Chip In 4 Adoption + New ET Law (I want to hear)
Dear Crazy Bloggy Friends,
I just wanted to say thank you for supporting my new website and helping make adoption #1! We are all in this together- advocating and loving orphans. There are MANY of you out there in adoption land that are working so hard to pay for all the crazy costs involved with bringing home a child. If you have a special FUNdraising project you’re working on and need a shout out on my crazy adoption, email me. I love helping you make your adoption dreams come true.
As you know, Roger and I have started the process for our 2nd adoption… I wanted to explain why I put a Chip In button on my site. I never want a bloggy reader to feel any pressure to help us financially. That is not the goal of my website. In fact, I prayed for weeks about putting the button up, but finally felt the peace that it was time to simply ask for help. We have had many changes this year and frustrating not being able to sell our home 4 adoption. Change is crazy, but we still feel a strong calling to continue moving forward with our adoption. I have always loved helping my adoption friends when there is a need. My friend, Juju always says- “we help families 1 T shirt at a time.” I have a big collection of adoption T’s in my closet and thrilled to pray for each family every time I wear one!! If you are not currently fundraising and feel open to helping my family with our adoption costs, please know 100% of donations goes directly into our adoption account- ChipIn and Simply Love T shirt proceeds.
At this time, we are working hard to raise $4,500 to complete our homestudy and dossier. This is step 1. We will have an additional fee of $3,000 when we turn in our dossier. We are requesting a girl 4-6 years old, so most likely our referral will come very quickly. We continue to pray that God will provide exactly what we need, exactly when we need it. The funny part, I mailed my check to our adoption agency (awaa.org) yesterday and received a letter that the Ethiopia Federal Courts just made a new law that every family must travel 2 trips to Addis Ababa to complete their adoption. Adoption is challenging, miraculous, amazing and CRAZY!! This new law will tag on additional costs and inconvenience, but we need to encourage each other to keep moving forward and not waver in our decision to adopt. Thank you for listening to my heart. Please pray for our family as we embark on this crazy adventure to adopt our new daughter!
In the comments, I really want to hear your voice on the new law in the Ethiopia Federal Court. What do you think? How does this new law affect your adoption? Do you think that the new law will help solve any problems? Let me know…
Here’s the conference call with AWAA staff talking about the new law if you are interested-
http://www.awaa.org/downloads/Ethiopia/conference_3_11_10.mp3
So glad you're back in for #2 again! When I first heard the news about the ET policy change, I got scared that this was a sign of things slowing down or closing. We just recently got into the program in January (first time), so it was a little unnerving to see a huge change like this come through in the beginning of the process. However, after we learned more about it yesterday, I can honestly say that I'm not worried about it anymore. In fact I think it's kind of exciting that we'll get to meet our daughter not long after referral. Yeah, it's gonna tear our hearts out when we have to leave her…but there are a lot of other countries that have this policy, so I know it is doable. We are trusting that God will iron out all of the details as they start this new procedure and that all of us will be able to bring our sons/daughters home without too much complication!
Candace, I still feel a little in the dark about the new rule. It's so good to read your heart… it helps my heart. My family has met their daughter waiting in China and its difficult for them to not have her home, but the memories of seeing her in "her world" has been priceless… and it hasn't killed them:) Thanks for your wonderful encouragement to adoption families today!
I am going to be very honest. My husband and I were planning to start the adoption process through the Ethiopia program within the next 6 months. We were still praying to make sure that the Lord was really calling us there next or if that was us WANTING to be called there. We still aren't sure. We have never had biological children (never tryed) and it has really made us consider if that should be our next step. We really do not like the idea of meeting and leaving our baby nor do we like the price increase (you're talking $4000-$6000) It really has changed the appeal of the Ethiopia program for sure. Although, we have a great first hand testimony of how the Lord provided for our recent adoption from Taiwan!!
