Increased Wait Time

Jonathan and I received some very disappointing news at the end of this past week that we would like to share with each of you. I apologize for not making individual phone calls, but we are still trying to process the information ourselves and honestly cannot bear to have this conversation repeatedly, so please forgive us.

The official “wait time” for Ethiopia has been significantly lengthened. Our agency is now expecting it to take 18 – 24 months to receive a referral from our DTE date (it was 10 – 14 months when we began).

The primary reason for this is the continued difficulty with making a child “paper-ready” to be adopted. The government is diligently working to ensure that all children being placed for adoption are true orphans - to ensure that they do not have any relatives that are looking for them or would be willing to raise them - which is a good thing, but the process is not currently very efficient. It is causing significant delays, as several steps have been added to the clearance process.

It truly breaks our hearts to think that we still have at least 13 months before we even lay eyes on our child (referral pictures), but it is completely out of our, and our agency’s, hands.

We ask for fervent prayers for this process – for those precious children who need a loving family and a secure home, for the government, for other families ahead of us & behind us on the waiting list, and for Jonathan and I to have peace that God is with us throughout this.

We know that this lengthened process is not God’s will either – he wants nothing more than for orphans to have a family – but that He will allow good to come of this imperfect situation.