New Blog Features

Check out our newest blog features on the right hand side.  The first one is a list of DTEs ahead of us in line (the ones we know, at least).  The second (below the list of blogs I follow) is a calculation of where we are in-line for our referral.  It's just a best guess, so don't put too much faith it in.  And it's only for the boy-either line.  Not where we think we might be overall.

Five Months.....

I had this great, happy post written but had to erase it... Unfortunately I can no longer give a good estimate on when we can expect our referral. The Agency in Ethiopia that writes the letter needed to pass court has stopped writing letters for children who are abandoned "for the time being." There has been a large increase in the number of children who have been abandoned recently so the Agency (a Government Agency, not our adoption agency) will stop writing letters until they can investigate the reason for the increase.

So, who knows what this means for us. Our agency may continue to receive children who were abandoned, but they will not be able to refer those children to families. For the children who came to the orphange under a different set of circumstances, they should be able to refer these children. So, our wait could be 3-4 months to who knows when...we will continute to wait and pray!

I continue to ask that everyone keeps praying for all of the families in our agency (to have peace in their hearts while they wait, to have safe travels, that the jugdes in ET pass their cases quickly and feel at peace), the families of the children that are being relinquished and the children themselves. I also ask for extra prayers for the families that have referrals of children who were abandoned because they will not be able to pass court and travel to pick up their children until the Agency has completed their investigation and begins to write letters again.

Thank You Again!

The goal of $12,500 has been reached! Thank you again to all of you who donated. And to all of you who keep these kids (in and out of the orphanages) in your prayers!

If there's anyone who still wants to donate, please email me. CHC is no longer taking donations, but travel groups deliver donations of many different items to the transition home, area orphanages and the poor each trip.

Happy Mother's Day!

Thank you!

When I last heard, over $7,000 had already been raised for formula! Thank you to everyone who has helped so far. A family left for DC last night with a container of 50 cans of formula for the kids at the transition home! And, luckily, the extra baggage fee was waived for the US leg of their trip. They are still waiting to hear if Ethiopian Air will waive the fee! We pray they will! It's not cheap and the family has already said they would prefer to donate the money to get even more formula!

Please Help!

Our agency (AWAA) has recently experienced an influx of severly malnourished babies. These children (sometimes only a few pounds even though they are 2-4 months old) need a special kind of formula that cannot be purchased in Ethiopia. So far the families that are adopting from our agency have been pooling together resources to send over the formula with families that are traveling to pick up their children. However, the problem is becoming quite pressing, so I would like to ask for help from our friends and family.

Our agency recenlty partnered with a group called Children's HopeChest to raise money to buy and ship the needed formula. Please see their site http://tomdavis.typepad.com./
NOTE: The picture with the post might be disturbing for some people.

Here is a link to the fellow AWAA family that made the partnership happen! http://themonbergs.com/2009/05/05/a-mommy-on-a-mission/

We are asking our friends and family to donate if they can. You can donate money directly to CHC and all of it will go to buying formula and paying the necessary shipping. Also, you can donate a can/cans of formula directly by sending them to one of our traveling families. Please let me know if you want to do this and I will get you the address of the next travelling family that has room for formula.

A can of formula costs about $27 and is enough for a one baby for 5-7 days.

It makes my soul weep to know that there are children out there in this condition. But, I must tell you, it hurts even more to know that one of these children might be my son!

Any help you can offer would be greatly appreciated. Thank you so very much!