IT'S OFFICIAL !!!!!

We made it to the waitlist!!! Praise God!
Our official number for a girl is ...............





Our official number for a boy is ...............

So much love

Words cannot describe Lillian. The English language simply cannot capture her curiosity, innocence, and love. Especially when she is sleeping.

Each evening I quietly sneak into her room to take a peak. On most evenings, her beauty causes tightness in my chest. A love that cannot be contained in my soul. In moments when I want to burst out of my skin I can only think of God. So I get facedown and pray. I literally lie on the floor in her dark room and thank God for His rich blessings. The “facedown” challenge is a new way (really the only appropriate way) for me to assume of posture of reverence and surrender to our Most Holy God. Thank-you Beth Moore for your Stepping Up Bible Study!

One of the many reasons why I am often so overcome with this intoxicating feeling is because of the way Lillian loves her black baby dolls. Did I say loves … I mean really loves them. She is obsessed. Lillian will not nap or “night-night” without her babies. Each baby needs to be hugged (squeezed so tightly that Lillian’s face turns flush), kissed (bottom lip only, the upper lip is always tucked under) and rocked (violently flipped back and forth). Then she holds them to her as tight as possible and falls asleep. She knows they are safe in her arms.

Most of the time she sleeps on top of them. I can imagine a plastic arm or leg jabbing my tummy all night. But, Lillian demands they are close. Every morning I enter her room and she has an armful of babies. I give a morning kiss and snuggle to all her babies BEFORE I can pick Lillian up. Then the babies do all our daily activities with us, including eating and butt paste.

Why am I sharing this? This is such a critical reminder for me because I am still wondering how I can be a Mommy of two, when I struggle to be a Mommy of one on a regular basis. Ahh, the patience, love, more patience, discipline, joy, frustration, and more patience required is something I could never comprehend before Lillian. She is an amazing creation.

But, how great is our God? He gave me a daughter with enough love to share with our entire neighborhood, perhaps we could include West Linn and Gladstone too. She just loves everyone. Lillian is known for kissing other toddlers at church. If kisses are not welcomed by others, she sometimes causes an “owie” (aka: pulls hair or hits) the other kids. Owies need kisses right? One way or another … she just wants to kiss and hug other kids, especially babies. Two-year old logic?!?

She was made to be a big sister. What a special big sister she will be someday.

Anonymous

I wish I knew who you were, but I don’t. So, to the anonymous donor at Willamette Christian Church, this is what I want you to know.

If I knew who you were, I would drive to your home and let myself in. I would sit you down, look into your eyes, and hold your hand in mine. I would thank-you for your generosity towards our adoption. I would tell you how humbled I am for your support. I would give you my promise that I will seek God and His plans for this adoption. I would thank-you (again) for helping to make this possible. I would make sure you knew how much we appreciate your boldness and confidence, defined you’re your generosity, in us to welcome an orphan into our home. I would throw my arms around your neck and whisper softly in your ear “Thank-you, thank-you. Bless you, precious friend.. fellow sojourner.”

Now I look at everyone and wonder … Are you the one with a generous heart? Perhaps someday I will know? This life or the next.

Thank-you.

New Updates

A few fun updates:

First, we had our first Ethiopian meal at Queen of Sheba! Can anyone say yummy? Yes, yummy indeed! We devoured Atakilt Alicha (sauteed vegetables in aromatic alicha spice), Misr Wet (lentil stew with warm spices), and Kintishara Derho Tibs (sizzling mushroom and chicken sautéed in a hot Berbere sauce).

Is your mouth watering yet? Mine is… even as I type this. And, yes, we ate everything with our hands. Even better!



Second, we have completed our final US CIS fingerprinting! This is the appointment that we requested two months ago, had to wait three weeks to get our notice of our schedule appointment, then wait four more weeks till the actual appointment day, and now we are waiting for our results. This is the FINAL documentation we need in order to turn in our entire dossier. Then we get on the waitlist and the countdown begins!


Third, we have an Adoption Connection Family Potluck. Sunday May 22nd 4-6 at Rolling Hills Community Church. It is for families that are thinking about adoption, in the process of adoption, or have already adopted. That’s us!!! What a blessing to get connected with our community! If you are interested in attending please let me know.

More to come soon ...
Thanks for reading about our journey.

Why?

There are lots of rumors in circulation. It is hard to tell what changes will take place in the coming weeks regarding our adoptions. Everything is speculation at this point. However, the latest information was positive. People are suspecting that up to 20 adoptions will be approved each day, this is up from the previous estimation of only 5 per day. In the past, around 50 adoptions have been approved each day.

As you can imagine ... the Ethiopian adoption process got extremely complicated overnight.

For such a time as this, I wanted to pass along some of the reason why we support adoption. These are the words from the Joint Council on International Children's Services (JCICS). I find it comforting to dwell on these words when we consider why we have chosen to adopt. Indeed, this is a cause we can support whole-heartedly. Unless, God closes this door for our family we intend to pursue it for as long as it takes. This is why:

Children need families – Who we are as human beings is largely influenced by our genes and our environment. The attention, affection, responsiveness, consistency, communication and interaction of a family have profound effects on all aspects of human development especially in the earliest stages of life. No institution, regardless of how well organized and funded it may be, can replace the nurturing, safety and guidance of a family.

