IF YOU GUESSED.....

that we're adopting a young boy from Ethiopia, you'd be correct. :)


We are most of the way thru our portion of the paperwork and are waiting on the Dept. of Hom*l*land Sec*urity to process our I600a ("orphan" visa), then our paperwork can go to DC for authentication, then on to Ethiopia.

We are hoping our paperwork is in Ethiopia by December...Christm*as at the latest.

We are using YWAM's Ethiopian Adoption Ministry ( http://www.ywamethiopia.com/ cuz I couldn't get my copy/paste to work on this post!). Their blog is http://www.thatwemightbeadopted.blogspot.com/ -they have a really neat 3 minute video right at the top of the blog, showing the work they are doing for the widows and orphans of Ethiopia.

We've already fielded alot of questions about:another adoption? why Ethiopia and not China again? have you thought about how this will impact Elizabeth?

So let me answer a few of those now. :)

*yes, another adoption and no, we didn't just wake up one day and say "hey let's adopt again". :) We have been praying over this decision consistenly for over a year now.

*Ethiopia instead of China was a tougher decision than some might think. We truly believe this is the Lord's leading and it did take awhile for me to let go of MY wanting Elizabeth to have a sibling that looks like her. When we made the decision to start another adoption, we fully thought we were heading back to China for a boy....then thru a series of circumstances, God halted that path and continued to put Africa on our hearts. We started researching various African adoption programs and felt that the Ethiopian one fit us the best.

I do still want Elizabeth to have a sibling that looks like her. She seems to struggle enough with things, I don't want her to feel "different" in our family...so we'll just have to see how the Lord handles that one.

*have we thought of how this will impact Elizabeth? YES. She is one of the main reasons we didn't start this 2nd adoption sooner. We wanted to make certain we were on our way with attachment counseling, that she was getting better, and that we felt she could handle a sibling.

let's face it, any child is going to have some adjustments to make when a sibling is added -that's just life. With Elizabeth, we are accutely aware of how this will affect her, that this will probably set our attachment work back a little bit.....BUT we also have 9-12 months before a sibling is added.....9-12 months to continue to help her heal and give her tools to better deal with her insecurities...we also are going to be heightened to her cues of insecurity when the new son/brother comes home and will hopefully be able to act upon those cues so as to minimize her insecurity.



For those familiar with the China process, the Ethiopian one is a bit different. We still do our paperwork and submit it to the country and then receive a referral. From here, the process is a bit different. The simplified version is: Once we have been matched with a child, our paperwork will go to court where the child will become legally ours....then we get an Embassy appt and travel to Ethiopia to meet our child, go thru the Embassy process, then bring him home.

We will have medical information and pictures of our boy, but we can not post them publically until we have passed thru court, because he will not legally be ours. So, I will post when we get a referral but no pics...isn't that a bummer?! But as soon as we pass court you can bet your bippy a big ole pic will be on the blog. :)

The kids are all very excited, Andrew especially. Since Elizabeth came home, Andrew has been praying for a younger brother, then he added in to the prayer "an older brother too" and now his pray is "a younger brother, an older brother, and a brother my same age". :) He may have to wait awhile to get ALL of those requests, but we love how consistent he has been in praying...for nearly 2 years.

Thanks for hanging on for this long post, but wanted to get all the info in 1 instead of having to do 2 or 3!

We'd appreciate your prayers as we go down this road again. For the Lord to prepare us and ready us for a new child and sibling...and for our boy in Ethiopia -for God to comfort his little heart and prepare it for the huge change he has coming.