IB-1

Our dossier has made its way to Ethiopia!!

It is now in the hands of MOWA (Ministry of Women's Affairs). This is an organization that is overworked and understaffed but they will be shuffling our papers and making sure we are assigned a court date. Our agency says that they expect us to be processed under the old court procedure as our dossier made it in before the deadline (the beginning of April). Thank you God for orchestrating this so timely!



In other happenings, I am trying my hand at Injera. Injera is a traditional, spongy flatbread that is eaten at most every meal in Ethiopia. It is made out of Teff, the smallest grain in the world, which happens to grow well in Ethiopia. Here is a picture of how it is traditionally served.


Instead of utensils like our trite fork and spoon, Ethiopians use pieces of the Injera bread itself to scoop up their meals. Talk about practical...plates are kept clean and no pesky silverware to swish around the bottom of the kitchen sink.

I plan on keeping a diary of several different recipes that I try. When we travel I will decide which one is most like the authentic.


Here is IB-1 (Injera Bread trail 1).



It was quite tasty and quite spongy. Next time I plan on making it bigger and fermenting the dough for a few days. As this is part of my recipe diary, you will be kept posted.

Prayer Need

In a land of 5 million orphans, there is tremendous need for God's people to step in and become fathers to the fatherless---and they have. In 2009, 2,277 orphans were adopted by Americans alone (http://adoption.state.gov/news/total_chart.html). Families have risen to the calling to care for the orphans and, of course, as this happens, the enemy has taken advantage. Because of suspicions of misconduct by some adoption agencies here in the states, the U.S. Dept. of State and the Ethiopian High Court has put new regulations on Ethiopian adoptions. These new regulations will make Ethiopian adoptions more difficult and costly.

Our agency has notified us that it has been able to secure 1 more month to get adoptive parents paperwork through before they would be required to adhere to the new regulations. As I posted earlier, our paperwork has been in process since the end of February. We are praying that we will make it within the 1 month deadline! Will you pray with us for our adoption and for the hundreds of others in the same situation?

We are concerned that if we were required to take the new additional steps, our adoption would be pushed back farther into the year---possibly much farther if it fell into Ethiopia's rainy season.

"I will go before you and level the mountains,

I will break in pieces the doors of bronze and cut through the bars of iron,

I will give you the treasures hidden in the darkness

and riches hidden in the secret places,

so that you may know that it is I, the Lord, the God of Israel,

who call you by your name."

Is. 45:2-3

Lord, I ask that you would level the mountains in front of us. Please bring the son you are giving us home soon. We love him.

Update

We just received a new health report today from Ethiopia. Here are some details: He is 25 lbs. and just under 3 feet. He is now in good health and no longer suffers from nutritional deficiency!
The staff say that he:

• Has good appetite and feeds well.
• Can wash his hands alone
• Can walk on tiptoe
• Identifies own gender
• Has good relationship with caretakers
• Plays with other children
• Uses cups and spoons
• Participates in group play
• "He is a sociable child and has tendency to obey rules."
• ...and many other development markers that are right on track!

We are ecstatic to hear that he has adjusted well and seems to be developing in a healthy way!

Dear Jesus,

Be with our son today. Fill him with joy and comfort, allow his heart to love and trust again. Thank you for making him strong and healthy. Please protect him from evil and prepare the way for him to become part of us.