New Hobby

For the last few months or so I have been telling my husband that I need to find some kind of new hobby.  My mind is constantly focused on Rwanda and I could use a distraction from it.  Life does go on even though my heart is in another place.  Also, I think it drives many people in my life crazy since all I want to talk about is Rwanda, orphan care, adoption, etc.  The good thing about constantly having Rwanda on my mind is that I have a very dedicated prayer life at the moment.  As I have searched for a cost effective hobby that wouldn't take time away from my family and homeschooling, I've haven't found much.  Everything cost money. =(  But on the brighter side, I did find something to do that would give me money. =)  I now take care of my sweet nephew, who I truly enjoy loving to pieces.  Isn't he cute:

World AIDS Day: Statistics We Should Not Ignore

33.4 million people live with AIDS/HIV today, this includes 2.5 million children

22.4 million Africans are infected

This virus kills 2 million people worldwide per year (1.4 million are Africans)

This virus newly infects 2.7 million people worldwide per year (1.9 million are Africans)

Over 9 million people in Africa are in need of treatment or medication, only 4 million are currently receiving treatment

Last year nearly ½ million babies were born with HIV

World AIDS Day

KNOW THE TRUTH AND BE PART OF THE SOLUTION!!!

Adoption Update

It has officially been 1 year since we started this adoption journey.  We filled out our 1st application, started filling out mountains of paperwork, and giving away every bit of personal information about us to complete strangers.  We hit multiple road blocks as we went through our paper chase including difficulty with FBI background checks and delays with USCIS.  When we first started, we thought our children would be home by this Christmas, but God obviously has other plans.  In reflecting upon this last year, I wouldn't change a thing.  God has taught us so much each step of the way and I'm sure He has many more things to teach us!  This journey isn't easy, but God also seems to teach us the most in difficult times.

As for the update, I wish I had some news I could share.  We are still awaiting our approval from Rwanda as well as many families ahead of us.  Please pray for the families that have been waiting for over 18 months now, this wait is hard and I can only imagine how they are feeling.  Also pray that the waiting families respect Rwanda's process they have in place.  Pray for the ministry in Rwanda and wisdom with how to process all the dossiers.  Most importantly, pray for a miracle, that God moves mountains, and that these children can come home soon!

Putting Thanksgiving Into Perspective

I hope you all enjoyed your Thanksgiving!  We are still in the midst of celebrating today and I hope you each remember all the little things we should truly be thankful for, not just this time of year, but everyday.  Follow the link below and see what some of the street children in Kigali, Rwanda are thankful for:

http://africanewlife.org/blog/thanksgiving-in-rwanda-or-thankfulness-in-rwanda/

Ignorance is Bliss

Many times we choose to be blind to what is going on in the rest of the world.  This could be out of complete selfishness or because it is too overwhelming and hard to know where to even begin to help.  I actually had a conversation yesterday with someone who was literally blind.  This person had no idea what was going on in the rest of the world and wondered why we were adopting from Africa.  "Are there children in Africa who need homes?"  I was so floored by this question that I didn't even know what to say or where to start.  Do I tell this person about the millions of orphans in the world,  all the people that die from AIDS everyday, the millions of people in the world who do not have food or clean water, the thousands of children who are sold here into the U.S. as sex slaves, etc.  DON'T BE ONE OF THESE PEOPLE...KNOW THE FACTS...DO SOMETHING ABOUT IT!!!

Here are some statistics put together by UNICEF in 2008 (since it's now 2010 these numbers have increased):
It is estimated there are between 143 million and 210 million orphans worldwide (recent UNICEF report.)

The current population of the United States is just a little over 300 million… to give you an idea of the enormity of the numbers… (The current population of Russia is 141 million)

Every day 5,760 more children become orphans

2,102,400 more children become orphans every year in Africa alone

Every 15 seconds, another child in Africa becomes an AIDS orphan

There are an estimated 14 million AIDS orphans in Sub-Saharan Africa (a number higher than the total of every under-eighteen year old in Canada, Norway, Sweden, Denmark, and Ireland combined)

This figure is estimated to reach 18 million orphans in Africa alone by 2010

8 out of 10 children orphaned by AIDS lives in sub-saharan Africa

Approximately 250,000 children are adopted annually, but…

Each year 14, 505, 000 children grow up as orphans and age out of the system by age sixteen

Each day 38,493 orphans age out

Every 2.2 seconds another orphan ages out with no family to belong to and no place to call home

All I Want For Christmas

I'm sure all of you know the popular Christmas song "All I want for Christmas is my Two Front Teeth."  As a child, this was my wish one year, I really didn't enjoy eating without those 2 teeth.  My wish for Christmas this year is our approval from Rwanda.  This may seem a little far fetched since a whole lot of nothing has been happening lately.  But I was reminded through my Bible study this week that with God anything is possible, even if it doesn't seem possible according to our human standards.  So my song for Christmas this year: "All I Want for Christmas is Our Approval From Rwanda."

