Update

No news is good news.. right?  Well, not necessarily.  Spoke with our Case Manager yesterday and referrals are at a complete standstill.  There are plenty of children waiting, and plenty of adoptive parents waiting...it's the paperwork that's holding things up.  A representative from our Agency is heading over to Ethiopia next week to see if she can figure out what's going on.  Please pray for her safe travels and that she can get to the bottom of why the paperwork is moving so slow.  Please also pray for the precious babies that are growing up in an orphanage because of 'paperwork problems.'  At this point, we know our "E" is in an orphanage waiting ... God has a plan for all of these children.  I just hope it includes some of them coming to forever families in the U.S.  

Also, they have recently closed 14 orphanages in Ethiopia (none of them were affiliated with our Agency).  It does, however, effect some of the orphanages our Agency works with because the displaced children have been moved to other orphanages.  So, now the nannies and staff are overwhelmed with children . . .all while the paperwork has stopped.  These little babies (some of whom have already been matched with families) continue to wait. 

On a happy note, we did received word that all of our paperwork is ready and waiting at the Embassy in Ethiopia.  Now all we need is a referral! 

Regarding our referral, our Case Manager seems to think Baby E may be an infant vs. a toddler.  She said there have been many infants admitted to the orphanages lately.  She said if we get our referral soon we may go to court at the end of October/November.  If the referral comes later, it would be November/December for our first trip. 

In Angie's perfect world :)   I would LOVE to get a referral soon, travel in October and then in December to have E home for Christmas.  I know, silly me, but a girl can dream, right? 

Seriously though, please join us in praying for the waiting families and waiting children -- that we all can get matched up and get things moving, get submitted to court, etc.   We, (I mean HE) can do this!!