It's been a couple of weeks of ups and downs. We have all of our documents finished, our dossier is in Ethiopia, ready and waiting - and it has been so hard to know who we're supposed to adopt! We originally felt we were supposed to adopt two older boys - and we still pretty much feel that way, though we're open to a girl as well - but in the orphanages of the agency we have chosen to work with in Ethiopia, there is only one set of brothers that fit that criteria. We are praying about them, and getting more information, but we didn't feel immediately drawn to them, which made me feel bad. (down)
Then last week, a friend who has adopted from Ethiopia, and was just there last month, told me about an brother and sister that she thinks are really awesome. She described them to me, and connected me with another mom who knows them well, who also told me a lot about them. She said they were around 13 and 15, or 14 and 16 (many of the kids don't really know exactly how old they are).
Part of what drew me was the fact that they are older, and close to getting to the point where they can't be adopted. When God was first speaking to me about adoption, that was what was on my heart - giving a home to older children who don't have much chance of being adopted. I couldn't get this brother and sister off my mind and heart, and Darren and the boys also felt really drawn to them. (up)
So I emailed our agency and told them we were interested in them and asked for their files; only to find out the very next day that the girl had just been determined to be over 18 years old (!), and thus is too old to be adopted. (back down)
I talked some more with our agency, and they are waiting to find out if the brother is going to be released to be adopted on his own (the sister is going to be placed into a boarding school for now, along with 5 other girls who were recently determined to be over 18). Because they have so many older single boys available for adoption, and because of some changes in government policy which mean a lot of these older kids will have to be moving out of the orphanage and going to local schools, they are now more willing to consider people adopting two or more unrelated older boys. (partway back up)
The director of our agency is going to Ethiopia this week, and she is going to talk to the local social workers and see if they feel some of these older unrelated boys (including the brother) would do well together in families, and let us know. She is also going to get more information about the two brothers for us. Hopefully we'll hear from her later this week.
I think I'm ready to get off the roller coaster now, and onto the kiddie rides.
