So much has progressed in the adoption of our two little boys since I last wrote about it. It seems like every day there is something new. We received our court date back in February for April 13th, which means we are leaving next friday (one week from today) and will stay there for 5 days. The flight over there is more than 24 hours long so we will be gone a whole week, but we'll only be in Ethiopia for 5 of those days.
We had quite the scare last month when MOWA announced that they were going to reduce the number of international adoptions in Ethiopia by 90% effective almost immediately. We prayed and prayed because this meant that it would slow down the process so much that our boys would have to wait until next year to be brought home rather than just another couple of months. This was truly heart-breaking news. But the head of MOWA resigned and whoever is now in charge has made the reduction much milder and is letting families that already had a court date keep theirs. Praise God we still get to bring them home soon!
We are so close to meeting our kids. I can't help but think about what it's going to be like to see them in person, to play with them, to hopefully hold and hug them if they'll let us. Stephen and I have been brainstorming on ways to make our first meeting as comfortable and fun for them as possible. One of the few ideas that we are going to do is that we are going to bring a small guitar with us (to leave with them to play with) but Stephen will be able to play little songs and sing with them in hopes that it may help bring down some of the barriers between us, being that we are still strangers to them and speak a different language. Children love music so we're hoping this will help.
Up until this point in the process I've been pretty stable emotionally. Certainly we get really excited at times and truly sad for them, their birth mom, and the orphan crisis in general as well at times. But yesterday was my first day where I really almost lost it. Okay, I actually did. We had a fun busy day, and that evening Stephen put the girls to bed while I went to the Target to get groceries and some more items for our trip next week. I was standing in the toy section trying to pick out a stuffed animal, or lovey as we call it, that we can give to each of the boys to sleep with and hold on to when we have to leave after our court date. I feel like the weight of everything just suddenly hit me, how precious our time with them is going to be and how hard it will be to leave without taking them right away, and as I stood there holding a light blue elephant for Esrael, our two-year-old, I literally almost burst into tears. Luckily I was able to keep it together until I got home. I made it two steps inside the house and then proceeded to do so in front of my husband. I'm so grateful to have a husband that is so gentle and loving, that knows just what to say and how to pray for me. And when to offer me some chocolate too. :)
This is such a hard thing to go through. I'm not talking about the financial aspect, or the paperwork, or even so much the waiting to bring them home. What is wrecking me out is the reality that our boys have been through so much pain losing their father, being abandoned by their birth mother, living in an institution right now. I think about how Keira sometimes wakes up at night and I hear her crying, "Mommy! Mommy!". And I run to get her, to let her know that I'm still here and that she's okay. And I think about not only our boys, but the other 5 million+ orphans in Ethiopia that cry out for their parents and no one comes. God, if it is this heartbreaking for me, what is it like for these little children?
We're praying for strength moving forward as we prepare to go to Ethiopia. This is such a special time for our family. We are certainly going to be taking lots of pictures and video, and I know this is going to be something we will cherish forever. Our first meeting... with our own children. I would do anything for them, and I haven't even met them yet. Thank you, Lord, for these two precious little boys.
We most likely have the opportunity to meet their birth mother. This is something that is extremely important to us, and we are going to try to do this if at all possible. I want to be able to sit down with this woman and ask her her story. I want to tell her that we are going to love and nurture these little boys just like our own biological daughters. I don't know why she left them, especially on the streets. Surely she loves them? Though most of the kids that end up in orphanages do so because they lost their parents to aids, many are there because they lost one parent and the other couldn't afford to even feed them. When I read that the average monthly income in Ethiopia is $23, and the cost of food in Ethiopia is similar to America, I can start to see why so many parents are saying they can't take care of their children. To eat even one small meal a day as a family can exceed the average income.
All of this to say, we are SO for international adoption. We truly love it, but it is not going to solve the orphan crisis in Ethiopia. Not when the number of orphans in Ethiopia is rising by the millions every couple of years, and that is not an exaggeration. While we are in Ethiopia next week we will be meeting with a man that lives in Ethiopia that we met at an orphan conference recently. He is working with a ministry called Seeds Adoption that is working to provide resources and tools to the growing churches in Ethiopia in hopes to equip these pastors to be able to address these issues in their own communities. This is really an incredible opportunity for anyone to get involved. I'm attaching a short video for Seeds Adoption if you are interested in what it's all about.
Please be praying for us as we prepare for all of this. We are so excited and can't wait to see our boys and experience the beauty and culture of Ethiopia. I'm sure we'll have plenty of pictures to share when we get back, and we hope to be updating daily on facebook while we're there. Thanks for your prayers and support!
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