Abandoned in Guatemala: The Failure of International Adoption Policies

I know a couple who had been trying to adopt from Guatemala right when it shut down, and they lost the chance to adopt their children. This explains some the process of international adoption. It is sad to think where things are heading now. For an interesting viewpoint on things, sit back and watch this 20 min video.

(Disclosure: the views expressed in the video do not necessarily represent my views. Please do not get angry at me if you do not agree)

What they mentioned about the Hague Treaty is essentially what happened with Burundi. They signed up, but weren't able to put things in place to complete international adoptions.

I fear something like this may happen in Uganda, or the DRC. We need to be in prayer for these countries! We need to be in prayer for these children!

Warm me up this season!

Okay, you non-coffee drinkers out there!  Our JustLoveCoffee Store now has Hot Cocoa for you to order!  

If you have been holding off buying anything because you are not a big coffee fan, now is your chance!  Buy your cocoa from our store and $5 from each bag goes to support our adoption!

Do you need an extra Christmas gift?

Maybe you just want to warm up on a cold winter night?

(And for those of you who like coffee, my recent favorite is the Rwandan coffee.  Yum!)

God is Good!

You guys prayed... and a miracle happened!  We received our I-600A approval from the USCIS in the mail yesterday!  Not only did we get the approval for the DRC, which we were expecting, but we also got the approval for Uganda!!

Remember, I said it usually takes two months for these to be approved, and they only started processing our Uganda application on the 25th of November, because they didn't realize they already had the fingerprints?  Well, it got approved, not two moths later, but THREE  DAYS LATER!!!!

It is amazing to see how God is working!  There may be a reason why we got these important papers back so soon.  It gives me more hope that maybe things will work out after all.

Keep praying, because there still is a lot that needs to happen.  You guys are participators in this miracle!  Be a participator in hopefully a successful adoption of our little Uganda girl!

-Pray for specific permission papers to be signed in Uganda

-Pray for the Ugandan government, the embassy, and the ministry who are thinking about implementing some changes in the system, which could significantly slow down our adoption, if not make it a not viable option for us anymore.

-Pray for us to keep faithful, and keep persevering through these trials!

It's about the Journey

Our adoption journey has certainly been nothing less than a roller coaster! The up's and down's, the hurry-up's and wait's, excitement and disappointment.  It has been tough!

This month we will have officially been on this journey of adoption for two years!

Two years ago, I believed we would have a child in our family by now.  Two years ago, we thought we would be adopting from Burundi.  Two years ago I had just a fragment of knowledge about the adoption process, and raising an adopted child.

Yes, we have grown so much in those two years.  And maybe that is all that God had intended for us.  Maybe it is not in His plans for us to be able to adopt.  But I believe it is in His character.  He has a heart for adoption.  He has a heart for orphans.

Recently hearing from our Uganda agency has left us more unsure that this adoption will go through.  Again, another up and down to our journey.  But we are hanging in there, because God hasn't told us any different.

Recently hearing about the DRC progress, it seems the wait is very long.  It may be another year before we even get a referral of a child.  And another year after that that we would even get to travel to bring that child home.  Of course, these are conservative estimates, but I can't help but feel a little weary.

Are you telling me that if this Uganda adoption doesn't go through, and we wait on the DRC adoption, that we may not be adding a child to this family until 2013 going on 2014!?  I had NO IDEA that this would be a process that would take 4+ years!

I guess that is why our blog title is about our JOURNEY.  It is not about a quick 1-year process that ends at the airport where people welcome us home.  It is a life-long, and very difficult journey.  Did we know what we were getting ourselves into?  No.  But we trusted.  We trusted that this is the plan that God had asked us to follow.  So we started the journey, and we are still trusting that He has a reason and a purpose in all of this.  We hope to be the family that a child can call 'home.'  We hope to share love with a child that needs that love and care.

And for God's reason, He picked US to go on this journey.

Even if it is a roller coaster!

