Thank you to
those who have supported our call by praying for our adoption. Thank you to those who have supported our
call by joining in our fundraising efforts. Thank you to those of you who have asked about
how things are going and how we are doing and how things in Ethiopia are. Here is a brief update on where we are
at.
We are officially
number 12 on our agency’s wait list. However,
for the last 2 months we have been virtually next to receive a referral for our
son, meaning I don’t leave my phone too far away. J
For the last
several months we have been made aware of numerous children already living in
orphanages that have been assigned to our agency to adopt when they are “paperwork
ready”. These children are just waiting
on physical paperwork to be completed in order for them to be officially ready
to be referred to a family. So our son
is definitely in an orphanage, just waiting for his paperwork to be completed
so we can receive our referral call (and finally see his picture)!!!!! So, why the delay? Why does it take so many months to fill in forms
and sign paperwork? We found out
officially today from our agency the following information….
One of the
documents required in order for a child to be considered adoptable, by
Ethiopian law, is the regional
clearance. This document has always been required, but in the last
several weeks, MOWCYA added two additional requirements for this
document. First of all, they are requiring this document to be signed by
the head of the region. In the past, it
could be signed by one of several staff in that office, but now it must be the
head. Secondly, they are requiring a
statement such as "this child was not able to be adopted domestically and
is approved for an international adoption." We just found out about this second
requirement this week.
Meanwhile,
there appears to be a power struggle going on between MOWCYA and the
regional offices. MOWCYA is requiring these things and the regional offices are
saying they "have already completed the clearances" and they "do
not have the authority to say a child is approved for international adoption;
the courts have the authority for this." The regional offices submitted a letter of
argument to MOWCYA earlier this week.
So the two reasons stated above are the main reasons
why there haven’t been any referrals in the last couple months, even when we know
our son is there, waiting for us to be matched to him with an official
referral.
So we will continue to pray for you each
night. We pray God will protect you from
harm and give you strength to stay healthy – physically, emotionally and
spiritually. We love you precious son
and miss you more than you will ever know.
Love,
Mommy & Daddy
