Little Ways to Help

Sometimes when I think about the number of orphans in the world and the scope of their needs I get completely overwhelmed. It seems as if the problem is so big that the small things that I am able to do could not possibly make a difference. But I have learned that small things being done by many people add up quickly! If each of us does one small thing to help an orphan, the end result will be BIG.

Here are a couple of small ways that you can help....

The orphanage that A.J. lives in now has many needs. After talking to the director, we discovered that one of their greatest needs is for a commercial dryer to allow them to keep up with the huge amounts of laundry created by 70+ children. This will cost approximately $700. Our hope is to be able to raise enough money to be able to purchase the dryer when we travel to pick up A.J. If you would like to help us meet this need, you can leave a comment here or contact me on Facebook or e-mail.

We are involved with the Love the Least Orphan Care Ministry at our church. This ministry currently supports several orphan care initiatives locally and internationally. We are involved with building homes for displaced children in Haiti to prevent them from becoming victims of trafficking, supporting the Village of Hope Uganda through sponsorships and mission trips, assisting the Central Texas Children's Home in several ways, and also helping adopting families afford the cost of adoption. Unfortunately, all of this takes money.
As part of our fundraising we are sponsoring a "Christmas Shopping Party" on Saturday, December 1st. You've all heard of Tupperware parties or Mary Kay parties right? We this is the same thing, only much bigger.  We will have tons of vendors for you to chose from and part of each sale will benefit the ministry. And we will have refreshments too. You can get all of your Christmas shopping done in one stop, avoid the mall and Target, and get chocolate too!!  Plan to join us! If you, or someone you know owns a home business and would be interested in participating in the event please let me know.

How do you reach 147 million orphans? One at a time!

Final Paperwork - Take 2

I should have known that nothing would go as planned with this final set of paperwork! Nothing has been easy so far, so why would it start now? ;-)

We sent in our I-800 to get the final approval for A.J.'s visa and within a week of it being received we got a phone call from our officer telling us that she needed the wording on our home study to be changed... again. I called our social worker that same day to ask her to make the needed changes and found out she was out of town. Of course! Every other piece of paperwork has been delayed, why not this one too? I was so incredibly frustrated that I wanted to cry. So it took us two weeks to get the home study updated and the new request for our USCIS paperwork is on its way. And the best part of all of that? It cost us $360 to file the supplemental paperwork to make the changes that were requested. Grrrr....

As we were waiting for the USCIS paperwork we were also working on getting our medical clearances updated by our physician. He is a very good doctor, but he and his office staff apparently flunked "Paperwork 101" because we had to go back to his office three separate times to get them to re-do the paperwork because they had filled it out incorrectly. Apparently I do not have anything else to do except drive to the doctor's office repeatedly. Grrr....

The good news is that our officer at USCIS is very kind and obviously wants to get us our approval as quickly as possible. She could have just waited for the written request to make its way to us in a week or so, but she took the time to call us, let us know what was needed, and give us specific information about making the updated home study meet the requirements. I really believe that she will be calling us as soon as she receives our updated paperwork to let us know that we have been approved and that our Article 5 letter is on its way to the embassy.

Praying that there will not need to be a Final Paperwork Take 3! :-)

Hang in there little man. Momma and Daddy will be there soon.

Birthday Benefit for Chrissie

Those of you who have been following our adoption story from the beginning might remember that Chrissie Patterson and her family were a big part of God's plan to lead us to adopting a special needs child.

Today would have been Chrissie's 7th birthday and her parents are hosting a virtual benefit in her memory. Village of Hope Guatemala will be opening in Spring of 2013 to give special needs orphans in Guatemala family, faith, and a future. Guatemala is currently closed to international adoption, and special needs orphans are almost never adopted within the country. Village of Hope Guatemala gives these children a chance at life in a family setting, education, medical treatment, the childhood they deserve, and a more secure future.

I know that many families (ours included) are on tight budgets. I have found myself thinking sometimes that the $5 or $10 that I have to give is so little that it won't make a difference. But I am realizing that when all of these small gifts are added together they become something BIG!

Check out Chrissie's benefit and be part of caring for children who are often overlooked. Your small gift will multiply!

Life Goes On

Life in our house has continued on at its normal, crazy pace since I got home. School started, yard work needs to be done, dishes and laundry are never ending. Nothing has changed here, and I am SO thankful for the happy chaos that is our life. But I cannot get rid of the sadness in my heart. I knew that leaving A.J. behind was going to be hard, but I had no idea how much I was going to miss him! I look at his pictures every day. I think about him constantly. I just cannot wait to bring him home so I can tuck him in every night, make sure that he is getting enough to eat, take him to the doctors he needs to see, and love on him in a way he has never known. Just a few more months and you will have more love and hugs than you know what to do with little guy!

Our I800 has been submitted for approval from USCIS and we will be getting our medical exams and local police checks done (again!) next week. When we have the police checks and medicals done we will send them to our agency in country (along with our FBI background checks that were done last month) and our second stage documents will be complete. Then we just have to wait for USCIS to contact the Embassy in Sofia to let them know that our I800 is approved. They will issue the Article 5 letter which is the last piece of paperwork that we need to have complete before we get a court date. The court date will probably be 1-2 months after the Article 5 letter is issued. Then we have a short waiting period for the court decree and new birth certificate to be issued before we can make our second trip. We are still praying that we may be able to get him home before the end of 2012, but January or February of 2013 is probably more realistic. It seems like such a simple, straightforward paperwork process, but everything takes so much time!

I have a long list of things that I want to get done around the house before he comes home. Anyone want to come over to help me paint and reorganize? :-)

Day 5 - The Hardest Day



Momma brought me "salty sticks" (what Americani call pretzels)!



I didn't get to visit with A.J. very long on Friday morning, only about an hour and a half. It was not nearly long enough. He seemed much more subdued that during our other visits, but I don't know if that was because he was picking up on my mood or if he really understood when they told him that this would be the last time that I came to visit for a while. :-(

We got to play and snuggle a little and enjoy each other's company for one last time before I had to meet with the Director to give her our answer to the question "Do you want to adopt this child?" Our answer was 'Yes. We can't wait until he is part of our family, laughing and playing with his brothers and sisters."

I found out that he weights 12 kilograms (26 1/2 pounds) and is 33 inches tall. His size would be about 50th percentile for a 2 year old, and isn't even on the growth charts for a 4 year old. I guess his small size didn't completely hit me until I got home and realized how much bigger his sister (who is 6 months older than him) and his brother (who is 6 months younger than him) are. Eve is 11 inches taller than him and weighs 12 pounds more and Zac is 7 inches taller than him and weighs 10 pounds more. I almost fell over the first time I tried to pick Zac up after I got home! :-) I forgot how heavy he is. It made me so sad to think about our tiny little man...

