Be Still and Know: New Numbers and New Friends

As many of you have probably heard by now, things have gotten a little crazy in the world of Ethiopian adoptions during the last few weeks. About 2 weeks ago, MOWA (the Ministry of Women's Affairs in Ethiopia) announced that they were going to be processing a maximum of 5 cases per day, which could mean up to a 90% reduction in the number of adoptions from Ethiopia. Since that announcement, there have been many advocacy meetings between the Ethiopian government and various other organizations, the director of MOWA has been terminated, and there are lots of rumors flying around. No one seems to know for sure at this point how everything will proceed, but there could be a huge amount of extra waiting time added to adoption cases that are currently in process. Pray for the children who are languishing right now in orphanages as they wait to meet their new families. One thing that we are completely sure of: God knew that this would happen when He called us into this adoption, so there is no use worrying about it. Praying, yes, but worrying? NO! God knows the plans that He has for us and for our future son or daughter, so we will wait until He is ready to reveal those plans.

On a positive note, we received our March numbers today, and there has been significant movement since our "official" update in February. We are now officially #64 for a girl and #51 for a boy.

Last weekend, we had the opportunity to spend some time with a fellow adoptive family that we have had the pleasure of getting to "know" online for the last year and a half. The "R" family adopted their son from Hannah's Hope a few weeks before Yikealo arrived there. When we arrived home several months later, our social worker connected our families, and we have been e-mailing and following each other's blogs since. We've been wanting to meet for some time, and last weekend we finally made it happen.

Our boys seemed to hit it off right away. They played soccer in the back yard, played Wii games, and giggled about how similar their hair was. Shortly after we arrived at their house, both boys came swaggering out from one of the bedrooms with their shirts off, puffing out their chests in exactly the same way. We had to laugh at the expectant, excited looks on their faces! They were obviously excited by the similarity of their skin-tones and hair texture. That's not all they have in common either: they are both originally from the same region of Ethiopia, they are both INTENSELY competitive, and they are both incapable of standing still when they are happy. They skip instead of walking, they use some of the same hand gestures, they both have ridiculously long tongues, and they still use Amharic words for the bathroom. Oh yeah, and they're REALLY cute!

I think that Yikealo's favorite part of the visit was their HUGE box of dress-up clothes. I've been borrowing children's books on tape for him from the library lately, and awhile back he became OBSESSED with Disney's Toy Story. He listened to it so many times that he had it memorized. Well, not only did the R's have a Toy Story game for their Wii, they had costumes for Buzz and Woody both! What more could a little boy possibly want? Yikealo sort of refused to take his Buzz costume off once he discovered it, although at one point, he added Woody's cowboy hat to the ensemble and was calling himself "Buzz-Woody."

We had such a wonderful time with this incredible family! We talked and talked, comparing notes on everything from adoption and Ethiopia to faith, marriage and family. It's always a blessing to meet someone who has walked a similar path to yours, and we are so thankful that we had the chance to connect! The three older girls spoiled Mr. Y by letting him play with their cell-phones and take their pictures, so he thought they were just great. He keeps talking about them, although he can't remember their names, so they are "the big girl and the other big girl and the little girl."