This seems consistent with this crazy adoption journey thus far. Somehow good news always seems to be followed by bad news. After celebrating the birth certificate news on Tuesday, we learned we still can't bring Luke home. It's been hard to put all the pieces together and it's still not a clear picture but after talking to many people... our adoption agency, the US Embassy, and several other adoptive families who are in our shoes, this is what we understand:
In order to get Luke out of Ethiopia, we need his Ethiopian passport and a visa from the US. In order to get his passport, we need approval from MOWA. MOWA, for reasons unknown to us, is not giving approval for the passports right now. There are approximately twenty other families who are in the same predicament as us. Some of these families have already taken custody of their children in Ethiopia and they are now not able to leave!
Our adoption agency and the US Embassy in Ethiopia have said they have never seen anything like this before. We have been told that the judge in Ethiopia had the head of MOWA thrown in jail for not carrying out his court decrees! Up until now, the Ethiopian adoption process has been mostly predictable and they have acted according to their adoption laws. No one knows why the adoption climate has suddenly changed.
We aren't exactly sure where to go from here. We have reached out to our congressmen to see if they will advocate on our behalf. The US Embassy is advocating for us and trying to find a solution.
Our hearts are breaking not only for our son but for the 4 million + orphans in Ethiopia who need loving homes.
Thank you for continuing to pray!!
10 comments:
Our prayers continue for your family and all of our babies who are stuck. ❤
We are a family from Spain we are in a similiar situation. we are waiting a ok form the mowa. We are worry about this situatiom i told with the spanish ambassy an told to us the same. We need a solucion Thanks for you blog
We are feom Spaim and we are in the same situatiom its horrible
I'm so sorry for you Nuria. We will be praying for your family too!
Tomorrow the mowa minister begins to work again
Please if you have more news share it there are 25 families in Spain in the same situation amd all the informatiom its important thanks
Any news?
We don't have too much news yet. The US State Department has drafted a letter that was signed by multiple US Congress members and will be sent to the Ethiopian Prime Minister urging Ethiopia to complete the adoption cases that are in progress. We also heard that MOWA said they will start signing vitals letters again but we don't know if that is definite yet.
Its a good idea. Thanks for the information and i hope mowa will start signing as soon as possible. We have ok in the first trial then we need ok mowa and the anither trial in think the process to spain its different. Thanks a lot again
Hello do you have news?
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