Orphan Care

This weekend our church observed Orphan Sunday.  This was a week later than normal as most people around the world observed Orphan Sunday on the 7th.  Our church had the honor of hosting Tom Davis as guest speaker and he did an amazing job!  I highly recommend reading his books, he is by far my favorite author.  I guess my point for this blog is that you are aware that there's a huge need around the world.  As you start your Christmas shopping, think about all the children around the world who are hurting.  This doesn't mean you have to adopt.  There are many great ways to help, here are a couple of my favorites: 
      
You can buy coffee, each bag feeds an orphan for a month: http://www.saintscoffee.com/
       
You buy a shirt that makes people aware of the need and the proceeds help feed children in Uganda and Haiti:  http://147millionorphans.com/pick-me/

For more ideas see the links on the right of this blog under "Be A Voice" and watch this video below (pause the music to the right of this blog so you can hear the video).

Thankful

Thanksgiving is definitely a holiday that is quickly over-looked.  As Halloween ends, many people quickly move on to thinking about Christmas and forget about Thanksgiving.  This is extremely true for retail stores.  And I won't lie, I too was planning to look over Thanksgiving and had every intention of putting up our Christmas decorations this weekend.  But I came across this Thanksgiving craft in a magazine last night where you make a tree and put leaves on it, each saying what you are thankful for (see picture below).  We seem to overlook what we are thankful for in our everyday lives and seem to do this as Thanksgiving comes around as well.  So I thought this would be a good family project to help us really focus on what we can thank God for this Thanksgiving Season.

This tree contains what our daughter is thankful for, our son didn't quite get the concept and was more interested in playing with the ball of yarn. =)  I know my last post may have been a little depressing, so I'd also like to add here what I am thankful for and share how amazing this adoption journey has been:

- I am thankful for our beautiful babies who wait for us in Rwanda

- I am thankful that our dossier made it to Rwanda before they stopped accepting new ones in August

- I am thankful for our wonderful caseworker who did our homestudy

- I am thankful for our POA who loves the children in Rwanda dearly

- I am thankful for our agency who has a passion for orphan care

- I am thankful for the amazing support we have from family and friends as we continue this journey

- I am thankful for all the wonderful adoptive families we have built relationships with

- I am thankful for all that God has provided to make this journey possible

- I am thankful to be a part of a church who not only supports but strongly encourages orphan care

- I am thankful for the nuns who work so hard to care for our children at the orphanage

- I am thankful for all the volunteers who love on our babies at the orphanage

3 Months

Our dossier has now been in Rwanda for just over 3 months.  Nothing new has really happened, things have actually been very slow in Rwanda.  It's hard to even guess as to when we will get our approval, many families still wait ahead of us.  Please pray for the people in Rwanda as they have over 130 dossiers to go through.  Pray for guidance and efficiency.  Also pray for our POA who is working really hard to be an advocate for these children.

My husband and I plan to wait as long as we need in order to bring our children home.  This could be a short amount of time or years.  The journey is rough and emotional, but we know this is where God wants us.  The thought of waiting years brings tears to my eyes, but God teaches us so much when we wait on Him.  I still very vividly remember when our newborn son (who will soon be 3) spent the 1st five weeks of his life in the hospital.  As we saw many different doctors and  watched multiple tests be done trying to figure out what was wrong, all we could do was wait on God and trust Him.  I still have no idea why we had to wait so long to bring our sweet baby home, but that time we waited made us both really rely on God and trust Him.  Right now we are having to do the same thing with our next babies.  We have already learned SO much on this journey and I know God will continue to teach us as we wait.

Our every day lives go on, but these babies are forever in our hearts and prayers.  Never does a day go by that neither of us think of them and pray for them.  And many tears have already been shed by both of us for our sweet babies who we long to bring home.  Pray for strength as we continue this journey and that we will continue to rely on God every step of the way.