I also found out a little more about his medical history. He weighed only 4 lbs 6 oz when he was born, his heritage is Romani (we suspected this, but his records confirmed it), he has no chromosomal abnormalities, they tested him for cystic fibrosis but could not get a result "because of technical problems with the laboratory", and he has been hospitalized for pneumonia or bronchiolitis a total of 12 times in 4 years. Because of his reversed organs and lung problems, we strongly suspect that he has Karatgener's Syndrome rather than CF but testing for this disorder is not available in Bulgaria and the physicians may not even be aware of a diagnosis as rare as Kartagener's. We are blessed to be just a few miles from an amazing children's hospital in Austin (Dell Children's Center) that "just happens" to have an International Adoption Clinic. Once A.J. is home he will have a 3-4 hour appointment at that clinic where they will do complete developmental testing, assess him for sensory processing / integration issues, a nutritional consultation, any immunizations that he needs, a thorough physical exam, any diagnostic tests such as lab work or x-rays that they feel he needs immediately, and give us referrals to any of the specialists that he needs to see. It could take us months to accomplish all of this if we had to schedule everything with individual offices! We are anticipating that we will get referrals (at the very least) to the CF clinic at Dell (because Kartagener's is treated in much the same way as CF), occupational and physical therapy, GI clinic, and the surgical clinic. I am anxious to get this done as soon as we can after he gets home because I really think he will thrive best after his physical needs are taken care of. But I am not looking forward to walking into a hospital with him for the first time. I know he will not be a happy camper, but I am hoping that having Momma there with him will ease his anxiety.

It just occurred to me that some of you might not know that the Romani people are commonly called "gypsy" or "gipsy". We choose not to use that term because in Europe is is very derogatory (similar to a white person using the "n word" to describe a person of African-American descent here). We have been doing a little research on this group of people so we will be ready to share his heritage with him when he is ready to understand, and I will share some of that with y'all in another post. I am also going to share a little more about the culture in Bulgaria, an opportunity to help A.J.'s orphanage, and a few other things.

I am sorry it took me so long to get this post up. After blogging twice a day all week, I know some of you thought something was wrong when I didn't blog for three days! School starts tomorrow for us, although I arrange our school weeks from Thursday to Thursday to correspond with our Classical Conversations campus teaching so we won't really get into things until Thursday. I will keep you all updated on how things are progressing with our final paperwork. The I800, local police checks, and medical exams are the only things we have left to do!

Day 4, Part 2

This is what I was afraid his visa photograph would look like. :-)



This is what the photographer was finally able to capture. Not too bad...

We had a wonderful afternoon visit today. I was waiting in the entry area and when A.J. came around the corner and saw me he started running toward me! That moment is one that I will remember forever and was such a blessing to my heart. Then, he took my hand and started pulling me down the hallway toward the play room.

I have discovered that this kid LOVES the chicken dance. It is on the CD that they play for the kids every day, and one of the staff does the dance for them. He can do the first part, and would do it and then point at me to ask me to do the rest with him. Then he brought me a stuffed bear and wanted me to make the bear do the dance. We are going to have to get that song on iTunes and teach the rest of the kids that silly dance before he gets home.

He continues to amaze me with how fast he learns new things when he is given the opportunity. This afternoon he started saying 'brav' for 'bravo', and 'choka' (horse). And it took him about 30 seconds to learn the sign for more when he realized that it would get him more pretzels. :-) Food is going to be the way into this kiddo's heart! Surprisingly, he also picked up on the sign for 'finished' pretty quickly when we were done with snack.

I have noticed a few institutional behaviors, but nothing too severe. He does not react appropriately to being hurt. This afternoon he ran full speed into a table and it knocked him to the ground. He reacted by jumping up and laughing. With time, he will learn that there is someone who will comfort him and it is OK to feel the pain. He also has some self-comforting/stimulating behaviors such as thumb sucking and mild head banging in situations where another child would seek out comfort or interaction. And he is not very comfortable with close physical contact. He will let me hold him on my lap or carry him on my hip, but if I try to snuggle him or give him kisses he becomes upset. Interestingly, he will let me give him kisses if I am not holding him. It may be that the combination of being held and kissed at the same time is too much stimulation for him. This is all very common in children who have grown up in orphanages and will change as he has more time in a family. I am mentioning a lot of this here so that in a year or so I can go back and read these entries and see how far he has progressed!

I cannot believe that I will only get to play with him and love on him one more time before I have to leave. If you happen to be awake at around 3am tomorrow morning (11am here) please say a prayer for me to have strength as I say goodbye. Sigh...

Day 4

A.J. was not a happy camper when I arrived to visit him this morning. I really think that he was upset with me for leaving yesterday afternoon. He completely snubbed me for the first 20 minutes or so, and if I tried to engage him he would grab toys and try to throw them at me. Eventually he settled down and we had a fun visit. He is now saying 'vata', 'ne', and 'mama' and he was shaking his finger at me and grinning ear to ear. He is going to be something else! :-) He walked over to the window where we saw the cats yesterday and was looking quizzical and saying 'maw, maw?' We never did see the kitties though.

Toward the end of the morning visit we took him to get his pictures done for the visa. He did NOT want to leave the orphanage and threw a fit as we went out the gate. Dore (his favorite staff member) explained that the only time he has ever left the orphanage before was to go to the hospital and spend a week to ten days hooked up to IV antibiotics and steroids, so is it any wonder the kid didn't want to leave? Once he finally realized we were not headed for the hospital he started to relax. Taking him for all of the medical tests and exams he is going to need when we get home is going to be interesting. He is going to need testing for his PCD, evaluation of his foot, ENT for the 'goo' that is coming out of his left ear, and GI consult for reflux (he is constantly spitting up like you would expect an infant to do). It will be an adventure for sure. But I think getting all of his medical issues sorted out so he is feeling well is going to really help his overall development.

I was amazed at how calm he was in the car. Here they just buckle kids into the back seat with the regular seat belt and he rode along looking out the window and playing with a stuffed bear I brought him. He did not like having his picture taken, and I am afraid his visa will forever immortalize him with his mouth open in a scream and tears running down his face. :-( But once we left the photo place he walked along the shopping square happily checking out all of the sights. It is going to be a lot of fun to start to show him new things once we have had some time to settle in at home.

Momma is going to help me get this fixed when I get home. It hurts me when I walk!

More to come later (if Momma is not too exhausted)! :-)

Day 3, Part 2

Yesterday I asked this question in my emotion laden post - “Will he ever catch up developmentally? Or has the four years this orphanage has stolen from him changed his future forever?” When I was finally able to talk to my wonderful hubby last night he had a perfect answer to that question - "Honey, what will change his future forever is being part of a family! And that is what we are going to give him." See, I told you this guy was amazing!

