oh my poor little neglected blog!!!

YIKES! Has it REALLY been that long?!?!??!! Oh I sooooo wish is was good news that I had to report!!!

WHHHHHAAAAAAAA!!!

We found out on September 12th that the US Embassy was requesting a document that doesn't exist. They wanted the original document that started the whole thing! Unfortunately, in the town our children are from there is no one that can read or write such a document. After a phone call to our congressman the Embassy relented and said an interview with the birth mom could suffice.

But the earliest date they could give her was October 11th.

Today.

We've been sitting on pins & needles. We've sold the suburban and up-graded/down-graded depending on how you look at it to the 12 passenger V-A-N. Don't laugh. It's hard for me to say that WORD. I have some excess baggage from my childhood. Needless to say, I would rather drive one that stand before God & try to explain that the reason I didn't want to adopt again was because they didn't make a cool car to haul around 7 kids....it just doesn't roll off your tongue.

We've also been house hunting like crazy. Not only is our house too small, it's 30 minutes from our children's school. It's just not realistic - regardless of how much we love our location & community.

But back to today.

The birth mom never made it to Addis. I guess they had car trouble & knew they weren't going to make the 7:30am appointment. Our agency rep emailed the embassy the day before asking if they could have a 12:00 appointment instead. The embassy told him not to bother. They were booked & the earliest appointment they could give her is October 26th....he took it.

But it gets better.

Sue (our agency director) said it would be at least 2 - 3 weeks after the interview before we'd know anything more. But that, apparently it's becoming quite the Embassy norm to put a "not clearly approvable" stamp on cases & send them to the head embassy in Kenya. The embassy in ET won't even tell the agencies what about the case makes it "not clearly approvable". Sue said 1 agency had 10 out of 10 cases sent to Kenya. The US Embassy there will do their own investigation spanning 2-3 MONTHS. At which point they will tell the agency what they need to clear the case.

Sue said this happened in Guatemala as international adoption was being shut down. Of the 200 cases sent to the head US Embassy all but 4 of them were cleared & came home to the states. 3 of those families gave up & 1 is still fighting.

The bottom bottom line is that Ethiopia is not a "Hague" country - meaning they haven't set up the Hague system of adoptions. The US Embassy is tired of working with them & wants to make it as hard as possible. The downside is it takes 2 - 3 YEARS to become Hague certified.

So where do we go from here?

Sue has told us over & over that we'll get the kids home....she just can't give us a time line. At the same time, I know this is no accident. God could have stirred our hearts 3 weeks sooner....we were READY to listen especially if it involved more orphans! It wasn't like we were ignoring Him. Our friends dossier went in 3 weeks before ours....they've been home with their 2 since the end of MAY. Bo & Zena had been sitting on the waiting child list since July....we didn't scoop them up until November. I've felt this whole time that "God's timing is perfect" and I still don't doubt that even a little bit. Needless to say, we're super sad. Today has been crazy hard. God knew that. My schedule is nearly out of control (although that was probably more of my doing than His) & I haven't had more than a minute to curl up in a ball & cry like a baby!

The up side is that the kids are doing great. Sue said everyone loves them & they seem very happy & well adjusted. We're going to investigate getting Bo into school.

Thank you so VERY MUCH for all your prayers!!!!! We absolutely can feel them. We'll definitely keep you posted if/when we find out anything more!!!