Hair Video

Just a little something cute I thought I'd share with you.  I totally appreciate how Sesame Street makes an effort at being racially diverse.  (To hear this video you need to pause the song box on the right column under our pictures.)

Movement

There has been some movement in Rwanda which is very exciting.  Some families have been approved in the last couple weeks.  We also received our dossier number which was a relief.  I have had multiple dreams about our dossier getting lost and never making it to the Ministry.  I'm just so excited to hear that there have been some approvals.  As for us, we still have quite a wait ahead of us and have no idea when it will be our turn, but God's timing is perfect.

Matthew West & Story Behind "One Less"

God is doing some great things through adoption and touching many lives. This video says it all! (Sorry that the song gets cut short, it's the only video I could find.)

Quote of the Day

A friend and mentor whom I really look up to shared this with me today, thought I'd pass it on to you:

"Orphans are easier to ignore before you know their names. They are easier to ignore before you see their faces. It is easier to pretend they're not real before you hold them in your arms. But once you do, everything changes."~ David Platt

My Heart

God has given me a heart for a country I have never been to, and not just because of our adoption.  Last spring God really laid Africa on our hearts and we know that someday we will be investing in some kind of ministry there.  What that looks like and what country, well I wish I knew, only God knows.  But in the mean time, He continues to remind me in random ways of these people that are in such great need, and I just ache to know that so many of God's children are suffering!  So many tears for these hurting people and a reminder that I am not worthy.

1 Month and Counting

Not much new here.  Our dossier has been in Rwanda for  a little over 1 month now, and that alone is reason to rejoice!  Rwanda announced last week that as of August 31st, they will no longer be accepting new dossiers.  For those of you wondering, this shouldn't change anything for us and others who's dossiers have been there.  To see the update, you can view the link below.

http://www.migeprof.gov.rw/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=183&Itemid=131

Since nothing really new is going on here, I thought I'd post our annual pictures we just took of our children.  Hopefully these pictures will soon be joined by their baby brother and sister whom we already love SO much!

Now What

I have had many people ask what happens next now that our papers are in Rwanda, so this is what happens next, we wait.  We now wait for an approval from the Rwanda government, this wait has gotten longer since we started this process.  When we started this process, our agency said it typically takes 3-6 months for approval, they are now saying it takes 9-11 months.  We are still hoping sometime next year to bring home our sweet babies.  When will that be?  Well only God knows! =) 

Attachment

I have spent the last month taking a summer class on early childhood development to renew my teaching license.  Little did I know that it would have a huge impact on our adoption.  Every book we've read so far and the trainings we have taken have talked about the importance of attachment with your children and strategies to help this.  Little did I know that my class would also emphasize the importance of attachment.  I'll spare you with the boring details of Attachment Theory by John Bowlby, but attachment is crucial to a child's development and can really hinder them in the future if they do not attach correctly.

So, once we get our children, we may be doing some things with our children that may seem a little drastic to some of you.  But we have the support, recommendation, and encourage from our Case Worker, Family Coordinator, and now my professor. =)

Keep watching, details of our plans for attachment will be posted on this blog once we are closer to getting our babies.

Hello Rwanda

Our dossier is officially in Rwanda!!!  It even arrived early, gotta love FedEx.  Now the real wait begins!!!

DTR (Dossier to Rwanda)

After 7.5 months of paper chasing and multiple bumps in the road, our dossier is finally on its way to Rwanda.  We are so excited and relieved.  Now I get to watch our papers journey to Africa via FedEx tracking.

Still Waiting

We are still waiting for our papers to be done at the embassy.  Surprisingly, I'm really at peace about it.  God's timing is perfect.  Even though I would love to go get our babies right now, that is not what God has planned.  We still have a long wait ahead of us, making that moment we get our children that much more special!

I would like to ask you all to be praying.  There have been some families adopting from Rwanda that have been waiting for quite some time.  Pray for them and the people in Rwanda who process all the paperwork.

Dossier Update

Our dossier has been at the Rwanda Embassy (in Washington D.C.) for 2 weeks now.  I found out today from our family coordinator that it is going to take longer to get our dossier authenticated  at the Rwanda Embassy because they are short staffed right now.  We've hit yet another bump that may make us wait longer, but God's timing is perfect. =)

A Reflection of Our Life

While we wait for our dossier to head to Africa, here is a little bit of entertainment for you.  This is actually a very good reflection of our lives, except Luke is not bald. =)  (Make sure you pause the music on the right side so you can hear the video.)

In D.C.

