What's a PAIR?

This past week or so has been pretty eventful in the adoption world.

PAIR - 

(Pre-Adoption Immigration Review) Process

Early last week the USCIS (US Customs & Immigration Service) put out a notice that some new procedures were being implemented in the adoption process for Ethiopian adoptions.  There was a conference call on Thursday for adoptive families and adoption service providers where the process was explained.  I won't go into all of the details here because, frankly, I don't necessarily understand all of the intricacies of it and you wouldn't either if I were the one explaining, but the gist of it is that the process itself hasn't changed, just the order in which they do a portion of it has.  The reason for the change is a good one (it will eliminate instances of children being declared "adopted" in Ethiopia but then unable to travel due to denial of Visa issuance) but we have been warned that the waiting time between receiving a referral and being able to go to court (first trip) will likely increase.  This change occurs September 1st and will definitely affect us since we don't yet have a referral and, at this point, it is impossible to receive one AND go to court before they close in August.

PAIR - 

Dictionary.com says a pair is:

1.) two identical, similar or corresponding things that are matched for use together (pair of gloves, pair of earrings); 2.)  something consisting of or regarded as having two parts or pieces joined together (pair of scissors); 3.) two individuals who are similar or in some way associated

And on that note....

Our original home study expires soon; so, today, we had our renewal meeting with our Social Worker.  It went well and we are good to go for eighteen more months.  We made a couple (a PAIR?) of changes to our parameters and we have now officially changed our paperwork to accept more than one child.

A pair.

Of sisters.

We also increased our upper age range from age 6 to age 8.

This doesn't mean that we will necessarily get a referral for sisters; it just means that if a pair of sisters in our age range becomes available BEFORE a singular child in our age range, we would prayerfully consider and be able to proceed.  We could still receive a referral for only one child (in which case, our original age range would apply; the extra two years would only apply to a sibling pair).

Jeff and I both are COMPLETELY at peace with whatever God chooses to bless us with.  One.  Or two.  I think that I speak for us both when I say that as we have prayed about this decision, over and over again, we heard God say, "Why NOT?", "Why WOULDN'T you?" and often even, "If not you, WHO?".

And so we keep on keeping on; waiting for our girl(s).

Monthly Wait-List Update

We got that email.  You know the one.  It's the one that we once anticipated with great excitement and, at times, great dread.  It's the email that tells us where we are on our agency's wait list.  It's the email that contains a number that has carried a lot of weight around here at times.  Much more weight than it ever deserved.

That number is still TWO.  We have been number two since February.  That's four months at number two. But who's counting? :)

I no longer anticipate the monthly wait-list update. To be honest, were it not for the Facebook group that I'm a member of, I might not ever realize it's that time.  Now, what we anticipate is the phone call and the face(s).

God, forgive us for all of the times that we relied on the number, all the times that we put our faith and trust in the number; for you are the One who set the lonely in our family and whose ultimate plan for it is perfect.

Operation Abraham - Giveaway

Our boy Abraham is much loved.  And in a day's time (PRAISE GOD!), we came really close to the half way point of the funds needed for his surgery.  

So today Wendy (Abraham's sponsor and biggest fan & advocate) and several others are sweetening the pot with a little giveaway.

(If you don't know who Abraham is, read yesterday's post here).

So.....make a donation and then hop over to Wendy's blog and tell her that you did so in a comment on this giveaway post.  You will then be entered to win one of the many items that have been donated for this cause.  

There are some great items up for grabs.  T-Shirts from Project Hopeful, ONEless Ministries, Visiting Orphans and others.  There is jewelry, genuine Rwandan articles, Ethiopian scarves and more.

  

Operation Abraham

There are SO many elements of this story that have me in awe of the God that I serve.  There is the absolutely immeasurable value of child and family sponsorship.  There is the element of weaving together of hearts for a cause.  And there is the work that God is ALWAYS doing, even when, at times, it seems that He has, perhaps, forgotten us.  But as good as all of that is, there is a need to get down to business in this post and so that's what I'll do.

Meet Abraham.

Sixteen months ago, a lady I am now happy to call friend, met Abraham and his mother in the trash dump community of Korah, Ethiopia.  Wendy says that from the moment she first saw his sweet face, she knew that God had placed her there in that very moment for a reason.  She told Abraham's mother that day that she wanted to help her and, at that time, her family began to sponsor his through Hope for Korah.  Since that day, she has prayed diligently for him and his precious mother.  But there's more.  You see, Wendy is the mama to two littles with Down Syndrome and, because of that, she knew that it was imperative that Abraham see a physician (something that he had never done in his 2.5 years) and soon.

Eventually, they were able to get Abraham to a hospital and, unfortunately, the news was not good.  Abraham has two large holes in his heart that need to be closed.  In Ethiopia, not only do they rarely do heart surgery on Pediatric patients, but they would not even consider doing surgery on a child with Down Syndrome.