A good post to go hand-in-hand with what we are going through, is found on the blog of another adoptive family in the waiting process.  Please read, because it expresses how we feel as well!  Meg and her husband are adopting from Ethiopia.

Fingerprint Snafu

I heard back from USCIS regarding our Uganda application.  Yeah... it turns out they hadn't done anything on it!  She said they were missing the fingerprints.  I told her I sent them in with my application months ago.  Then she said, "Oh wait, hold on... oh, here they are."  She didn't even realize that she had them all along!


So, now, my dear friends, please pray for a miracle that these fingerprints would be cleared more quickly than most cases.  Pray that we can get the approval before January, so that we can get all the paperwork turned in in order to be headed out to Uganda in March.  We don't want our daughter to be waiting any longer than she has to.


But that brings me to the point that God's timing is perfect.  Though it seems like someone messed up, and may have delayed things... God is not surprised by it!  He is not thinking, "Oh no!  She ruined My plans for Alison and Mark.  Now My timing is all messed up.  What am I going to do?"  NO!  He is in control.  He is sovereign over a fingerprint overlooking.  He is working things out to happen at the precise time that he has set for them to happen.  He is not taken by surprise and His plans are not thwarted.


But He asks His people to pray.  So, we get the privilege to be involved with praying for a quick and smooth process.  And He delights for us to see Him answer prayers.  Though prayer is not always answered the the way we expect, it will always be for our good and His glory.


We look forward to seeing how this process is completed.  We know that you have all labored with us in this, and we are so thankful!  Your prayers, and notes of encouragement, mean so much!  Thank you!

Anticipation

It is pretty exciting to think about our little girl coming home to live with us here.  Everything in our house looks different now.  Instead of looking at a room and thinking, "Well, she probably won't ever get to play in this room," now I am thinking "Whoa, look at those spider webs over there.  She is going to get into that stuff.  I can just imagine her crawling all over this place!"  And peaking into the family bathroom, "there's the tub that we'll give her baths in."  I can't wait for her to get here!

As far as our Congo adoption, we are holding steady at the same number on the wait list.  Things are moving slowly lately.  But I did get a call back from the USCIS about our application.  It is going to be finished up late next week!  Just waiting on the fingerprints to come back from being processed.  Not long after we bring home our daughter, our newly-formed family of three will increase to four or more!  I am looking forward to that referral!

Great News!

Our agency just returned from Uganda, where they got a lot of logistical things sorted out for all the families in the program.  We also got an update with the crucial information we were waiting for... is this baby girl actually eligible for adoption?  YES!  And she will be joining our family!  She will be our daughter!!

Also, the lawyer they are working with said that she hopes to have everything filed in January and we could travel to pick up our little Sweet Pea as early as March!!!  Wow!  That shocked me, because I was starting to believe it was going to take a lot longer.  Now, I can hardly contain my excitement as I ponder what awaits us possibly just 4 months down the road. 

Where our little one awaits

Much paperwork has to be accomplished in the meantime, but it is looking optimistic!  Please keep praying for this process...

-Pray that the lawyer will get everything signed within the next few weeks.
-Pray that our USCIS (US Citizen and Immigration) approval is expeditied by God and arrives quickly.
-Pray that all the paperwork will be able to get filed in January.
-Pray that we get a quick court date assigned to us, and that both of us will be able to travel for it.
-Pray for our baby girl and her care until we can get there
-Pray for our baby's young birthmother who needs the Lord
-Pray for our hearts to be patient as we wait for all these things to happen!

Also, please pray that we will receive updated photos soon!  They were unable to get any photos when they were there, but have a request in for the children's home director to send some.  Finally, rejoice in the Lord with me that God is working to give this little girl a permanent home, a home with us!

Ugandan women rejoicing

New Number

I am happy to report that we are now number....

10!!! For our DRC referral.

Moving up a spot in only a few weeks is great!

