Josh and I have prayed and thought really hard about if it would be a good decision to open up our age-range and only request 2 children from Ethiopia. The problem with that is… because of the age-range we would be requesting, the process would take longer, and we are not ready to displace the age order of our current children by opening up our age range. (Plus, we are not approved in our homestudy for more then a 3 year old.)

The longing, and unrest has been compounded by the fact that our agency will now allow for families to build their families through other means while waiting for their Ethiopian adoption to be completed. We feel called to adopt at this time, so having another biological child felt like taking things into our own hands, and as we started to initially investigate domestic adoption, we felt like it was too far out of our price range. But, we have been in contact with a domestic agency here in Arizona, Family Child Care, and have found out that they are within our price range. The great thing is that our homestudy is completed and we will only need an update… So while we wait for our child from Ethiopia, we are going to pursue a domestic adoption. The average wait time through this agency for placement is about 11 months, and I am praying that I will be able to rest in God’s timing as we move forward. Please, pray with and for us as we embark on the next stage of our journey.

After deciding on an agency, landing on adopting from Ethiopia, we started the process of applying and raising money. At the beginning, raising over $30,000 seemed insurmountable. We were church planters with 3 small kids at home, we didn’t have $30K, didn’t know anybody with 30K just laying around.

We’ve done rummage sales, applied for grants, talked with friends and family, put in our savings and tax returns in hopes of getting there.

On February 25th, we were halfway there. In 12 months, we had raised $15,000. We decided to start a puzzle fundraiser. We set a goal of raising the other $15,000 by today (in 3 months). Here’s what our puzzle looked like:

As of today, here is what it looks like:

We only have $5,400 left to raise!

There are a couple of ways you can help. You can buy a puzzle piece to help us get our child home to be part of our family. Each piece is $10.

From rummage sales, phone calls, supporting us, helping us raise money, the list goes on and on.

Not to mention the folks that are praying for us and the child who will one day be a part of our family.

I was reminded of this today. A good friend posted on his blog that he would be donating $100 and was challenging his friends to donate $10 to help us complete our adoption puzzle. Now, people I have never met are sending me messages over twitter letting me know they are donating and praying for our family. It truly is humbling.

Have you gotten involved yet? $10 helps get us one step closer to making one less orphan in the world.

For more information, check out www.seedadoption.org

We are humbled and blessed by how many people not only donated items, but gave up time on Thursday, Friday and Saturday unloading items, setting up the sale, working the sale and then tearing it down.

Thank you for the hours you put in and for helping us get closer to making one less orphan in the world.

Enter Amazon.

We set up an amazon associates store to support our adoption. This means, if you are going to buy something on amazon (clothes, jewelry, electronics, DVD, video games, music, books, insert anything), simply email me the link and I will send you a new link through our associates store.

It is still the same price for you but we get a percentage because you went through our store.

It’s that easy.

We have asked friends to spread the word through facebook and twitter. I wanted to let you know that your efforts of giving and helping us get the word out is paying off. We have had over $2,000 given to our adoption puzzle in the last 10 days!

That is huge!

Our prayer has been that we would raise the remaining $15,000 in the next 90 days which is a lot of money. Our hope is that when we are told we need to go to Ethiopia, that we are ready and able to go right away.

As of today, our dossier (which is all our paperwork) has made it to Ethiopia. So the wait now begins.

If you could help us continue to get the word out on twitter and facebook that would be great.

On facebook simply put this in your status update:

Help my friends Josh and Katie Reich piece together their family. They’ve raised over $2,000 in the last 10 days! It’s as simple as $10 for a puzzle piece! Be a part of bringing their next child home to his/her forever family! Go to http://reichadoption.wordpress.com/2011/02/25/help-us-piece-together-our-family/ for details and donate today!

On twitter simply put:

Help my friends complete their adoption. They’ve raised over $2,000 in the last 10 days! Go to http://ow.ly/4c5tn for details & donate today

Thanks for all your help and support.

UPDATE: As of Saturday, March 12th, we had another $1,000 given. Bringing our grand total so far for the puzzle to $3,000. Which means:  We are 20% of the way to what we need to go to Ethiopia! Thanks so much for helping us get the word out and supporting this adoption.

Not so in haste, my heart!
Have faith in God and wait.
Although He linger long,
He never comes too late.
He never comes too late;
He knoweth what is best.
Vex not thyself in vain;
Until he cometh, rest.
Until he cometh, rest,
Nor grudge the hours that roll;
The feet that wait for God
Are soonest at the goal,
Are soonest at the goal
That is not gained by speed;
Then hold thee still, my heart,
For I shall wait His lead!

I am reminded afresh that the end goal of our adoption is not strictly the
addition of a precious child into our family, but the journey is one that God
has us on to mold us and teach us. May we call on Him as we wait and allow
ourselves to be responsive to His voice in our life, so that we can not only add
to our family but be transformed in the process to help push the Gospel forward.

I am anxious to see how God is going to show Himself through this and the other
road bumps we will experience in this journey!

We are writing to ask your family to join us in prayer for the Ministry of Women and Children’s Affairs (MOWA) regarding the number of cases they will be able to process each day. They have made statements that they desire to decrease the number of recommendation letters they write each day. We understand that because of these statements  the Court and MOWA are in the process of meeting to discuss and work out  any potential changes or new processes regarding adoptions in Ethiopia. We want to blanket these meetings with prayer and ask you to come along side us in this.

We are sorry to be sending information to your family so late in the day, but we wanted to communicate this request to you before the weekend. We know rumors and concerns can arise from any information being shared in the adoption community, and our desire is to continue to primarily provide you with any confirmed information in a timely manner. Please rest assured we will continue to seek information on what is happening in the adoption process in Ethiopia and will share with you any new confirmed information we receive.

Email 2:

To follow up from the email sent on Friday, thank you for joining us in prayer. It is a blessing to know so many families are praying on behalf of the current situation in Ethiopia.  We would ask you to continue to pray as court and MOWA are still meeting and will continue to do so in the days and weeks ahead.

As of today, MOWA has begun to write fewer recommendation letters each day for families in the court process. This is something we anticipate will continue over the next few weeks as the court, MOWA, and other entities meet to discuss MOWA’s desire to decrease the number of recommendation letters they write.

We know many questions arise from difficult news, please be assured we will continue to inform you as further details unfold and will be in touch with your family directly as we have new information.