Adoption is not for the faint of heart....

This is what I keep hearing over and over again...."Adoption is not for the faint of heart." In the past week, I have been able to catch a glimpse of this.

Last week we had some interesting news from our adoption agency that has caused us to rethink some of the decisions that we have made thus far. We have been told that Ethiopia will soon be requiring families to travel TWICE in order to pick up their child. The reason for this is that some families have traveled to Ethiopia and decided that they did not want the child that they were matched with. It is very unfortunate and heartbreaking that this has happened. I understand completely why traveling two times will now very shortly be required. I know that along with us, this has saddened, worried and devestated families who are in the process of adopting from Ethiopia. This will add extra travel costs and unexpected/lengthened wait times. I pray that everything will work out according to God's plan for all of these families. I have read some blogs and it is nice to see though that families are trying to stay positive and optimistic about this change. I spoke to our social worker today. She said that they have not received any "official" word from the Ethiopian goverment, but she is anticipating that what is being said is indeed true.

With all of that being said, we are now looking in to the possibility of changing countries. I am VERY sad about this decision because I have grown attached to Ethiopia. However, we have not made a final decision yet and will continue to pray about this.

When we decided to adopt, we did not have a specific country in mind. We have a heart for orphans, regardless of what country they are from. We agreed that we wanted to chose a country where the greatest need was. Unfortunately not every country allows adoption though. So, we decided to chose a country based on what we felt best fit our criteria. The major criterias that we were looking for were cost, wait time, and amount/length of time traveling. Ethiopia seemed to fit all of the major criterias that we had....until now. We felt that we could be flexible in the cost and the wait time. After all, you HAVE to be flexible and prepared for any change to occur when it comes to adoption. Unfortunately, the only determining factor that we could NOT be flexible with was traveling. Due to the fact that we have a small child at home and that my husband has a job that does not always allow for flexibility or paid time off, traveling twice or for lengthy periods of time would be a major issue for us. I realize that some families are able to handle traveling twice, but we do not feel that we can comfortably do that at this time.

The other issue that we are facing right now is in regards to our current adoption agency. Although, so far, we have only completed the formal application, there is a possibility that our agency will not allow us to switch to another country. Our social worker is checking in to this for us and will let us know sometime this week. If we are not able to switch countries, we may be forced to chose another agency as well. This is not something that I want to do, but if we feel called to another country, we may have no other choice but to work with another agency. I am praying that God will continue to open and close doors for us and that the answers will be very clear to us.

We have another country in mind that we are researching, but I would rather not discuss it in detail until we have made our final decision about the country, as well as the agency that we are going to work with.

If you remember, please pray for us. Please pray that God will make it clear to us about what country and agency to chose. Right now things are very confusing. We want clarity. Also, please pray that God will provide us with the finances to be able to afford this adoption. The other country that we are considering will cost roughly $29,000. This is slightly overwhelming, but NOT impossible for God!

No one ever said that adoption was easy. But, we trust God and whatever He has planned for our family. I am confident that God has already placed us with the perfect child for our family. We just need to take the right steps to get there.

Also, because we may be switching countries, I have changed the address of my blog to www.ourheartfororphans.blogspot.com.

I will keep you all posted on what happens next and what decisions we have made.

Love, Holly