And the waiting continues...

Thank you all for your prayers.  Keep praying!  We talked to our agency last night and they have no news about the paperwork in Burundi.  Right now the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Burundi is evaluating our agency's paperwork, and they haven't gotten back to the agency contact in Burundi.  Because it is the holidays it makes things a little more difficult.  So we probably won't hear anything until after the holidays. This is disappointing, but I am not freaking out.

 In a way, I have a break right now to think about other things... and to focus on the real meaning of Christmas.  Adoption has a way of taking over your thoughts. So, knowing that we will have to wait to do anything right now, it will be a welcome break.  We can lay everything in the hands of the Father.

We are praying for our friends right now who are also dealing with foreign governments... they are adopting from Ethiopia, and are now scrambling to renew some of their paperwork that Ethiopia says is too old.

We will let you know when we have any news.  Until then, Merry Christmas!!!

Some Good News?

I have no information right now about the possible delays, but I do have a bit of good news.  I got a phone call from the USCIS (US Citizen and Immigration Service) the other day.  They said that they have our I-800A application mostly approved, but they had a problem reading Mark's fingerprints.  So, they want us to submit another copy of Mark's fingerprints.  They said that as soon as they receive them, it will only take a day or two to process, and then they can send our approval to us.  So Mark rushed over to get his fingerprints taken again on Friday afternoon, and we mailed them out yesterday.

Yes, it is a delay, but at least I know where our file stands right now.  It is exciting at the same time because they said that we are APPROVED!  We are just waiting on the official paperwork to make its way back to us.  I had been waiting anxiously for it to come in the mail, but now I feel I can relax a little.  There is still a good possibility that we may receive it back by the end of the year.

As far as our progress in getting our required psychological evaluation, we have been getting the run-around.  Multiple people have been called, and so far we haven't found anyone to do it for us yet.  I know it is being delayed for a reason, so we just have to keep at it until we can get it done.  Who knows?  Maybe it's part of our evaluation... let's see how crazy we can make them before they actually come in for an appointment! ;-)

Thank you all so much for praying.  We feel your prayers.  In my uneasiness, I still feel a supernatural peace about everything.  Keep praying, and hopefully we will hear something soon from our agency!

Possible Delays!

I was hesitant to post this information, but after thinking about it, I figured that it would be helpful to have many of you praying for the situation.

I talked to our agency a few nights ago, and they told us that they are concerned about the possibility of major delays in the adoption process from Burundi.  They think they are being told that the agency's paperwork (and permission to process adoptions in Burundi) is too "old."  Burundi is realizing that they are going to have many people requesting adoptions now, and they need to really think through how they are going to process them all, and what documents they are going to require.  This may mean that they will require our agency to resubmit their paperwork.  And it may also mean that our paperwork requirements may change.  (Hopefully they will relax some of the requirements!  But who knows?)  This is part of package of choosing to be in a "pioneer" program.  Not everything has been worked out yet.

If our agency has to resubmit paperwork, if could take another 6+ months before they are ready for us to continue our process, and submit our dossier.  Or... it could take only a month, and we could just continue on.

Where are we in the process now?  We are close to having all our documents gathered for our dossier.  We do, however, still have to go through the process of authenticating all our documents (getting them stamped with official-looking seals) before all of it can be sent over to Burundi.  We also need to have a child chosen before we send our documents in.  This was supposed to happen soon, and we were praying for it to happen by the end of this month.

Now, it may be a while.  In fact, there are two children in Burundi in the agency's care right now that must be adopted first before they can take on care of more children.  We are not sure that we are ready to parent either of these two "older" children.  What that seems to mean for us, is that someone else in the Burundi program, possibly someone who entered the program after us, will be the first ones to go to Burundi to pick up the first two children.  We must wait until they go through the process and get back before we can even start up our process again, and find a younger child ready to be adopted.

When will that be?  We don't know.  In fact these are mostly conclusions based on what our agency has told us.  What we do know is that our agency told us to wait another week or two until they find out more information.  They will be getting back to us then to let us know what is happening.

What does that mean for YOU?  Please pray for us!  You have a week and half (at least) before we hear something again.

-You can pray for the whole process to work itself out according to God's will.
-You can pray for the Burundi government to move quickly through the decision process to be ready for adoptions to start happening.
-You can pray for a wise counselor in the government to help move things along, and who has a heart for orphans.
-You can pray for the mail to move quickly if our agency has to resubmit some paperwork.
-You can pray that a restructuring of Burundi's adoption process will make it easier for even more orphans to be adopted.
-You can pray for clear communication between the government and our agency's contact in Burundi.
-You can even pray for someone to be hired in the country to take on care of more orphans.
-You can pray for patience for us.
-You can pray for wisdom for us to know what to do, and if we need to change directions or start something new.

