Introducing Our SON...

We got the okay to post pictures today of our son Milkias. We passed court on March 10th and are awaiting the paperwork to be completed and birth certificate so we can put in for our Embassy date and go and bring him home. He is such a happy looking little boy and we can't wait to see him blossom when he gets home. You can see he has a funny personality in many of the pictures.
Please pray that we get our Embassy date very soon so he will be home with us.

So Sorry

Well it's been a crazy busy week. But.... We passed Court!!!! EARLY!!!!!! I got the call Thursday morning. I was standing in the middle of Old Time Pottery with KK and couldn't believe it. Our case worker called and my heart sank at first thinking she was going to tell us that something was wrong but she answers saying:

You have a son...

Me: What...

Her: You have a son. You passed court.

Me: No that's not suppose to be until tomorrow.

Her: Well it was today..

Me: Wow, I have a son!!

I then turned to KK and told her M was finally ours. She started jumping up and down and yelling yeah! M is finally ours. I can't wait to tell Daddy.

So in the middle of the store I called Jim. And practically yelling into the phone.

Jim: Hey what's up

Me: We have a son!!!

Jim: What?

Me We have a son!! We Passed court early.

Jim: What We passed!. Oh I can eat.

Me: Yes you can eat now....

See we were both fasting until we heard something. Of course I fasted until our whole group heard their news. 3 of the 5 of us passed court. Please pray for the other two families to pass court so their little girls can come home very soon too. My heart aches for them and their little ones.

So that was Thursday, still trying to get used to the idea that 7,000 miles away our Son is waiting for us. There is now a Kirkland in Ethiopia waiting for us to pick him up.

Then Friday we had 25+ family at the house for Lawson's birthday and then 5 of his class mates came Saturday and 4 stayed the night. So you see it's Sunday morning and I have yet to sleep more than a handful of hours and haven't had time to update our blog. So forgive me if it sounds odd I am soooo tired and am going to bed now at 10:47 am on Sunday. And hopefully will sleep for more than 3-4 hours.

Only 3 more days...

Until we find out if we passed court or not. Huge request for prayers on Thursday. Our court is the 11th but since Ethiopia is 8 hours ahead of us our court will probably happen sometime while we sleep.

Who am I kidding there will be no sleep for me. It's gonna be a long week.

On top of court we also have two birthday parties for Lawson. One Friday night with the family and then a friend sleep over Saturday night. Not sure what I was thinking!

Let's just say our weekend will be VERY busy. I wish it was all happening during the week so maybe it would go by faster.

There really hasn't been much news on the Ethiopian adoption front. MOWCY is still trying to cut their letters of adoption recommendation but has been met with many agencies and groups opposition. We pray they will not cut the letters down and find a better solution to the issues at hand. The Children are the ones that suffer the most. Our pain waiting here is nothing compared to theirs.

I pray "M" does not feel we abandoned him and that he knows we are coming back as soon as they let us to bring him home. We just want him home with us. To start his new life with his new forever family. Give him the love, and stability he is lacking now. Don't get me wrong the nannies at the orphanage love those kids like their own But nothing can replace a Mother and Father's love and security. I wonder what he thinks of us those two crazy Americans who colored and played soccer with him all day and who left as quick as they came. I hope he feels the connection we feel towards him. I just want to hop on a plane Africa bound to see him and show him we will be back.

So 3 days until we know if he is legally our son and can put in for am Embassy date and bring him home.

Help Father. I need You now.

This morning I open facebook and read another one of our adoption buddies updates. As I read my heart and soul went cold. It seems they have an expired document ( on March 9th) and our court date is suppose to be the 10th. We pray they are allowed to pass anyway since it is so close.

Something that is very close to my heart since I went through our own docs this week and found that we had the 2006, 2007, and 2008 tax returns not 2009. The 2008 would be 2 + years and all docs should be less than 2 years. Now I don't know if this is a document that would affect us or not haven't heard back from my agency yet. I don't think it is but anything at this point sends a chill through you. Any delay in our case at all will result in a year + process to bring our boy home it seems.
You see the MOWCY(ministry of women and childrens affairs) has set the date for the decrease of 50+ letters to only 5 on March 10th. A day before our court date. If we do not pass on the 11th the wait will increase dramatically until we can get M home.

Here is a copy of the newspaper . This coupled with the looming US government shut down at embassy is not good news for anyone in the adoption process in Ethiopia and especially not the children it affects.

"Ethiopia is cutting back by as much as 90 percent the number of inter-country adoptions it will allow, as part of an effort to clean up a system rife with fraud and corruption. Adoption agencies and children's advocates are concerned the cutbacks will leave many Ethiopian orphans without the last-resort option of an adoptive home abroad.

