practice). And I am in complete agreement that safe guards and procedures should be put into place to make sure all adoptions are on the up and up and the children are true orphans. But the statistics are staggering - and 5 children a day who are given a new life is not acceptable:

Almost half of the population of Ethiopia are under the age of 14.
Of those 40 million children, 6 million are orphans.
1 out of 10 children in Ethiopia don't make it to their 1st birthday.
1 out of 6 children die before their 5th birthday.

--------feel free to stop reading - the following is just a typical Wages in the Making rant ----

So when I received all the above news late Friday evening - I went from denial, to anger, to peace.

Yes, the rug could be completely pulled out from underneath us and the entire process (going on 2 years already in the making) could be lengthened considerably. Think Guatemala or Haiti where parents being their 'babies' home at the age of 3 or 4. But I have to believe that God would not bring us this far, have shown us His power so much, to leave us in shambles now. It's too soon to give up, something will just have to be worked out and a compromise reached.

Then came the anger. "How DARE he??" How dare the enemy, because believe in it or not, we in adoptions have felt his attacks - how dare he use just one more method of stealing not only the joy from all parents in the process (we found out yesterday we are now #6 in line!), but how dare he continue to try to thwart God's promise of setting the lonely in families? Of bringing my 'daughter from the East' (Isaiah 43:5-6) as He promised me?

We have had friends taken from us, church support taken from us, jobs taken from us, paperwork delays that were so long they were laughable --- and now he is trying to keep my daughter from me even longer??? So many attempts to get us to give up. And not just us but other adopting parents have gone through the same trials, some even worse.

And I am ashamed to say that for a second, for about half a second - the doubts hit me again. What if this goes through and our wait is extended another 1, maybe 2, years? Would we give up? My youngest would be 7 when we bring a baby home! Would we stop and loose everything we have worked so hard for?

But then I remembered Ephesians and the call to 'put on the full armor of God so that you may be able to withstand the attacks of the devil' (Ephesians 6:10-20)... taking the shield of FAITH with which you will be able to quench all the fiery darts of the wicked one."

As I have told struggling friends before, and continually tell myself - God doesn't call you to be a soldier for him without knowing you can withstand and win the battle. Because He doesn't loose. He will equip you and strengthen you if you are fighting for His cause. And the plight of the orphan is in the Bible over and over. His heart is for the care and release of the fatherless.

Satan knows that through our adoption, and countless others, we, as Christians, are given the chance to explain the gospel to others. Those who question "why are you doing this? how can you trust God so much for the money/strength/etc.? how are you not falling apart right now?"

Christ came to Earth to find me - his child. He then lay down his life for me just as I, as a mother would lay down my life for my children. He died for me AND you. And then he adopted us, and will bring us home. What a beautiful parallel to every adoption?

So if putting on the armor is required - I'm in. Will you fight with me?

Weight Watchers be gone!

Another month, another ice cream... Since it's o.k. for pregnant women to eat ice cream, and since usually pregnant women aren't doing Weight Watchers, it's o.k. for paper pregnant mommies to forget about that diet for one day too. It's only reasonable and fair. Sunday was our DTEversary celebration and we were officially.....

6 Months DTE!!

And we have moved from #9, to #7 for approximately one day, and back to #8!! (It's complicated, don't ask..) So on our agencies yahoo group, we are unofficially #8 in line for a baby girl! A long way from the #27 we started with 6 months ago! Our agency still estimates time from DTE to referral of a baby girl to be 7-11 months. 1 more month til crunch time! Hopefully. And to celebrate, the flavor of the month was:

Half Baked

Oh goodness, goodness. I know I said we had our favorite a few months back but this one ROCKED! Chocolate and vanilla swirled ice cream, bits of squishy fudge brownies, AND globs of choc. chip cookie dough. Heaven I tell ya!!! And if I hadn't just brushed my teeth, I would so be breaking into those few spoonfuls that only mommy knows still reside in the container. In the freezer. Waaaaaay in the back. Just sayin'.

Doesn't make sense does it?

Disclaimer: I am not in a very good mood so I probably wont be one to mince words with this post

So here is the newest blurb to be making it's way around Facebook:

"Doesn't make much sense does it? Homeless go without eating. Elderly go without medication. Mentally ill go without treatment. Troops go without proper equipment. Veterans go without benefits they were promised. Yet we donate billions to other countries before helping our own first. Charity starts at home. 1% will repost this and 99% will not. I know I'm one of those 1%."



No, it doesn't make sense.



It doesn't make sense that I can ask someone to help a little child and they tell me they can't afford to, and then go drop $40 (more than the cost of helping that child, by the way) on one dinner at Chili's.

It doesn't make sense that it takes us, as Americans, the most prosperous people in the world, years to decide if God is calling us to do anything --- adopt, missions work, sponsorship, etc. But it takes usually less than a week to decide to purchase a new car.

It doesn't make sense that children in this country feel slighted if they only have a Playstation 2 while their friends have all moved on to an XBox. While children in another country are digging through a trash dump to find a rotten banana to have as their meal for the entire day.

It doesn't make sense that my children can play in the shower until all the hot water is used up, while children in another country are bathing in sewage.

It doesn't make sense that I can pay $4 for a case of clean water out of plastic bottles anytime I want and children in another country are dipping those same, but filthy bottles, in brown, bacteria- laden water just to have something to drink.