I was able to visit with A.J. for about 2 hours this morning and an hour this afternoon. This morning they allowed me to visit him without my driver/interpreter or any of the orphanage staff in the room and it made a world of difference in his behavior and interaction. I think that with many people in the room he did not know who to go to and was not sure what the rules would be so he was exhibiting a lot of testing behavior (like throwing things, hitting himself, and banging toys on the windows). But when it was just the two of us I was able to set boundaries with him and he very quickly realized what he would and would not be allowed to do. By the end of the morning he was actually looking at me to check in and see if what he was planning to do was going to be acceptable or not. For example, he would raise a toy up to hit the window and then look over his sholder at me to see what I would do. All I had to do was say "Ne, ne" and shake my finger at him like the staff does and he would move on. That was very encouraging to me.

I was also amazed at how easily he learned new things without a lot of extra stimulation in the environment. In the few hours I was with him today he actually gained several new skills. On Monday he would bang blocks together or throw them but not stack them. Today after I sat him on my lap and showed him how to build a tower he did it repeatedly on his own and would bring the blocks to me to have me help him. He started to do some pretend play after I put the "bow bow" (dog) in the high chair and pretended to feed him, and he was reaching up to me to have me lift him.

Other highlights of the day:
 - Even though he may be four, he cannot play with play doh. I had a feeling it would be a failure, but I was amazed by how quickly he got it into his mouth! I thought the texture might be interesting to him but as my kids would say "Epic FAIL".

- The afternoon visit was cut short by a giant diaper blowout that required a bath. Since it was close to dinner time anyhow we let his Baba take him to the bath and headed out. We gave the Baba a ride home and she told us that as they were walking down the hall he was looking for me and saying "Ciao?" Awwww...

 - I gave the scrapbook we made to his Baba and she plans to show it to him everyday and tell him about his Mama and Dada. She saw the pictures of our cats and got very excited, telling us that his "groupa's" room has pictures of kittens and he LOVES them. He saw some pittiful kittens outside the window today and was saying "Maw maw", so I had a feeling he would like the cats. I am thrilled that his Baba is going to do this for him so he will have some idea of what is going to happen. She said that another child in his "groupa" was adopted, so he might have some idea of what becoming part of a family will mean. His Baba makes me laugh because she will chatter on at me in Bulgarian and I just nod my head and let her talk. I wonder if she realizes I can only understand about 10 words of Bulgarian? :-)

 - There were two Bulgarian couples there this morning starting the process to adopt children. 3 less orphans in this orphanage!

Only three visits left before we have to head back to Sofia to finish up paperwork before I leave for home on Saturday. It will be so hard to leave him when we are just starting to build a relationship, but I hope that having his Baba share the scrapbook will help him to remember me until we can come back to bring him home. We will take him to get his visa pictures done tomorrow, so that will be an adventure!




Peek a Boo!



Day 3 - Good Morning!

I finally got to visit with A.J. alone. What a difference that made in his behavior! I will post more about the visit later in the evening (mid-afternoon for all of you back home).

In the meantime here are some pics. Yes, I know they are all "soft". He figured out really quickly that he could see himself on the iPhone and from then on he tried to grab it everytime I took it out, so I had to move quick! For some reason I can't get the first two photos to rotate correctly even though they are the correct orientation in the file. Sorry! (Eric - if you know how to fix it, please log in and edit the post. Thanks!)



I wish I could have recorded his giggle for you. He has one of those giggles where you think the poor kid is going to fall over because they laugh so hard. :-) And I didn't realize how bad his haircut is until I saw these pictures. Poor kid! LOL





 Check back later for more!

Day 2 - The Roller Coaster

If you are looking for a rosy, the process of adopting is all rainbows and puffy clouds type of post tonight you might want to stop reading now. J I think too many people make it seem like every single thing in their adoption process was perfect, that they immediately fell in love with their child, took them home without any reservations or second thoughts and they all lived happily ever after.  I KNOW I am not the only one who has doubts, concerns and fears and I think that it should be OK to share that. But, as I said, if you don’t want to read that type of post then just go back to Facebook. J

Today has been an emotional roller coaster for me. I guess the reality of A.J.’s developmental delays is setting in and this is causing me to have a lot of questions and fears that are probably perfectly normal.

Things like: “Can I meet his needs once we are home when my life is already pretty crazy?” When I am thinking clearly the answer I hear in my head is “Yes. You will probably need to change your schedule around and maybe get a mother’s helper a few days a week to lighten the load of housework, but you can do it.” When the spirit of fear fills me the answer is more like “Absolutely not! Are you insane?”

And: “Am I ready to commit to parenting a child that may never be able to live independently and may never be ‘normal’ in the eyes of the world?” The non-emotional answer is “Many people have made the same commitment and received many, many blessings from it. It will strengthen our family in ways we can’t even imagine, and we will gain more than we give in this process.” The fearful side says “Think of everything you would have to give up! You are finally at a place where your house doesn’t need to baby proofed and your kids are independent enough to play on their own. Do you want to go back to having a child who completely relies on you again?”

Or: “Will he ever catch up developmentally? Or has the four years this orphanage has stolen from him changed his future forever?” The Godly, loving side of me replies “It doesn’t even matter. He is one of God’s children and he SO much deserves a chance at something much better than what he is destined for here. With consistent attention, therapy, and addressing his medical needs so that he is getting enough oxygen and not ill all the time, and making sure that his vision and hearing are OK he will thrive.” And the fear says “He’ll probably never catch up and you will be ‘stuck’ with a child who acts like a 2 year old when he is 18.”

God has used several things to try to set me straight today. The first one was this post from my bloggy friend Adeye. She is adopting two children who are in much worse places than our little man and her post really spoke to my heart. The second one was the song “Voice of Truth” by Casting Crowns. I had never really listened to this song the way I did today.  I am going to try to include the song as part of the blog, but if I cannot figure out how to do it please take the time to listen to it on YouTube or iTunes. If you are a Christian it will bless your heart and make you understand how God is speaking to me through the music. If you are not a Christian it might help you to see how I feel like I am able to overcome huge obstacles because of my God. Or, it might just make you say “Those Christians are whacked in the head.” Either way, it is the honest truth about my life. And finally is Isaiah 40. This is one of my favorite chapters in the bible and one I turn to frequently. As I was reading verses 12-28 I could hear Him speaking to my heart saying “Do you really think that I, the one who measures the waters in his hands and brings forth the stars, am not big enough to overcome all of these problems you are seeing? I created the world. I do not become weary even when you do. I can handle this!” I am in tears right now thinking about it. One of the most amazing things about this journey has been how much closer it has made my relationship with my Creator.

I so much wish that my husband could have made this trip with me so that we could be working through these emotions together, face to face instead of chatting on Skype with an 8 hour time difference. We are in this together and I wish he could have first-hand experiences with A.J. instead of relying on my opinion and descriptions. And I could really, really use the emotional support that he consistently provides to me.

So, where does all this emotionalism leave us? Right where we started as far as I am concerned. Despite my concerns and fears I believe that God has led us on this journey and that he will continue to carry us through it, whatever it might bring. It boils down to this – I may not be able to give all of these children with sad, sad eyes a family; but I can give one a chance and there is NO WAY I am going to leave him here where his future is most likely life in a mental institution.

