Updates

I can't believe we have now been in this process for 2 years this October.

The last group of referrals that came through experienced a 32 months wait.

We could move into the Review Room (that is the second of three rooms where they review our dossier for completeness and ask for verification on anything in our file) as early as the end of this year. Currently those with a LID of February 2007 are in there. We are LID April 2007.

As for some good news, we just received our renewal I-171H for our adoption (you might remember that we started this back in June : ) Everything went well with our updated home study (considering we are currently between homes - our Social Worker ROCKS!) So we are good to get baby K for another 18 months. If we don't travel before then, we have A LOT more hoops to jump through. Now we are praying about about the special needs adoption program. We are trying to postpone it until we move but if we don't move this month, then we will seriously be looking at the list of children.

It hasn't bothered me often, the wait that is, until recently. Yesterday we were at the Cider Mill and it hit me hard. Maybe it is because we saw numerous adopted children (it's obvious they are adopted when both parents are Caucasian and the children are Asian) and numerous other babies. I just know that if we could easily have a child now, I'd get pregnant in a minute. I am starting to really long to have our baby in our arms...

Larry King Live

Tonight on Larry King Live on CNN, Christian singer Steven Curtis Chapman and his family will appear to discuss the accidental death of their youngest daughter Maria Sue.

Here is a link to a home video of Maria Sue:

Home video

Fathering of the Fatherless

Glorifying the Father of the Fatherless

via Desiring God Blog on 7/23/08

(Author: Jason Kovacs)

Jason Kovacs is the Director of Ministry Development for The ABBA Fund. He also blogs about orphan care and adoption and is on the steering committee for the Together for Adoption Conference.

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Like every other dad, the day I became a father for the first time was unforgettable. My wife and I were a happy young couple waiting to adopt our first child. Visions of a beautiful baby filled our minds.

We weren't sure if we would be matched with a birthmother a few months prior to the due-date or if we would get a phone call that a baby had been born and the brave young mother was ready to immediately place her child for adoption.

Months went by and we finally got a phone call, but it wasn't for a baby.

God had a two-year old boy and an eight-month old girl for us. The social worker asked if we were interested and we said "Yes!" and drove down to Florida to meet our children.

At the adoption agency, the first person I met was my son toddling around the corner. He walked up to me and grabbed my hand and pulled me toward the door. He wanted out of that place!

What I believe he wanted even more than that was a daddy.

That is the case today with millions of children around the world. UNICEF estimates that there are over 132 million orphans in the world today living without a permanent family. In the United States alone, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services says, there are over 129,000 children waiting for a daddy and mommy. There are also many mothers with unexpected pregnancies who want to choose adoption instead of abortion.

Many of the children overseas must fight all by themselves for their very lives. Others are cared for in orphanages. The orphaned children in America will fight for their futures as well: roughly 2% will receive a university degree and 84% will have their own children within a few years of aging out of the foster-care system (source).

With all these parentless children, it is no side note that God is a "Father to the fatherless" (Psalm 68:5). He has made adoption the apex of the Gospel. His spiritual enemies are now his very sons and daughters through the Cross.

And God calls us, his adopted family, to be a part of his care for the fatherless. At the core of God's nature is a Father's heart that we are to reflect. Scripture is clear that practical care for orphans is fundamental to the mission of the church.

In Psalm 10:18 we are commanded to "do justice to the fatherless." And Isaiah tells us to "Defend the cause of the fatherless" (1:17). James writes, "religion that is pure and undefiled before God and the Father is this: to care for orphans…in their affliction" (1:27).

Surely this means not only caring temporarily for the needs of orphans, but also permanently caring for them through adoption.

We have an incredible opportunity in adoption to live out God's compassion and so eternally change the life of a child.

A year after we adopted, my wife gave birth to our third child, a beautiful baby girl. The wonder and beauty of becoming a parent through birth and adoption are incomparable and yet each is just as sweet and amazing and wonderful.

I encourage any of you who are praying about growing your family to consider adoption as a way of magnifying the "Father of the fatherless."

And for those of you who aren't called to adopt there many other ways to care for orphans such as foster-care, financially supporting those who are adopting, visiting orphanages, sponsoring a child, and praying.

