Monday, January 21, 2013
Saturday, December 29, 2012
Russian ban on US adoptions
We are continuing to pray for all the orphans in Russia and all the families who have met their children and may not be able to bring them home to the United States. Thank you to all our friends and family for your continued prayers as well. God has placed it on our hearts to adopt and He will see us through.
We are continuing to pray for all the orphans in Russia and all the families who have met their children and may not be able to bring them home to the United States. Thank you to all our friends and family for your continued prayers as well. God has placed it on our hearts to adopt and He will see us through.
Jeremiah 29:11
(NIV)
11 For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the Lord, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.
Sunday, November 18, 2012
It's Not About Us
I like to
read other people’s blogs who are adopting and see what they are up to, how
long the wait has been for them, read to see if I can get any insight into the
adoption process and I like to see who they are in the “About Us” section. The more I think about it, though and when I
think about what we’re doing, I’ve realized that it’s not about us. It’s not about who we are and what we do on a
daily basis. It’s not about how many
kids we have and how close together they are or aren’t. It’s not about how much money we make or
don’t. It’s not about what kind of cars
we drive or the clothing we wear.
It’s not
about how big or how small our house is.
It’s not about how big or how little our bank account is. It’s not about how much money we have saved
up or haven’t saved up.
It’s about
what really matters in life. For us,
people matter. Kids matter. And, stepping out in faith, not knowing what
the future holds, making a difference in a child’s life… that’s what really matters
to us. We also want to share our lives
and our home and the great kids that we already have with a child that has
never had a mommy or daddy or brothers and a sister. It’s also about raising awareness of the
human trafficking atrocity. Kids are
being trafficked all over the world.
Right here, even in America, kids are being sold into labor and
prostitution rings; especially girls.
And, it’s about erasing the stigma that is associated with “special
needs”. Whatever that “special need” is,
we want to help raise awareness and educate people. No matter what skin color, hair color, eye
color, hair type, ethnicity, religion, etc… kids want and need to be loved.
Not everyone
agrees with us in what we’re doing. We
have had close friends ask why we would want to adopt and why would we want to
adopt a child or 2 with special needs.
So my answer is why wouldn’t we?
Why wouldn’t we step out and take a huge leap of faith and risk our
comfortable lives to love on a few more kids.
Why wouldn’t we? After all, it’s
not about us.
Thursday, August 30, 2012
Change of plans
Here we are starting a big, scary adventure but knowing that the Lord is guiding us down this path. After we had our boys we began researching adoption and found ourselves looking at and praying about Ethiopia. While we were still researching agencies and praying about adoption, we found ourselves pregnant with our precious Kelly. A year later we started trying for another baby. 3 miscarriages and 2 surgeries later and we found ourselves looking at adoption again. We signed on with Children's Hope International in St. Louis for a healthy child from Ethiopia. We began the mountain of paperwork and our homestudy process with Family Connections, Inc. in Cortland, NY. This was one of the biggest stressors for me. Opening up my home for a stranger to come in and spend the day with us was emotionally and physically draining. You never know what your kids are going to say or do and if you will "pass the test" or not. I'm happy to report that it all went well. Our social worker is wonderful and we are so thankful for her honesty and support through this process.
If you follow adoptions in Ethiopia you know that there was a slow-down in the process because the Ministry of Women, Children, and Youth Affairs (MOWCYA) wanted to work on quality of adoptions, reducing fraudulent cases/corruption and focus on more important strategic issues thus reducing by 90% the number of adoptions approved per day. When we signed on at the end of April 2012, the numbers were starting to come back up but then another change occurred with the replacement of judges that review adoption cases. The current judge now only reviews cases in the afternoons, again reducing the number of cases reviewed per day. We were given a timeline of 4 years for the adoption to be completed. Our social worker recommended looking at other agencies and countries since we are military and could possibly move 2 more times until the adoption is final and that could also mean at least 2 more homestudies. After researching agencies for another 2 months and continuing to pray about it, we decided to put everything on hold until the end of August. Here we are and we our going in a completely different direction.
