Lori Florida

There are days that are a glaring fork in the road because they contain the moment upon which everything hinges.  Days that have the potential to be either looked back on with the fondness  of great opportunities that were birthed or with the regret of unfulfilled wishes and dreams.  Today is one of those days.   The first time April 23rd stood out on the calendar for me was because it carried the weight of a deadline... a deadline that prompted my introduction to my daughter, Asnaku (who went by "Ashley" on the waiting child list.)   Connected to the picture of a big-eyed girl with a serious face were these words, " Ashley, age 15 years -Ashley will turn 16 in April 2013; an adoptive family must file an I-600 (which occurs at the end of the adoption process) before she turns 16 years old, or she will not be able to be adopted . If you know of anyone interested in Ashley’s adoption, please contact us." Today could have been the day that she knew her fate as a

There is a buzz forming right now about a book that investigates the link between the recent wave of Christian adoptions and adoption corruption, calling it "Orphan Fever:  The Evangelical Movement's Adoption Obsession."  I read an article summary yesterday written by the author.   You can read it for yourself here.   We should all read this article because accountability is always good and wrongs, wherever they are discovered, should be righted.  But I hope we will also consider my story, and the thousands of others just like mine that weren't reported. As you read, I want you to think about me.  Not because I'm eager for attention, but because I'm the case study that's not mentioned in this article.  Most of the motivations the author lists for these horrible adoption cases are things that you could have heard coming out of my mouth....with tears....word for word.  Our words may sound the same but result in actions as different as night and day.  I hav

I realized as I was typing the title that my fingers fly over the keys for Ethiopia these days.....it rolls right off my fingertips....I've formed a new muscle memory....and I like it!  It's a fun word to type fast.  Ethiopia , ethiopia , ethiopia , ethiopia !!  That word makes me smile....even more now that what I can tell you about the place is what I've seen, not just what I've read. It seemed like we had been waiting forever for travel dates.  We officially accepted our girls' referral on December 4th but it took until mid February for the wheels to turn and the email to arrive with our court date of March 1st.  Then, all of a sudden, wait wait wait turned into hurry hurry hurry!!  We flew out Monday afternoon, hardly believing that it was real and we would fall asleep on the plane and wake up in Africa ! Our overnight flight dropped us into Addis Ababa as the city was waking up.  We did the usual things, money exchange and passport control, with an