Sorry for the lack of posts. My computer is broken right now, so all I can do is post with my phone. Just wanted to share the good news.

[Posted with iBlogger from my iPhone]

Guest Blogger

I was given the amazing honor to be a guest blogger on My Crazy Adoption blog.  This blog has been an encouragement to me, through Kari's words and blogs posted by other mothers through the site.  Hopefully the blog post that I wrote back in September will be featured soon.  But go check out the site if you want to learn more about caring for orphans, and hear about the amazing way she partners with Visiting Orphans organization.

Quick Update

It looks like God is answering our prayer for some answers.  Our Uganda agency will be traveling to Uganda soon, and hopes to work some things out while they are there.  I pray that will be get some definite answers and hopefully some pictures and an update on our hope-to-be daughter.  We should hear something in November!

If things look like they will work out, our timeline might take longer than we had hoped, but it will be in God's perfect timing.  We don't have any idea how long things will take once we get our dossier in, if all the paperwork gets completed efficiently.  But we continue to trust that He is in control.

Oh, and when I got home from vacation today, I found our Uganda HOMESTUDY through the mail slot!!  Yeah.   I mailed it off to USCIS right away.  Thanks for your prayers!

Blog Hop

I joined a Blog Hop.  A what?  I had never heard the term before!  It's a "linky-uppy" to other adoption blogs!

So, my adoption yahoo group led me to this blog of a family also adopting from the DRC that is advertising the blog hop.  Finding other adoptive families, even only in the blog world, is so helpful to feeling like we are not alone!  There are other people out there going through the same process, some of them at the same time!

In case you want to check out more blogs, Here is the post with all the blog links.

If you have come to visit from the Blog Hop, Welcome!  I am not a professional blogger or anything, just trying to update friends and family on what is going on.  You can look at the list of blog archives on the right, or I have my posts split into a few labels, so you can only look at the ones pertaining to, say, the DRC.-- also listed on the right, scroll down.

Feel free to leave me a comment about your journey!

On our way to referral!

I heard from our Congo agency today!  They received our dossier paperwork and we are now officially on the wait list for a referral!  We are number......

#11 on the wait list!!!!!!

Only 10 families in front of us waiting for their referrals too.  I am optimistic that this will move at a good pace.  I am so looking forward to seeing our son or daughter's face and knowing their name.  Please pray with me that we will move quickly up the waiting list!

Because it gets me excited, I wanted to post a video of the Congolese song that Mark and I had in our wedding.  The moment we became Mr. and Mrs. we played this song, and started our life together:

"Yesu Azali Awa" (Jesus is Here) by Selah.




Also, please keep praying for Uganda.  We really need these papers in Uganda to get signed, in order for us to bring home baby girl.  Thanks!

Homestudy!!!

In this journey of adoption...

After compiling a lot of this:

We did a lot of this:

Then asked a lot of people for this:

And then today... this arrives:

Our Homestudy for the Democratic Republic of Congo!  

(Notice how smooth I am at taking a picture of myself.  Of course I had to get the flowers in the background that my husband sent me, and I just couldn't help the cheesy "thumbs up.")

Now that we have the Homestudy in hand, I was able to send in all our documents for our dossier to our agency.  So, I compiled my paperwork, wrote a heavy check, and tied it up with a pretty bow:

And then rushed to the post office to mail it express to our agency:

I also mailed off the homestudy to the USCIS for processing our application to bring a child into the U.S.  

YEAH!  We are now getting put on the waiting list for the DRC in order to receive a referral of a child.  As soon as I find out where we are on the list I will let you know, and then you can pray like crazy that our number moves up the list!  This is so exciting!

Please continue to pray for our Uganda homestudy to arrive soon.  I knew it would be a little bit behind the DRC one, but they are both taking longer than I expected.

