Recently I sent in a very vague request to our church's prayer team for prayer. Many people have asked for a more detailed update on where we are in the process of adoption and what we need prayer for. Thank You! I am going to attempt that answer now.
It is a hard question to answer, because I don't think anyone really knows.
If you can track with me for a little bit this may be a long post but I will at least attempt to answer that question of where we are in this process.
To do that, I will have to go back to the beginning. In October of 2008 we decided to pursue adoption. God led us to two children (siblings, age 4 and 8) in Liberia, West Africa. Most of you know that story, so in the interest of keeping this post as short as possible I'll leave out how we were led to them.
In January of 2009 we had completed all of our paperwork and our dossier was headed to Liberia. Also, that same month the President of Liberia shut down adoptions. She said it was because she wanted to "protect" the children of her country---I'll leave off my opinions at this point except to say I think she thinks she is doing the right thing.
Fast forward to October of 2009: we have a Liberian student come live with us for two months while she studies at UT and works with the World Cocoa Foundation. She is amazing! She quickly became part of our family.
When she went back to Liberia she made an appointment to go and see our children to take back a soccer ball for our son and a doll for our daughter. She sent us picture of them with their foster mom. The children and the foster mom all looked so happy together! Our Liberian student wanted to see how they were really doing, so she just showed up one day out of the blue to check on them and both of our children ran out of the house yelling "our sister is here" How cute! She said that the children are very happy and being well cared for.
Which leads to our dilemma. We know that disruptions in a child's family life can be life changing and not always the best thing.
They were dropped off at an orphanage in August of 2008. I have no idea if their family member(s) told them what was happening. I have been told the family cannot care for them and they very much desire them to be adopted. That's all we know.
Well, after several months of adoptions being being on hold, our adoption agency gave us the opportunity to get our children out of the orphanage and into a foster home in Liberia. They hand selected the lady that is parenting them now. They chose her because she is active in her local church and a strong Christian.
We want very much for our children to come home to us and we would do anything short of breaking the law to get them here with us. We have so many plans and dreams for them just like when you are expecting a baby. We have designed their rooms in our heads and imagine going to soccer practice with our son and having tea parties with our daughter.
Which brings me to my next point. We LOVE them so much that we are wondering if taking them out of their current loving foster home will be the very best for them? We do not want to disrupt a good thing IF it is the best thing for them to remain there.
It is complicated: Keep Reading please.
Right now some children from Liberia whose adoptions had court decrees "Before" the moratorium are getting to come home. We did not have a court decree. We were ever so close though. There is a Child Act bill awaiting approval there is one sentence that may make it difficult if not impossible to bring our children home under the new law. We were told that perhaps in March we may know if they are going to be adoptable under the new rule. They were adoptable when we received their referral a year and a half ago but this new bill may make them unadoptable so we are looking at some different options and scenarios. Since our children seem to be doing very well in their foster home we are considering the option of asking the foster mom if she would want to adopt them if that is even possible and if we still deem it the very best thing for them after we meet with the director from Liberia and our coordinator in the Charlotte NC area on February 10th. There is still a possibility that civil war could break out again in their country so there is also the issue of, if the foster mom is willing to adopt our children, would it be the safest and best thing to do?
So as you see we are up against a struggle.
We covet your prayers as we seek God's will in all of this. In addition to pursuing this adoption we are also currently taking classes to become certified foster parents. We do not know if God is calling us to foster care but as Adrian puts it "We are taking the steps to become certified so that we can better server others who have questions and who want to know how to get started" We also want to position ourselves to be used by God however he deems fit.
So that is our situation. Please pray for us and the upcoming meeting February 10th from 12-1:30.
Thank you,
Ami
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