And now that I have gotten all of that down in words, I am going to bed. It has been an exhausting day. I pray that none of you will think less of me for sharing the deepest things of my heart here today.

Wow!

This has been an amazing day. Very emotional, very tiring, and very exciting all at once.

I don't really know where to start!

We left Sofia this morning to drive to the city that the orphanage is in (about an hour away). When we got to the city there were very few street signs and my driver couldn't find the orphanage. We stopped and asked close to 15 people and finally found one who knew where it was. When we got there the kids were all in a center courtyard playground area and one of the workers took us over to the window to show us A.J. He immediately started blowing kisses to us! My heart melted right then.

We met briefly with the director, who is a doctor and very sweet. She shared the medical information she had for A.J. and then asked me some questions about our family. I showed her the scrapbook I made to give to A.J. and she was amazed that we have cats living in the house with us, and that our kids do karate.
:-)

We finally got to go out into the play area with all of the kids and I mostly watched A.J. play. I tried to engage him a few times, but he quickly went on to another activity. He definitely seems to bounce from one thing to another pretty quickly. The staff at the orphanage obviously adore him and they have some sweet nicknames for him that I will share when I can tell you what his birth name is. I think we will end up using at least one of these pet names, since he responds well to them. They were very excited to hear that he was going to have a family and kept telling me "He just needs love!" The one down side to him being a favorite is that it seems like he doesn't have a lot of boundaries or rules. My interpreter said "I can't think of the word. What do you call it when they let him do whatever he wants?" I said "Spoiled?" and he replied "Yes! He is spoiled!" :-) I guess given the alternatives that he could have experienced being spoiled is not necessarily a bad thing, but we will definitely be working on setting some boundaries once we are home.

We left when the kids went in for lunch and returned at about 3:30pm. (Did you know that they use military time in Bulgaria? I felt right at home when they told us to come back at 1530!). We got to take A.J. into a therapy room in the back and play with him and his Baba. (Remember a few weeks back when I was so upset that our little guy didn't have a Baba? I shouldn't have worried because God had it covered.) Toward the end of the visit he was starting to bring me toys and let me hold him for a short time. He is NOT a cuddle bug, that much was obvious! We got to help him eat his snack of noodles with butter, cheese and egg. That kid can eat! He will fit in just fine at our house. ;-) He is independant in feeding himself and can drink from a regular cup with just a little help. 

Some general impressions:
He is teeny tiny. I didn't get his measurements today, but I think he is probably about the size of an 18 month old.
We thought that his 4th birthday was April 24, but it turns out it is actually August 24. So guess who will get to spend his birthday with him!
His development is probably in line with a two year old. He says a handful of Bulgarian words that I can recognize after spending a few hours with him, and he does a very good job communicating in gestures like all pre-verbal kids do. He knows his body parts, and plays appropriately with toys (more or less). He can walk and run very well, but he still goes up the stairs using all four limbs. He is definitely developmentally delayed but I think with one on one attention and a family environment he will catch up pretty quickly.

They wouldn't let me take any pictures today, so I will have to wait and share those later. :-( I did post some pictures of the city on my facebook page, so go check those out in the meantime.

Keep the prayers coming! I have a feeling that leaving him on Friday is going to be very, very hard.

Yipeeee!

Yesterday morning I got the best e-mail I have gotten in a very long time. We finally got our official referral and travel dates!! I will be leaving Austin on August 18th and meeting A.J. for the first time on August 20th. I'll get to visit with him a few hours each day from Monday to Friday and then make the trip home on Saturday.

The reality that I will be travelling overseas in less than a week is starting to set in . Oh my. There is so much to do!

If you have travelled for an international adoption I would love to hear your suggestions for packing, and especially what to take along for your child on trip one. Thank you!

We should get an update from A.J.'s orphanage very soon. Our facilitator has the report, but it wouldn't be much use to us in Cyrillic so I guess we will have to wait for it to be translated. :-) I will let you know what we find out!

Prayer requests:
Where do I start? :-)
Safe travel - especially that I will not miss any connections.
Patience and energy for Eric as he tele-works and manages the household while I am gone.
That I will have the energy to get everything done that needs to be done in the next 6 days! 
That I will recover from jet lag faster than I have in the past. Every time I travel internationally I am miserable (and so is everyone around me! LOL).


I'd better go get some lists made....

Thank you for walking alongside us on this journey!

Prayer Request

All of the "Back to School" sales are making me very sad.

Back in the beginning of April when we submitted our dossier I excitedly looked at other people's blogs to see how long the process had taken for them so I could come up with a general timeline for us. I really, truly thought our first visit would be in late May or early June and we would be returning to pick A.J. up around September. I tentatively planned our summer around these dates, and gave some thought to how best to integrate A.J. into our school schedule once he was home.

Now it is "Back to School" time and we still haven't even gotten our written referral that will give us permission to make our first visit. Obviously trying to estimate time lines is not very helpful, but now we are hoping that we will be able to make our first trip sometime in September or early October. That means that he will not be coming home until about February 2013. :-(

When we started this process in December of 2010 I was very hopeful that he would be home for Christmas of 2011. When it became obvious that would not be possible, I began to pray that he might be able to be in our arms for his 4th birthday in April 2012. That didn't happen either.  So then I said to myself "He will definitely be home for Christmas 2012!". But that was not to be. I keep telling myself to give up the time lines, but my heart is pleading with God that he will be able to spend his 5th birthday with his Momma, Daddy and siblings. He has already missed out on so much!

Then I realized that some families adopting from this country have had the opportunity to hire a Baba ("Granny") to spend one on one time with their child as they wait to bring them home. This gives a child living in an institutional environment an invaluable jump on development and attachment. We have not had the opportunity to do this for A.J. My heart has been breaking over this. I have been crying out to God, asking "Why can't we do something for him while he waits? Why am I stuck here unable to do anything to make life better for this little boy that I already love SO much?"

I am really, really, REALLY struggling with the waiting. Please pray that God will give me peace with the uncertainty and that (somehow, someway) A.J. will get what he needs to be healthy and happy while he continues to wait.

No News

I know it has been forever since I posted here and I apologize. To be quite honest, I just could not bring myself to make a post saying... nothing.

We are still waiting for the one signature that is needed for us to get out first set of travel dates to meet A.J. It looks like we are not the only family in the same situation. Apparently none of the files have been processed in the last few weeks.

If you have asked me about our adoption over the last few weeks and I have let out a very heavy sigh before answering please forgive me! It s not that I resent the questions at all! It is just so very hard to not have anything to report.  We know you all want to meet him almost as badly as we do!

Please pray for our family and every other family affected by this delay. The adoption process is stressful to begin with and not knowing when things will start moving again is difficult. In my heart I know it is all in His hands, but sometimes my humanness (is that a word?) sneaks up on me and I get pretty emotional. :-)

"I don't know what my future holds, but I do know Who holds my future." - Tim Tebow

"Just Get a Grant"

After having three people ask me this exact same question over the last week I thought I would address it here. The question they were asking was "Why bother with all this fundraising? Just apply for/get one of those adoption grants."