The question will never be whether you should care for orphans. The question is how you will care for them and in doing so reflect the compassion of God for the least of these.

* * *

If you are interested in knowing more about adoption and orphan care please visit Cry of the Orphan.

If you would like information on how you can financially help bring children into Christian homes or start an adoption fund at your church, please visit The ABBA Fund.

For information on the connection between our adoption by God and our adoption of children please visit Together for Adoption. We will be hosting our first conference on adoption this November.

Increased Fees

CCAA has been implementing steps to speed up the adoption process. I am beginning to wonder if one of those steps is the reason behind the increased fees collected by the Chinese Government. The fees have gone up drastically since we started this process. If we don't pay the fees, our baby K doesn't join our family. I wonder if this step has caused some parents to drop out of the program. Chinese adoptions has historically been one of the least expensive international countries to adopt from. I would hope that money is not the only reason that people choose to adopt from China but let's face it, money does have something to do with it.

I was reviewing the latest Places Everyone email from our agency. It is a monthly email update on where our dossier stands in the process. I couldn't help but
notice that a CONSIDERABLE amount of cash was needed for the trip to China....and this has me very concerned.

When we first signed up for the adoption, we were given a brochure that said that there would be an orphanage donation of $3,000, plus $1,200 or so for legal fees.

What I read today scared me .... It said $5,000 for Chinese Legal Fees, $2,000 for Province Legal Fees and $3,000 for an Orphanage Donation. Additionally, they suggest $1,500 - $2,000 per two adults in spending cash for meals. We will have an additional adult and 3 children with us so I'd guess that we need to double that.

I hate to bring money into the equation when we are talking about our forever family, but gosh, that sure is a HUGE increase! I think I need to re-consider doing a fundraiser. That is almost double what we had been originally told.

CCAA's Efforts

We have been told now for a few months that CCAA is implementing steps to speed up the adoption process. Many people think that what they are doing is waiting for the Olympics to be over. I believe this but think there is more to it than just that. Our referral update came today. This is what our agency had to say:

"The families from our last referral group who received their referral on May 2, 2008, experienced a 28 month referral timeframe. The CCAA continues to take steps to address the growing referral timeframe. These efforts include: recruiting more orphanages to participate in international adoption; educating orphanage officials on how to fill out the necessary paperwork for a child to be considered paper ready for international adoption in a more timely manner; starting to implement a computer based program, so that soon, everything will be done electronically; and providing impoverish orphanages with funds through the Blue Sky Plan. "

These are tangible steps that I do believe will help speed things up. I am still praying that we will be matched with our forever daughter in 2009. The girls will turn 5, 7, & 9 next year. I think that will be a good age for them all to make a cross continent trip, don't you : )

Referral Update

Once a month we get an email update from our adoption agency, informing us of the latest referrals that came in for that month. This is one way in which the agency can communicate with us during our LONG wait. It also lets us know how fast (in reality, how slow) we are moving through the wait.

I just received my May 2008 email update on the April 2008 referrals processed. For the entire month of April 2008, China was able to complete matching for an entire THREE days worth of referrals from January 2006! Lately they have been able to get through at least one full week. I think Kenadie will be in college by the time we get our baby. Seriously.

Homestudy Update

We met with our Social Worker from Adoption Advocates today to get a homestudy update done so we can apply for a new I-171H that expires in August but with fingerprints that expire in two weeks in May. I just have to say Wendy ROCKS! She is so helpful and genuine. She is a blessing from God for sure. She really does care about the babies that find their forever families here but she also cares about those families waiting for their child. The meeting took just under an hour and we should have our homestudy update next week sometime.

Since we had this appointment today and I've been busy the past week trying to get our updated paperwork ready for her, the girls had the adoption on their minds again. Most days they don't ask about it, especially with NYC on their minds. But this past week-end while we were driving, Kaeterina asked me if we would still live in NYC when we traveled to get Baby K. I told her that I honestly didn't know. I explained to her how we are following God's plan for us as best we can and that means I don't know what next year will be like. She was OK with that answer. So was I. That's a big step for me. I like to have the next 5 - 10 years planned out - in general terms anyways. I've given that up to God now. Only He knows.