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.

April 15

Happy tax day. [Insert groans here.] But it was also supposed to be “dossier day” for us – the day our dossier is welcomed in Nepal.

Alas, the latest updates from our agency say that they are not done processing the 2009 families yet. Not a huge surprise at all, honestly. We also learned that the person in charge of the Matching Committee in Kathmandu is no longer in that position, so they are looking to rehire. The new estimated date of completion for the 2009 families is end-May. Then we should be ready to roll.

For one more month, our dossier will remain at our agency. As much as I wish this doesn’t affect so many families and countless orphans in Nepal, this time will be useful to us as we await news of our adoption loan. We applied for 1 loan earlier this month and should hear in May whether we are approved or not. Prayers would be appreciated for the approval of this loan.

God is in the details.

Time Sensitive Prayer Request!

We are closing the gap on the magic date of April 15th – the date our paperwork will [hopefully] be sent to Kathmandu, Nepal!

Friends, we need your prayer for our adoption finances. We have used our own savings account, we have fundraised, we have applied for grants (and have been denied 1 of them), we have used our ’09 tax return (to complete the fundraising ticker above). We now find ourselves needing $7000 before our dossier can be sent overseas. This is part of our first "Foreign Country Fee."

We have applied for an interest-free adoption loan. However the timing of this loan from application to approval is 6-8 weeks. Please pray that our request would be granted sooner than that! If necessary, we will go to the bank for a home equity loan, but we’ve been told that the adoption loan is the first way to go. We are also considering sending out another fundraising letter to local businesses for their support.

Please pray that we can raise the $7000 we need just in time for our paperwork to go overseas and we aren’t delayed any further!

Grant #1 Denied

Thanks to those of you who were praying for us to receive the adoption grant we applied for on February 1st. Today we received notice that we were not approved for the first grant we applied for through Katelyn's Fund. The demand was simply greater than the supply. But God is good and He is still on the throne! And we still have the second grant application out there. We should hear something about that by mid-June.

We're starting another mound of paperwork for an adoption loan. Please continue to pray for our adoption finances. Find ways to give if you can! Help an orphan girl come home to her waiting family!

Nothing to Report

I have debated writing anything new here following last week's meeting between the US Dept of State and the Minister of Nepal. We really haven't learned any outcomes of that meeting. The same old promises are reiterated. Here's what we know...

• The US will still issue “strong warnings” to prospective adoptive parents to avoid adopting from Nepal
• The US will not close down current Nepal adoptions (yes, that’s good news)
• The US Embassy in Kathmandu states that they are happy with their adoption program and their processes. The issue seems to be with the US DOS as they tend to follow those orgnaizations against international adoption
• The US Embassy in Kathmandu is still promising to finish all 2009 files by the end of next month
• The US Embassy in Kathmandu is still accepting 2010 dossiers (that’s us) on April 15
• There were 60 referrals sent out over a week ago and only 2 of those have been actually received by the representing adoption agencies. Where the others are is unknown. (Huh? Yeah, we don’t get that one either, so don’t ask!)

We have heard these promises before and yet we’ve seen no movement on the Nepali adoption front. Even though we hear that the US will not close down, our spirits aren’t exactly lifted.

So, how can you specifically pray for us? Pray that the promises (2009 files being completed by end April and 2010 files being received on April 15) will be kept. If we start to see progress being made, we won’t give up on a country we have fallen in love with.

Thanks to all of you who have lifted us up in prayer last week. The power of prayer was palpable and it really amazed me. Even today as friends say they are still praying for Nepal, tears well up in my eyes. We (our little girl included) are indebted to you. The words thank you will never fully express the gratitude we feel for each and every one of you walking this journey with us.