It seems as if the impression most people have is that there are millions of dollars available in adoption grants and all you have to do is apply and you will have all the money you need for your adoption. This could not be further from the truth. We applied for a total of five grants. We were turned down for two of them, and the other three we still have not heard back from even after many months. We still have three application packages that we are working on, which each take about 10 hours to complete.

To put things in perspective consider this information that was shared by one of the groups we applied to:
-- They had a total of 12 grants to give for a total of just under $40,000
-- They had 1,300 applications
-- Giving the requested grant to each of these families would have required over $500,000

The bottom line is that the need for adoption grants greatly exceeds the amount of funds that are available. So if you have been holding back from supporting an adopting family because you believe they can/will "just get a grant" please reconsider. Adopting families need the support of their churches, families, and friends to carry out God's plan to care for the orphan.

Garage Sale for Orphans

Sigh...

This is the update that we got from our coordinator at the stateside agency today:
"There is currently 4 weeks worth of files waiting on the Minister to approve for families to travel. Your file is in "the pile". I have no idea how long it will take to hear something. The Minister is being SO slow and unpredictable right now. As soon as we hear anything, I will let you know!"

Heavy sigh....

And a few tears....

Please pray for A.J. to be safe and healthy as we continue to wait to bring him home. Also please pray for his heart and mind to be ready to become part of a family. He has waited so long already and he is growing older and older as we wait for beuracracy to move.

Whispers

I don't even know where to start in describing this to you, so you will just have to go here to read Amy Block's post about their work in Guatemala. The fact that these people are forced to live like this while I sit here in my comfortable home watching baseball and enjoying the company of my family has shaken me to the core. I am praying that God will use that post to grab your attention like it has mine.

The Block family has been led to start Village of Hope Guatemala to help meet the needs of orphans in this impverished country. You can read about that here.

Recently I have been so overwhelmed by the needs in our world that I just have not even known where to start with my prayers or my actions. We have been supporting the Block family with (very small) donations over the last year, and we have stepped out in faith to adopt but recently I hear God whispering in my ear that there is something more that we are supposed to be doing. 

Are you hearing any whispers from God?

Still Waiting

We are still waiting for our travel dates. The MOJ requested an addendum to our home study so it would specifically state that we were approved to adopt a child with A.J.s diagnoses. That document arrived in his country on June 5th. Accounting for a few days to get the translation done we thought we would hear something from our facilitator this week, but the week is almost over. :-(

I think I have said it before, but the closer we get to meeting him the harder the waiting becomes. Even a brief update and maybe an updated picture would be an amazing blessing to my momma's heart. I just want to know that he is O.K.

Eric was teasing me yesterday, saying that when I get a message from the facilitator y'all will probably find out before he does. :-). I am just so anxious to be able to share wonderful news with you guys! I promise that I will post an update as soon as we hear anything. Right after I call Eric. :-)

Please pray not only for A.J., but for all of the orphans who continue to wait for their families. While I am rejoicing that God has chosen us to be A.J.'s family, my heart breaks for those who have not yet been chosen.

Kona Inspired

Ironman (yes, the Ironman) is holding a contest called Kona Inspired. They have given the general public the opportunity to submit a 90 second video based on the idea "Anything is Possible". The winner of the contest wins a spot to race in the Ironaman World Championship in October! This person will be racing as a media athlete and will have the chance to share his or her story with the world. How cool is that?

And the best part is one of the contestants is the founder of RODS Racing and a huge supporter of Reece's Rainbow where we found our little man! Can you imagine how many people would learn about special needs adoption, the plight of the orphan, and ways we can be involved in caring for the least of these if he won?

Do you have a minute and a half to spare? Click here to view his video and then vote!

The Jak Family Adventure

4,500 miles

14 days

Too many "When will we be there" comments to count

We recently had to travel to New York and Pennsylvania because my Granny was in the hospital. While it was a stressful trip, we were able to spend some time with family and make a few fun stops along the way.

There were more than a few humorous moments during the trip, so I thought I would share some of my favorites:

"Momma, I roast another strawberry on the fire?" (Zac meant marshmallow)
"Mom, it's hopeless. We are never going to get home. Lets just stop here, get an apartment and live in West Virginia!" (Christian was more than a little fed up with being in the truck)
"Uncle J I am VERY serious! Can I PLEASE trade Ana for Baby Charlotte?" (Eve apparently thought that her 8 month old cousin would be a lot more fun to have around than her 7 year old sister)
"Christian, knock it off! You cannot build weapons with pink Legos. It is against the rules!" (Ana was very serious about her Legos not being used to build anything that wasn't girly)

Our on-line auction ended last night and we were able to raise $200 with your support. Thank you to everyone who supported us by bidding! We still have a long way to go to be to our goal, but we are confident that God will continue to provide.

Prayer Requests:
Please lift up all of my brothers and sisters in the military today as we honor those who have fallen defending our country. I know I can sometimes take the freedoms we enjoy for granted, and we need to remember that those freedoms do not come without a cost!

Time is Almost Up!

Our on-line auction fundraiser ends at 10p.m. tomorrow, which means you have

just over 24 hours left to bid on your favorite item!

There are still a few items with NO BIDS so you can get yourself an amazing deal and

help us raise the final funds we need to bring A.J. home.

www.32auctions.com/BringAJHome

Thank you!

Silent Auction!!

Bring AJ Home!!

On-line silent auction to benefit the Jakubauskas Family’s adoption from Eastern Europe.

Items available include jewelry, gift cards, handmade crafts, a Coach purse, and more!

The auction starts tonight at 10PM and will run until 10PM on May 27^th.

To access the auction follow this link: www.32auctions.com/BringAJHome

We are still accepting items for the auction, so if you have something you would like to

donate please let us know.

We will be making our first trip to Eastern Europe to meet our little guy and start the court proceedings sometime in June! It is right around the corner and we would love to have your support in making this final fundraiser a huge success. Please share the information about the auction with your friends and family, and check out the items we have available.  

Bid early and bid often! J

Thank you!

Silent Auction

We had hoped to start our final fundraiser on Mother's Day, but a family emergency has come up and we will be delaying the silent auction. I will keep everyone posted on the details for the auction once we have decided on a date. We are running out of time to raise the funds we need, but it is pretty much impossible to run an on-line silent auction from a tiny town in the middle of Pennsylvania with no internet access! Hopefully we will be home soon and can get the auction action started.

We are still hoping to get a few more items for the auction, so if you have been thinking about donating something now would be a great time!! :-)

Please pray for safe travel for me and the kids over the next couple of days. We would also appreciate prayers for wisdom as the family makes decisions about Granny and the care she needs.

