Please Pray

One of the major reasons we have had to wait almost 9 months for a referral is due to a certain situation. Let me try to explain. The Ethiopian government has tried to govern international adoptions by investigating certain regions and their adoption practices. From what I understand, this is similar to audits done in businesses. Usually, when they find things running well, they "sign off", allowing adoptions to continue as usual.

Unfortunately, the investigations in the Oromia Region have dragged on even after finding everything to be in good standing. For some reason, the official who is supposed to "sign off" has not done it. Our agency has been told since November that the announcement would be any day. That is why we got the "You are within striking distance" message way back in November. As far as our agency knew, our referral was just around the corner. This is because our agency partners with three orphanages in this region. (This is almost half of their orphanages.) But, since they have been unable to refer kids from these orphanages for months, the referrals have slowed down drastically.

The saddest part of all of this is that the kids in those orphanages have had to wait so much longer. We have been told that some orphans have even died because the care just isn't as good as in the transition home in Addis. In addition, the orphanages are having to turn kids away because they are so full. Oh, this makes my heart break.

But, we think good news is on the horizon. There is a rumor that the official is set to make an announcement on Friday (which is tonight while we are sleeping). Please pray with us that this official would make the announcement and that adoptions could resume in this region.
Pray, pray, pray!