For the past year, Wendy has worked to find a way for Abraham to have this much needed, life saving surgery.  And several times the answer has been "no".  But not this time.

Abraham will be traveling to Tenwek Hospital in Kenya to see if the amazing surgeons (US surgeons traveling to Kenya) can heal his broken heart.  There are two procedures that need to take place.  The first one is right around the corner.  He has an appointment on June 2nd!!!

In order for this to happen, there is an immediate need to raise $6,500.00.  Time is short but God is BIG.  Please....I'm begging....hop over to this site to make a donation; for Abraham.

OPERATION ABRAHAM

Click Below to Donate

All Donations Tax-Deductible 

through

PROJECT HOPEFUL

Mother's Day 2013

I had to look back at last year's Mother's Day post.  I never dreamed I would be writing another while still waiting for a referral.

We had a GREAT Mother's Day, celebrating a little early on Saturday evening with my Mom, my brother and sisters and their families.  And then on Sunday, Jeff and the boys and I shared a great lunch and an even better nap.  : )

I look forward to next Mother's Day when our girl is home (still keeping that wishful/hopeful thinking thing going).  As I thought about her over the weekend, the main thing that I thought of was her first Mommy and the sacrifice she has made/is making.  I pray that she always knows that we are thankful for her, that we will always pray for her and that we will teach our girl to know about and love her as well.

I still have a whole Summit 9 post coming up, by the way.  It was a GREAT experience that I want to share.

If I Had a Dollar

The question that I am asked more than any other is, you guessed it,

"Why is this taking so long?"

I mean, after all, aren't there 5,000,000 orphans in Ethiopia?

I have some answers to that question but I'm sure that I don't have them all.  One very basic reason is that we are working with one agency.  That agency only contracts with, at this time, seven orphanages.  That means of all of the orphans in Ethiopia, only the ones from seven orphanages are "available" to us.  And, to further complicate things, our agency isn't necessarily exclusive to those orphanages; there are other agencies who can "pull" from those orphanages as well.

The other thing that slowed things down for several months was the renewing/relicensing of all orphanages and all agencies.  This process was long and tedious and really held things up for a period of two to three months.

In addition, it has become much harder to declare any child a true orphan in Ethiopia.  New laws and procedures have been put in place in order to discourage corruption (which is a REALLY good thing).  However, in the end, this likely means that many more children whose history can not be traced and paperwork processed will likely never be adoptable; they will live their entire lives in orphanages and, ultimately, age out of the system.  It is such a difficult balance to achieve.  But the end result for us right now is that more paperwork has to be done, more investigations have to take place and more effort has to be made to ever declare a child adoptable.

Our agency has actually been fairly consistently giving out referrals; it's just that they have, for the most part, been for infants.  The truth is that had we been willing to accept the referral for an infant, we would have gotten a referral many months ago.  We were given the opportunity to change and lower our age range but we have always felt led to adopt an "older" child.  There are more families willing to adopt infants so placing them is never a problem.

As I mentioned above, there are many orphans (more than I can ever fathom or care to think about) in Ethiopia (and places like it) who will NEVER know the love of a family.  Many don't realize that this is the case but it is a very sad reality.  That is why, aside from adoption, child sponsorship, short and long term missions and supporting ministries who care for the unadoptable orphan is needed.  We all should be a part of caring for the orphan; it is so near to the heart of God.

Monthly Wait-List Update (a post filled with numbers)

Today was the day that our monthly wait-list update email arrived.

As we expected, we are standing firm at number TWO.

On a (very) positive note, FIVE children were matched with their forever families.  TWO infants, ONE older child and ONE sibling set of TWO (a brother and sister).

On a less positive note, the family who has been on hold at number ONE due to a concurrent adoption in another country, will likely be coming off of hold soon.  I don't know exactly when and my agency is unable to tell me; however, I believe that they brought their newly adopted child home sometime in either December or January and they are required to be on hold for SIX months (unless they choose to remain there longer).  Unless they have changed their parameters, they will rejoin the list waiting for a 0-4 year old girl.  I realize this comes as no surprise to our sovereign God but, I just gotta tell you, this whole waiting thing can really suck the fun out of life at times.

Shifting gears, for the next TWO days, we're going to take our focus off of the number TWO and spend it on NINE....Summit 9, that is.

We are excited to be spending time hearing some great speakers (like David Platt, Michele Bachmann and Dennis Rainey, among others), worshiping with the likes of Nicole C. Mullens, Steven Curtis Chapman and Jason Germain (to name a few) and attending Breakout Sessions about topics like Multi Racial Family, Straight Talk from Adult Adoptees, Human Trafficking Targets, etc.  We will also be screening the movie "Stuck".  My prayer is that we walk away from this opportunity with a heart increasingly broken for what breaks His and that we learn things that will bring value to our family, to our church and to ONEless Ministries.