Small Steps

I think the waiting is getting harder the closer we get to the end of this journey! :-)

Our dossier is currently being translated and authenticated and that will be completed on May 17th. Then the dossier will be sent to the MOJ for us to be officially registered as an adoptive family. About 2 weeks after that we will have our referral and should get our travel dates soon after that. Hopefully we will be in Europe sometime in June!

God has been answering our prayers regarding our fundraising in some unexpected ways. We recently found out that the fee for visa processing went down by $130 (yay!). Then friends of ours offered to allow us to use their family travel benefits which will save us about $2,000 on our travel!

Step by step we are getting closer!

Questions, Questions, Questions

So many questions. Now that our first travel date is in sight so many, many questions are running around in my head. Some of them are questions that others who have the joy of being parents to an adopted little one could answer for us, like …

How long can we expect it take him to start speaking English? And what is the best way to communicate with him during the time when he is transitioning between languages?

What health problems should we expect in a child from his country? Parasites? Lice? Malnutrition? All of the above, plus a few more?

What physical needs do the orphanages have that we could enlist our church family to help us meet?

What about institutional behaviors? What should we expect?

What local resources can you suggest for post-adoption care?

What will the travel be like? What challenges should I be prepared for when travelling halfway around the world with a child who most likely has never even been outside his orphanage?

And some, only God knows the answers to, like…

How will we adjust as a family? What challenges will we face?

How much hurt is A.J. holding in his little heart? How can we help him heal?

How severe is his lung disease? How much medical treatment will he need once he is home?

Is he healthy? Safe?

What is his personality? What things does he like and what does he absolutely hate?

How will A.J. fit into the loud, busy, physical, exciting place that is the Jak Shack?

If you know me well, you know that I do NOT like things to be uncertain. I like being in control of things in my life and knowing what to expect. I plan things way in advance, make checklists, and have routines for almost everything. I like to have a plan, a back-up plan, and a contingency plan in place for everything.

That is one of the (many) things God has been working on me about during this adoption. He has asked me again and again to turn the control over to Him. I have slowly started to trust that He has the answers to the questions even if I do not.

 And I have learned that sometimes the answers to the questions don’t even matter. If we knew in advance all of the challenges that we would face in travelling the path that God has laid out for us, would we still chose to follow Him? Or would we say “No thanks God, that is just going to be too hard. We’re not interested.” Sometimes it is better to not know all of the answers and just trust that God has it covered!  It can be SO hard to do, but it is SO worth it.

Prayer Requests:

A very good friend of ours had an accident and amputated three of his fingers. They were able to save one of the three and did a modified amputation on the others. Please pray for him and his children who were with him when the accident occurred.

That our dossier processing will go quickly and we will get our travel dates soon!

Happy Birthday A.J.!

Today is A.J. 's 4th birthday!

This is a bittersweet day for us. We hoped that we would be able to celebrate this birthday with him here in Texas. That we would be able to give him a party and celebrate his life the same way we do for our other children's birthdays. Cake, presents, streamers, balloons, the works. I am praying that his day will be recognized in some small way in his orphanage, even if it is very small.

Your 5th birthday is going to be amazing A.J.! Momma is probably going to spoil you rotten trying to make up for all of the birthdays that you spent alone. Huge cake? Check. Too many presents? Check. Lots of family to celebrate with? Check. Pinata? Check. Pony? Hmmm, maybe not. :-) Lots of hugs, kisses and love? Double, triple check.

Happy birthday A.J.! We love you!

Chrissie's Legacy

Some of you may not know how God got ahold of our hearts and started us on this adoption journey in the first place. Our friend Lorraine shared that story on her blog today as they remember the anniversary of the month their daughter Chrissie spent fighting for her life in the ICU before she went home to live with Jesus. We never got a chance to meet Chrissie in person, but she is a HUGE part of the reason we are adopting. Lorraine shared about her family's vision of Chrissie hunting for orphans in heaven a while back and I smiled when I read it because I imagined Chrissie tapping Jesus on the shoulder and saying "You see that one in Eastern Europe? He's supposed to go home with the Jakubauskas Family and be a little Texan like me!"

I know it took a lot of courage for the Patterson family to open their hearts and lives to share Chrissie's story (and the rest of their lives) with the world, and God has used their family and their precious daughter in some wonderful ways. Will you join me in praying for the Patterson's as they go through this difficult time?

A little update...

I have been hoping to have some kind of exciting news to post here, but nothing earth shattering has been happening. We are waiting for the next big step in the process which will be receiving our official referral from the Ministry of Justice and then our travel dates for our first trip. Rush around to get everything done and then wait - that seems to be the theme in adoption! :-)

If you look at the fund raising thermometer to the right you may notice that it has been reset. We were amazingly blessed to be able to save the funds that we need to finish paying our agency fees which is a HUGE step. Now we need to start working on raising and saving the funds we will need for our travel for the first trip, AJ's medical exam and visa, our travel for the second trip, AJ's travel home, and then all of the post-adoption reports and paperwork that will be required. Several things have happened that are going to make our final expenses much more than we expected. First, our social worker has informed us that she is going to require an additional fee for the "extra" work that she had to do for our dossier (although she did not do anything out of the ordinary for an international adoption homestudy) and we are anticipating that she will end up charging us a higher fee for the post-adoption visits than we initially thought as well. That issue, added to the fact that we will be travelling during the most expensive time of the year has put us behind in our funding. We really thought that we were going to be fully funded with the funds we had, but the increase in expenses and some recent minor emergencies at home that have cut into our savings have put us in the position of having to ask for help again. We appreciate your prayers that God will provide the funds that we need. He has provided EVERYTHING we have needed so far and we are confident that He will provide this time as well!

Best mail ever!!

Yesterday I had a post ready to go about our frustration with waiting for our answer from USCIS, but I never got a chance to post it. Probably because God knew what was going to be waiting in our mailbox!

We got our approval notice in the mail from USCIS today!!

We are excited beyond belief. Those of you who have been following our journey know how much of a miracle this is. Now I am driving our social worker and agency crazy trying to get the last few documents we need from them so that we can send our dossier to Bulgaria. We need to have our Texas background checks redone this week and have our doctor resign our medical clearance forms (because both of these documents have to be done within 6 months of the dossier) and then we will pay an exorbitant amount of money to mail this HUGE package of documents. We are praying that we will be able to get everything signed and apostilled so that we can mail it on Friday.

So now what??
- Dossier submitted to Bulgarian agency
- Dossier translated, authenticated and submitted to the Ministry of Justice (MOJ)
-We are registered as an adoptive family
- Verbal referral issued
- Written referral issued
- Travel dates!!! (It will probably be about 2 months before we find out what our travel dates will be)

After our first trip
- Submit I-800 to the National Visa Center
- Visa sent to the US Embassy in Bulgaria
- Provisional visa filed
- Article 5 letter issued
- Visa/Article 5 letter translated and authenticated
- All documents sent to the MOJ
- Case submitted to the court system
- Court date!!
- 7 day wait for court to become final
- New birth certificate issued
- 10 day wait for birth certificate to become final
- Travel to Bulgaria to bring AJ home!! (Not sure how long the second stage of the process will take)

I am still amazed at how many steps are in each stage of the process and how much time, effort, and love has to go into  preparing everything. At the beginning of our adoption were were told that we would have to make the decision to adopt over and over again throughout the process and now I understand why. There have been many times when it would have been easy to throw in the towel. We had to consciously decide to continue to fight to bring our little guy home. I think the hardest part of the paperwork process is done now.