So that brings me to something else God showed me today.  The past two and a half weeks I have been a little obsessive about checking my mailbox.  I knew the homestudies would be on the way and I wanted to make sure I picked them up right away.  So, I drove the long 12-minute distance (OK, 12 minutes is not that long) to the Postal Service Center (PSC) where I pick up my mail, and checked my little 5 x 10 inch square box for a package slip.  Each day yielded no Homestudy.  I prayed and prayed.  I asked other people to pray.

Finally, I decided that what I needed was to just believe in faith that they would arrive.  So, I prepared the additional paperwork I needed to just throw in an envelope with the homestudy to mail it off, right there when I was in the post office.  I drove there, parked, and considered if I should bring in all the papers.  I decided, "Today is the day, I am going to bring these papers with me in faith, and my homestudies will just appear in my box."  (Yes, maybe I hoped that God would be a magic genie or something).  They weren't there that day.  I was sad, and confused.  I wondered why it didn't work.  But I kept praying.

Then today arrived.  After having coffee at a friend's house, I drove home to have lunch and then planned on heading to my PSC to check my mail.  When I arrived home, there was a big thick white envelope package on the floor, that had been dropped through my mail slot.  It was the homestudy!  As it turns out they had mailed it to my home instead of my PSC!  I was not expecting that!

I then realized that God was still there answering my prayers, but it a different way then I expected.  That day I went into the post office in faith, I believe God was trying to tell me, "Alison, I see your faith.  I haven't given up on you.  I am still working, but this is not the way that your homestudy will arrive.  My ways are higher than your ways, and my thoughts are higher than your thoughts.  You are worrying so much about missing out on a package that will never arrive in that place.  Rest and trust in Me.  I am in control.  I will answer your prayers in ways you never expect!"

I had put God into a box (maybe even a 5 x 10 inch box).  In my limited understanding, I assumed He only worked in this one way.  But instead, He blew my socks off!  He causes me to look at the bigger picture of His involvement in this whole process.  It is not up to me!  Whether or not I check my PO box does not effect God's plan for this adoption!  He will still make it happen, and it will happen in His perfect timing.  That package dropping through my door was God answering my prayers and the prayers of all my friends, and it was in His perfect way and His perfect time.

What more does He have in store for us?  I can't wait to see how He blows my imagination next!  Praise the Lord with me today! 

Some of my Favorite Books

Well, I am long overdue for some book reviews.  I guess I have been doing a lot of reading.  I wanted to share about these books, because I am in the middle of several more and will want to review them as well.

First I want to mention this book:

Like Breath and Water: Praying with Africa by Ciona D. Rouse

The first thing that caught my eye with this book are the pictures!  If nothing else, I wanted it as a coffee table book.  But it is much more.  This book is about the journey of the author to Africa.  She and her friends visit several countries to learn about the stories of the people there and pray with them.  The author states, if you want to know more about prayer, pray with Africa, a place where prayer runs beneath it all.  She says, "Prayer, for the people I met, does not simply petition God for the latest iGadget or beg for a quick fix to a real problem.  For all of us prayer is a life force, like breath and water.  Our ability to communicate with God is one way to know that we are alive."  I think you will be touched by the stories and even more so by the beautiful photography in this book.  I plan to read it again and again, and it will be a mainstay in my home.

Next is the book,

 

Life After Violence: a People's Story of Burundi by Peter Uvin

I loved this book!  Okay, this is not like a fiction romance novel or anything, but I just couldn't put it down.  What I love about this book is that the author spent a lot of time in Burundi interviewing actual people, and how they see their lives after the civil wars that Burundi has faced.  I believe it is a very unbiased viewpoint from the different people groups in Burundi.  There are many quotes from Burundians.  The book really opened my eyes to understanding conflict in Africa (I don't mean to say that what Burundi experienced is the same as all conflicts in Africa, but there are many similarities).  It looked at the causes for violence, the effects of the violence, the economic pressures, the social pressures, the gender differences, the resiliency of the people, and more.  For me it helped answer the question, "How can thousands of people kill each other just because they are of a different 'people group'?  How does this happen?"  I also came away from the book with a deep respect, love, understanding, and compassion for the Burundian people.  I couldn't wait to go see these beautiful people in their beautiful country.  Maybe someday.  Unfortunately we cannot adopt from Burundi at this time.