Ethiopia's Ministry of Women's, Children's and Youth Affairs has issued a directive saying it will process a maximum of five inter-country adoptions a day, effective March 10. Currently, the ministry is processing up to 50 cases a day, about half of them to the United States.

A copy of the directive provided to VOA says the reduction of up to 90 percent in cases will allow closer scrutiny of documents used to verify a child's orphan status.

Ministry spokesman Abiy Ephrem says the action was taken in response to indications of widespread fraud in the adoption process.

"What we have seen so far has been some illegal practices. There is an abuse. There are some cases that are illegal. So these directives will pave the way to come up with [safeguards]," said Abiy Ephrem.

Investigations have turned up evidence of unscrupulous operators in some cases tricking Ethiopian parents to give up their children, then falsifying documents in order claim a part of the large fees involved in inter country adoptions.

American couples often pay more than $20,000 to adopt an Ethiopian child. Such amounts are an enormous temptation in a country where the average family earns a few hundred dollars a month.

U.S. State Department statistics show more than 2,500 Ethiopian orphans went to the United States last year. That is more than a ten fold increase over the past few years, making Ethiopia the second most popular destination for Americans seeking to adopt overseas, after China.

Child protection professionals generally welcomed efforts to clean up the system.

Some, however, questioned the motive behind the cutback. One adoption agency representative who asked not to be identified called the policy "ridiculous", and said it appears to be in retaliation for recent criticism of the government's lax oversight of the process.

Abigail Rupp, head of the consular section at the U.S. Embassy in Addis Ababa says the cutback is likely to result in a drop in adoptions to the United States from last year's 2,500 to fewer than 500. She says the biggest concern is for the estimated 1,000 children currently in the adoptions pipeline, who may be forced to wait more than a year for their cases to be considered.

"We share the government's concerns about the vulnerabilities in the process. But certainly we have concerns about children who would be waiting longer for their adoptions to be final. That would mean they would be in an orphanage or transition home for a longer period of time," she said.

Rupp said adoption agencies in Ethiopia should take the directive as a cue to be accountable for each case they bring forward, including knowing exactly how children in orphanages came to be there. She said government officials have indicated they may close as many as 45 orphanages as part of the effort to clean up what critics have labeled a "baby business".

Ted Chaiban, head of the Addis Ababa office of the U.N. children's agency UNICEF, called the new rules "an important step" in rooting out irregularities in the system and finding family-based local solutions for what the government estimates are 5 million Ethiopian orphans.

"What is important is that any child deemed to require care be looked at in terms of a range of options starting from family reunification all the way through inter country adoption. In that respect the work being done by the ministry needs to be strengthened and supported," he said.

U.S. Embassy officials late Friday indicated they are posting an adoption alert on the State Department's website addressing the concerns of Americans who will be affected by the Ethiopian government directive. The alert can be seen at www.adoptions.state.gov."

My spirit is broken yet again. My heart has never felt this much hurt. I know if I look into Biblical history our wait is just a drop in times bucket. But it feels like an eternity for us. Please pray that we pass on the 11th and can bring our son home sooner rather than later. We will wait to bring him home as long as it takes. But the pain is sometimes to much to for me to handle on my own. And that is sometimes how I feel On my own. I know thousands of people are going through this same process and feel the same hurt and longing as we do but I still feel tramped on this island by myself.

Please pray for everyone involved in this Ethiopian process and especially for us to all have peace and strength to look to HIM during these times of trail. And the children this will affect. That they will be taken care of while we wait to get them home.

What I love about my husband

My husband is constantly amazing me.
Today we were talking about a friend who going through a difficult time with their adoption process. We were talking about praying for this couple who may have to give up their referral (kinda long story please pray for them)
I told him all we could do is pray for them that God will make his will shown to them loud and clear. I know they love these kids with their whole hearts now. I have been there and loved our first referrals for a long time before we lost them.

I thought back to our first referrals how he was amazingly not devastated by loosing them like I was. What I came to realize was in his mind they were not ours and was not totally attached. He was open and willing to adopt them because it was right and he would have loved them but he just couldn't let himself get close to pictures of kids. All I can say is Thank You God for his feeling towards that whole experience. He was not cold, just guarded, I sometimes wish I had been more like him in that way. I don't think the kids could have gone through seeing both of their parents crying hysterically on the couch for days.

He then said the most touching thing I think I have ever heard come out of his mouth yet. "Now with our little man we have bonded with him, Loved him, played with, and accepted him. He is ours and we would wait years to bring him home if we had too. I've accepted him already as ours"

Now those words don't seem like much but coming from him that means " he's my son". That was huge to hear. I mean I knew that in my heart but his I wasn't so sure if he felt that way really or not yet.
If I have learned anything in this bumpy road journey it's that People surprise you along the way. They react differently and not always the way you think they would.