It doesn't make sense that international adoptions are even needed, that we are spending massive amounts of money, because the mother of my daughter could no longer afford to feed her or care for her. And there are no governmental programs like foster care, Medicaid, or WIC to help her. It doesn't make sense a mother would have to tear a child away from her breast, just to give her the chance to continue to take a breath.

And yet we have the right to complain, while we live in the most blessed country to have ever graced this planet? God has blessed America with more provisions than we could ever possibly use. And is there waste? Yes. And is there government mismanagement of money? Yes. Should the elderly, homeless, and veterans be taken care of? Of course. But out of that 1% that are posting the above on Facebook - how many of those are actually getting their hands dirty in a soup kitchen? feeding programs for the elderly? Surely they are all giving sacrificially to charity close to home???? Most aren't helping much in their own backyard, "yet we donate billions to other countries before helping our own first."

My problem is with the last line - as if being a citizen of this country should make us any better than those living in a third world country, many whose countries have no infrastructure or economic means to even help themselves. Corruption is everywhere, but there ARE good organizations which are doing great things that you could stand beside.

Where you live should not determine IF you live. 22,000 children will die, just today. And those on Facebook think it doesn't make sense we may be helping the other ones struggling to survive?




Out of what we, as Christians, are given - BY GOD - as everything we have is given to us BY HIM - Christians tithe an average of 1% of our income. Lower than even during the Depression.

And of that 1% we generously give - churches then distribute 1% of that to missions. The rest is used for church up-keep, paving parking lots, programs for our children. So 99% comes back to us generous Christians in the form of feeding our souls.

So 1% of 1% goes to the very commandment that Jesus gave in Matthew 10:42 to take care of his little ones. It doesn't make sense does it??

5 Months DTE!

One more month down! And finally, thank the Lord finally, there has been more movement in regards to referrals with our agency. So now we are officially in the top 10 for a baby girl!! BUT, we have 20 above us waiting so that means that with every 3-4 referrals, we may only move 1 or 2 up our list, but hey, I'll take that! We celebrate each DTE-versary as our agencies official estimate is the receival of a referral at 7-11 months post DTE for an infant girl. So we're getting closer!!

At this pace, we are still hoping (fingers crossed) that we might be able to see her sweet face in March, travel for court maybe in late April, and go get her early June?? Maybe. We get so many ask - "so do you know who she is yet?" Nope. Not until we get that call that tells us all about our referral angel child.

So without further ado, the pic you have been waiting on.....

5 MONTHS SINCE DOSSIER TO ETHIOPIA (DTE)!!!!!

And I also know you have been waiting all month just to find out the flavor of the month. This month we celebrated with the fan favorite :

Cherry GarciaChosen for its accompanying option of "FroYo" for mommy and daddy who are Weight Watching. Except for that night. Cause geez, it was our DTE-versary!!!! And for inquiring minds, yes the frozen yogurt version was still pretty good. Although not much lower in points. So we might as well have just gone full octane.

And just for fun, some pics of the kiddos, fast forward about 15 years to their future careers:

Doctor of Veterinary Medicine

And Professional Baseball Player extraordinaire

And...... spunky Brewster. Or Miley Cyrus. Or Madonna. Heaven help us.

26,000 Today

There is a new hit in the bloggy world named Dan. He quit his job to start a blog called "Single Dad Laughing". And while some of his posts are pretty hysterical - Dan also can get into some deep posts that make you really think. Like yesterday's post regarding the Holocaust murders. Startling. Humbling. And def. worth the read.

But as I was scrolling through the images, I couldn't help but think about the other images that we never see.

In Richard Stearns' book "The Hole in Our Gospel" (if you are a Christian, or an atheist, you pick; you really need to read this book) - he speaks of the pandemonium that would ensue if we were to wake up to the headlines "One Hundred Jetliners Crash, Killing 26,500". Think about the implications -- airports shut down, non-stop media coverage, world-wide task forces to investigate the causes. We would hear about who had died, and the memorials to the victims, young and old. And that's just in one day. What if we woke up the next morning to the same news? We would think the world must surely be coming to an end.

ONE DAY = 26,000 DEAD.
TIME WOULD STAND STILL.

To compare visually, I found a photo of the recent Arizona memorial service at the University of Arizona in which the President spoke. You can't even see the entire arena but it is a huge crowd of 26,000 come to mourn the shooting victims.
Now image that that arena were full of children. With toothless grins, skinned knees, wide eyes. Imagine your little boy or girl in the front seat - smiling and waving. Surrounded by your nieces and nephews. Their whole elementary school.

That image is how many children die every day from preventable causes. The number of deaths per day. And not number of people who die from AIDS.... number of people killed by cigarette smoking... but the number of children, just children, who die from preventable causes - every day.

Because of malnutrition. Diarrhea. Poor water. Basic childhood illnesses.

Today.
Tomorrow.
And again the next day.
And the next.

And yet, what have you read in the news about it? Where are the memorial services? Where are the documentaries? Where is the outrage?

People love to point out the bad in the world. How 'bout the good? Be the change. Pick one child to start with. One child that you will take out of that arena. One child that you will provide vaccines, healthy food, preventative medicines, and clean water. An education. The saving grace of Jesus Christ. Just one.

But it's a start. One may just be a number, but to that child, it's a pretty important one.