Thursday, June 7, 2012
Acceptance!
After several weeks of rather impatient waiting...we FINALLY received the elusive email! We have checked email rather obsessively, perhaps 137 times per day. We have fretted over the fact that we might not be approved and quietly wondered what we would do if we were denied. We only sent one email to the orphanage begging for news...but Sunday night, the wait ended! We have been officially accepted by the orphanage and are now awaiting a referral! We have no idea how long that might take but we are now actively praying, not only for our little girl, but for the leadership team at GSF as they seek to find a child that meets the requirements of our Homestudy. Please join us in prayer that God would work out all the details and that "at just the right time" we would be allowed to meet the child God wants to place in our home!
Friday, April 27, 2012
Two Steps Forward, One Step Back
We reached another milestone on Monday with the completion of our Biometrics Appointment. In case you are wondering, that is the exact same thing as the local fingerprints they took a few months ago but it involved taking off work, driving to Memphis and paying about 5 times more. But I digress.
We are expecting Immigration approval sometime next week and we will be ready to get everything together and send to Uganda! Yay!
Except...we talked to our stateside representative yesterday and he did not have a lot of good news. First, we had been assuming that we had been approved by the orphanage (I guess that is the "no news is good news" syndrome). In actuality...they haven't even LOOKED at our paperwork yet. I cannot fault them. I know they have far more important things to do, like caring for over 90 children. But I still felt a little disappointment, mostly because we have rushed so much to get everything in and this is something we have NO control over.
He also told us the news that I am struggling the most with. At this point, there are no children that are adoption eligible to be referred to waiting families. So, even when we get approval, there will not be a child to refer. He has been honest with us from the beginning, so this shouldn't have been a big surprise but the sadness I feel is still there.
I have to admit that I have struggled with this a bit since hearing the news. I tend to live a bit inside my head (very typical for introverted souls like me) so I have this ongoing dialogue and argument taking place all the time. On one hand, I feel so sad and angry at the fact that extreme poverty has thrown so many millions of children into this very situation...in orphanages because their families cannot afford to care for them and yet no possibility of being placed in a loving family because they are not a true orphan. I know this is not the fault of anyone in particular, but it is the source of great frustration for me. I would not want to take a child out of the country if they have any chance of ever being reunited with their families, and yet my heart breaks at the vicious cycle they are thrown into because of the rampant poverty.
On the other hand, our representative told us to join him in praying that more available children could be identified and brought to the orphanage so that they could begin referring them for adoption. As of yet, I just have not been able to pray that prayer. In my mind, I am sure that there are children out there that could be adopted...and I want to do that. I want to bring our little girl home. And yet, the thought of praying for that feels wrong. The truth is...I don't want another child to be without a family. I don't want another child who will always live with the grief and loss and knowledge that they are an orphan. As unreasonable as it is, I cannot make myself pray in that way. Yet, I know those children are out there. So I wonder...where is my little girl? Is she suffering somewhere right now? Does she have enough food and is there anyone around that is loving on her? I have always imagined her in the safety and comfort of Good Shepherd's Fold. I have imagined her learning about Jesus and being told she is special. And now, I know that, right now...she isn't there. Has she already experienced the grief of losing a parent, or is that sorrow yet to come? I desperately want her to be identified and brought to the orphanage so we can bring her home...but at what cost to her? Aaaaaagh! This is the way my mind has gone today.
I wonder, are we doing the right thing? Have we spent all this money and time for the right reason, or would we have been doing more if we found a way to give money to those 90 children who cannot be adopted? I just don't know. So, today, I am not celebrating a milestone as much as trying to figure out how to pray and where we go from here.
It probably does not help that Chris is out of town and we cannot communicate in any way until he comes home on Sunday...that is why the bloggy world gets to see the craziness of my thoughts that I usually reserve for him.
