Ethiopian Adoption Update

(ethiopian children photo courtesy of the UN)

It's been awhile since I've posted, but we're still here!  Here is the latest on our journey to baby #3:

Our original placing agency, Love Basket, after taking a month or so to evaluate the situation, informed us last week that they are not able to place children right now and the program is on hold indefinitely.  Therefore, we are obligated to find a new agency.   Fortunately, we were aware of this as a possibility during the month of wait, so I researched and chose two other agencies as possibilities for Plan B (Plan C, really, if you count Nepal).  Children's Home and Family Services was one, and Celebrate Children International is the other.

Children's Home is a large agency with a well established Ethiopia program.  The application process is extensive, a case worker isn't even assigned until several steps have been accomplished.  The wait times are 6-9 months-ish for a healthy baby.  They have successfully brought home hundreds of babies and have a guest house for families to stay in near their orphanage in Addis Ababa.  I recommend them highly if you are considering an Ethiopian adoption.

Celebrate Children is also a licensed agency, though their Ethiopia program is very new.  They have not yet brought home an Ethiopian child, though they are very close to having done so. The Ethiopian program director is a good friend of family-hi, Debbie!- and I am able to talk to her directly with any questions I have.  She is wonderful!  Their wait times are closer to the 3 month range for a healthy baby.  The orphanage they work through, Blessing the Children, is in the Kamashi region of Ethiopia.  You can view it, mostly the boys home-not the baby house-at this link:

http://www.blessingthechildren.org/kamashi.html

and the Celebrate Children link is

www.celebratechildren.org

Tim and I prefer the small agency.  The fees are about the same between these two options, and personally knowing a program director goes a long way in the trust department when considering an intercountry adoption.  So....we sent in our application to Celebrate Children last week.  We already have confirmation from them that they are checking our references.  We should have a contract this week or next, and then its the mad race to get the dossier completed so that we don't lose any more time.  Though we have some concern about the newness of CCI's program, Tim and I have a huge peace about this decision.  On the surface, it isn't very logical.  But after prayer and fasting, we KNEW that CCI was the agency for us.  And since their wait times are so short, our wait to bring baby home shouldn't be much different that we originally planned with Love Basket-around this summer.

Please pray as we embark on this third attempt to find the baby God has planned for us.  We aren't complaining because we don't want to bring home a child that isn't meant to be.  If our child is in Kamashi, as opposed to Addis Ababa, then  we will go to Kamashi-gladly!  Please pray that there are no more glitches, that the referrals that CCI has made already make it through court easily, that the children are well cared for in the orphanage while they wait to come home, and that God puts together the family He has intended for us.  Blessings,