This company provides an opportunity to raise funds for your adoption with one of Ethiopia’s most famous products — great coffee! Take a look, and if you use this program and it works for you, please comment here on the blog and let everyone know.

It looks like they’re doing good work in Ethiopia in several ways, with an original concept. Kudos to them for having a heart for orphans!

——————————————————————————————–

We feel so blessed that CWA allowed us to be one of the first families to participate in the Documentary program. The film crew and their CWA counterparts were wonderful people. When they were filming our first introduction to Urgee during our court trip as well as when we took custody of her they were unobtrussive kind and very helpful. They did go to the town that Urgee is from and interviewed the people who originally took custody of her and brought her to the police station. There was unfortunately not a significant amount of footage of her life before the transition home. It is not the most sophisticated or “slick” presentation, but the love for the child comes through and the genuine care for her future is very apparent from the narrator to the people interviewed. This video will help fill an information gap in our daughter’s past that we otherwise would not be able to begin to fill. We thank CWA and their partners for providing this service to our family and recommend it to any family going through this process.

Matthew VanDyke

—————————————————————————————

Jared and I (Emily) knew that we wanted to adopt even before I gave birth to our two biological kids.

So, in September of 2006 we started our adoption process through Christian World Adoption.

It was easy to choose Ethiopia! My (Emily’s) parents were missionaries there for three years, including the year I was born, 1976. We fled the country in early 1977 when I was only six months old because of the communist revolution. When we were picking a country, we knew we wanted somewhere in Africa, and so Ethiopia just seemed right. We never wavered on this.

Our whole process took almost three years , which is not normal. We had an interesting time with our social worker getting our home study done. Also, Jared changed careers and started his own photography business during this time, which slowed things down while we were trying to prove our income for our home study. For about a year of those three years, we really were not moving forward or working on our adoption. This was a very difficult time, and it seemed as though there was no light at the end of the tunnel.

When we finally got moving again and our home study was complete, we didn’t have the money we needed to continue. This is when we applied for a grant from Show Hope. We were so grateful for their positive response, and this enabled us to keep moving forward.

When we received our referral of a little boy in April of 2009, it finally felt like this was real and really going to happen! We were able to pass court the first time and travel to get him in August of 2009. It was wonderful to visit Ethiopia and see some of the culture and beauty of the land our son is from. So now we have been home with him for just over a year and things are going great! Our older two children, Ireland (8) and Zion (6), have done so well with this and were a huge part of the adoption. They were excited right along with us when we passed court or when anything big happened that got us one step closer to bringing Judah home.

We, of course, would recommend adoption to everyone and understand the fears and things that get in the way of actually doing it.

The financial part is hard! It is heartbreaking to me when families say no to adoption because of a lack of funds.

You can do it!! God will provide if you are willing!!

Thank you Christian World Adoption for your support and help during our adoption process.

Although long and tedious, we are also thankful for our three year journey that brought us to Judah Cefas Wilson!

U.S. Embassy announces that CWA has been removed from the “prescreening list” as of today.

We will now revert to our former practice of submitting documents to the embassy two weeks in advance of proposed embassy dates. Cases currently under review will continue to be screened until the embassy announces they are ready for families to travel.  Please note, however, that the embassy is still required to conduct I-604 investigations of all cases.

What this means is that over the past 6 months of in-depth review of our cases in Ethiopia, the U.S. Embassy does not have a reason to continue pre-screening cases before families may travel. This also means that families will be able to make arrangements to travel when the case is ready to submit to the Embassy (usually 4-6 weeks after court).

TODAY IS THE BIG DAY!   Our first children spent their first night the new children’s building at Acacia Village!   Wouldn’t you love to have seen their faces when they left the small confines of the foster homes and drove up in the van to a roughly 2 acre campus?  I can only imagine the excitement and sense of awe they must have felt waking up this morning in a facility built to accommodate 250 children.  Can’t imagine how hard it is was for the nannies to get them to sleep last night.

“Your life is like the morning fog—it’s here a little while, then it’s gone.”  -James 4:14b

An ABC reporter interviewed our attorney, Curtis Bostic, on January 22.  We have posted the interview in it’s entirety for our families to watch, listen, and make their own conclusions.

You may read our agency’s written statement here:  http://www.cwa.org/ethiopia-statement.htm

And you may view the video series here: http://www.youtube.com/user/ChristianWorldAdopt

CWA’s mission has always been to help place orphans into permanent, loving families.  By God’s grace and help, we intend to continue doing just that.