Keep praying for AJ to stay healthy and for us to have the funds we need at exactly the right time.

We Got It!!!!

Guess what was in the mailbox this morning. :-)

We got the report we needed!! Praising God for His amazing faithfulness in overcoming odds that only HE could overcome!

We do still need prayer that the I800A will be approved after we get all of our documents submitted. We are waiting for our social worker to finish making the changes they wanted to the home study (mostly adding in specific wording that they want there) and then we will send the entire packet of documents back for the final review. I am praying that we will get the home study back today or tomorrow so that we can get everything in the mail by the end of the week. Pray that our social worker will have nothing else to do today! ;-)

SOOOOO excited to have experienced God moving that mountain so we can get our son home. We're coming A.J.!

Wait

We have reached the point where there is nothing more to DO. No more phone calls to make, no more e-mails to send, no more agencies to argue with.

We can just WAIT.

I am not good at waiting.

Yesterday God put a song in my mind that I could not forget. The lyrics are “Strength will rise as we wait upon the Lord”. I searched and searched for that song on iTunes and finally called Eric and (very poorly) sang part of it to him and he immediately started singing the rest of the song so I could figure out the title (It is Everlasting God by Lincoln Brewster). I have been playing that song all day.

I am not good at waiting.

Be still before the LORD and wait patiently for him; do not fret when men succeed in their ways, when they carry out their wicked schemes. – Psalm 37:7

I wait for the LORD, my soul waits, and in his word I put my hope. Psalm 130:5

But they that wait upon the LORD shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings as eagles; they shall run, and not be weary; [and] they shall walk, and not faint. Isaiah 40:31

“In His word I put my hope”. God makes us many promises in His word, and gives us many reasons to trust Him. I know that his plan is not to harm me (Jeremiah 29:11, Romans 8:28), and that he is sovereign (Romans 11:33, Isaiah 45:6-7). I know that He is with me (Isaiah 43:1-2), so that I can be strong in any circumstance. I know that He is faithful and hears me when I cry out to Him (Phillipians 4:6-7, Psalm 116), so I can have peace.

So we will WAIT upon the Lord.

I have no idea what His sovereign plan is. I do not know how, when, or if he will move this mountain. But I do know that I can trust Him.

So we will WAIT upon the Lord.

Keep praying!!

Please Pray!

I posted a while back about the trouble we were having in getting a needed report from the State of Texas. We requested this report in September 2011 and were told it would take 6 -12 months to receive it. We tried contacting a lawyer to subpoena the record (no go) and even contacted our state senator to see if they could expedite the process. We were told in December by TX DFPS that there was no way that they could expedite our report, regardless of the situation, so we decided to wait in the hopes that we would receive it in about 6 months which would have been the beginning of March.

Yesterday we received a formal "Request for Evidence" from USCIS requesting that report (among other things). If they do not receive all of the required documents by March 31 they will deny our application to adopt. I spent about 3 hours on the phone yesterday trying to get this one piece of paperwork that we need to get our little man home.

• I talked to the Records Management Office of TX DFPS and was told that even if we have an official request from the Federal Government for this document, they cannot expedite the processing unless they have a Texas court order! Seriously? Oh, and by the way, the processing time is now a minimum of 12 months so don't even expect to get your record before the end of 2012.
• I talked to the Consumer Affairs Office of TX DFPS and was told that "the regulations are the regulations" and that there is nothing they can do.
• I talked to the San Marcos office of  TX DFPS to try to speak with the social worker who completed the paperwork back in 2009. She no longer works there. And guess what? None of the supervisors who were there at that time work there any more either.
• I talked to the Hays County Court of Law to try to find out if there was any possible way to get a local court order based on a request from the federal government. They referred me to the District Clerk's Office.
• I left a message with the District Clerk's Office and sent them an e-mail, but I never got to talk to a real person. I am still waiting to hear back from them.
• I e-mailed and called the district assistant for Senator Wentworth, who tried to help us back in December. I am still waiting to hear back from her.
• I contacted the family practice lawyer who tried to find a legal reason to subpoena the record for us to see if she could legally make this request based on the request we received from USCIS. She is still researching it.
• I have letters ready to go to our US Senator and Representative to enlist their assistance.

To say that I am angry and frustrated would be an understatement. The fact that a state agency thinks that they can just ignore a request from the federal government is mind boggling. Not to mention the inherent problems with a system that takes over a year to mail a document. Add to this the fact that without this one piece of paper our son will most likely die in an orphanage at a young age without ever having known the love of a family, and I am fit to be tied (as my Granny would say).

I simply do not know what else we can do at this point, other than trust Him. It is truly going to take a miracle to get this document in time to submit it to USCIS by March 31. Please pray that mountains will move and we will have a certified copy in our hands in time!!

The Wrong Question?

 “Adoption is God’s will. It says so throughout the New Testament, and boy, should we be glad! That’s how we were brought into the kingdom and made heirs of the Most High. Our task in the church is to walk with people as they wrestle with God’s will and how it intersects with their lives. Maybe the question that we should be giving families an opportunity to wrestle with is: Why shouldn’t I adopt? If we know that adoption is God’s revealed will, and adoption is His plan A for both bringing us into the kingdom and caring for orphans, then why shouldn’t we assume that adoption is God’s will for all Christian families and then look for signs that God isn’t leading us to adopt?”  --  Tony Merida and Rick Morton in “Orphanology”

Consider these numbers:

It is estimated that there are 335,000 Christian churches in the U.S. There are approximately 125,000 children available for adoption in the U.S. foster care system. If only one family from only 37% of those 335,000 churches would hear God's calling and adopt from foster care there would be no more children waiting for families in the United States.

There are between 143 million and 147 million orphans worldwide. There are over 224 million professing Christians in the United States, worshiping in churches ranging from only a handful of members to thousands of worshipers each Sunday. If only1/4 of those Christians would hear God speaking and adopt a child internationally the worldwide orphan crisis would be drastically improved. If 1/2 of them would adopt, the number of orphans worldwide would be decreased by almost 80%!

I know when God began speaking to our family about adoption we had many "logical" reasons why we should not, or could not, adopt. If we look at our lives from the world's perspective, there are reasons why adopting makes no sense for our family. We understand that. But we also know that God sometimes often asks us to do things that do not make any sense if you look at them from the world's perspective. Our challenge as Christians is to look at things from God's perspective.