I just finished reading this book

 

Fields of the Fatherless: Discover the Joy of Compassionate Living by Tom Davis

Also a great book!  This book directs your focus to those who are the most needy in our world, specifically the orphan, the widow, the poor, and the foreigner.  Not only are we commanded to care for these, but God also gives us joy in doing so.  The book reminds me of how much we have in this world, how rich we are.  There are over 143 million orphans in the world right now!  Every 5 seconds a child dies because they are hungry!  Yet, we go on living in our comfortable lifestyles and think that it will bring us the most joy and satisfaction.  What joy awaits us, if we step out in faith to protect and care for the needy!  Anyway, I don't want to write a long preachy blog on just this one book review.  It's a good book to start opening your eyes to the needs around you, and also gives some ideas of how you can be involved to help.

So, these books get my recommendations if you are looking for something new to read.  I'll just share with you what I'm in the middle of reading right now, so you can look forward to more book reviews!

I just received John Piper's new book, Bloodlines: Race, Cross, and the Christian.  It's going to be good!

 

I am also starting Dancing in the Glory of Monsters: The Collapse of the Congo and the Great War of Africa by Jason Stearns, and I am looking forward to learning more about what has gone on in the Congo, where we are adopting from.

 

I am also on my way to finishing a book I had started a while ago, Blood, Sweat, and Treason: My Story by Henry Olonga, a cricket player from Zimbabwe.  I have to say that it not a quick read, but I would like to at least offer a review when I am done.

 

At least I have something to do while I wait.  I have been checking the mail non-stop for the past week and a half hoping to receive our homestudies.  They should be here any day now!  I still haven't heard any news from Uganda, but at least I can work on getting these homestudies turned in to USCIS (United States Citizen and Immigration Services). 

I have also started on a fundraiser project, but we'll see how the first prototype turns out and if it will be a viable option to help fund raise.   I will bring more info on that later, but I just have to say that I am excited about it!  Keep praying for things to move along quickly, and for patience in the process.  Thanks!

Music to My Ears

Our daughter might be learning these songs as we wait....




It makes me smile!

Please Pray...

   Honestly we are in a really weird position regarding Uganda.  We just got a small update on what is going on at the baby home there. Could you please pray for some important decisions to be made there about our hope-to-be daughter?  Please pray for her birthmother.  Pray for God-infused wisdom and clarity.  Now is a crucial time.  It will determine if we can adopt her, or not.  We just want what is best for her.  Thank you.  I hope to have more information shortly (which is relative, I know, so we'll see).

I Choose You

     When Mark and I got married we very intentionally put the word "choose" in our vows.  We wanted to declare that out of all the people we could have chosen, we chose each other to love... no matter what.  We wanted to say that love is a choice, not a feeling.  Regardless of what we feel about each other, we are committed to that person, we are committed to loving each other in the way that God has loved us.

     How does this relate to adoption?  Adoption, in the same way, is about choosing to love someone... no matter what.  Just like finding our future spouse, falling in love, and filling out paperwork to make our marriage official, so we find our future child*, fall in love through pictures and updates, and fill out paperwork to make this "marriage," called adoption, official.

     The glue that holds our marriage together is not feelings.  It is a strong commitment, a choice, to love that person, even when they don't seem loveable.  Adoption is tough.  It will not be easy to learn to live with this new child in our life.  But it was hard learning to live with my new husband!  God takes a strange man, puts him into my life, and then I have to learn how to live and love him.  In the same way, God has picked out a strange child, will put them into my life, and I will learn to live and love them.  I am not saying this in a bad way, just that it will be different than the previous norm.  And that it IS possible to love the person that starts out as a stranger.

