Why are we adopting from Ethiopia?

James 1:27 says, "Pure and undefiled religion before our God and Father is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself unstained by the world." This verse was the beginning of our journey towards adopting a child. When we first felt the call to adopt, it was something we had been praying about individually. When we realized that the Lord had placed the adoption of a child on both of our hearts, we knew that we had to follow Him in this special calling that He had placed on our lives. When we first started talking about adoption, we were completely open as to where we should adopt from. After much prayer, and much research on the numerous adoption agencies available, we knew that we were called to adopt internationally. We made the decision to go with Christian World Adoption. After talking to them, we knew that we were supposed to go to Ethiopia. The verse listed above calls us to care for the fatherless. We wanted to help a child that had little hope of finding a real home. Statistics showed us that an orphaned boy from Ethiopia had a slim chance of finding a home.

Thus, our decision was made, and our journey began. If the adoption process teaches you anything, it is patience - patience in understanding the process, in filling out mountains of forms, in obtaining and waiting for the necessary finances to materialize. And it also teaches you about God's provision and timing, specifically that we must wait for His plans to come together, and trust that His timing and will is what is best for us. This is much easier said than done. Patience is not our strong suit (though Chris has more than Robin), but it is becoming a little easier as we begin to realize that adoptions just take time. We know we will bring home the child God has for us in His timing, and not ours.

At this point, we are just about to have our homestudy done. This is an important step in the adoption process. After we have our homestudy done and it is approved, then we can work on our "dossier". This is a word we hear over and over, and it is basically your life history handed over to the Ethiopian government. The orphanages that we are working through in Ethiopia require that the child go to a Christian home, and they just want to make sure the child is going to a loving home. After we complete the dossier, it is submitted to Ethiopia. Once they accept it and approve us (usually within 3 months of receiving it), then we will get a referral. WHAT A DAY THAT WILL BE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! We cannot imagine what our emotions will be on that great day. Imagine how it would be to see the face of someone you have prayed for and has been in your heart for so long. AWESOME!!!

We know that no adoption is without its challenges and we have been working hard to educate ourselves on issues that can occur with international adoption, particularly when the child is of a different race. We have been reading the book Adoption Parenting, and been learning about ways to attach with your child, feeding issues, sleep issues, ways to discipline children who have not necessarily come from a loving environment. We want to honor the culture that our child comes from, as that is extremely important for the adopted child. It is also important to realize that we can honor his heritage while building new family traditions.

Well, hopefully this long first post has brought everyone up to speed on where we are at, and where we hope to go. Everyone has been so supportive and loving, and we thank you for that from the bottom of our hearts. It means more to us than you could know. We will keep the blog updated with all the new and exciting developments as they occur, and we are sure there will be many!