So here is the bad news first.... Bethany Christian Services (our adoption agency) has yet to give an update to estimated wait times to get a referral. For those of you that are not familiar with that term, a referral is when they send you information on a particular "adoptable" child in your range of specifications and you pretty much say yay or nay to adopting them. The last update we got from Bethany was 31-33 months before we would receive a referral. For the past 2 or 3 months all they would say was that they were expecting that wait time to lengthen but could not determine by how long. There has been very very little movement going on in Ethiopia. Very few children are getting matched to families each month.
Now I am NOT saying anything at all bad about our adoption agency. I actually highly recommend them. They really are great and have the best interest of these children in mind. They literally have no control over the whole situation in Ethiopia and they are not giving estimated wait times because they just haven't been able to get a really good idea at this time.
So, the whole wait time issue has never sat well with me even from the beginning. It just saddened me to think we would wait that long while children are dying and being orphaned at alarming rates in Ethiopia as well as other countries. I have been so upset I have cried, so mad I can't stand it, and so confused I laid awake at night pondering the whole situation. For months we prayed every single day, several times a day and you know what?? God was pretty silent (or so I thought).
One day we had even decided just to switch to domestic adoption and I was going to call our counselor with Bethany the next morning and tell her. Loud and clear that night during our study group at church God said "WAIT." Over that next week all I heard was "wait" and "adoption." Honestly, it confused me and frustrated me. I kept thinking, "Okay God, I know I know. We are adopting and why are you saying wait?"
Well, when we first applied to adopt internationally through Bethany we were given countries that we were pre-approved for (this was back in June or July of 2013). Each country has their own set of rules and standards based on income, length of marriage, children in the home presently, etc. Based on what we were approved for really the only country that seemed feasible was Ethiopia. We couldn't leave the country for 6 weeks so that canceled out Uganda and South Africa and we weren't comfortable with moderate to severe special needs so that pretty much canceled out the rest (of the countries Bethany has partnerships with). Several countries basically only offer their moderate to severe special needs children to international adoption.
With that being said, we truly felt God wanted us to go Ethiopia and I honestly believe He did momentarily. He gave us a heart for Ethiopia and I am excited to see what He does with that one day (maybe our next will come from there?). But for now He has clearly opened another door for us.
We have officially changed course and have chosen to go with the China mild/correctable special needs program. Now let me just tell you how God has worked this out.... When we first applied to adopt with Bethany we didn't even qualify for China because David didn't make enough money to meet their requirements. We turned in our home study paperwork in November 2013 & on December 1st, 2013 David started a new job making more money (just the exact right amount to qualify us for China). Also, when we began this process we weren't open to any kind of "special need." God has really done some major stuff in our lives over the last several months to open our eyes to the children that few seem to want because they aren't "perfect."
Side note here.... Can I just give some of you encouragement if you are in a period of waiting and you feel God is a little silent? He is in the waiting and He has the most perfect reason for it and He wants you to draw nearer to Him during this time and change and mold you. We have had several delays and He controlled those as well. We mailed our home study paperwork to Bethany in November. It should have been done by late January to early February. David's job change delayed that because we had to redo some paperwork and get his new company to send an employment verification letter in to Bethany. He had to work on getting someone to do that in Memphis with his company and it took months. Ugh.... I was beyond annoyed and frustrated. Now I am thankful for it!! Then some officials in Ethiopia announced that they really wanted to stop international adoption all together and if not stop it then change many of the laws and essentially make it more difficult and lengthen the wait times. We waited for about 6 weeks just to hear an announcement from Ethiopia about a decision. They finally announced they didn't intend to close international adoption but didn't make clear what would be changed. Oh and our adoption counselor went on maternity leave in the middle of all of this.
So, because we were tired of waiting, without clear direction from God, we told our stand-in adoption counselor that we would go ahead and proceed with Ethiopia and that we wanted our home study done as soon as possible. Well, almost 3 weeks went by and we heard nothing from her. Poor thing she knew nothing about us and I'm sure our file was just thrown in her lap. In those 3 weeks though God showed us China and the mild/correctable special needs program. We (well mainly David) had never thought about it prior to this but we actually qualified for it now. Our current estimated wait times for a referral is 1-6 months for a boy and 6-18 months for a girl. Since we have not specified gender.... I'm thinking a BOY! But that's in God's hands and we know that He already knows who are child is.
So what this means for us now is that we are going to have to raise about $25,000 more much quicker than before! Would you consider supporting us financially? If you can't or don't feel led, please pray that God will provide the funds and unite us with our little one.
You can donate by going to our fundraiser website: www.youcaring.com/wallaceadoption
"For
I know the plans I have for you, declares the Lord, plans for welfare
and not for evil, to give you a future and a hope." Jeremiah 29:11