So, how can you pray...clearly, I am not sure. I guess for God's direction and for his hand to be on the people of Uganda and on the children of Good Shepherd's Fold; that children who are adoption eligible would be identified so that they could be placed in loving families; that children who are not adoption eligible would be given opportunities like being place in places like Good Shepherd's Fold where they will still be loved and cared for and told about a loving savior; that people would come alongside these families and they could find ways out of the poverty that permeates the country so that their families could be reunited; and that I would not have a nervous breakdown before Chris returns on Sunday! :)
Love you all!
We are expecting Immigration approval sometime next week and we will be ready to get everything together and send to Uganda! Yay!
Except...we talked to our stateside representative yesterday and he did not have a lot of good news. First, we had been assuming that we had been approved by the orphanage (I guess that is the "no news is good news" syndrome). In actuality...they haven't even LOOKED at our paperwork yet. I cannot fault them. I know they have far more important things to do, like caring for over 90 children. But I still felt a little disappointment, mostly because we have rushed so much to get everything in and this is something we have NO control over.
He also told us the news that I am struggling the most with. At this point, there are no children that are adoption eligible to be referred to waiting families. So, even when we get approval, there will not be a child to refer. He has been honest with us from the beginning, so this shouldn't have been a big surprise but the sadness I feel is still there.
I have to admit that I have struggled with this a bit since hearing the news. I tend to live a bit inside my head (very typical for introverted souls like me) so I have this ongoing dialogue and argument taking place all the time. On one hand, I feel so sad and angry at the fact that extreme poverty has thrown so many millions of children into this very situation...in orphanages because their families cannot afford to care for them and yet no possibility of being placed in a loving family because they are not a true orphan. I know this is not the fault of anyone in particular, but it is the source of great frustration for me. I would not want to take a child out of the country if they have any chance of ever being reunited with their families, and yet my heart breaks at the vicious cycle they are thrown into because of the rampant poverty.
On the other hand, our representative told us to join him in praying that more available children could be identified and brought to the orphanage so that they could begin referring them for adoption. As of yet, I just have not been able to pray that prayer. In my mind, I am sure that there are children out there that could be adopted...and I want to do that. I want to bring our little girl home. And yet, the thought of praying for that feels wrong. The truth is...I don't want another child to be without a family. I don't want another child who will always live with the grief and loss and knowledge that they are an orphan. As unreasonable as it is, I cannot make myself pray in that way. Yet, I know those children are out there. So I wonder...where is my little girl? Is she suffering somewhere right now? Does she have enough food and is there anyone around that is loving on her? I have always imagined her in the safety and comfort of Good Shepherd's Fold. I have imagined her learning about Jesus and being told she is special. And now, I know that, right now...she isn't there. Has she already experienced the grief of losing a parent, or is that sorrow yet to come? I desperately want her to be identified and brought to the orphanage so we can bring her home...but at what cost to her? Aaaaaagh! This is the way my mind has gone today.
I wonder, are we doing the right thing? Have we spent all this money and time for the right reason, or would we have been doing more if we found a way to give money to those 90 children who cannot be adopted? I just don't know. So, today, I am not celebrating a milestone as much as trying to figure out how to pray and where we go from here.
It probably does not help that Chris is out of town and we cannot communicate in any way until he comes home on Sunday...that is why the bloggy world gets to see the craziness of my thoughts that I usually reserve for him.
So, how can you pray...clearly, I am not sure. I guess for God's direction and for his hand to be on the people of Uganda and on the children of Good Shepherd's Fold; that children who are adoption eligible would be identified so that they could be placed in loving families; that children who are not adoption eligible would be given opportunities like being place in places like Good Shepherd's Fold where they will still be loved and cared for and told about a loving savior; that people would come alongside these families and they could find ways out of the poverty that permeates the country so that their families could be reunited; and that I would not have a nervous breakdown before Chris returns on Sunday! :)
Love you all!
Thursday, April 19, 2012
A Quick Update
Hi, all! Thought we'd share a quick update of where we are along this journey. We haven't really had any real news to share since we mailed our I-600A form to USCIS (United States Citizenship and Immigration Services). The I-600A is the Application for Advance Processing of Orphan Petition. I know, what? In a nutshell, it's a process by which the U.S. government determines whether we, as prospective adoptive parents, are qualified to continue with the international adoption process. Our application was delivered on March 19 and we received our Biometrics appointments about two weeks ago. So, on Monday, April 23, Star and I will travel to the Homeland Security Office in Memphis to do our Biometrics, a fancy way to say that we'll do another round of fingerprints. Once that's complete, we'll await our USCIS approval. Then it'll be time to put our dossier together and send it to a land far away. So there you have it, our journey continues.
