Adoption update.....

So, here's the latest on the adoption front....

Adopt?
Yes. Absolutely. Green light.

From where?
Ethiopia - I've always been drawn to Africa...I love the accents, the dark, dark brown skin of the people there, the big, white grins.....There are 2 agencies we're in contact with who do Ethiopian adoptions and come well-recommended. Wait time for an Ethiopian adoption is just 8-10 months in most cases!

Haiti - friends at our church have adopted from an orphanage there, an orphanage our church is taking a mission trip to this summer. Extreme poverty, beautiful children, wonderful Christian orphanage...We were all set to send our application and first chunk of money in this week when a friend asked us to check again on the wait time from Haiti (each country's government handles the adoption process differently), which we now know is a MINIMUM of 13 months, more likely 18-22 months. The cost of the Haiti adoption is almost 1/2 of the Ethiopian adoption (unless you adopt 2 children, and then both countries are about even).

US - We've essentially ruled this out. Because we're not looking for a newborn, we'd be working through the foster care system. At one time we considered becoming foster parents and possibly adopting through that kind of situation, but realized that foster care would be a completely separate ministry that our family really wasn't prepared for.....adopting through the foster care program is a great option for alot of families....but we've determined it's not for our family...for many reasons. It's funny how often people say things like, "you know, there are lots of children here who need homes" ...like we haven't considered that....I find myself getting really defensive about those kinds of questions, but I'm becoming more and more confident about the things that God has revealed to us so far.

So, here we are.....confident of where God is leading....and at the same time,completely in the dark about where God is leading. We decided not to send our Haiti application in until we get some sort of confirmation about direction.....which, of course, pushes the time-frame back even more.....

Keep praying!!