will move buttons for free...

God is moving mightily for the orphans in Ethiopia. There has been an incredible increase of adoptions coming out of Ethiopia in the last few years. God is stirring the hearts of His people to move to action for those abandoned children. Which is awesome, right?
Well, here is the sad news (the news I eluded to a few posts ago). For some reason, this influx in adoption in ET is cause for concern. The US wants to know why it is so easy. Is the ET government "rubber stamping" adoptions? (cause you know, it should be hard to rescue a child out of poverty and all...) Without going into a whole lot of detail. We were told last week by our agency (and then by another, and another.....I wanted to really make sure) that adoptions in Ethiopia are on shaky ground. Things are going slower and slower. There is now more required paper work. Longer waits for court dates. Longer time to get approved for child visas, etc.  Applications CLOSED to adopting girls.
I kind of knew all of that part and had just kind of thought that it was par for the course.
The next part, however, was a little more unexpected. What we were told was basically this....we could continue with the process, but would run the risk of getting done with our part and then Ethiopian adoptions could shut down (which is what all three agents felt like was going to happen, they all felt like ET will shut down before we got very far in our process.) We would be out time. money. and a child.

I was sad. Confused. What did this mean? Were we meant to stick it out? Were we meant to look elsewhere? But Ethiopia seemed so clear to me from the beginning. Had this changed? What do we do.....

We spent the following days praying and talking about what we felt like God was telling us through this. We had started this whole process in September and because of what one agency told me, we had paused all paperwork, etc because we thought our addition had to be completed before our home study could happen (which I have since found out is NOT the case). We could have been 6 months in already! Ugh!!
 This was frustration for me. This was clarity for Mitch. God had used that sweet, ill-informed lady to keep us waiting. Waiting for the right plan. The one to our child. And as we have since realized, our child will not come from Ethiopia. He/she will come from Uganda.
Yes, that's right. A whole different country. A whole different agency. A whole different plan. And we are pretty excited.

God led me to an agency with a new pilot program (started in September) in Uganda shortly after I found out about ET. Uganda neighbors Ethiopia to the Southwest, for those of you that didn't know. The process is similar, but a lot quicker. You cannot choose the gender of the child, which Mitch and I both agreed was better.  Families that started the program in September are already traveling at the end of this month to get their child!
When I first heard that, I had two different thoughts.
1- "Yay! That is super quick!!!"
2- "Grrr. Now why didn't we know about this then? we could be on that plane!".
And God said this (through some help from his ever faithful servant, my hubby)...
"Nope Katie. That was not the plan. Your heart wasn't ready for what I want to bring you. You were dead set on a girl. That might not be the plan. And I know you are okay with that now. So, stop trying to put me in a box ("check here for boy, check here for girl"). I will bring you the child I had picked out for you before you even knew I had called you to adopt. It might be a girl, but it might be a boy. It might be a baby or it might be two years old, I know what you can handle and I know what is the perfect fit for your family. You said yes to my call, so stop being picky and let me show you the one I have chosen for you."

Yes, sir.

So, here we go. On a new adventure! Home study starts this week or next. That process should be about a month. Then we wait for approval from the agency. Then....we wait for the child (eeek!!). Then, once we get a referral, we get our dossier together for the Uganda courts, make plans to travel and then go get this missing piece of my heart. The cost will be about the same. Which means we are still pretty far from meeting our goal. But, God willing, with our upcoming fundraiser (don't forget to register for the race!! over there to the right at the top of the page!!!) and some penny pinching, it can happen.

The picture we took in September ("we are adopting a little sister from Ethiopia") and the shirts we made may need to change, but the heart behind them is the same. We were called to bring another child home. Girl or boy. Ethiopia or Uganda. God had some lessons to teach us. He had to wait on us to learn them. But, now we hope we are on the right path and are excited to see will happen now.

And,speaking of those shirts....all you sweet friends who bought them to help us raise a little money...... if you want me to....I will move your buttons a little southwest for free. :)