Switching Countries

After a long few weeks, we have decided to switch countries for our adoption. We are now going to adopt a baby from Ethiopia. This decision was not an easy one for us. We have been through a roller coaster of emotions during the whole process. The decision to switch countries was no exception. Matt and I have had many conversations about what we should do and what we felt like God was leading us to do. Ultimately, we had to make a decision and pray that it was the right decision for us and where God was leading our family. We decided to switch countries to Ethiopia and have felt an overwhelming peace about the decision. Throughout the process of switching countries, we have experienced some grief. Grief over our unmet expectations, the way we thought the whole adoption process was going to go, our ideas about where our child was going to come from, etc. It is hard to explain all the emotions that we were feeling, but this is my best shot.
We switched officially last week. We now are working on paperwork to compile our dossier. A dossier is all of our paperwork that will be sent to Ethiopia. We are quickly trying to gather our paper work and send it off so that we can be put on the waiting list to be matched with a baby. Our process as a whole may be a little longer by switching to Ethiopia, but like someone told me in the process of making the decision to switch, "the right answer, isn't always the shortest". We are doing what we feel like the Lord has lead us to do. Some of our paper work will transfer over, but some will not. There are some other differences between the two countries in the adoption process but I won't go into all of them right now. Overall, we are excited about the switch and we feel like good things are happening.
In other news, we have both been sick this week. In the last week we have both been to the doctor and we are now both on antibiotics. So needless to say our weekend plans are not very exciting. I don't imagine that we will be doing much more than sleeping and watching movies. Also, I am getting very close to finishing my semester at NOBTS. I have two finals left and then I will be officially on summer break. This semester has been the most challenging semester since I have started working on my masters degree. However, while it has been a hard semester I feel like I learned so much. This semester has challenged me to grow both spiritually and intellectually, but I'm glad it's almost over.
Thank you for all the prayers, support, advice, and encouragement you have given us. At some points in this process we have felt very alone, but to hear and know people are praying for us and encouraging us is more helpful than I explain. Your encouragement and support has kept us going for the last few weeks. Thank you!