A Smattering of News

The most popular question we get is "is there any news." The short answer is no. The meeting that we were told was going to take place never did. The idea was to approach MOWA directly instead, & so far we still have not heard of such a meeting. Yet, our case manager told us last Thursday that an American adoption network is going to have a meeting in ET. That's the reality of the news we get- very vague & translates into nothing tangible. We have no idea who the meeting is going to be with, when it is supposed to take place, etc. We know God is big & our prayer doesn't change - we pray that God will bring unity to the situation so that by the time the court opens back up in mid-October, we can have our MOWA approval letter there & be passed to the U.S. Embassy part of the process. To be completely frank though, the potential of that happening is just as equal as the potential that the Southern Regional Government shuts down adoptions from their area for good. Not that anyone thinks that is going to happen, it is, however, the realness of the complication of the matter. Our case manager told me it was best to not expect any definite news on whether or not MOWA would review our cases until the courts reopen. I don't want to come off as a 'debbie downer' because we do have hope despite this. The Lord was sweet to me, & reminded me of a favorite childhood hymn last Sunday at my grandmother's church & I have been clinging to it ever since...Standing on the Promises of God:

	Standing on the promises of Christ my King,

through eternal ages let his praises ring;

glory in the highest, I will shout and sing,

standing on the promises of God.

Standing on the promises that cannot fail,

when the howling storms of doubt and fear assail,

by the living Word of God I shall prevail,

standing on the promises of God.

Standing on the promises of Christ the Lord,

bound to him eternally by love's strong cord,

overcoming daily with the Spirit's sword,

standing on the promises of God.

Standing on the promises I cannot fall,

listening every moment to the Spirit's call,

resting in my Savior as my all in all,

standing on the promises of God.  	

We are also blessed with a very caring director of our transition home. She sent us {the families that are being effected by the freeze on the Southern region} a sweet note 2 weeks ago to let us know that everyday she is on the phone trying to figure out what is going on & fighting for our cases. She told us that everyday she is personally sitting down with our children, telling them how much their mommies & daddies love them... i cannot begin to tell you how much this means! As promised, she sent us a special update last week. While I can't show the pictures, I will brag a little & tell you what she said about Little Man. :)

Our sweetest spirit & with grown up soul baby. He is growing & doing so well. He laughs & smiles all of the time. He loves his food & loves being held & intensely listens & looks at your face.

This just makes me smile...he is the perfect combination of Matt & me...LOVE :)

Also on the news front, I have decided to pursue actual completion of the nursery. I've been doing bits here & there for the last year, but I haven't really worked toward any sort of completion. I've had this huge fear {there's still some left} that I'll have a room that's ready with no sign of my baby coming home, then will have to look at a finished room day after day. I came to the realization last week that I may be holding on to this fear a little strongly. So, I had a talk with the Lord & told Him I would let go & step out in faith a little farther. To be clear, I am still in no big hurry but do think moving forward is the right thing to do for now.

Ready for a sneak peak?? This is a project I completed last spring with some BIG help from a great friend & her gracious client! ;) Matt's grandmother's couch had been sitting in a spare room at his mom's house for a while. I have always had my eye on it, so when I first started thinking about the nursery, it immediately came to mind! It was actually a great fun, retro print, & if had known we were going to get a girl, I might have worked around it. Instead, I wound up painting, recushioning, & reupholstering it.

The Before

{you are actually getting a bonus sneak peak of the fabric I fell in love with ;)}

The After...well need to touch up some of the paint!

{picture lots of fun pillows ;) also, disregard the wall design...we haven't painted yet!}

My Favorite Part

{apparently you are supposed to sign & date a piece when you reupholster it....so, i wrote a little note with mine...actually, i wrote 2 notes because i forgot to take a picture of the 1st one! :)}

Pictures

Because all I can do is keep going back over the pictures that we took, I thought I might as well share the ones I can here. :) {we are not allowed to share his face publicly yet.} I hope you enjoy!!

The view outside our hotel window. Our hotel, the Riviera, was located on the outside of Addis Ababa {ET's capital} very close to our transition home. You can see some bigger buildings in the background.

Matt & I at the gates of Hannah's Hope, our agency's transition home.

The baby building. They run a VERY clean ship! You can see the mattresses, boppies, toys, etc. that are have been washed & laying out to dry.

Our little man was asleep when we got there on Wednesday to meet him. Ethiopians like to make sure their babies are warm- all the babies are completely covered {faces & all} when they are napping. :)

The babies play downstairs in a large room during the day while the upstairs rooms are being cleaned. They sleep in moses baskets...it's hard to tell, but there's a little one asleep in the first basket!

Upstairs are 3 bedrooms, each with their own bath. Around 3, all the babies are moved upstairs for bath time, bottles, & naps. {meanwhile, the downstairs is cleaned. :)} This is T's crib. You can see our photo album we left for him on the side.

Matt is giving T a bottle here. He's got some LONG legs!! He kept wrapping them around Matt's arm...so sweet!

A close up...LOVE!! T's mostly long & lean, but it cracked me up that he's got fat rolls on his knees! Plus, his little hands have formula in the cracks of his fingers. I could literally stare at this one picture all. day. long.

Another sweet picture I thought. ;)

Little Man rolling over...for the most part on his own ;)

Matt & I had dear friends that are adopting through another agency in town the same week for their court date. Here, we had gone out to dinner with them at Top View on our last full night there. Mollie, I am kicking myself that we didn't get a picture together! :(

Update

We had an awesome time in Ethiopia with our son! I will post some pictures that I can soon, but wanted to write an update on where we are at.

On Friday morning, we were called back in front of the judge & after a few questions {we were with a group of 2 other families,} she told us that we approved pending our MOWA letter. We were thrilled! That afternoon, however, we found out some hard news. There have been several orphanages closed within the Southern region of ET, where our little guy is from. This is a large area, & without getting too technical & detailed, no one is really sure why the particular places are being shut down by the regional government. However, MOWA has decided to hold off on issuing any decisions on cases coming from the Southern region until all matters are resolved within the regional government & orphanages. We have no idea what this exactly entails or how long it might take.

There is a meeting tonight {Tuesday there} with several organizations lobbying for MOWA to go ahead & review cases like ours that have already passed court. These cases already have all their i's dotted & t's crossed, only lacking their approval letter from MOWA before moving on to getting VISAs for children to go home. Please join me in praying that this meeting is successful!!

{Just to be clear, the orphanage our lil man came from before he was brought to Addis Ababa was not one of the places closed. This is a region wide hold that is going on despite individual case circumstances. It is very sad for all kids involved! While my baby is in a transition home with lots of love & private resources, other kids are now stuck in government run orphanages with minimal resources. I'm praying it all is resolved soon for the best of everyone!}

The Lord is Mighty, & I rest in the Promises that He as already shown me! :)