I know that it has been over a month since I posted but we wanted to prayerfully consider all our options before we updated everyone! A month ago Ethiopia made the decision to cut their review of adoptions by 90% on a daily basis. So instead of processing 50 adoptions a day they would only process 5. We were shocked by the decision but we knew God was in control.We started hearing rumors that Ethiopia might close their adoptions completely! After hearing about these decisions and everything so "up in the air" we didn't feel like it would be good stewardship of God's money to send in a large contract check with a county that may be on the brink of closing adoptions. So we joined the adoption community in prayer for the children in the country waiting to be adopted and what all these decisions meant for them. It will effect them more than anyone else. After we found this out we decided God may be leading us to another country. We had prayed since we made the announcement that if our child was somewhere else he would lead us to it. We wanted God to be able to work so we called agencies about other countries, sent a lot of emails, and PRAYED. Basically in the agency that we love and had planned to contract with Taiwan was the only other counrty that we qualified for and at this time they are not contracting any more families due to their birthmother program. So we started looking for agencies that worked with Taiwan and in some form or another every door closed for us. We felt defeated but at the same time we had a lot of peace because we knew we wanted this to be God's plan and not ours. In so many countries you have to be 30 years old. While Ronnie is, I am not so we do not qualify. And then in other countries you have stay there with the child for 4-6 weeks while the adoption is processed. This is not an option for us when we look at our children in our home, finances and our jobs. Domestic adoption was our next option but as we researched agencies and programs, we just didn't feel God leading us that way. Orphans live all over the world, they all need a home but their is a lot of red tape involved. We are completely confident that in God's timing he will lift that red tape and lead us to our child if we are obedient to him. So for now we are not saying we are not going to adopt. We have felt called to do this for a long time so we are going to rest in his ultimate plan. Maybe our child is in a country where we both have to be 30, maybe not. Either way we know if we stay in his word and prayerfully consider our options he will open the doors. The child may come to us in 2 years, or in 10. We know he has a plan and we are excited to be a small part of it. Thank you for all your prayers and support, we so appreciate them.

As far as our fundraising goes, we are still prayerfully asking God for his leading. We saved up quite a bit and we are considering keeping it in our adoption fund for the future of our adoption or giving it to a couple who is adopting that needs financial assistance. Thank you to all of you who have supported us this way it has meant so much. Its God's money and we want to use it to glorify him ONLY!

As far as tshirts, I had already ordered them before all this came up. I am still waiting on the order to be completed. Once they are in you will have the option to buy the shirt like before or I will donate the unsold ones for a couple to use for fundraising in their adoption.

Love and Prayers to you and yours,
The Pruitt Family