All of this is not to say that we still don't have Ethiopia on our minds and hearts, we just have a lot more things to consider before moving forward. I do see the reasoning behind this needed move, I am not sure it is the ONLY thing that could have prevented what they are trying to prevent. The bottom line is, Ethiopia has one of the highest concentration of "adoptable" orphans and that is one of the reasons why we feel the Lord has called our family there. We are beginning to think that for now it might be through mission trips and supporting others in the process…and then in a few years we hope to adopt a sibling group! We learned a long time ago that we shouldn't be too comfy with any ideas of what we think we should or might do…the Lord has His way of making happen what he would like to happen. With our last adoption, we applied to Ethiopia and look where we ended up…with a "waiting child" from Taiwan!! Amazing!!
April, thanks for your honesty!!! Please keep me updated on what direction you go… I know the new laws are really hurting families financially! ouch!! Lets keep praying for miracles:)
April, I don't want to steer you away from Ethiopia if that is where your heart is calling you but I would encourage you to look into a adoption from Rwanda or the Democratic Republic of the Congo. In both countries the process is fairly inexpensive, will require only one trip, and we personally saw a orphanage in Rwanda filled with children who are true orphans after being abandoned. We adopted our son from Rwanda in December at age 3 he had lived near his entire life at the orphange. They had at least 50 children there, with most of the older children the orphanage being the only home they have ever known.
We are waiting for our referral from AWAA. DTE was 2/4/10, and we are requesting a 18mo.-4yr old, either gender. We had been planning on taking our 3 bio kids and also counting on the extra time after referral to raise the $ for travel. It is still overwhelming to process what these changes mean for us. AWAA's conference call was helpful yesterday, and helped explain the why's behind this change which is good. I am just concerned about how we will come up with the extra $ that quickly, as well as how my husband will time off of work twice and the first time with so little notice.
We passed court on Feb. 8 and are still waiting for a confirmed Embassy date. Had this rule come in time to affect our adoption, I'm not sure what we would have done. We made our intentions to adopt a particular waiting child known in the fall of '08. We began our homestudy in Feb. of '09. In the time between those two events, we learned my husband, who is in the Army National Guard, would deploy to Iraq for a year. We did all we had to have him here for before he left (home study, fingerprints, etc) and he completed his training on-line. I have handled everything regarding the adoption on my own during his absence. Had we both had to visit our daughter and appear at the first court date (which was this past Nov.), it would have been impossible.
I understand the reasoning behind the new procedure and it does make this program more like other international ones. But, I will be honest when I say that the one trip requirement was a "pro" on our long list of why Ethiopia was right for our family.
WOW Melinda.. I have goosebumps!! You would have not been able to move forward with your adoption had the new rule been in place. I'm thanking God today that your family was protected and you can go bring home your child soon!!! It makes me sad to know how many awesome adoption families will be hurt in the process by this… even though we understand why they made the change.
Hi, Kari-
My thoughts and feelings on the law change have been a literal rollercoaster for us. At first we were tremendously discouraged.
BUT, a good friend of mine left me a comment about her experiences with both the IR4 visa and the IR3 visa, and she was tremendously encouraging…I copied her comment into my latest post.
Rather than retype it all here, my latest two posts are all about it: http://familywovenbyfaith.blogspot.com/
Looking forward to your feedback!
I would have never considered adopting from Ethiopia had this law been in place when we began our journey to Levi. But, having walked that road, I can say that I can see where it would be helpful. I went through a severe bought of post-adoption depression and I think a lot of it was just because of the rapid change. I can see where a trip to "meet" and a trip to "bring home" would be beneficial. Don't get me wrong. It would terribly difficult as well. It would be hard to leave your little one on the other side of the world, but it is for a short time in the scheme of things. Hopefully you would be leaving them in very loving care and you can return home with correct sizes in mind and do everything you can to pass the 12 weeks. Chocolate would definately be in order! 🙂
I told my friend who is awaiting a referral and will be made to travel twice, that though I would not have considered adopting from Ethiopia then (if the law had been in place), now that I have been there and seen, I would walk there and back twice if God tells me I have another child there!
It is TOTALLY worth it all!!!
I dont think this is bad at all, except additional exspense that we hadnt counted on. We traveled twice with our Guatemalan adoption. When your family dynamic is getting ready to totally change its nice to be a little familier with at least part of the process while in country. Its so hard to leave your child but so nice to beable to picture them and those that are caring for them. God is good all the time and He knew that this was going to be put into place. We are trusting Him to go before us and make our paths straight and clear. So if this is what it takes-bring it on!