Now our dossier waits for it approval or "Letter of Non-objection" at the Rwanda Embassy in Washington D.C.  This should take a couple weeks, then it will be on its way to Rwanda.  Yay!

S.O.S. Again

Today we took another trip to the Secretary of State.  When our family coordinator was going through our dossier, she found a wrong date.  So we fixed it yesterday, had it certified today, and it's on its way to our agency right now.  I am very thankful she found this error.  I went through our dossier many times, and missed it.  Better to have it fixed now than have this problem when our papers are in Rwanda.  Even if we do have to make more corrections, I'd do it all over again.  Our babies are worth every bit of effort!

S.O.S.

Here are some pictures of our trip to the Secretary of State today.  There aren't very many children in the downtown area, so we made lots of friends.  I took the picture with the church because K was convinced it was a castle and a princess lived there.  So I took a picture of my princess standing in front of the castle. =)

Our dossier is now in the hands of the post office, and our agency should have it in their hands tomorrow. 

The Golden Ticket

One of my favorite movies is "Charlie and the Chocolate Factory (both versions)." In this movie everyone wants a golden ticket to get into the factory and some went to great feats to actually get that ticket. I feel like our approval from the USCIS is like that golden ticket, because it tells me I can bring my kids back into this country. And now I sit like Charlie, in awe that I am now actually holding this golden ticket in my hand. I feel like it has taken forever to get to this point. We started this paper chase December 1st, 2009.

Tomorrow, 1st thing I will have a copy of this approval letter certified at the Secretary of State, then add it to the rest of our paperwork (dossier), and overnight it to our agency. Our medicals expire next Tuesday, please pray that this will not be a problem.

In the mean time...YAY...I'm so excited we finally made it to this point. Our dossier is SO close to Rwanda. For those of you wondering, I checked my mail 5 times today, and attempted to watch out the window for the mail man for the last 4 hours (too many trees in the way).

Mail Man Stalker

And so, for 2 weeks now I have obsessively gotten my mail, in hopes that our approval from US immigration would be there. Well, my obsession has not paid off! Still nothing. Yesterday I literally stalked our mail man as I sat and watched him fill the boxes. Thankfully he was very nice and understanding about it, he was even more understanding once I explained what I was waiting for. Although I'm sure he went home yesterday to tell his family about this crazy girl waiting for him. So today as I went to the mail box today, my blood pressure was extremely high, and the anticipation great, "maybe today was the day."

Since the mail failed me again, I decided to call USCIS to find out the status of our case. I guess we were recommended for approval on May 28th, it usually takes 5 days to process after that. The very nice lady told me we should have it any day, and if we do not have it by Friday, to call our case officer, whom she also gave me the info for. This is good news! In the mean time, I will continue to stock my mail man until we get our approval! =)

Garage Sale

This last weekend was our garage sale and bake sale to help raise money for our adoption. God blessed us with an unbelievable amount of donations for the garage sale and bake sale. We were reminded at how many wonderful people God has placed in our lives! The garage sale was slow, I guess there were 75 other garage sale ads in our small town, but despite how slow we felt it was, God blessed us more than we deserved!

Long Time No See

Hello everyone, I just now realized that it has been a long time since we posted anything. To my faithful followers, I'm sorry for the long delay. Nothing has really happened this last few weeks, we have been waiting for our fingerprint appointment (which was this morning in case you were wondering). We went to the immigration office had our biometrics (this is a very big word for me) taken. Now we wait again for our approval from the USCIS. Yes, this means I will be obsessively walking to my mail box again, this is the last piece of paper we are waiting for before we send our dossier away.

In the mean time we will be preparing for our fund-raising garage sale and bake sale. For more information on how you can help, see the post below.

For those of you just joining us, check out our first few posts this year to see why are where we are.

Garage Sale & Bake Sale

We will be having a garage sale and bake sale on June 4th and 5th to raise money for our adoption. Please let me know if you are interested in donating items for the garage sale and/or bake sale to help us raise money (themahoney4@hotmail.com). Also, feel free to email me if you would like more details about the garage sale. Come check it out, and bring your friends!

