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An Anniversary Rainbow

Today marks the 1 year anniversary of the day we started our paperwork. We never thought we’d be here, still waiting for our dossier to be submitted to the Ministry of Women & Children! We thought we’d at least be close to getting a referral by now. It’s been a journey.

First, the paper chase (8 months to complete our dossier – longer than most for those of you considering international adoption).

Then the completion (finally receiving our I-171H from Homeland Security)!

Then the wondering and nail biting (will the US pull out of Nepal?).

Then the confusion (is our agency telling us to drop out of Nepal?).

Now the “real” waiting (waiting to be matched to our little girl).

Has it been worth it? Absolutely! How are we dealing with it? We have the faith to believe that He who began a good work in us will see it to completion. There was a beautiful, bright rainbow to the west this morning and I am reminded that God keeps His promises. Are we anxious? Sure! How can you help us? Pray!

We can’t move the mountains of finances and time. But God can! Add us to your prayer lists. Tell your children about our journey and involve them in praying for a little girl who needs hope and a future. Ask the prayer teams at your church to pray for us (WCCC and LBC are already doing so)!

What can you pray for? Pray that our wait won’t be another whole calendar year like it has been for so many waiting families (our dear friends among them)! Pray for our daughter, that she is safe, healthy and lovingly cared for in Nepal. Pray for the government of Nepal to work quickly and diligently to match our daughter to us. Pray for Jay and I to enjoy and relish the time we have with our boys here at home while we long to travel across the world and bring home our daughter.

Find ways to help financially if you can. Tell others about our cause and see if they can lend a hand. Ask us questions! We love to talk about this journey and want to share it with you. Share your stories of adoption. Reading blogs and hearing stories of God’s faithfulness to other adoptive families keeps us going along this long, long, winding road.

And I can't end without thanking our parents for supporting us as we try to live out Psalms 82:3. Your granddaughter is already so blessed to have you praying for her and trying to help bring her home. And to our friends and family for writing dozens of letters of reference, praying countless prayers, sharing verses that we need at just that exact moment, and walking through this with us, we are honored by you. And to new friends through blogland, thanks for allowing us to follow your adoption stories. What a journey we share! Thank you, everyone! Thank you!

Hoping and praying it won’t be another year!

Set...

Our dossier is on its way to Nepal!

It will be reviewed by our agency's representative and they will be issued a Guarantee Letter from the US Embassy in Kathmandu. The Letter verifies that the immigration approval and fingerprint information have been forwarded from the US to Nepal. That letter must accompany our dossier. Once it's received, our dossier will be submitted to the Ministry of Women and Children.

I have no clue how long the wait will be for the Letter. Anyone? I know the letter is there because I received a notice from Homeland Security after our fingerprints were processed and we received our I-171H. And I have no idea how long our wait will be for our daughter. Anyone? I'm thinking 6-12 months for a referral. Depends on the new government.

We'll update again when our dossier is submitted to the Ministry and our "official" wait begins.

For those of you praying for my husband and our current medical situation, he gets his injection tomorrow at the local pain clinic. We'll see if this helps his back so that he can enjoy the summer with the family. They say the shot takes up to a week to take full effect. No medical bills are coming in yet, but I'm sure they'll start rolling in soon. Still praying God will provide a way for us to manage it all.

Grant # 2 Denied…

I’m not surprised by this one. This particular agency we applied to (Help Us Adopt) stated that they gave preference to childless families. I’m still happy I tried and I’m glad that there will be money going to other deserving families. God is just asking me to trust Him a little more.

Admittedly, I’m finding it hard to trust right now. Really hard!!! Jay just had a MRI this week for his 20-year long battle with back problems. We now have a diagnosis and it is most certainly not muscular. He has a bulging disc between L5 & S1 and he also has stenosis (narrowing of the spinal column). So, the MRI itself will be pricey to pay. Our maximum out-of-pocket is still in the thousands, including the deductible. But now we’re looking at 1 round of steroid injections to see if that will help Jay get through the summer. Then we’ll face back surgery this fall or winter. Contrary to popular belief, I’m not made of money.

I know God has a plan for us, but I’m really feeling clobbered right now (did I mention our lawn mower also died and we’ll need to get a new one?). How are we going to get through this larger than life financial mountain in the midst of an international adoption? I have absolutely no stinking clue.

