Joe found out that he can take off of work 5-6 weeks so we immediately told our agency that we were set to go through Uganda. I was so excited to be in the same country as JMCM and possibly meet the boys and see this ministry that has become so dear to our hearts. A week or so later we learn we are not able to adopt from Uganda because I am on a medication that Uganda does not approve of, and this is something 1/2 of the USA is on. Oh well. I'm on the phone with our social worker and she is telling me about Ghana's wonderful program and all I keep thinking is, "It takes 2 years!" I tell her I will talk to Joe because we might as well consider waiting until July when we've been married 5 years to apply to the Congo. Then she tells me we don't have to wait, we can start now! I asked her the same question 3 different ways, 3 times to clarify that our being married for only 4.5 years won't slow us down. Basically she told me she doesn't know what the other agency was doing. We've been together for 8 years and that is enough. There is something we could do to prove we've been together for so long. And that is... our prom picture! YES. LOL.
Well wouldn't you know once we signed up for the congo and paid a hefty amount of money for them to take us seriously, Congo had a botched election. With all this drama, a process that takes 9-12 months after dossier submission is now suspected to take 12-18 months. This means the referral timeline is generally expected to be 6-12 months now. What a bummer. But the weird thing is, although I'm upset, I feel a peace about it. Because I know that God could make it happen in 2 days if he wanted. I also know that if it takes 2 years, 5 years, 10 years, it will be because he wills it. One thing this adoption has shown me is the Lord's heart. I haven't seen all of it, but I've seen glimpses of it. There are orphans in the Congo (and our state, country, Asia, Latin America, etc.) that do not have parents, proper medical care, someone to love on them. How can we be so oblivious to this? How in the world can we know this information and not feel led to be an ambassador for these children? Have our hearts grown so cold that we can even forget this for one minute? Yes. And I pray that mine will warm up and he will use Joe and I. I've said it before, we can't change this crisis, but maybe someone else's heart will change from what we're learning. And that could save another life.
When we talked to our social worker in our last homestudy meeting (yay!) she told us that she hasn't heard of many Congolese children coming home. They can be matched with a family, but she knows of more than 1 or 2 that haven't made it to their homecoming because of disease, malnutrition. What in the world are we doing.
She also told us that if we bring a child home who is a bit older (and the older you adopt, the worse this scenario), the child may go crazy at being held because they never were. These aren't just horror stories, they are stories our own social worker has experienced. I kiss Julia all over her little face countless times a day. Hold her and squeeze her against her will more than I can guess. I cannot imagine our son not experiencing this while we are apart. Any child missing out on this kind of love. And that doesn't only happen to orphans, let me remind you. I have a sweet friend named Brooke who adopted their son from Ethiopia. Their story is much different, the caregiver for their son loved Bennett and they still keep in contact with her. I hope this will be our story.
Please pray for the Congolese orphans. For the families who are further through the process of their adoptions and they are still waiting on things to wrap up quickly. That God will be glorified in their stories and in ours.
Well wouldn't you know once we signed up for the congo and paid a hefty amount of money for them to take us seriously, Congo had a botched election. With all this drama, a process that takes 9-12 months after dossier submission is now suspected to take 12-18 months. This means the referral timeline is generally expected to be 6-12 months now. What a bummer. But the weird thing is, although I'm upset, I feel a peace about it. Because I know that God could make it happen in 2 days if he wanted. I also know that if it takes 2 years, 5 years, 10 years, it will be because he wills it. One thing this adoption has shown me is the Lord's heart. I haven't seen all of it, but I've seen glimpses of it. There are orphans in the Congo (and our state, country, Asia, Latin America, etc.) that do not have parents, proper medical care, someone to love on them. How can we be so oblivious to this? How in the world can we know this information and not feel led to be an ambassador for these children? Have our hearts grown so cold that we can even forget this for one minute? Yes. And I pray that mine will warm up and he will use Joe and I. I've said it before, we can't change this crisis, but maybe someone else's heart will change from what we're learning. And that could save another life.
When we talked to our social worker in our last homestudy meeting (yay!) she told us that she hasn't heard of many Congolese children coming home. They can be matched with a family, but she knows of more than 1 or 2 that haven't made it to their homecoming because of disease, malnutrition. What in the world are we doing.
She also told us that if we bring a child home who is a bit older (and the older you adopt, the worse this scenario), the child may go crazy at being held because they never were. These aren't just horror stories, they are stories our own social worker has experienced. I kiss Julia all over her little face countless times a day. Hold her and squeeze her against her will more than I can guess. I cannot imagine our son not experiencing this while we are apart. Any child missing out on this kind of love. And that doesn't only happen to orphans, let me remind you. I have a sweet friend named Brooke who adopted their son from Ethiopia. Their story is much different, the caregiver for their son loved Bennett and they still keep in contact with her. I hope this will be our story.
Please pray for the Congolese orphans. For the families who are further through the process of their adoptions and they are still waiting on things to wrap up quickly. That God will be glorified in their stories and in ours.
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