referral limbo

Sorry to leave you all hanging for a few days. Here is what has been going on.

Our agency, YWAM Ethiopia, is a licensed adoption agency in Washington. However, since they are not licensed with the Ethiopian government, they have a partnership with another agency (CHI) which is licensed and authorized to legally process Ethiopian adoptions. Although CHI does all the official legal paperwork, YWAM basically does all the relational, interpersonal stuff. They work directly with the families and children in their program and then, at the proper time, recommend adoption placements. YWAM recommends the placement, sends all the appropriate documentation to CHI, and CHI issues the official referral paperwork and handles the legal processes that follow.

A week and a half ago, YWAM requested that CHI issue us a referral for a 6 year old girl. In the three years that YWAM and CHI have been working together, every YWAM referral recommendation has been honored, so when our YWAM director called us on Friday morning with the news that the CHI social worker had decided not to approve the request we were shocked. After lots of tears and prayers, we knew we could not give up. We were not satisfied with the reasons given and felt that our situation warranted additional consideration, so we put together a letter and sent it to the executive director of CHI.

This afternoon she replied to our letter, saying that she would review our case along with the information in our letter and would have a decision for us by the middle of next week. We are so thankful that she is willing to look again and make sure that their decision reflects the absolute best choice for all parties involved. In the meantime... PLEASE PRAY!

-Pray for God's wisdom and guidance for the directors and social workers of YWAM and CHI.
-Pray for this sweet 6 year old girl, that God would provide a loving family for her, even if it is not ours.
-Pray for us - for patience, trust, and openness. Pray for the peace of Christ to rule in our hearts as we wait.

Thank you so much for walking this road with us. Your prayers and support have been a life-line for us, and a constant reminder that we are not alone. You are with us, God is with us, all will be well. Amen.