If God was asking you to adopt, would you hear Him? Or would you filter His instructions through the world's viewpoint? Would your first question be "What does God think about this?" or would it be "What would the world/my family/my friends think about this?"

We heard many, many hurtful comments when we first announced our plans to adopt. People told us "You have too many kids already."(Uhhh, O.K...); "You probably should get your marriage straightened out before you think about adopting." (Seriously?? I guess yours is perfect? Maybe you could give us some classes.); "Aren't you afraid about how much it costs?" (Yes!); "You don't care about the kids you already have if you are willing to bring a special needs child into your home." (We care enough about the children we already have to show them the value that God places on EVERY human being. And if we were pregnant with a special needs child would you say that we shouldn't bring him/her into the world because of the effect it would have on the children we already have?); "Your 2 year old seems to have some behavior problems. Do you think you are really a capable parent?" (Uhhh. She's TWO. Have you ever heard of the terrible twos?). And the list went on.

I realize that some of the comments were made out of concern for us and our family and I appreciate that very much. But having been on the opposite side of the fence in the past I know for sure that many of these comments were made by people who were feeling the prick of God's conviction and were using our family as a way of voicing the reasons that they felt prevented THEM from adopting.

Have you ever said "I could never adopt because of 'X'"? Maybe your X is money. Maybe it is an uncertain job situation. Maybe it is the age of other children in the home. The possibilities are almost endless. But I can tell you for sure that if you are thinking about adopting there is a good reason for it (it's called GOD) and if you find yourself making a list of all the reasons why you can't adopt you need to put all of that at God's feet in prayer. I am speaking from experience!! I have been there and I understand the fear that can come with doing something that makes very little sense from a practical standpoint. Adopting is tiring, expensive and hard. But it is what God wants us to do to care for the least of these.

Are we as a church asking the right question? Perhaps we should be asking "Is God showing me clear reasons why I should NOT adopt?" as opposed to waiting for God to "call" us to adopt. Too often that "call" can get clouded by our own reasoning until we no longer hear Him speaking.

Tough Week??

I was recently sighing to myself about how tough the week has been. Ana has mononucleosis and has been in and out of labs and doctors offices, Zac has a double ear infection and has been an unbearable grump all week (not that I can blame him), Eve was up all night the past two nights with a bronchitis type cough, Christian woke up this morning sounding like Darth Vader because he is so congested, and I am fighting a cold. I was feeling bad for my family as this week came to a close.

Then I read my friend Lorraine's blog here. Hearing her first hand stories of the things that her boys are experiencing in the orphanage and the struggles they face each and every day started to put things into perspective for me.

And then I read about this precious little girl who was transferred from the "baby house" to the mental institution when she turned four. She is now nine and is clearly suffering each and every day.

Then my heart once again turned to Jamison, a little boy in Eastern Europe who I have fallen in love with. The doctors there were not able to surgically repair his heart defect as an infant and as a result he has not been able to have the surgeries to correct his cleft lip and palate either. He desperately needs a family to love him and get him the medical care he needs, otherwise he will be destined to a short life of constant illness.

I just cannot complain about our small ailments when there are those with so much greater needs out there. There are children all over the world who are not getting basic physical care and nutrition, much less the love and attention they need to thrive. Please pray for all of these children  - around the corner and across the world, and what we can do to help care for them.

Modern Day Slavery

I had never heard of "human trafficking" until we were required to do training about it for the military. And after that, I wished that I was still ignorant. Most people have no idea that slavery still exists in the world today, and even right here in the United States. Hopefully this post will change that.

So what is human trafficking?
The official definition in U.S. law says that "human trafficking has occurred if a person was induced to perform labor or a commercial sex act through force, fraud or coercion. Any person under 18 who performs a commercial sex act is considered a victim  of human trafficking."
And Stop Child Trafficking Now says that "child trafficking is the recruitment, smuggling, transporting, harboring, buying or selling of a child through force, threats, fraud, deception or coercion for the purposes of exploitation, prostitution, pornography, migrant work, sweat shops, domestic servitude, forced labor, bondage, peonage, or involuntary servitude."

Does this REALLY happen??
Yes!!
It is estimated that:
2.5 million people are in forced labor as a result of trafficking (most of them in Asia and the Pacific)
161 countries are affected by human trafficking as a source, transit or destination country (this includes the U.S.)
1.2 million children are trafficked every year (or to put it more plainly - 1.2 million children are sold into slavery every year)
95% of victims experience physical or sexual violence
43% of victims are forced into the commercial sex trade (the average age of victims entering the sex trade is 12 years)
Human trafficking results in over $31.6 billion in profits for the perpetrators every year
For every 800 people trafficked, only one person is convicted
Human trafficking is one of the fastest growing crimes in the world (and is the world's second largest criminal enterprise after illegal drugs)

It may be easy to think that this does not happen in our own back yard, but that is just not true. About 2 1/2 million U.S. children run away from home every year. Within 48 hours of arriving on the streets 1/3 of these children are lured or forced into prostitution or pornography. Right in our own backyard. An estimated 17,000 foreign nationals are trafficked into the U.S. each year. Right in our own backyard. Child pornography is one of the fastest growing crimes in the U.S., with a 2,500% increase over the last 10 years. Right in our own backyard. The National Center of Missing and Exploited Children received more than 160,000 reports on its tip line in 2010. Right in our own backyard.

Orphans are at very high risk of being trafficked. Many orphans live on the streets and can easily be forced or coerced into slavery. Even the children who are fortunate enough to live in the orphanages are not safe. After they "age out" of the orphanage they are sent out onto the streets to fend for themselves, often without any job skills, money, or resources. Run aways and kids who age out of the foster system in the U.S. are at great risk as well.

So what can we do?
Pray
Join the SCTNow run/walk campaign
Volunteer for an organization dedicated to stopping human trafficking
Advocate for orphans and support adoptive families
Shop in the Nomi Store
Share this information and make more people aware of the problem

Where can I learn more or find ways to help?
Stop Child Trafficking Now!
United Nations Global Initiative to Fight Human Trafficking 
Polaris Project
Nomi Network

Our I800A arrived!

We got our e-mail confirming that USCIS received our I-800 paperwork today!! Yah hoooo!

Now we will need to be fingerprinted and then the file will be reviewed by the case worker and either approved, denied, or flagged for more information. We are debating whether to wait for our appointments to get fingerprinted or just walk in. It may speed things up to walk in, but it may not and there is a chance that they will not do our prints as walk ins so we may be wasting our time. Pray for wisdom for us as we try to decide what to do.

Also, continue to pray that once out fingerprints are done, the file will land in the hands of exactly the right case worker and that we will receive our approval notice in record time. The USCIS website says that the current processing time for I-800A's is 80 days, and we are really hoping that it will not take that long!

Someone Said...

"Children are one third of our population and all of our future."

Select Panel for the Promotion of Child Health, 1981

A dated quote, but a very true statement. Want to make a lasting impact on the world? Give a child the love, care, guidance, education, and mentoring that they need.