We continue to covet your prayers. Some specific ways that you can pray for us are:
1. Pray for our precious little girl wherever she is in Uganda. Pray for her safety and good health. Also, pray that she'll be loved unconditionally by her caretakers.
2. Pray for our upcoming biometrics and USCIS approval.
3. Pray for us as we prepare our dossier.
4. Pray for our fundraising. We are close but not there yet. Airfare is very expensive so pray that we'll raise the additional funds to cover that cost as well.
5. Finally, pray for our friends at Good Shepherd's Fold, the children, missionaries, and staff.
Finally, we'd like to take this time to give a big shout out to some of our special friends who have given unselfishly to our adoption. You know who you are. We are humbled by your graciousness. Know that you are an incredible blessing. More importantly know that this little girl will forever be a part of your family also. And to the ladies of the Angels group at Cherry Ridge Baptist Church in Bastrop, LA, your willingness to sell "lots" of paper bead necklaces was unexpected. We cannot thank you enough. You too are a blessing and we can't wait to share our little girl with you. Please know that you have also helped the women of the Kyangwali Refugee Settlement to provide a sustainable income for their families.
In closing, I wanted to share a picture with you. A simple picture but one that has such great significance to our family because...this is where our heart is.
We continue to covet your prayers. Some specific ways that you can pray for us are:
1. Pray for our precious little girl wherever she is in Uganda. Pray for her safety and good health. Also, pray that she'll be loved unconditionally by her caretakers.
2. Pray for our upcoming biometrics and USCIS approval.
3. Pray for us as we prepare our dossier.
4. Pray for our fundraising. We are close but not there yet. Airfare is very expensive so pray that we'll raise the additional funds to cover that cost as well.
5. Finally, pray for our friends at Good Shepherd's Fold, the children, missionaries, and staff.
Finally, we'd like to take this time to give a big shout out to some of our special friends who have given unselfishly to our adoption. You know who you are. We are humbled by your graciousness. Know that you are an incredible blessing. More importantly know that this little girl will forever be a part of your family also. And to the ladies of the Angels group at Cherry Ridge Baptist Church in Bastrop, LA, your willingness to sell "lots" of paper bead necklaces was unexpected. We cannot thank you enough. You too are a blessing and we can't wait to share our little girl with you. Please know that you have also helped the women of the Kyangwali Refugee Settlement to provide a sustainable income for their families.
In closing, I wanted to share a picture with you. A simple picture but one that has such great significance to our family because...this is where our heart is.
Tuesday, March 20, 2012
Approved take two!
We are now REALLY home study approved! Yahoo! We received our addendum on Friday afternoon and had it at the post office before closing!
Of course, that was a Friday so, while it had reached the USCIS office Saturday, it could not be delivered until yesterday. We must have checked the USPS confirmation site 20 times yesterday...not an easy feat since we are having internet issues and only get connected about 1 out of 5 tries. By 3:00, they STILL had not updated their website and I was getting edgy!
Chris finally called and got confirmation that it had, indeed, been delivered! Now, we just wait some more. We have heard rumors that the process is going MUCH faster these days and we will probably have approval within a month. I refuse to get my hopes up too high, though, because our luck has not been great in this area so far.
As soon as we get immigration clearance, we can begin assembling our dossier and get our paperwork in country, hopefully in time to be considered when they do their next referrals in June.
Please continue to pray for the process, the fundraising, and for the orphans and people of Uganda.
Of course, that was a Friday so, while it had reached the USCIS office Saturday, it could not be delivered until yesterday. We must have checked the USPS confirmation site 20 times yesterday...not an easy feat since we are having internet issues and only get connected about 1 out of 5 tries. By 3:00, they STILL had not updated their website and I was getting edgy!
