No News but a Call to Prayer

Honestly, there is no news to share since my last update. We did get an email from our agency today confirming all that we have heard from friends and fellow bloggers. Our agency's opinion (if it really matters or not) is that the reports and findings causing multiple countries to pull out are flawed. We know that our agency, many others and other adoption advocacy organizations are urging the US Department of State to refrain from putting a halt to Nepal adoptions.

That's what I know. So, we wait and see what happens.

I'm calling on all of my praying friends and family to ask God for His mighty hand for the following:

• A quick, expedited investigation in Nepal and the continuation of the Nepal adoption program.

• Sure signs of movement in Nepal this spring including the issuing of travel dates, referrals of children and families actually travelling to Kathmandu to bring their children home!

• Our dossier to be sent to Nepal this spring and a quick referral of our daughter so that we can bring her home before the year is up!

• A quick referral for our dear friends J & A and our fellow bloggers who have been waiting for a LONG time for their referral of their Nepali children.

Important Update

Thanks for bearing with us as we go private. This had nothing to do with personal security or unknown people leaving less than desirable comments. You’ve all been wonderful! But there is news out of Nepal that gives us reason to keep our story private.

Recently, Germany, Sweden and Canada have stopped allowing their citizens to adopt from Nepal. Organizations such as UNICEF and others have urged Nepal to keep their children in their home culture. They have specifically stated that there is “a lack of child protection mechanisms in place” in the Nepal adoption program. From what I have read personally, they do not elaborate on that statement. Nepal continues to monitor their adoption program and insists that things are running up to par.

Does this mean the US will soon follow and close us out? Not necessarily. We suppose there is the possibility. (Please Lord, don’t let that happen!) Yet from what we hear from various adoption agencies, the US has no plans to pull out and Nepal has no plans to shut down.

So why go private? We have known that Nepal is monitoring blogs, news groups and any public information about the Nepal adoption process. If we were to write anything misleading, untruthful or confidential, we could complicate the adoption process for ourselves and other waiting families and Nepal could make the decision to shut down. We clearly don’t want this as there are so many children in need of loving homes and so many families that have opened their hearts to the cause of the orphan! So, if I may interject my own advice to you Nepal adoptive families: make your blogs private and help these children come home without giving the Nepali government any hesitation or reservation.

Obviously, this is cause for concern and we'd appreciate all prayers for continuing in the Nepal adoption program!

Going Private!

Now that our paperwork is done we will make our blog private. I intend to do this today! If you've been following our blog and haven't introduced yourselves, please do so. If you would like to be included among our readers, please leave a comment with your email address and I will add you to the list. I will not publish your comment, so your email address will not be floating around for the day in a public arena! Once I have added your email address to the private blog tonight, you will receive an invitation from our blog to rejoin. Thanks for your patience!

DONE!!!

YES! Did you hear my scratchy, hoarse screams of joy this afternoon from my driveway? Today we received the final I-171H form we were waiting for and our dossier is 100% complete! We have to send the original copy to our agency tomorrow. That means our “Completion of Documents Fee” is due within a matter of DAYS. We haven’t met this fundraising goal yet, friends. Please pray for more donations to come in and for us to receive the grant we applied for this week!


We're so excited that C even included his baby sister in his homework tonight. He had to answer the question, "How many children live in your building, house, block or road?" He came beaming over to me saying he wrote down 3. "Two for me and E and 1 for our baby sister in Nepal!"

I’m off to the library to make a couple copies of this form and then to the post office to see if I can get the original in the evening mail.

Thanks for celebrating with us. The first leg of our journey (the paperwork leg) is now behind us. Can I get an Amen!

Praying for a Long Shot

We still haven’t seen any envelopes from Homeland Security in the mail, so our dossier remains in limbo. This is completely okay with us as we know that 2010 dossiers aren’t even being accepted in Nepal until the 2009 files are completed within the next 2-3 months. We are taking this time to take 1 stab at an adoption grant.

Grants are quite hard to come by and are typically reserved for families adopting a waiting child with special needs. But it still doesn’t hurt to try, right? All it takes is some paperwork, a personal letter stating our financial need, our personal testimonies (it’s a Christian grant organization), a letter from our pastor, 2 written references from friends and 3 additional phone references. Phew! Just about as much paperwork as our home study!

Many thanks go out to those of you who are willing to help with this next step in our journey by writing letters of reference!

Please pray that we might receive some funding from this grant and SOON!