Field Trip to Denver

It's official, our dossier is now complete (minus our USCIS approval). The kids and I went to Denver today to pick up all our certified papers from the Secretary of State. Thanks to my wonderful friend who shares many similar OCD tendencies with me, she gave me fantastic directions on how get there EXACTLY (parking garage & all). I wish I had had a camera while there, the kids were really enjoying looking up at all the tall buildings. It was really cute and definitely a kodak moment that I missed. I'm such a good mom! =)

Biometrics Appointment

Well, my mailbox stocking paid off, today we received our fingerprint appointments in the mail from the USCIS. Although I cannot lie, I was a little disappointed at the fact that they aren't scheduled until May 24th. This means we will not get our approval in 30 days like we were hoping. We are praying however that we get our approval shortly after our fingerprints are done so we do not have to re-date our doctors letters again.

Newest Obsession

I sadly have to admit that checking my mail everyday and watching out the window for our mail man has become an obsession. My kids really enjoy this obsession, because this means that mommy takes them for a walk every day (rain or shine) in the wagon. Which by the way, I forgot what a good work out it was to pull a wagon.

Why this new obsession? Well I'm waiting on word from the USCIS (U.S. Immigration) of course. Yesterday we received our receipt from them pretty much saying our case has been opened, and now any day we should receive our finger print appointments.

So, until I get that appointment notice and our approval, I will religiously check my mail, get in shape while doing so (our mail box is a block away), and cause my neighbors to think that I am very dedicated when it comes to getting my mail.

Fundraising

Up to this point, we haven't really addressed the money aspect of our adoption, but we have had many people ask how they can help, so we felt it was time to address the topic.  This adoption is going to cost us somewhere between $25,000 and $30,000 (depending of the time of year, travel costs fluctuate).  I think many people assume you have that kind of money if you are choosing to adopt.  Unfortunately we do not have money like that laying around at all, not even in 401k's.  God has led us on this journey and we are trusting God to provide the money needed.  So far, God has literally provided every penny we needed, and definitely in unexpected ways.  Its amazing to watch God's hand in this whole process.  Listed below are some ways you can help:

1. Please pray for us, that God prepares each of us for the new additions to this family and how to effectively care for them.  Pray for the people who are doing the paperwork in Rwanda, especially our P.O.A.  Pray for patience as we wait and that we trust God's perfect timing.

2. If you feel called to donate money to help support our adoption and share in this journey with us, you may do so by clicking on the chip-in tab to the right of this blog.

3.  We will be having a fund-raising garage-sale and bake-sale at our house on June 4th and 5th (Friday & Saturday Morning).  All the proceeds will go to our adoption.  To help, you can donate items or baked goods to sell and help us raise money.  You can also just come and check it out and invite your friends.  For more details about the garage sale, or if you are interested in donating items, please email me: themahoney4@hotmail.com

4.  Coming Soon:  We will be selling flower hair bows and headbands on this blog to help raise money for our adoption.  So keep watching!

Reality

My heart is heavy today for those families who have been waiting for their children for such a long time now.  Please pray for the staff in Rwanda as well as all the families in the adoption process.  As time goes on, this process gets longer and longer.  I ache for those families who long to hold their children, and for those children that need mommies and daddies.  God has perfect timing for each of these children to come home, but He can also move mountains.

Progress

Our home study was approved by the state in record time, literally.  It's supposed to take about a week.  They were mailed our home study on Thursday, and our agency received the approval today!  Wow, God is so good!

Now our papers are  off to the USCIS for approval.  What does this mean exactly?  Well, I'm glad you asked.  The USCIS is the U.S. immigration office.  They now have to approve our adoption.  In other words, we need their permission to bring 2 more children into the country.

Finally

Yay!  Today has been a very exciting day.  1st, the FBI finally did Luke's background check correctly.  Yay!  If you can't tell, I'm completely ecstatic about this!  Now our home study is on its way to be approved by the state.  This just makes us that much closer to Rwanda.

2nd, another family adopting from Rwanda received their referral today.  Yay!  I am so excited for them!

Rough Pregnancy

After having our baby boy, I said I didn't want to be pregnant again (when I said this, I meant physically).  But this paper pregnancy has already proven to be so much harder than each pregnancy and loss I've been through.  We have been in this process for only 4 1/2 months, and it has already been quite the emotional ride.  Don't get me wrong, we are so blessed to going through this, but it isn't easy, and God definitely continues to teach us so much through this process.  Not to mention, we were hoping to get our babies early in 2011, but at the rate things are going in Rwanda right now, it will probably be in the spring of 2011.  God's timing is so perfect, and I know this, but a mother's heart longs for her children to be home, where they belong.

An update from my last post:  Our case worker called yesterday and said the FBI did L's background checks wrong again (yes, this is the 2nd time).  Thankfully our agency is not okay with this and they are doing everything they can to get it corrected this week.  I guess we'll just wait and see, it's in God's hands.  And I'm a little concerned as to how the FBI can be protecting us if they can't even do a background check correctly.