I am not sre that the new rule is so bad, the extra cost is a huge factor but on the other hand if you vist your child before court then when you bring them home they are a US citizen so you do not have to readopt. It would be really hard to leave them after spending a week with them though. I guess I am just ready to go get our little girl, our agency is one that is being investigated, we were ready to leave next week to go get her and were told we have to wait 8 weeks!
Wow – that's a big change! We're just getting ready to submit our initial paperwork to AWAA. We'd like a pair of siblings (boy & girl) ages 8-12 or so (Our biological children are 13 & 15). The cost is already pretty overwhelming, but this new requirment just gives God a bigger opportunity to surprise us with His provision 🙂
We're getting ready to submit our paperwork for siblings and the news didn't make me jump for joy. It's already going to be hard to get together the money, but we'll make it happen. My BIG concern is that my husband is active duty Army( deployed right now) and I hope the Army cooperates and lets him come both times. We'll also have our 3 bio kids at home, but I'm hopeful gramma will help with that.
Two travel times is what turned me off from Russia, but we are so committed and in love with unknown Ethiopian kids that NOTHING is going to stop us from going over there and getting them!
I was very disheartend by the initial thought of two trips, leaving our child in Ethiopia, and the added expense, BUT one thing has not changed…Our child is still our child and no court policy will change that. Another positive thing is that we will get to meet our children SOONER!!!and know how to pray for them. No finances, heart aches, or financial difficultys will change that. If we have faith that God can provide $25,000 what is an extra few thousand for God.
We recently heard of a couple from my husband's small town who addopted a baby from Ethipia. They were adopting a baby with mild health issues. When they got there they knew something was seriously wrong with the child, but the way the sytem is set up now they had to take the baby. They got him home to learn that he needed serious care and had to be placed in a home at the parents expence he will never live with his family. Now, this is a RARE case and is not ment to scare anyone, but with this new policy this family could have taken him to doctors in Ethiopia and found out that he needed permenent instatutional care before accepting the referal. The long and the short of it is our children are still our children and God is still God.
We are in the process of adoptin from Ethiopia. Our home visit is this week and we are very close to having our Dossier completed. I must say when I heard that we would have to make two trips and leave without our prcious little one my heart broke. I thought how can I possibly go there and have to leave my baby behind. But I know that God has all things in control and he works all things for his good. We as families who are adopting and face this new hurdle must join together and lift each other up in prayer. Even if we do not who we are praying for God can bring us all through this new step. He will protect, he will provide and he will old all of us in the palm of his hand. We just have to trust, believe and know that what he has called us to do will be completed and it will be GOOD!!!
I think that this will be hard for the parents and the children however in the long run I think it will be good to ensure the viability of Ethiopian adoption in general. If you look at the numbers adoptions from Ethiopia have skyrocketed in the last several years. Two many agencies are working there now and there need to be more regulations for the sake of the children. After adopting our then 4 year old daughter (we were told she was 2) from Ethiopia in March 2008 I can say that it would have been heartbreaking to have to leave her and go back BUT there are definately questions and inconsistensies we had after arriving home that we will never be able to have answered. And we utilized a large very reputable agency for her adoption. The change will also permit the children to become automatic US citizens upon entry into the US which will save extra paperwork and time as many of you know.
I have expressed my thoughts in my own blog about the process of two trips. I completely understand why, but I am still praying for a miracle to only go one time though I also agree with Angel…what is an extra few thousand for God. Just more opportunity for me to stretch my faith. We are one step away from our referral and close to having the adoption money needed for the original situation. Well, the Lord knew all these things before we began the process. It has been a time of fasting and praying and watch events unfold.
My heart is still for all of Ethiopia and especially the Drawn From Water children who have stolen my heart with their beautiful smiles.
This has been a wonderful experience and I love the relationships we are creating with eight other families in our church in this adoption process to Ethiopia.
I have wanted to write something like this on my webpage which has given me an idea. Cheers.