     Some people will say that giving birth to a child is natural, and falling in love with that biological child is natural.  But then when that child is older, they say things like, "well, I'm stuck with him, I don't have a choice." or "I guess she's stuck with us as her parents.  She didn't have a choice."  How can you say that about a child?  You always have the choice to love that child... no matter what.  Maybe those who only give birth to children may never truly understand the concept of loving a child by choice.  Or maybe they have a glimpse of what it means, through their experience with marriage.   But our very first child will be coming to us because we choose to have them in our life, and because God had chosen them for our family.

     I want our child to know that they are chosen... they are loved... no matter what.  I think it almost makes sense to make the same kind of commitment to your child that you do for your spouse.  Here's part of what we vowed to each other, written out for our child:

     Dear Child, as we commit to being your parents, we choose to love you in every 

circumstance that we face, no matter what our financial status or social standing, and 

regardless of your physical, mental, or emotional state.  We choose to be loyal to you, 

to serve you – putting your interests before our own - to honor and respect you, speaking 

good of you and not evil.  We choose to provide for your physical and spiritual well-being, 

to the best of our ability, in God’s strength, until we are separated by death.

(We have not made this official commitment or anything, I was just thinking about what it would 

be like if we did)

     I just want to mention that it doesn't take being blood-related to love someone.  My husband 

and I are not blood-related (thank goodness!), and we love each other.  Love for our adopted 

child will not be any less than love for a biologically-related child.  Love doesn't mean that we 

have to look alike.  Our skin will always be white, our child's skin will always be brown.  My 

legs will always be a bit longer than Mark's, and His nose will always be bigger than mine!  

We still choose to love each other!

      As I think about what lies ahead for our family and the challenges to come, I am encouraged to apply my commitment of love to my child.  This stranger-child may not like our family at first.  This child may want to try everything they can to fight and run away from anything scary... including someone that may want to love them.  This child may not love me back for the first couple of months, maybe not for a couple of years.  But remember, love isn't just a feeling.

     This causes me to pause and consider the amazing love of my Heavenly Father.  He is a Father who has chosen me for His family.  I did not love Him at first.  He chose me when I was hating Him.  He chose to love me... no matter what.

     I am one of God's elect "who have been chosen according to the foreknowledge of God the Father, through the sanctifying work of the Spirit, for obedience to Jesus Christ and sprinkling by his blood" (1 Peter 1:2 ).

     He has adopted me into His family, He has made me His child, He has called me by His name.   

How Great The Father's Love For Us!

"How great is the love the Father has lavished on us, that we should be called children of God! And that is what we are!" (1 John 3:1)

What an example to follow as we choose to love our child in the many years to come.... no matter what!


     *I am using the singular of child for ease of writing.  But we will hopefully be adopting children, not just one child.

Happy 6 Months!

Our daughter in Uganda just celebrated her 6-month birthday last week.  We wish we could be there to celebrate with her!  So, I decided to make a sign for her (of course, I am not showing you her name yet).

I also got her a strawberry cake.  I hope she likes strawberry!  Mark was still on his "long vacation" so he celebrated over Skype with me.

Then I went to have dinner with some friends, and they helped me celebrate her 6 months as well.

Hopefully she will be able to see these pictures years from now and now that we loved her and thought of her when she was only 6 months old.  We are looking forward to celebrating the big 1 year birthday!  It may not be in our arms, but we will hopefully soon after get to hold her.  And hopefully, by this time next year, she will be enjoying her new family!  We are thankful for all those who are praying for her to come home quickly!

God Answers!

Wow!  Thank you guys for praying!  I got our FBI Clearance in the mail today!!!!  So, now the paperwork phase for our homestudy is complete!

Everything needs to be mailed in, and assembled, verified, copied, etc. still, but we are on our way there!