Birth families need accessible, efficient and well-funded alternatives – Relinquishing a child is a painful decision for any birth parent or extended family member. This is especially true in remote and rural areas where few alternatives exist. If intercountry adoption is to decrease over time, birth families need accessible and reliable social service programs to support them. To date, many adoption service providers and other NGOs, are filling this gap in Ethiopia. Joint Council partner-members are contributing over 16 million per year to family preservation and community development programs that strive to keep vulnerable children and families together. They are assisting 1.2 million vulnerable individuals per year that otherwise would not receive these services.

Institutionalization can hurt children – Quotas and other drastic measures mean that children currently living in orphanages will reside in an institution longer. Sixty years of multinational human development research on institutionalized children, such as the Bucharest Early Intervention Study, indicates that the longer a child is in an orphanage the progressively worse their social, language, fine motor and gross motor skills become. Any change to the intercountry adoption process needs to carefully consider its effects on all children currently in orphanage care and the length of time newly institutionalized children will reside in the orphanage to complete their adoption process.

There are nearly 5 million orphaned children – This is nearly 13 percent of the child population in Ethiopia. These children need a family for love and support so they grow into productive adult members of our global community and retain their inherent human rights. There need to be support services for vulnerable children including adoption. At present, intercountry adoption only serves .001 percent of all orphaned children in Ethiopia. This fraction of a percentage, while rising, is not disproportionate to the number of children in need.

Various manners to combat corruption – Corruption is deplorable in all its forms especially when children’s lives are at stake. There are numerous manners to prevent, discourage, and punish corruption without punishing children, families of birth and adoptive families. A gardener who wants to beautify a landscape does not cut the weeds in his garden by a certain percent. Rather, he mindfully detects the weeds and eliminates them from the root up. A quota, no matter how small, will not eliminate corruption. It simply reduces the quantity of ethical violations that can occur in an environment. In fact corruption, like a weed, can actually grow in a restricted environment if it is allowed to exist.

Children with special needs deserve special consideration – Children with special needs require care and resources that are not easily given in an orphanage setting. According to research conducted by Joint Council, 40% of children adopted from Ethiopia are considered special needs. When contemplating new policies or procedures, children with special needs deserve expedited processes or exemptions whenever possible.

Will you pray for God's hand in providing protect and love to the orphans in Ethiopia? We are confident in His provision.

Emergency Campaign For Ethiopia

We had discouraging news today. Maybe you have heard on international news? I copied the below information from our adoption organization.

"The Ethiopian Ministry of Women's Affairs (MOWA) has announced a proposal to decrease the number of adoptions they will process and approve—even by as much as 90%. They are planning to accomplish this decrease by limiting the number of approved cases to only 5 per working day. This change is currently set to begin on March 10, 2011."

In other words, this could limit thousands of orphans from being connected to their forever family. Currently, there are about 4,000 adoptions from Ethiopia each year. Under the new proposal there could be as few as 500 adoptions each year.

It is estimated that $2,000-$3,000 per adoption is paid to the Ethiopian government. Anytime money is exchanged there is the option of corruption. This is apparently why MOWA is proposing to drastically limit the international adoptions.

The best question to ask ... What can we do?

1) Sign the petition to the Prime Minister of Ethiopia, Meles Zenawi – and pass it on! Chris and I have done it and you can remain anonymous if you want.

Cut and paste this link:
http://betheanswerforchildren.wordpress.com/2011/03/08/emergency-campaign-for-ethiopia/

2) Have you adopted from Ethiopia? Please send us up to 3 photos and 50 words or less with what you would like the Ministry to know about your child – we’ll compile the information and send a book to the Ministry of Woman’s Affairs. Send your photos and stories to advocate@jointcouncil.org by Sunday, March 12, 2011 to be included. Please note that sending photos and stories gives Joint Council unrestricted right to use the information you provide.

3) Share…Please send this Call to Action to family members, other adoptive parents, and everyone you know! Post, forward and share your adoption stories via Facebook, Twitter, and blogs. Make sure you include us in your posts so we can all hear your stories! Here’s links to our pages: Facebook, Twitter and our our blog.

4) Stay informed: Get up-to-date information regarding the situation in Ethiopia by signing up to receive information from us: click here to do so, make sure you choose “country and issues specific information” and “Ethiopia.” And don’t forget to follow us on Facebook, Twitter and our our blog.

5) Help ensure our advocacy can continue: Joint Council is a non-profit and receives no government funding. Please join us in ensuring more children live in safe, permanent and loving families. Donate today!

Although this new is discouraging. I cling to a verse that was emphasized in our Bible study this morning. The truth in this verse rings louder and stronger than any petition.

Do not be anxious about anything, but in every situation, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus. Philippians 4:6-7.

Prayerfully,
Erin

Brief Update

We just received our rough draft of our home study!!! This is sooooo exciting!!!