Picture a high mountain and a deep valley at the same time…really…go for it.

Got it?  Now if you want to know how we are doing with the adoption, I guess you could say we are climbing out from the dark corners of the valley and feeling some warmth and sun on our faces.  In short, we are encouraged right now.  No, we aren’t finished with the climb and may even find ourselves back on the dark side of the trail for a time, but lately we are encouraged.

About a month ago…

We had FINALLY received the last document back in the mail for our dossier (big bundle o’ docs that we send to Ethiopia).  We were so excited to see that out-of-state return address and the very official looking golden leafed seal on our paperwork inside.  This was it!  Now we could send the bundle to our agency and be on the waiting list within a couple weeks!  So, we laid it all out on the table and took a victory picture.

Shortly after the photo shoot (and a mini dance party), we started to get some bizarre news about our adoption placement agency.  Now, we really want to be careful here because from our experience this agency has been nothing but kind, responsive and helpful.  However, the wait times for referrals (where the agency “matches” you to a child) had grown significantly over the time we were preparing our paperwork.  This slowdown along with major delays in the Ethiopian courts caused our hearts to sink as quickly as they had risen.

It took some long conversations and prayer sessions, but then we began to look at our options.  We could stay with our agency and face what was now estimated at around 2 years of waiting till we might bring our kid home.  We could switch to another agency and risk loosing time, money and still not be any closer.  We could just…give up.

At this point we will spare you all the details and just explain where we are now.  You know, the sun, warmth, faces part.

We are currently with a new placement agency.  We lost very little time and money, plus we are (seemingly) much closer to our sweet little one coming home.  And, in case you were wondering….yes, we are still adopting from Ethiopia.  🙂

What’s next, you say?  Well, we still need to redo a couple pieces of the paperwork for the new agency, and pay them a couple bucks (actually quite a few!).  But, like we have been trying to express all along, this adoption is bigger than us.

These moments that we get to catch our breath and take in the view remind us that God has been and always will guide us through.