Got $25 to lend?

Ok, I know this is supposed to be a blog dedicated to our adoption, but I can never pass up sharing about other international justice issues as well. I have just started investing in a great organization called KIVA. Go to KIVA.ORG and check them out! Kiva is a non profit organization that gives micro loans (small amounts) to people in developing countries for business development. For as little as $25, you can help someone across the world start up their own business and empower them to lift themselves out of poverty. This is a loan, you get repaid! The payback rate is over 97% and really, are you using that $25 dollars for anything useful anyway? Instead of earning a measly interest in your bank account, loan it to someone whose whole life it will change. Here is one group I have supported from my favorite place to visit in the world: Guatemala! There are many other entrepreneurs waiting for loans in multiple countries around the world!

Click below to learn more about a specific person you could loan money to!

Come on Rain!

Ethiopia currently sits on the verge of a famine due to the lingering drought and increase in food prices. The rainy season should start soon, and the country needs a great season to end this drought! See these articles for more info....

BBC story
VOAnews story
MSN story

Wow, time flies when.... you're waiting?!?!?

Whenever I get on this blog site I look at the countdown to adoption on the right side of the screen and see the little icon representing our son moving on down the line toward our referral. I can hardly believe it has been over 6 months since our dossier hit Ethiopian soil. I never thought I would see the little icon get as far as it has, since we were originally told our referral would come around 5 months. I realized today that the little guy is going to go off the screen before we actually get our referral at the 8-9 month mark... I just had to fix that as the timeline only went up to 7 months... We are currently sitting in the low 40's on the unofficial wait list for our agency and are slowly moving up! We are probably actually around 70-80 on the list and they do about 25 referrals a month, so we should be finding out who our little boy is in 3 months or so! In a side note, pray for LOTS of rain this rainy season for Ethiopia, they really need it!

With the rain, comes some good news!

A piece of good news regarding the adoption.  Our adoption agency is now offering the opportunity to receive referrals during the court closure! This is the first year they are doing this as they usually stop all referrals in June and don't start giving them out again until the court reopens in the fall. As I have whined about, I mean talked about before, we are most likely going to hit our 8-9 month wait and referral window during the court closure. Now we can get our referral during that time and hopefully speed the process up a bit and have our little boy home by Christmas! 

Moving on up...

Well, we are in the low 50's on the wait list and still on target to bring our boy home in late fall/early winter. I have relinquished to being happy for our wait... as it means more and more children are getting homes, which in a country with over 5 million orphans... is a good thing! I just wish they had the infrastructure to handle the increase in adoptions so it didn't take so long.

Christmas Homecoming?

Bad news... REALLY bad news. One of my biggest fears of this adoption have been confirmed. Due to some issues with the courts in Ethiopia our adoption has been again delayed (Sam and Em; we may have to start referring to this baby as the alleged baby of '08 as well). Our dossier was accepted mid November (when we officially started "waiting") and our estimated time frame was 5-7 months and we were told when waiting for a boy it would be closer to the 5 months.  Well I found out today they are increasing wait time to 8-9 months which will put us into the court closure. As I have said before, Ethiopian courts close sometime mid summer and don't open again until fall so there are no referrals given during this time. All this means that it is HIGHLY unlikely we will get a referral before court closure (barring a near miracle). Now our estimated time of referral is Sept/Oct which means, if we are lucky we will have our baby home by Christmas because the time to travel has also been increased. I am so frustrated, sad, and just plain bummed. I was thinking we would have our little boy home this summer, and now it won't most likely be until the winter. I need to go now and eat some chocolate.... a lot of it.

Give Peace a Chance

I just read about an explosion in the capital of Ethiopia, supposedly linked to Eritrea (the country bordering Ethiopia to the north). Tensions have been growing over a border dispute between the two countries over the past few months but to date, most reported violence has been isolated to the northern border. Reports say a bus was bombed in the capital city of Addis Ababa and is purported to be planted by Eritrean agents. Eight people were killed and 27 injured. Not only does this raise concerns about safety of travel, but if violence escalates there is always the potential for adoptions to be temporarily ceased. Needless to say, we wish for peace for the people of this country and pray that not only will Ethiopians and Eritreans come to a peaceful resolve but also that our adoption will not be affected.