I was posting the link to our Amazon fundraiser on Facebook the other day and I realized it has been a VERY long time since I updated the adoption blog. There are many reasons for this. First, we have been busy and I don't get a chance to sit down and "catch" up on things like this very often and when I do sit down the blog is not the first thing on my mind. Second, is the "slow down" or "new normal" has been very discouraging and frustrating and confusing to me. Lastly, because of this "slow down/new normal" there hasn't been a whole lot to report.
So an initial catch up post, since the last one I wrote was before the garage sale, is that the garage sale was VERY successful again. It was a very good lesson learned for us. The first garage sale we had we had a lot of more expensive high quality items donated to us, that we could sell for quite a bit of money (or we just craig's listed because people are usually willing to pay more there). This year we had a TON of smaller items and clothing donated. We went into it pretty discouraged and didn't do great on Friday so were afraid that Saturday would be similar, a lot of work without a lot of return. That we would just end up with a lot of unwanted junk in the end. Well, Saturday was fairly successful and we ended up selling the clothes for $10 a grocery bag since we had tarps and tarps of clothes on the lawn. I think that was incredibly successful and we probably brought in over $500 from just clothes (if not more, that was a long time ago). The other thing we found is that on Sunday we went out to organize and clean up and people were still steadily walking around. So we ended up making another couple hundred dollars and getting rid of a lot more stuff (by selling things for super cheap). So in the end even though we had a lot different types of items we still came away with more than $2000, which was amazing! It was a lot of work and we will probably want to take a break form garage sale's this next summer! We are still considering other fundraising opportunities though.
I also wanted to update everyone regarding adoptions in Ethiopia as a whole. As I have written about before the Ethiopian government essentially shut down international adoptions for about 9 months last year and earlier this year while they revamped and put new procedures and policies into place. Well, back in the spring after about 9 months of no kids getting matched with families or being allowed to come home we were told that international adoptions would continue just probably at a slower pace and with more checks and balances in place. They also wanted to advocate for kids to find family members or other people in Ethiopia willing to adopt children so they could be raised within country. This is all fine to us because we obviously want adoptions to be ethical and children to stay within their culture if at all possible. Well we were excited that June would start seeing some movement, but alas, no such luck. There have been 0-2 children found eligible for international adoption a month since June. We have been told that this is not a "slow down" and that we can expect this to be the new normal for us. Our agencies have been working with the orphanages and meeting with the Ethiopian government to see what needs to happen given this new slower rate of adoptions.
All of this has been so frustrating and confusing for us. We really felt called to adopt from Ethiopia and love the country. However, if we continue at this pace, given where we are on the wait list, we could be waiting 5 to 10 more years. That is a hard pill to swallow, as we both feel like our "baby clock" is ticking. We are open to children up to the ages of our children, but it is still so hard to wait as our kids get older and older! Please be praying for us as we contemplate continuing on our wait verses changing countries. We go back and forth and one day I think we should just switch to a place with less of a wait and where it seems that there is more need, but then I find that there is no such thing in international (or even domestic) adoption and then I think that God's timing is perfect and as hard as this wait is we will learn and grow from it and that this is what we are supposed to be doing.
It really all brings me back to why we are doing this in the first place. It's not supposed to be easy. We are doing it for the kids. But why are there "so many kids" piled in orphanages or in foster homes waiting for forever families all over the world, and so many families who are willing to adopt them and love them and be their family yet we can't? The wait is long, the price is too high, only certain kids are eligible for international adoption in some countries. It is so frustrating to me, it breaks my heart everyday that I think about it. But what can I do, beyond what I am doing? Please pray that I can get to a place of peace in this long wait process. You could also pray for movement and that all of the kids waiting in the jammed packed orphanages will find forever families and will know the love that they are supposed to know.
Thanks for still checking the blog. I no longer post it on Facebook as I want it to be more private, but I still want people who are interested to be able to catch up if they want.
