Yay

We seriously have the best support system. I had four people offer to pray between 2-3pm on Monday, all within about 3 hours of posting. Amazing! We love you all!

We need your help

As many of you know, our adoption has been stalled since our return to the States. We originally thought we would be traveling to pick up Little Dude at the end of September or early October. Now we have no idea when that might happen. The issue is on the Ethiopian side. We have the paperwork we need, and it shows that we are his legal parents. The federal and local courts have investigated the case and approved us. However, the regional government refuses to release Little Dude and several other children. They are not giving us any particular reason, but are citing “issues” with our agency. Ugh – ridiculous.

There were meetings over Labor Day weekend which yielded nothing. There are meetings occurring next week, and we are hopeful that the result will be different. There are normal, quarterly meetings taking place on Tuesday and the agenda may or may not include our cases. There will be other meetings, though, with “important” people and the southern regional government. The US Ambassador for Children’s Issues will be in Addis Ababa next week, and we are asking our senators, congressmen, and the State Dept to ask her to advocate on our behalf.

Here is what I am asking you to do: pray that these discussions will lead to the release of all of the “confiscated” children, and that we (and the 4 other families we traveled with) will be able to proceed with our adoptions. I would like to have prayer throughout the day on Monday, September 26th, from 12:00am until 11:59pm. I know it is asking for a lot – to take an hour out of your busy day to devote to this – but I am hoping that you will consider it. I did this for my friends during their adoption between 4-5am, and it was an amazing experience for me, let alone what it was doing for them.

I sent an email to a bunch of people on Wednesday and was able to get commitments that cover the entire day – sometimes even double coverage – except for 2-3pm. Apparently people have these job things, and there are these people called ‘bosses’ who wouldn’t like the idea of someone stopping their work to pray. Weird. If you are willing to take the 2-3pm slot, please email me. I would love to have the whole day covered. If you aren’t able to take that slot, please consider taking 5, 15, 30 or even 60 minutes on Monday to pray for positive, productive meetings so that we and the other families can begin the process of bringing our children home. Also, we still don’t know the condition of Little Dude’s health. If you could pray for health and strength for him too, that would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks!

Hiatus

Sometimes you get really into TV shows and then they go on hiatus. At first you are pissed because you really want to know what will happen next. Soon, though, you realize that you can go on without knowing the next chapter of the saga because you know that eventually they will return. So it is with a segment of this blog.

For a while we will not be posting about our adoption. Things are not progressing forward. We are hitting some bumps along the way, and it’s challenging. We have no idea when homecoming will be, but remain hopeful that it will be before the end of 2011.

While we appreciate everyone’s love and support, we need to draw back and take some deep breaths. There may be some posts about various yummy foods I make, silly things Spiro does, or stupid running adventures I take. We may post some of S’s beautiful photos. Who knows. Know, though, that once we have positive news we will share it.

Also….to my wonderful friends…I have been ignoring you lately but it’s not because I don’t love you. I need to get my head out of my own ass and realize that there are other people who are experiencing life and need words of encouragement, a home-cooked meal, a cup of coffee – or even a swift kick in the buttocks!! I will see that you all get what you need from the list above…. 😉