Will you join us in prayer?  This situation is all for a reason, and God's purpose in it is higher than we can imagine.  Where is God taking us on this journey?  I don't know.  But we know that we CAN TRUST HIM.

Thanks, and we will let you know as soon as we know something more.

Family: A Cultural Perspective

We recently attended a public seminar on differences in culture.  One thing that was interesting during the seminar was the discussion of "family."

The speaker asked one attendee, "Lucy, how many people are in your family?"
Before she responds, I briefly thought about my answer... "Four, my mom, my dad, and my brother."
Then Lucy responds with a shocked look, like she finds it difficult to answer the question.  She says, with a  breath and a small laugh, "A lot."
My thoughts, "Well, maybe she has a big family like Mark, maybe 12 or 13.  That seems like 'A lot' to me."
Lucy then guesses, "... about 20."
My thoughts, shock, and then confusion.

What the speaker pointed out, and what I didn't consider, is that Lucy comes from a Latino background, and she views all her aunts, uncles, cousins, grandparents, etc. as "FAMILY."

My thoughts, "Oh, yeah... well, when you put it that way.... Oops!  I guess I forgot to count my husband too!"

I automatically thought about who I considered my "nuclear" family growing up.  I forgot to think about who my family is now.  But to be honest, I might only add one more person, my husband.  But if I were to approach the question from Lucy's perspective (or Lucy's culture), I would have a lot bigger family... adding in all of my husband's family, nieces, nephews, cousins, aunt, grandma, etc.

Why is our my definition of family so narrow?  Who told me, when I was growing up or somewhere along the way, that FAMILY only consisted of those who are living in your house with you, and who you are blood-related to?

Interestingly enough, Americans tend to have this narrow view far more often than other cultures around the world.  And the more you move up the socio-economic ladder the more narrow your definition.  It seems to come with a sense of independence... I can handle things on my own... I have enough money and resources at this point that I don't need to rely on others (even on my family).

Whereas, in poorer countries, family is everything!  Family is who you rely on because you can't make it on your own.  You need each other.

Why must we lose our sense of interdependency as we succeed in America?  What bothers me more is, why didn't I think of those who I am not blood-related to as My Family?  If you had given me more time to think, I am sure I would come up with the "correct" answer, but it bothers me that my first thought was so narrow.

Why does it bother me?  Because I have a child that is about to join our family, and not through natural blood relation.  I want my child to feel in every way a part of our family.  I want to be a mother who feels like my child is in every way TRULY FAMILY.  And I want my relatives, blood-related or not, to view my child as TRULY FAMILY.

My child will not look like me nor my husband, but they will be ours.  They will share the same last name, share the same family interests, and possibly act, in some ways, just like us... their Mom and Dad.

So who defines "Family"?  The Americans?  The British?  The Burundians?  Who is the Creator of Family?   The One who created each and every one of us... Our Creator God.  In the beginning God brought together Adam and Eve in the first ever family.  The Bible shows us God choosing a people to be His people, beginning with a family of twelve (what I had considered a big family), and expanded to many many descendants.  And God did the unthinkable... He sent His Son, His FAMILY, to earth to show us Himself, and to go to the cross to die for the sins of mankind.  And having risen again, He accomplishes the most amazing task of making it possible for ALL of us to become a part of His family.

Who's family am I a part of?  I could say the one I grew up with.  I could say the one I married into.  But I wouldn't be as blessed as I am if I did not count my Heavenly Family.  I have been chosen, saved, redeemed, and brought into the Family of God.  He calls me His child.  I am not blood-related.  I am ADOPTED!  I am adopted as a TRUE daughter of my Heavenly Father.

May my definition of Family not be so narrow.  May I always look to Him for the definition of Family.  May my child see himself or herself as part of our earthly family, and also a part of the Family of God!

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Update: We have slowly received back most of our paperwork.  We are only waiting on our approval from the US government to come back, plus a delayed psychological evaluation to get done soon.  Our appointment to get it done on base proved ineffective, so now we are going through the referral process to get it done in town.  Hopefully we can get in an appointment sometime at the end of this week or next week.  The holiday schedule is upon us, and it would be nice to get some things done before everyone stops working for Christmas.  Thank you all for your prayers!