As you know Mike and I are currently in the process of adopting from Ethiopia! We are getting closer everyday to having our adoption paperwork sent off to Ethiopia and then from there we will have need extreme patience and faith in our Soviergn God as we wait anywhere from 6 to 12 months for a referral. We are so blessed to have prayer support from our wonderful friends and family!

Right now there is a lot of fluidity in the process that is required for families who are in the process of adopting from Ethiopia.  A lot of new policies are being created to help make sure each and every adoption is ethical and is in the best interest of the child.  (Which is great!)  However, the biggest changes in regards to Ethiopian adoptions are taking place in the Ministry of Women's Affairs in Ethiopia (MOWA is who processes ALL inter-country adoptions through Ethiopia). Basically adoptions can, and right now appear, to be cut by 90%. To read more about this, follow this link. http://adoption.state.gov/news/ethiopia_alert.html

In 2010, more than 2,500 Ethiopian children were adopted by American families. Should MOWA implement the recent directive as indicated, the number of adoptions from Ethiopia could fall as much as 90%, although the full impact of MOWA’s decision is unknown and cannot be predicted at this time.

How can we help?

PRAY!!! Pray for the children in Ethiopia and for MOWA.  Right now there are over 5 million orphans in Ethiopia who are longing for a loving family!

Also, if you feel led, PLEASE sign this petition to MOWA, by the Joint Council Emergency Campaign for Ethiopian Children:  http://www.gopetition.com/petition/43714.html

Through all of the uncertainty, we thank you all for your continued prayer and praise God for adopting us first!

We hit a Milestone!

Ok... so I have to give a quick shout out to the most FANTASTIC people I have ever met....

The Roberson family is our notary, accountant, friends, neighbors, encourager, coworker, photographer, reference letter writer, maker and bringer of chicken soup when one of us is not feeling well, writer of post it notes so I don't forget things, and most of all, they are our family.

Without them we would be lost in the huge metropolis of Hattiesburg, MS.  I hope they know how grateful we are to have them as friends.

Ok, so now on to our milestone!  Hint:  It includes Mr. Robbie Roberson!

Are you in suspense yet?

We have FINALLY had our last document notarized for our adoption!  Now our large stack of documents are off to the secretary of state office for state seals!  Once we get everything state sealed then the documents are will need to be approved by the US and then our documents are shipped to Ethiopia!

The last step before this all happens, however, is a trip to Metairie, LA to get fingerprinted at the Immigration office.  Our appointment is on April 15th (well acutally Mike's is on the 15th and mine is on the 18th, but we are going to try and sneak me in early!  Pray it will happen! :))

Mike and I decided (ie just me!) that we would make a weekend out of our long trip to Metairie, so we are looking into (ie me again!) camping out in Bayou Seignette State Park and canoeing the dark swamps of Jean Lafitte National Park that weekend. 

More updates are coming soon!   Thanks to all who have been praying and supporting us during this journey!