Why I No Longer Trust the FBI:

They have now officially done L's background check wrong twice now!!! 

Dossier

I thought I would share a bit with you on my thoughts about our dossier.  For those of you not familiar with this term, our dossier refers to the stack of papers that will be sent to Rwanda requesting 2 children for adoption.  This stack of papers includes things like our background checks,  physical forms, birth certificates, financial statements, letters requesting our children, and many more things.  I have had this stack of papers ready for a couple months now (with the exception of re-dating our doctor letters, state certification, our home study, and of course our USCIS approval). 

I will honestly admit that this stack of papers is currently the most valuable thing I own.  I have actually contemplated putting it in our fire-proof safe, because if anything happened to it, I would be devastated.  To me, our dossier represents our children that can't be with us right now.  It is literally the ticket to our children, the one thing that allows us to get them.  It is also the only thing that I feel connects us to them right now.  The dossier is what makes this paper pregnancy seem real.  So if you are asking if I have an obsession with a stack of papers, the answer would be "yes."  I have such an obsession in fact, that I check it regularly to make sure everything is there.

10 signs that you might have Obsessive Compulsive Disorder (O.C.D.):

1. You have such an urge to spring clean and re-organize everything, that it drives you crazy not knowing where you will be living in the next 6 months.

2. Your urge to spring clean is so strong that it seems to be all you can talk about when people ask how you are doing or what is going on in your life.

3. Your enthusiasm is so persistent, that one of your friends has contemplated inviting you over to clean her house.

4. You find yourself re-organizing cupboards and closets constantly, to use space more efficiently of course, and your husband can never seem to find anything. =)

5. You lose sleep over trying to figure out the best way to organize your children's toys.

6. Some of your favorite shows to watch on TV are the ones on TLC and HGTV that have to do with cleaning and re-organizing people's houses.

7. You find yourself spending hours in the "Container Store" getting all kinds of great organizing ideas.

8. Your favorite things to shop for are different kinds of storage containers, shelf re-organizing systems, etc.

9. You spend so much time re-organizing and cleaning, as well as obsessing about it, that you have no clue what else happened this week.

10. You have passed your obsession on to one of your children, who know freaks out if things aren't put away correctly, and they find joy in organizing their toys instead of playing with them.

If you answered "yes" to any one of these, you might have O.C.D.  If you answered "yes" to all of these, you need some serious help.  Okay, so I answered yes to all of the above, and I admit, I have O.C.D.  But in my defense, I am also nesting like crazy.  I have an overwhelming urge to prepare our home for 2 more children more than anything.  This of course includes a lot of re-organizing because 2 more kids, means a lot more stuff.  By the way, we do now know where we will be living, which was such a relief to me because I have the spring cleaning bug, nesting bug, and O.C.D.

Hooray!

First, I would like to take a minute to apologize. I am so sorry for my meltdown blog this morning.  Definitely some emotional verbal vomit, but I feel that I need to keep it real, especially for those to who will take this same journey.  The path God leads us down is never easy, and I wish I could tell you that I can handle each bump well, but that is obviously not the case.  I guess that's what makes me human, and each day God teaches me over and over and over to trust Him, rest in Him, and find peace in Him.

On a very exciting note, I did get an email from my case worker this afternoon.  For those of you wondering, I didn't contact her 1st, she contacted me, I did restrain myself.  She said L's CBI came in the mail today and his FBI should be no more than 2 weeks behind.  Such a huge answer to prayer, keep praying that the next one comes in soon.  And pray that I will once again find peace in God's perfect timing.

S.O.S.

Okay prayer warriors, I really need your prayers this week!  Please pray for my sanity and for L's background checks to come in.  We are arriving upon week 9 of this wait, and I'm not going to lie, I am now REALLY struggling with this.  This wait was supposed to be very short in relation to the rest of our adoption.  It is going to take everything in me to not contact my case worker everyday this week to see if she has gotten the background checks or to beg her to make some phone calls to find out where it is.  I have also thought of every possible thing that could have happened with his background checks:
       1. the post office lost his fingerprint card 
       2. our agency mailed them to the wrong address
       3. the fingerprint card is lost in a stack of papers at the
          CBI/FBI
       4. the CBI/FBI mailed the clearances to the wrong place
       5. the post office lost the clearances
       6. they are sitting on my case workers desk, but she didn't get
           them because she's been out of the office
       7. they have already come in but my case worker forgot to
          call me (she assured me this wouldn't happen)

As you can see, I've lost it, and this list goes on and on if you were wondering.  My mind is now consumed with possible scenarios, and I have started to lose sleep over this.  Please pray for me to have peace in God's timing and for the papers to come in soon!!!   

