First, My friend Ashley and I bought a company. That's right, I'm a small business owner! Whaaaa??? While the first two months have been a tad bit stressful, I am doing better and into the swing of things. I. LOVE. IT!
Second, Andy went to China for work....and ate a bunch of strange things! While he was gone I trekked up to the U.P. to spend that time with my parentals. I wasn't about to try doing the whole parenting thing on my own. RESPECT to single parents! Seriously!
Third, we were in the finishing stages of the paper work and that takes precedence over this blog.
And lastly....I'm a mom for the love of Pete. There just isn't enough free time in the day!
So yeah, that's why I haven't blogged in a while. On to the meat~
We have basically finished up our paper work at this point. We have a few things to mail here or there, but for the most part the busy work is done. Our next major hurdle is the fundraising! I am terrible at it, I hate it and I'm not quite sure what to do about it. So there. That's how I feel. If ya have any ideas feel free to share! For those of you who have helped out and have done an at home party or garage sale or have given us things to sell or have just flat out given us money. THANK YOU! You have been a huge blessing!! OH YEAH!!! We raised a pretty good chunk from the 31 bags party! Thanks guys!!! Sooooo thankful for all who purchased!! Thank you Thank you!.....
Now to the bummer part. We got an email today from our agency and this is how it read....
blah blah blah....The wait times are increasing from 18-24 months to 24-30 months for a male or female infant or toddler. We do not have as many families requesting children four years and older and thus the wait for those families will likely be shorter than the current wait times.
Paperwork, specifically the clearance, is still the main contributor for the slowdown in the Ethiopia program. If we have a child in the transition home who is completely paper-ready, but does not have a clearance, we need to wait on that final document before referring the child to a family. Unfortunately, the clearance process is still one that is intensive and can be drawn out over many, many months; the final clearance could take one month or a 1+ years to obtain. Unfortunately, this is a process that we are not permitted to manipulate and is contingent on the governmental bodies in Ethiopia.
We know this is difficult news, especially in light of the holidays. We are excited to post our November Referral Update on our blog later this week as there were over 10 referrals this month. We want to walk through this journey with your family and will do as much as possible on our side to have these children placed in homes as quickly as possible. Blah Blah Blah....
So that sucks! There is no other way of putting it. It just plain sucks! When we started this process it was 9-12 months and then last November it changed to 18-24 and now we are looking at nearly 3 years to go. It pretty much makes me want to throw up, give up, and scream! Andy handles these things way better than me. I melt down and throw a little fit and he just tells me it's gonna be ok. I tell him I want to quit and he says "I don't!" ....boy did God ever know what he was doing when he put us together! He holds me together until I can get it together. I kept thinking our little munchkin was probably already born, but in reality.....our new reality....she probably hasn't even been thought of by her birth parents. She sure as heck has been thought of (and prayed for) by her forever parents though!
I guess I should look at the bright side right? It gives me 3 more years to raise $29,000! Makes it sound more doable right? (Now would be a good time to agree with me!) :)
Thanks for praying guys. We sure need it!
