April 24, 2007

The Chicago Guatemalan Consulate has authenticated their documents and the adoption agency has received them. I am getting my home study updated next week. Once that is complete, I should be done with paperwork for awhile. I spoke to my caseworker, Philip, today and he has not had any referrals lately so he hopes to get some in the next couple weeks. I am 2nd on the list so it should not take long (in the big picture) for me to get a referral but it feels like forever!

April 23, 2007

I've had several people ask me when I will get a referral? The short answer is "I don't know" but I can say that it can be anytime now. I'm at the point where every time the phone rings, I think "Is this it?" Thankfully, I have many things to keep me busy but I must admit I constantly check my email to see if there is anything new. What is crazy about that is when I get a referral it will be by phone...not email but I just want to cover all my basis. Hopefully, soon I can post that I have a referral.

April 19, 2007

The Guatemalan Consulate in Houston has sent the authenticated documents on to a Helping Hand. Now we are waiting on Chicago to send the last 2 documents.

April 13, 2007

All my dossier documents have been completed and sent to the Secretary of States in Texas, Illinois, and Michigan. I have now received all of them back authenticated and I am sending them out to their respective Consulate offices (Illinois and Texas) today.

March 13, 2007

I wanted to take a few minutes to bring you up to date on my adoption process and ask for continued prayer. Everyone always says that adoption is an emotional roller coaster and now I can honestly say that I agree with that statement 100%!!!! In February, I was able to come off hold in the adoption process. Praise God! While I still do not have all the money, I have a solid plan and feel good about moving forward. I contacted the agency on February 21st and let them know I am ready to move forward. Because I was on hold for 6 months there are several documents that I had previously completed that have to be redone. I am in process of redoing that work to have an up to date dossier. When I am done with that, I can then receive a referral (meaning I will know who my daughter will be) but it will be numerous months (6-8 on average) before I can bring her home. While this is all REALLY exciting I have heard some troubling news this past week. There are always legal and government issues surrounding adoption and there are even more in International Adoption. Well there are three pretty big issues going on in the Guatemala adoption world right now and any of them can greatly impact my adoption process. The first issue is that an American adoption facilitator in Florida was recently arrested for allegedly facilitating the entry of Guatemalan children into the U.S. on fraudulent visas for adoption by U.S. citizens (aka: child trafficking). The U.S. State Department reports that it will examine current practices in Guatemalan adoption as a whole as part of its investigation. The U.S. State Department has stated that all pending adoption cases will be more closely scrutinized by PGN and the U.S. Embassy. Families can expect to wait significantly longer for children to become eligible to enter the U.S. The U.S. State Department has not indicated how long waiting times might extend; however they did state that they are not planning an immediate shutdown of adoptions from Guatemala at this time. The next issue is related to The Hague Treaty. This is a treaty that is put in place and countries agree to go by these rules to help prevent child trafficking and ensure the safety all children, not just those being place for adoption. The U.S. is expected to ratify the treaty in late 2007 (this has been a 10 year process for the U.S.). Guatemala has not taken steps to so far to ratify the treaty and probably won’t by the end of the year (this is however just an educated guess). If the U.S. ratifies the treaty in 2007 and Guatemala does not, all Guatemalan adoptions would cease. However, the U.S. has stated that anyone who has Immigration approval prior to this time will be allowed to complete the process and will be grandfathered in. I have already completed the immigration paperwork and have that approval but just because the U.S. will most likely grandfather me in, does not mean that Guatemala would not shut down adoptions at any time. The third issue is related to something called “Protocols of Good Practice.” My understanding is that this is a piece of legislation that was written by the wife of the president of Guatemala and the vice president. The protocol seems to be both a response to the recent incident involving the American adoption facilitator and a step towards creating an infrastructure that will comply with Hague requirements. I do not know all of what it says but the immediate issue is that if it goes into effect the legislation would be contested as the executive branch is not allowed to write legislation and since this piece of legislation did not come about through the proper channels, it would be contested. If it is challenged, then adoptions would be suspended while the case is settled in court. Based on what we know, we do not believe that the Protocol will be implemented, because a majority in Congress has to sign off on it and a majority is reported to be against it. So needless to say the state of adoption in Guatemala is rather unpredictable and volatile. The agency I work with has put a moratorium on accepting any new applications for Guatemala but is willing to help those of us already in process to continue with the process. Unfortunately, there are even less guarantees of completing an adoption then there usually is due to all the above mentioned which makes it a very scary place to sit as a prospective adoptive parent. At this point, I have decided to continue with the process knowing my risks. I really feel that this is where I am supposed to be (at least for now) however rocky and scary it seems. But it also makes an already emotional time even more emotional. Please keep me and my future daughter in your prayers. I will keep you updated as I know more. Thank you for all your support in my adoption. It means more than you probably know.

August 18, 2006

I don't really know what to say or how to say it but I wanted to let each of you know that I had to make a really difficult this week. I will not be accepting the referral of the little girl I recently told you about. This means she will not be my daughter. While I really wanted this to work, God seems to have another plan. I never expected to receive a referral this fast and I do not have the money to pay all the various fees that would have been due. I really hoped and prayed that money would just appear from somewhere but it did not. I didn't feel that I could accept the referral when there is still so much money I need and I do not know how I can get it. I have several things "in the works" to raise money but it will still take a lot more. Please pray for me as my heart is truly broken at this moment. Last week at this time, I thought my dream was really coming true and 7 days later I am faced with another period of waiting. I do not understand Gods plan and at this time my "human self" wonders if He really has a plan. But in my Mind, Body, and Soul, I know He does and it is even better than I can imagine. Please continue to pray for my finances, my heart, and this little girl that will be joining another family.

