To make a long story short, there was a temporary scare that indicated Ethiopia could be cutting back the number of adoptions by 90% due to a fear of children being placed in orphanages illegally. The result of cutting back the number of adoptions processed each day would mean that a family awaiting a child referral could end up waiting for 3 to 5 years before their paperwork was cleared by Ethiopian adoption officials.
Since Emily and I only have a few more documents to prepare before we submit our Dossier, we felt led to wait and see where everything in Ethiopia was headed. We chose to wait because once we have written the massive check to pay for our Dossier - we are locked into the Ethiopian program - for better or for worse. While we intended to adopt from Ethiopia no matter what, we wanted to keep our options and finances open until we heard the official word from Ethiopian officials... Possibly even for a domestic adoption in the mean time.
However, the Ethiopian government has appointed new personnel to oversee the Ministry of Women Affairs (MOWA) and it appears that they will be able to continue processing a high number of referrals every day. In light of this, we have prayed and feel led to continue our journey with Ethiopia and will be submitting the final papers needed for our dossier soon.
Please continue to pray with us. In specific, please pray that the doors to adopt from Ethiopia will remain open. Also pray that Ethiopian officials will keep the interest of the children at the top of their priorities.
