It's Not "If", It's "When"

I think one of the hardest things right now is what Ben pointed out yesterday. Throughout our journey we were continually told that it's wasn't "if" the adoption would happen it was "when". Hmmm. Now it truly is "if".

We don't know what this all means for us as far as adoption is concerned. We shared an update with Warmland a couple of weeks ago and we said that for us the journey had always been adoption, Ethiopia was the country that pulled at our heart strings the most as we learned more and more. So that question leaves us in the lurk. If not Ethiopia then where? Financially, it is a big strain. Will we get any money back? Will our file in fact be processed in Ethiopia?

This is what we know today.

• DBO Dunwood issued a confirmation yesterday through financial statements that Imagine is truly and officially in bankruptcy. You can check out all 13 pages at what used to be Imagine's site. That is gone now too.
  
• Possibly on Friday we will find out if we can recover $7300 in trust, which we gave Imagine about a year ago. The $6000 is long gone.
  
• The 50 children at the Transition Home in Ethiopia (owned and run by Imagine) are being taken care of. We are not sure how, as there was only 2 days' worth of supplies...2 days ago. Apparently, however, they are doing okay.
• There is one other agency in all of Canada who facilitates Ethiopian Adoptions. You may recall, CAFAC hitting the news a couple of months ago. They are now taking a waitlist of clients as they are sensitive to referral wait times. Those clients whose files are active with them have an 18-24 mth for referral wait right now.
  
• There are a few other agencies in Ontario who could possibly facilitate these adoptions, however, they are not currently licensed in/through Ethiopia. Also, these agencies are smaller and they client load right now of those of us with dossiers in Ethiopia/Ghana is about 200. That is huge.
  
• Ethiopia is a Hague country which means that any and all legal adoptions must be performed through a licensed agency. The Ministry Of Women's Affairs (MOWA) in Ethiopia is the governing body for adoptions. They will only work with licensed agencies. So, if you aren't working with an agency, you can't get your file approved in Ethiopia b/c MOWA won't work to pass any adoptions that aren't through an agency. Does this make sense? It it's most raw definition, the Hague Convention protects children. Amen.
• We have sent letters to some of the key people involved with either the Ontario Ministry or International Adoption. Feel free to contact your (local) MP if you wish to voice your concern/frustration/desire to help those who have been inflicted by this.
  
• We are sickened at the thought of people who so kindly, generously, and sacrificially gifted us so much money.
  
• We still feel that the plan for us is adoption. We don't know how at this point. We also need to be realistic and know that the cost is great and our family cannot suffer but rather flourish from this.
  
• We know God is bigger than all this. He led us here for a reason. We followed him along this path and now we are waiting to see why the path has taken a serious deviation.
  
• We are still praying for the miracle.