What happens next?
-Our homestudy agency should provide us several copies of our homestudy.
-One copy will be included in a Dossier that will be sent to Uganda, and also one for the Dossier sent to the DRC.
-Our paperwork for the Dossiers is almost done.  Prior to submitting it we will need to include the approval from the USCIS (US Citizen and Immigration Services).  So please pray that it arrives in a timely manner!
-Once Dossiers are submitted we start the waiting game again.

Timelines (Estimated):
For Uganda- agency information says that we should expect to travel within 6-9 months after Dossier submission and Child Referral (We already have the referral).  This is only their basic estimate and may happen faster or slower.

For the Democratic Republic of Congo- agency information says that the average wait time for a referral of a child is 0-12 months once the Dossier is submitted.  We hope zero, but we'll see.  After the referral it will be another 6-9 months until we would expect to travel.  This is only their basic estimate and may happen faster or slower.

I am getting excited that this is all coming together!!

Getting the Nursery Ready

Sneak Peak:  

So, excitement is building for these little ones to arrive.  Of course, that means we have to have a place ready for them to stay!  So, I had my eye on a particular nursery bedding set online that was set at a good price.  Can you tell I am practical?  In fact it was so good that I felt like it was easy enough to go ahead a purchase so we could get started on decorating.  Can you tell I am a super planner?

This is the set I picked.....

Please excuse the cheesy cloud walls and bees floating behind.  We are not going to do that!  It is a neutral yellow, so it would work for a baby boy as well as a baby girl.  It even has colored polka dots on the reverse.

It comes with a nice quilt.  It has pink it it that could be brought out with girl accessories, and it has blue that could be highlighted with boy accessories.

Then, I got this super cute wall art to go with it:

You can arrange it how you want to.  It's a stick-on decor, so it is not harming our "rental" walls.  Plus, it can be taken down and moved to our next destination.

Our nursery walls are currently a yellow-tan color, but we could paint the walls in our next home any color to match with this wall art.

Finally, this is a picture of the crib I really like so far.  I haven't purchased it, since I have had an offer for purchasing it.  But it is a 4-in-1 crib:

It turns into a toddler bed.

And also a headboard for a full size bed.

This way the furniture can grow with the child!  (By the way, all the pics of the bedding are with a whilte crib.  White seems to be the popular color now.  But I think we will stick with a dark wood color, like the one I picked out above).

I just thought I would share with you the fun news, and so you can see what our children's room is somewhat going to look like.

I can't wait to start organizing and decorating the room!

Get Organized!

So, I have been collecting a lot of paperwork!  I have Three adoptions worth of paperwork, from Three different countries, with Three different agencies!  My tiny little file folder was bursting at the seams!

And I had more paperwork that wouldn't fit into this, waiting to be filed!

So I went to the local store and bought a pretty, and Large, file folder.  I wanted it to be able to hold the A4 size paper that the UK uses.

Then I decided on categories for my 19 files, 

and found that they looked best labeled with a label maker.

Then came the sorting of paperwork (This is near the beginning, the pile ended up getting bigger!)

And Voila!  It was all complete.

In case you are wondering what categories I used, here are some of them:

-Supplies

-To Do

-Homestudy

-Dossier

-Referral

-Travel

-Background Checks

-Birth Certificates and Marriage License

-Adoption Education

-Post Placement

-Fundraising

It feels much better to have everything in one place now!

He is a Great Provider

It is amazing how God provides!  He is a gracious and loving Father who is faithful to provide what is needed to accomplish His tasks.  I saw some answers to prayer during my several week vacation I just took.  I get tempted to worry about things coming together, and I was started to worry more how we would be able to afford all the costs involved in these two adoptions.  We had felt we were doing Ok when we had started this journey, but things changed and now we are in a whole different circumstance.  Here is what is big for me....

I think God put us in this place of need ON PURPOSE.  

We needed to depend on Him to provide.  We cannot exist apart from Him, how could we think we could accomplish this process of adoptions on our own?  As I wondered and asked God how this was all going to work out, He gave me peace.  He reminded me that He was the one accomplishing His desire for these children to have a family.  And He will provide for it to happen!