Quote of the Day

"Our greatest fear as individuals should not be of failure but of succeeding at things in life that don't really matter."  -Francis Chan (Crazy Love)

8 Weeks

Nothing new here.  We have now been waiting for L's background checks for 8 weeks (this was only supposed to take a few weeks).  Below is a bit of information for you to absorb about Rwanda (got it from another adoption blog).

"Rwanda, one of the poorest countries in the world, is a beautiful country struggling under the weight of the devastating genocide that occurred in 1994, when over 800,000 Rwandans were brutally murdered – leaving families decimated and the country’s infrastructure in shambles. In the aftermath of this tragedy, poverty increased, particularly among children. Half of Rwanda’s population is under the age of 18. Most of these children live on less than $1 a day. The infant mortality rate remains high at 37 per 1000 live births, and illnesses like HIV/AIDS have created a new wave of orphans. (Source: UNICEF)

Since the genocide, Rwanda has made great strides in advancing its economy and stabilizing its government; however, the orphan crisis has been largely unaddressed. In the entire United States, with a population exceeding 300 million people, there are 130,000 adoptable children . Compare that to the nearly 860,000 orphans in Rwanda - a country just the size of Maryland, with total population of 10.7 million people. This number of Rwandan orphans includes children in orphanages as well as an orphan group made up entirely of ‘child-headed households’. “Rwanda has one of the world’s largest proportions of households that are headed by children (i.e. children raising children) with an estimated 101,000 children heading up some 42,000 households.” (UNICEF, 2004)
Until 2008, Rwanda did not allow international adoptions. Because Rwanda has just recently opened to international adoption, the country does not have the same advanced adoption resources and infrastructure as seen in the United States and other countries. There remains an overall lack of awareness of the crucial needs and life-threatening conditions that Rwandan orphans face."
 

God is SO Good

This last week I have been reminded at how amazing God is and that when he calls you to do something, He will provide.  As we have embarked on this journey, we are trusting God to provide.  And last week we were reminded at how amazing our God truly is as he provided a large amount of money that will pay for the next part of our adoption!  You truly learn amazing things when you put your complete faith in God's plan for you!

As for the status of our home study:  It is still complete, minus L's FBI check that we are still waiting on.  But, it has been approved by our agency and we are going to sign it tomorrow.

Orphan Care

I thought I'd take this moment to share more of my heart with you.  Last year God laid orphan care on my heart.  There are millions of orphans in this world, last year there were 147 million, that number has increased and continues to increase everyday.  Here in our comfortable American lives it's easy to ignore this because we live in a very wealthy country.  Even when we think we are poor, we do not truly grasp what it means to live below poverty.  It is time to stop being ignorant and do something!  Below are some stats for you to ponder:

Every 15 SECONDS, another child becomes an AIDS orphan in Africa
Every DAY 5,760 more children become orphans
Every YEAR 2,102,400 more children become orphans (in Africa alone)

These are just a few of the statistics, the rest are very overwhelming, I'll save them for another blog.  Clearly there is a huge problem in this world, you can choose to ignore it, or choose to do something about it.

We are currently adopting, but this is only the beginning.  I plan to defend this cause for the rest of my life!!!  I'm not quite sure how yet, but I will keep you posted. You may not be at a place in your life where you are able to adopt, and thats okay.  There are so many other ways you can help!  Here are some ideas:  You can sponsor a child, there are some great ministries that can help you do this (Compassion, World Vision, Vision Trust).  Donate to organizations that help with orphan care (check out the links on the right of this blog).  Buy products that go directly to helping with orphan care (147 million orphans link).  Help out a family who is adopting.   This list goes on and on, get creative. 

My final question that I will leave you to ponder: How are you going to make a difference in the life of an orphan?

Control

These last couple weeks I have learned that I do not have control of this adoption; it is all in God's hands.  I have found myself trying to take control, but each time it seems to back fire.  I have thought a couple times now  I have had our dossier completed, but have then found random errors that need fixing.  I have also tried to come up with ways to make extra money to help pay for this adoption, but again was reminded that I need to trust God to provide.  We have definitely learned so much already, and this is only the beginning of our journey!