Christian World Adoption

The following post was originally posted  by CWA adoptive Mom, Kristin Pichura/Ethiopia Program, on her personal blog site.  It is re-posted here with her permission.  You can read more about the Pichura adoption journey at www.justtheclay.blogspot.com Thank you, Kristin!

If you are interested in allowing us to post your CWA adoption-related story, please let me know!

As I close out my “adoption week” of posts, I am not sure that I ever took the time to share with you my thoughts on the financial aspect of our adoption. One thing that we were reminded about over and over again is that what God calls you to do, He makes a way for you to do it and HE deserves all the praise and glory. I remember starting this whole process feeling as though it would be foolish or unwise to even begin unless we had a fair amount of resources to “carry the load” ourselves. I think some of it was actually based in fear of what others would think if we started something with absolutely no means to see it through on our own. Fear that they would see us as unwise or foolish or presuming on the Lord. The more we got into this whole adoption process, the more God kept showing both of us that HE OWNS IT ALL!!!!!!

There is no bank account on any continent on all the earth that God does not claim full ownership of. Whether the boy had 2 fish and 5 loaves of bread or 200 fish and 500 loaves of bread it still was not enough to feed over 5,000 people! It still required the mighty hand of Jesus, God Himself, to do what only He could do to satisfy the hungry. And, whether we had only a penny in our bank account or enough to pay for the whole adoption nothing would have been possible without the mighty hand of our Savior! And, because of Him, nothing is IMpossible, either!!!! It is when we are weak that He is strong and His power is perfectly seen, it is when we have little and He turns it into much that HE is seen as great.

George Muller, Gladys Aylward, Adironam Judson and so many more have the most unbelievably beautiful stories as they served the Lord because, so often, they had nothing BUT Christ…and, because of Christ, they had EVERYTHING and His provision in their lives and ministries is so gloriously seen!!!

Please don’t think I am going “wacko” on you:)…do not go and sell your house and live on the streets, don’t give away all that you have and expect the Lord just to give you more…but DO listen hard to the Lord’s calling and obey, even when it seems there is no way. You will see our awesome God do things that take your breath away and work in ways that are beyond your scope of imagination and you will fall deeper in love with Him as you get to know Him more and see more of His attributes and character on display!!! Our $32,000 adoption “bill” has been satisfied and our hearts have been blessed over and over again watching God work!

In closing, I read this quote from the book “Crazy Love” and was reminded that the perspective God has given us this past year through our adoption needs to be the way we continue to see things every day of our life…not just in adoption but in whatever the Lord calls us to do…I don’t want this to be said of us:

“I fear there are some [professing] Christians among you to whom Christ will not say “Come Thou Blessed…inherit the kingdom”. Your haughty dwelling rises in the midst of thousands who have scarce a fire to warm themselves at, and have but little clothing to keep out the biting frost; and yet you never darkened their door. You heave a sight, perhaps at a distance, but you do not visit them. Ah! Dear friend! I am concerned for the poor but more for you. I know not what Christ will say to you in the great day…I fear there are many hearing me who may know now well that they are not Christians because they do not love to give. To give largely and liberally, not grudging at all, requires a new heart; an old heart would rather part with its life-blood than its money. Oh my friends! Enjoy your money, make the most of it; give none away, enjoy it quickly for I can tell you, you will be beggars throughout eternity.”

Robert Murray M’Cheyne Scottish pastor to Edinburgh (who died at 29)

Emily Beddingfield/Administrative Assistant-Ethiopia Team

Working with a waiting children’s program has its joys and its challenges, as I’m sure you would imagine!  The joy of seeing children finding families… the struggle of heartache for those who still wait.  The only peace is knowing that God is in control of each one of their lives.  He knows the plans that he has for each child—whether their future will be in America, or if they are to remain in Ethiopia.

God never ceases to amaze me in the way He’s always working “behind the scenes!”   Last year, I had a family accept three older children—children who I was beginning to despair of ever finding a home for.  One of the children was not even siblings with the other two—but they were best friends.  It was amazing to me that a family wanted all three kids and that the kids would remain together even though they did not legally have to go to the same family.  Then, all of a sudden, the family stopped the adoption process.  I was devastated and just lost all hope for these children.  Silly me!  Shortly thereafter, these children were accepted by another family—All three together again!!  The children are now home with this family and doing great in their new family.

This story is such an inspiration to me and confirms my belief that God is always in control!  He had a special plan for these children that went above and beyond all my earthly expectations.  He loves these children even more than I do and He knows best.  I rejoice for each life and encourage others to consider adopting a waiting child or children, and to pray for those who wait.  If God calls you to it, He will get you through it!

Visit the CWA Ethiopia Hope Project site for more information.