Chris finally called and got confirmation that it had, indeed, been delivered! Now, we just wait some more. We have heard rumors that the process is going MUCH faster these days and we will probably have approval within a month. I refuse to get my hopes up too high, though, because our luck has not been great in this area so far.
As soon as we get immigration clearance, we can begin assembling our dossier and get our paperwork in country, hopefully in time to be considered when they do their next referrals in June.
Please continue to pray for the process, the fundraising, and for the orphans and people of Uganda.
Wednesday, March 14, 2012
Home study in Hand...Almost
We have reached another milestone! Sort of! Last week, we got an email telling us that we should be receiving our approved Home study at any time. We excitedly (perhaps obsessively) began checking our mail...back door...front door...garage door, etc. for the "golden" package. Finally, on Friday afternoon, it arrived. We began to make plans to get it in the mail along with our I600A form to send to USCIS. Friday evening, Chris finally got a chance to begin reading through it (It may or may not have been during the Science Fair awards ceremony). Unfortunately, he found a mistake. Five little words that were left out. Evidently, five very important words. Words assuring that he had been cleared in a background check.
Worried that that could cause a problem down the road, we sent an email to our agency. Of course, it was the weekend, so nothing could be done until Monday morning. We naively thought that they could just amend the words and email us a new copy that could be switched with the other. We were wrong. Because that would be simple. And if we have learned one thing in this adoption process, it is that NOTHING is simple! We were told that we would need to get an addendum to be added to the original document.
SO, we are now waiting on our addendum. We have again been told it should be here any day and Chris got a very sweet call from our social worker apologizing for the mistake. Our I600A is all filled out and is just waiting on a completed home study so it can be mailed off. We can ALMOST taste the victory!
As excited as we were to send off our paperwork to immigration, we were also excited to be able to begin applying for grants. Unfortunately, we have learned that, because we are doing an independent adoption, we will not be eligible for most grants. On the upside...we will also have a cheaper adoption than if we were going through an agency. All in all, what that means is another almost. We are ALMOST there financially...but not quite. It would be nice to have about $5000 more to make sure we had all expenses covered. We do have a couple of other fundraisers planned, but we will probably not be quite there, even then. We are looking at a couple of possibilities and hoping that, perhaps there is SOMEONE out there who will help support an independent adoption. I guess that is where prayer comes in. God has been completely faithful up until now and I know that He will provide in His way in His time.
Hopefully, next time we are on here, it will be to say that we have a mistake free home study in hand and that we are moving on to the next phase. Thanks for all the support and prayers!
Worried that that could cause a problem down the road, we sent an email to our agency. Of course, it was the weekend, so nothing could be done until Monday morning. We naively thought that they could just amend the words and email us a new copy that could be switched with the other. We were wrong. Because that would be simple. And if we have learned one thing in this adoption process, it is that NOTHING is simple! We were told that we would need to get an addendum to be added to the original document.
SO, we are now waiting on our addendum. We have again been told it should be here any day and Chris got a very sweet call from our social worker apologizing for the mistake. Our I600A is all filled out and is just waiting on a completed home study so it can be mailed off. We can ALMOST taste the victory!
As excited as we were to send off our paperwork to immigration, we were also excited to be able to begin applying for grants. Unfortunately, we have learned that, because we are doing an independent adoption, we will not be eligible for most grants. On the upside...we will also have a cheaper adoption than if we were going through an agency. All in all, what that means is another almost. We are ALMOST there financially...but not quite. It would be nice to have about $5000 more to make sure we had all expenses covered. We do have a couple of other fundraisers planned, but we will probably not be quite there, even then. We are looking at a couple of possibilities and hoping that, perhaps there is SOMEONE out there who will help support an independent adoption. I guess that is where prayer comes in. God has been completely faithful up until now and I know that He will provide in His way in His time.
Hopefully, next time we are on here, it will be to say that we have a mistake free home study in hand and that we are moving on to the next phase. Thanks for all the support and prayers!
Friday, February 17, 2012
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