I’m going to be really selfish and beg for your prayers for me right now! It’s really hard for me to find faith with all these goings on. I just want to be on the other side of this, laughing at my lack of faith and in awe of how God conquered it all for us. I know He will.

Psalms 46:1

Another Closed Door

I received an email this morning from Abba Fund, where we applied for a no-interest adoption loan. Our application was denied. Funds are few these days and families needing money to adopt are many. Classic supply and demand.

So, we dive into savings once again to pay this $5K we need next week. Yes we have the money there, but now this is making it look like only Jay will travel to Nepal to bring our daughter home and I will be staying home, as our savings was there to cover travel expenses.

But God can show up in crazy ways that I'm not even thinking of. I'll apply for 2 more adoption loans in the meantime and we'll just see what happens. Trying hard not to get discouraged because I know my God is faithful.

What on Earth?

Two weeks ago we received an email from our case worker at our agency. The email stated our agency’s concern over the Nepal adoption program. It stated the agency’s strong urging for us to drop out of Nepal – or so we thought. One email was enough. I sent out an immediate message to all my close friends and family asking for their prayers as we were faced with the decision to stick with Nepal or choose another country. 24 hours later, a second email restating the same information arrived, this one a lot stronger. We felt we had our answer. Leave the Nepal program.

I asked our case worker what we needed to do to update the home study. Back in February when other countries were pulling out of Nepal and we feared the US would be next, we approached our agency with similar questions in regard to China Special Needs. This time, however, brought us a response we did not expect.

The email we received this time was from our agency director, not our case worker. The email stated that their staff, is in no way urging their clients to drop out of Nepal. What????? I have 2 email stating the exact opposite. It left me hurt and confused, angry and ready to make a phone call. Conveniently, the director was out of the office on Friday and I could only leave a message. So, we waited all weekend.

Jay spoke with our agency director in person the following week and she confirmed that we misinterpreted their email. We found this really rather confusing because both Jay and I read the 2 email independently of each other – Jay at his office and I at home. Yes, the DOS is issuing strong warnings against adopting from Nepal, but our agency, among others, have high hopes for Nepal and truly believe our Nepali children will come home.

But get this... While waiting to speak with our director (it took days to get in touch with her) we filled out a Match Form for China. This form listed numerous special needs that we’d be willing to accept if we switched to the China program. I read up on a few medical needs that I hadn’t heard of and started checking things off the list. Jay faxed it to our agency. Our director commented on the phone (when we finally spoke person to person) that they had NEVER seen a family open to such a wide variety of needs. Huh? I guess they passed our Match Form around the office for the entire staff to see. I spend a lot of time on Rainbow Kids reading profiles of children with special medical needs looking for families. I believe this is where God is leading us -- in Nepal or China. A lot of the medical needs are correctable (and we’re open to some that are not correctable too)!!!

So, after seeing our Match Form, our agency REALLY wants us to move into their China program. They even put together a list of adoption fees for China vs. Nepal and China would be quite a bit cheaper, even if we started over from scratch. Wow. The money makes me think. Really think!!! To boot, they said we’d be matched with a little girl in China very quickly! Okay...

All things considered, we will send our dossier to Nepal and press on towards our daughter. We’re just too involved already. And our friends are continuing with their Nepal adoption and we daydream together about play dates with our Nepali daughters. And with E being 3 now, yet still very clingy to me, we feel like giving him more time as "the baby of the family" will only benefit him. But what a roller coaster ride! I’m pretty much toast at this point.

Here's where we are now. We should be within days of receiving word of our adoption loan and within a few weeks of hearing if we qualified for the second grant we applied for (first one was denied). Our dossier cannot be sent without the next round of funds. So, please pray for God to provide the funds we need to continue. We’re looking for $5000 specifically in the next 2 weeks. I am leaving it all in God's hands and trust He will provide for every dollar.

Ready...

I just got an email from our agency this morning. Our paperwork is ready to be sent overseas. We need to review a few documents, sign a few more forms and send in our next payment. 2010 dossiers are being accepted from now until July 15, but it won't be until after July 15 when our papers will even be processed in Kathmandu.

Last month we applied for an interest-free adoption loan. We should be learning of it's approval (hopefully) and total amount within the next 2 weeks. Please pray that we get word on this loan soon so that we make the July 15 deadline.