August 12, 2006

Wow, what a difference 8 months makes! Let me take a moment to get you caught up. For many many years I have wanted to adopt but the timing was just never right. I had thought I would start the process last year but then bought a house. So then I thought I would start the process the fall of this year but last fall I started thinking I couldn’t wait that long. Last November I really felt led to start looking into agencies so I would know what agency I wanted to use. I went to a seminar for one agency in December and heard a lot of information about international adoption. I never really thought about international adoption but at this point in time I started thinking that maybe I would pursue international adoption. So with that I decided to keep researching on the internet and made several calls to agencies. Around mid December I contacted an agency and set up an appointment to meet with them the beginning of January to talk about adoption through Guatemala.

I went to meet Carrie at A Helping Hand Adoption Agency and REALLY liked everything I heard. Carrie was great! She was patient, personable, and very informative. I left that meeting thinking “This may be the agency!” Over the next two weeks, I started thinking that there was no way I could wait until September to start this process. My time frame got shorter and shorter and God kept showing me that this was what He wanted me to do. However, I was very scared because I had waited so long to adopt, couldn't believe it may actually happen soon, and I still had no idea how I could pay to adopt. On January 18, 2006, I was talking to my friend Sheila on the phone and she said “Sometimes you just have to step out in faith.” I said, but how am I going to pay for it? And she responded “Where God guides, He provides.” Now I know this to be true but all of a sudden I felt like God was speaking to me through Sheila…this wasn’t just Sheila speaking to me!

Shortly after I hung up with Sheila I was driving home and was overwhelmed with thoughts of “Is this really going to happen?” “This is it!,” “This is what God wants!,” “Oh my gosh, this is really going to happen!” I looked up and what did I see? A Rainbow! Rainbows have always been important to me and I could not believe that there was a Rainbow! (“Whenever the rainbow appears in the clouds, I will see it and remember the everlasting covenant between God and all the living creatures of every kind on the earth.” Genesis 9:16) There was not a cloud in sight, how could there be a Rainbow? I KNOW that this was God telling me “I was talking through Sheila and I do want you to start the process of adoption through A Helping Hand. You are going to be a mother!” My body was covered in goose bumps, my hands were shaking and tears were filling my eyes. I immediately called Sheila and told her what had happened. So then we were both crying.

I contacted Carrie and told her I was ready to start the process to adopt a little girl from Guatemala. I began getting all my paperwork together and the agency received my application on March 1, 2006. From this point on my life was consumed with paperwork!!! There are a lot of documents and appointments that all had to come together but about 4 months later it was official, I was on the waiting list! Not only was I on the wait list, but God had provided all the money to this point. (“Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your on understanding: in all your ways acknowledge him, and he will make you paths straight.” Proverbs 3:5-6) I have been very excited watching how God has walked me through the whole process. I was told that it would take me 4-6 months to do my paperwork and it took me 4 months. I was told the average length of wait on the waiting list was 4-6 months and as of August 11, 2006 I am no longer on the waiting list. I have received information on my little girl! She was born July 20, 2006 and will be 5-7 months old when I can go pick her up. During this time all the Guatemala legal processes will be taking place and I will be anxiously awaiting the time I can go see her and eventually pick her up.

In the beginning

In order to get you up to date, I thought I would go back to December of 2005. My big “project” for 2006 was to pursue adoption. I have ALWAYS wanted children and I certainly never thought I would be 30 something without children. But in 1997 God placed it on my heart to adopt. Of course at that time, I was not at a point to pursue that. Over the years, I have been exposed to adoption through previous jobs and friends who have adopted. Of course, I had this list of things that I thought I needed to have in place before I adopted but God showed me that He has a plan and I believe this plan included me starting the adoption process in 2006. It was kind of scary to start the process as I had NO idea how I was going to afford the adoption fees or how I will manage a child and my very busy full time job. But I had to trust God that all these little nudges He gave me pointed me in that direction. I researched agencies and decided on International adoption through Guatemala.

Many people have asked “Why don’t you just get married and have children?” Well, so far God has not shown me who my husband is to be. I would love to be married and would love to have a biological child (or 2) but at this time, that is not an option. Another common question is “Why don’t you just get pregnant or do Invitro?” I feel that there are SO many children already in this world that do not have a mom and I want to be a mommy for one of them. Finally, another question I get is “Are you sure you want to adopt a child outside of your race?” I am not opposed to adopting a child of my race or any other race. I truly believe that love knows no color. So many children are born and left to survive on there own and unfortunately, many of them are minorities. If God gave me a heart to love someone no matter what their race and He leads me to a child of a different race, than that is the child I am to be a mommy to. My goal is to follow God’s plan for my life and love whomever is brought into my life.

My first adoption and my first Blog!!

Here I am writing my first Blog. I started the adoption process in February of 2006 and it has been a long journey that I am still on. I have admired others blog sites and wanted to do the same but have been a little intimidated by the process. I read a quote today by John F. Kennedy that said "We should not let our fears hold us back from pursuing our hopes." So I thought if I can pursue my hope/dream of adoption and ALL it entails, surely I can figure out how to Blog. So here we go....