During our 2 months of praying and researching, the pastor of Grace Community Church in Washingtonville, NY and his wife went to Ukraine to adopt mainly because of the sex trafficking among orphan girls. We also began looking into the sex trafficking of orphan girls from Russia since we can't adopt from Ukraine. (It has a blind referral policy and requires 4-6 weeks in country to complete the process. We're pretty sure the military won't give Luke that amount of time off). Here is what we found:
Sex trafficking in Russia is real, and orphan girls are at high risk of being sold as forced prostitutes either within Russia or sent abroad. Forced prostitution in Russia has exploded after the economic boom of the past few years. It’s hard to get accurate statistics, but Russia’s leading anti-trafficking organization estimates that 500,000 Russian women have been trafficked to more than 40 countries over the past ten years. (Tom Davis, beliefnet.com)
Read more: http://blog.beliefnet.com/redletters/2008/09/trafficking.html#ixzz252kuJ35r
We are also changing our "criteria" for a child. We are now looking for 2 girls with special needs, specifically HIV + and/or heart conditions. In 2 months we have gone from 1 healthy child from Ethiopia to 2 girls with special needs from Russia. :o) We are super excited but also a little nervous. Russia is one of the most expensive countries to adopt from and that means we are doubling the money that we will need to bring these 2 girls home. We have money saved and put aside for adoption but there are always unforseen costs that come up and specifically medical costs with adopting special needs. We are trying to fundraise and are applying for grants but we could also use your help. We would love for you to join us on our journey in whatever way you can... through thoughts and prayers, through chipping in with $5, $10.. every little bit will make a difference and go toward bringing 2 children home with us. I'll attach our fundraising information on the right hand side of the blog page so you can see the options available to you.
So here we are... we have signed on with Frank Adoption Center and we are told that there is no family discount available. :o( Bummer. We will keep you posted on any updates as soon as we get them. Thanks for joining us in this adventure! xoxoxoxo
If you follow adoptions in Ethiopia you know that there was a slow-down in the process because the Ministry of Women, Children, and Youth Affairs (MOWCYA) wanted to work on quality of adoptions, reducing fraudulent cases/corruption and focus on more important strategic issues thus reducing by 90% the number of adoptions approved per day. When we signed on at the end of April 2012, the numbers were starting to come back up but then another change occurred with the replacement of judges that review adoption cases. The current judge now only reviews cases in the afternoons, again reducing the number of cases reviewed per day. We were given a timeline of 4 years for the adoption to be completed. Our social worker recommended looking at other agencies and countries since we are military and could possibly move 2 more times until the adoption is final and that could also mean at least 2 more homestudies. After researching agencies for another 2 months and continuing to pray about it, we decided to put everything on hold until the end of August. Here we are and we our going in a completely different direction.
During our 2 months of praying and researching, the pastor of Grace Community Church in Washingtonville, NY and his wife went to Ukraine to adopt mainly because of the sex trafficking among orphan girls. We also began looking into the sex trafficking of orphan girls from Russia since we can't adopt from Ukraine. (It has a blind referral policy and requires 4-6 weeks in country to complete the process. We're pretty sure the military won't give Luke that amount of time off). Here is what we found:
Sex trafficking in Russia is real, and orphan girls are at high risk of being sold as forced prostitutes either within Russia or sent abroad. Forced prostitution in Russia has exploded after the economic boom of the past few years. It’s hard to get accurate statistics, but Russia’s leading anti-trafficking organization estimates that 500,000 Russian women have been trafficked to more than 40 countries over the past ten years. (Tom Davis, beliefnet.com)
Read more: http://blog.beliefnet.com/redletters/2008/09/trafficking.html#ixzz252kuJ35r
We are also changing our "criteria" for a child. We are now looking for 2 girls with special needs, specifically HIV + and/or heart conditions. In 2 months we have gone from 1 healthy child from Ethiopia to 2 girls with special needs from Russia. :o) We are super excited but also a little nervous. Russia is one of the most expensive countries to adopt from and that means we are doubling the money that we will need to bring these 2 girls home. We have money saved and put aside for adoption but there are always unforseen costs that come up and specifically medical costs with adopting special needs. We are trying to fundraise and are applying for grants but we could also use your help. We would love for you to join us on our journey in whatever way you can... through thoughts and prayers, through chipping in with $5, $10.. every little bit will make a difference and go toward bringing 2 children home with us. I'll attach our fundraising information on the right hand side of the blog page so you can see the options available to you.
So here we are... we have signed on with Frank Adoption Center and we are told that there is no family discount available. :o( Bummer. We will keep you posted on any updates as soon as we get them. Thanks for joining us in this adventure! xoxoxoxo
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)