Oh Ethiopia, how you tear at my heartstrings! Well,
as we assumed, there is more bad news on the Ethiopian adoption forefront. We
received an email from our agency regarding a press conference made by the
House of Peoples’ Representatives and the Ministry of Women, Children, and
Youth. They are urging stakeholders and the public to undertake integrated work
to totally STOP the adoption of Ethiopian children to foreign families. They
urge everyone to work closely to end foreign adoption COMPLETELY.
My heart continues to break for this country and
most importantly for the children living without families within its borders.
The country of Ethiopia has heard of abuse allegations, and while these stories
are not nearly a majority, they do unfortunately occur. As such, they are
calling for initiatives to facilitate situations to raise children within their
own communities. They did attempt to speak on these “initiatives” however and
focus only on halting adoptions as their Golden plan.
There is obviously little I like about this news,
except for possibly the realization that Ethiopia SHOULD start taking action to
care for its children. Because, while I dream of bringing home our child from
Ethiopia, I know our adoption comes at a high price, that of abandonment. Helping
families keep their kiddos is and should be the best solution to the orphan
crisis. Furthermore, I know God never plans for a child to be born and
abandoned. That is not Gods “first plan” per se. God is good, and I know that He
loves families. But, as we all know, we live in a very broken world, one where poverty,
sickness, death, and abandonment seem to flourish. Luckily, we have a brilliant
God who has wonderfully beautiful “back up” plans. I was reminded of His
greatest back up plan again over the holidays…Of course nothing catches God off
guard. Nothing makes him scratch his head and say, “wow, I really didn’t see
that coming!” He knows everything after all. And Jesus may well have been his
“Golden Plan” from the start. So, I yearn to see what comes out of this new
development and how God will move in the country of Ethiopia. I pray it will
involve aid to the sick and poor in that country. I have been praying for a
revolution and maybe this is it….
I have to admit though, that it is very discouraging
news for countless families waiting in adoption limbo…such as the Reicherts. I
personally have been feeling a little down about our adoption recently, mostly
because I’ve been pondering about whether we heard God wrong in the first place.
We truly felt like God told us to start our adoption journey, and in turn our
family, 2 years ago, from the country of Ethiopia. And so, we did. But low and
behold, we became instant parents to the furthest thing to an African infant
out there; a blond haired, blue-eyed 2½ year-old fair skinned family member from
Ohio! Since that moment, we have basically
heard nothing but disheartening news out of Ethiopia. So, did we hear wrong?
I really cant answer that question, mainly because I’m
still waiting to see how much crazier this journey is going to get. What I do
know is that our adoption preparedness has and continues to guide us with our
current little guy and for that we are thankful. I know that sometimes when we
say “yes” to God, the original plan isn’t at all what you thought it would be,
but that doesn’t mean it wasn’t the Golden plan from the start. Lastly, I know
that we still feel a very strong calling for orphan care. I don’t know what our
“back up” plan is, but I do know that for now we are going to simply wait on
God to lead us again.
Please pray for the country of Ethiopia, for the
families in limbo, and most importantly for the children laying in orphanages
waiting for families.