And then here's what happened....

I received a large check from family that was much more than I expected!  I was told by more family that they wanted to help sponsor our trip to Uganda!  I arrived home and found another check that came in the mail from some dear Christian friends for an amazing amount!  Not only that, I also had a message on my answering machine asking me to come in for a job interview!  I was so blessed it made me cry and thank God that He was showing me that it will be OK.

Can God provide for us through me getting a job?  Yes, He can.  However, I did not end up getting the job that I interviewed for.  I was so willing for God to do what He wanted, that it didn't upset me.  Finding that I did not have the job reminded me of the work that God has for me right now.  I had lots of adoption paperwork to follow up on.  So God got me moving and working on what is needed to bring these children home.

Update on paperwork:

   I have checked on our background files, and it seems that all we are lacking now for our homestudy paperwork to be complete is our FBI clearance.  So, please pray that it comes quickly!  This is a huge blessing, because I thought we were a lot further behind than we are.  God showed me that things were moving, and paperwork was getting done while I was on my vacation (in fact several pieces of paperwork came in the mail in the meantime).

   

    I was able to submit our applications to the US immigration to bring foreign-born children into the US.  Pray they will approve the applications, which are lacking the homestudy at the moment, and be returned quickly.

Update on our Daughter:

    I do not have any big new update on our daughter right now.  I have asked for an update, but information is moving slowly in Uganda.  But, Good News, our agency sent someone to Uganda this past week!  They will be gathering medical information on some children, including our daughter, and hopefully we will receive news on how she is doing and pictures too!  The only other new information that I learned is that she is learning both English and Luganda in her baby home.  I can't wait to communicate with her!  Hopefully I will learn some Luganda before I travel, because I will need it when I am staying there!

As we prayerfully rest in God's assurance that He will provide, I still hope to bring news to you about ways to you can be involved in this process.  I am working on some fundraisers.  In the meantime, don't forget that you can order some coffee from our JUST LOVE COFFEE store, and $5 for every bag gets donated towards our adoption!  (in fact, I just got a check in the mail from them for what has been raised so far!  Thank you for buying coffee!)  It's really yummy, by the way!

What makes a Father?

    Can I say Happy Father's Day to my husband?  In a sense, he doesn't have any children living with him.  But in another sense, he as a daughter who has already been born, and is waiting on him to come get her.  This may be his first time to celebrate Father's Day, because there is a little one set apart just for him. 
    But being a father is more than just knowing you have a child.  It's more than just birthing a child.  Some men may be part of creating a child, thus becoming fathers, but not be a part of that child's life.  So, being a father is really about being involved in that child's life.
    Our daughter will grow up to know Mark as her real father.  He will be there for her when she is hurt and when she needs someone to play with and cuddle with.  The two may not look alike, but they will have a relationship that a mere birthfather will not have.  They can depend on each other, and share inside jokes with each other.  He can teach her how to drive and wait for her to come home by curfew. 
    Though it may be a little premature to say, "Happy Father's Day!" because we don't have anything official yet, I can't help but imagine our little one with her daddy.  So, today I wish my husband a

Happy Father's Day!!

 I look forward to having our daughter home, hopefully, by his next Father's Day!  :-)

Any Coffee Lovers?

Have you run out of coffee?  Do you need to buy some more?  Do you have a friend who loves coffee?

I want to put out there that we have started our first fundraiser.  It's a company called Just Love Coffee!  This amazing company partners with adopting families to help bring home children by donating $5 for each bag of coffee sold, to the family!  It's the first place for us to start the long climb to being able to afford two adoptions at once.

So, if you happen to need to buy some yummy Fair-Trade coffee, please buy from our store, found at this link:

http://www.justlovecoffee.com/Struska

Thank you so much for your support!  I will hopefully soon put up information on how to donate through our agencies.  And I have a few fun ideas for future fundraisers.  Stay tuned...