Frustration

So now I am going to vent.  I just found out from our case worker that our other background checks are complete.  These are the ones that could have taken a couple months.  A definite mountain moved by God.  So our homestudy could have been close to complete if L didn't have to be re-fingerprinted.  Which by the way he did yesterday and I had them over-nighted.  So pray that they are processed quickly.  In the mean time, I keep trying to remind myself that God's timing for everything is perfect, and some situations are completely out of my control!

Last Homestudy

Today was our last home study visit.  Now the 1st part of a lot of waiting begins.  We are now waiting for background checks to be complete in order for our case worker to finish our home study.  Did I mention how amazing our caseworker is, definitely a God send.

We also ran into another bump in the road.  Our case worker told us today Luke's fingerprints would have to be redone for the background checks.  The FBI had trouble reading his typed name.  Which last time it took L over 2 weeks to even get his fingerprints done because the hours don't exactly coincide with his job.  So pray that he can get them done ASAP and that our background checks get done quickly.  We've heard that the child abuse check could take months.

In the mean time, there are 9 families in Rwanda right now getting their children.  I have enjoyed following their blogs, praying for them, and crying with them as I watch the videos of them getting their children.  I know, a little sappy, but it seems to keep us going as we begin our long wait to get our children.

The Process

So I realized after the first post that we left out a few details that you may want to know.  The country we are adopting from is Rwanda.  We are requesting two one-year-olds, a boy and a girl.  Just because we are requesting 2 children, does not mean the government of Rwanda will approve us for 2 children; of course we hope this is not the case.  This is one thing we will have to leave in God's hands; He knows what is best for us! This whole process should take about a year. 

Currently we are in the middle of doing our home study.  For those of you not familiar with the term home study, here is our definition.  It's where a complete stranger comes into your home and seems to know everything about you (after reveiwing many documents that we sent to her).  She then interviews us (4 different times, some being separate) and determines if we are fit to adopt.  This case worker then writes a detailed report about us that will be used for other parts of our adoption process.

We are also currently in the process of collecting documents for our dossier.  The dossier is the packet of papers that will get sent to Rwanda.  This part of our "paper pregnancy" has definitely caused some high blood pressure on my part.  Had some issues getting my birth certificate from the state of California, but thanks to a fabulous website called vitalchek.com, the U.S. Government has helped me to get it since California is definitely having some issues!  Also ordered the wrong backround checks and had  to re-order those.

All things considered, we've only hit some minor bumps in the road.  I'm sure there will be many more to come.  We will continue to keep you posted on where we are at in this process.  In the mean time, pray for God's perfect timing!

Why

As we have shared with our family and friends that we are in the process of adopting from Africa, we have received many responses.  The main response is complete excitement for us, our family, and our future children.  Along with this response there have been many comments on how we are doing such a noble/admirable thing.  This response in itself is why we chose to create this blog.  In addition to keeping everyone up-to-date on where we are in this adoption process, we also wanted to clarify why we are doing this. 

As Christians, we have learned that our plans many times do not match up with God's plan for us.  And, God's plans for us many times lead us to do things that are very different from the world around us.  With that being said, if you had asked us a year ago, we would have told you we were done having children.  But over the last year God made it clear to us that we were to have more children, and that they were not to be our own.  So we are not doing this to earn gold stars or brownie points.  On the contrary, we are do this because it is where God is leading us and all the glory should go to Him, not us.  We are simply being obedient.

We have also been asked by many people, "Why Africa?"  or one of my personal favorites, "You do realize those children will be more black than the black children here?"  There are currently 147 million ophans in the world, and there are a lot here in the U.S.  But we felt like our government does a good job of financially supporting these children through our foster care system.  There are other countries on the other hand that have more of a need for help than ours.  Not to mention, unfortunatley we will still live in a time where many people do not want to adopt black children.  We recentley read an article talking about how the adoption rate in China has increased greatly and some people believe this is due to the fact that Chinese children are closer to white than other children.  Our point being, in addition to God leading us to Africia, there is a definite need for homes for black children, even here in the U.S.

My challenge to each of you is to find ways that you can help.  This doesn't mean you need to adopt, but there are many ways you can help the millions of orphans here in the U.S. and all over the world.  Check out the links above our pictures.

I would also like to ask you to pray for us on this journey that we just only begun.  There will be many ups and downs that require a lot of patience and us waiting on God's perfect timing.