No News is NOT Good News

Actually that isn't quite right. We did hear from the director of our agency Thanksgiving week. We are still in a holding pattern. After the new Zambian president was elected, he appointed a new minister, just as we thought. The new minister (the person in charge of adoptions, both national and international) has decided that with the holidays, he won't be making any decisions until the new year. Frustrating news to hear, but not surprising at all.

So, we wait, still. Our fingerprints are good until March or April (I have to check on that to make sure). After that, we can be fingerprinted once for free. We're hoping that it won't come to that but a lot will have to happen in a short period of time. If things drag on until September of 2009, then we will have to have our home study amended and our daughter fingerprinted. She turns 18 then and will have to be included in all of the paperwork. Please pray with us that we don't have to wait that long.

Thanks for standing with us in this long, slow process. Thanks, most, for your prayers and support. You all mean a lot to us.

Carolyn

No News is Good News

You know that old saying, right? Well, in our case, I don't know if that's true or not. We have not heard anything about the Zambian election. We should be receiving a phone call from the director of our agency sometime this week. Hopefully he will have news for us. Until that time, we wait and pray for God's will to be done. We pray, too, that our fingerprints don't expire! Please continue to pray with us. Thank you for standing with us in the gap.

Carolyn

Please Pray

We finally got in touch with the director of our agency and got some information about what is going on. Even though the ban was lifted in May, adoptions are not moving forward right now. Zambia has been in a state of change. The president of Zambia died in August and that sort of put a damper on everything, to say the least. The woman in charge of adoptions in Zambia has not wanted to make promises that she might not be able to keep. She knows that with a new president, personnel can, and often does change. So she's waiting to see how the new president will handle things.

Elections for a new president will be held on October 31, this Friday. Please pray that the new president and his staff would be open to international adoption and that the 5 families in our agency still waiting (we are one of them) will be able to bring their children home very, very soon.

Thanks for standing with us through this entire process.

Carolyn

Keeping Busy

Nothing new to report, although I wish that there was. I'll be calling and/or emailing the agency later today to try and get an update. In the meantime, I'm keeping busy homeschooling our current youngest who's a senior in high school. I'm also still a Stampin' Up! demonstrator (although that may be changing this month) and I've started a new hobby -- digital scrapbooking! I've even gotten into designing my own elements to use in my scrapbook pages. You can check them out at www.digicyberscraps.com if you are so inclined.

I'm hoping to be able to use this digital scrapbooking knowledge when I go to scrap for our Zambian born children. I want to work on ABC books for them that use lots of pictures from our stay in Zambia when we finally get there. When that happens, I'll even post some layouts here so that you can see the pages and our children!!

So, until that time, keep checking back for updates. Hopefully I'll have some good news for you shortly!

Carolyn

We're Still Here . . .

. . . and waiting! No news is not necessarily good news. We still have no update. I have put in phone calls and emails to the agency basically begging for some update, but nothing yet. Keep praying for us! We so want to bring our children home and the longer this takes, the older we get. You'll be the first to know when we get our referral!!

Carolyn

Some Good News, Finally

I heard today from our Adoption Agency that the Minister of Community Development in Lusaka (head over all children in Zambia) will be lifting the adoption ban in 3 months. What has this ban meant? No adoptions have been taking place in Zambia -- not international or even in country adoptions. Having the ban lifted means that adoptions will once again be taking place, both in country and internationally.

What exactly does that mean for us? It means that we could receive our referral in 3 months or so. After we receive and accept our referral we will have a 3 month wait before we can travel. So, what it really means is that we could be traveling to Zambia at the end of September or early October at the earliest. Still keep praying, though. Nothing is definite until it happens, although the minister did make this announcement publicly. I was told that this information was even printed in the Lusaka newspaper, so I'll be looking online for that bit of news.

Needless to say, we were very excited to receive this news today and wanted to pass it on to those of you that read my blog. I can't wait to post pictures for you all!!

Still Here and Waiting, again

We're still in the waiting phase. We have not heard anything particular to us concerning the adoption. There's a lot going on, so please keep praying for Faithful Adoption and Zambia. There are so many children that are in need of homes and we have a home just waiting for them -- well not all of them! LOL! We're still hoping that things will begin to happen and we will have our child(ren) home this year. I know that December seems a long way off, but it will be here before we know it (sorry if I seem to be rushing through this year; I just know how the time seems to fly by). So, just keep praying for all involved. Believe me, when we have news to share, we WILL share it! :-)

Still Here and Waiting

There's not any news to share; we're just waiting for the agency. But please pray for Faithful Adoptions (FA) and Zambia. Things in Zambia are somewhat at a stand still for various reasons. FA continues to work with those in Zambia who are in charge of international and in country adoption. Pray for Diana, in particular, who is in charge of new programs. She has a lot on her plate right now and needs to be upheld in prayer. Diana has worked tirelessly on this new program. I know things can get discouraging for her when there doesn't seem to be any progress. God knows what is needed in Zambia and for all those involved in the program. We believe that God has called us to this country, so we await His leading.

Thanks for sticking with us throughout this process. We appreciate your prayers for us, FA and Zambia.

We're Paper Pregnant!!

I noticed that it's been a while since my last update, but that's because there has been nothing to update you on. However, today we found out that we are pregnant -- paper pregnant, that is, as my cousin would say. We have received approval to bring an orphan into the country. Needless to say, we are very excited!!! :-)

We were fingerprinted on December 20. That means that the approval took just slightly over a month. That's amazing no matter where you live, but especially so here in NYC.

What's next? More waiting! Our waiting now is for our referral and that's up to the agency and the country of Zamiba. Please pray with us that our referral will come quickly.

Thanks so much for sticking with us during this whole process. Lord willing our family will be all together sometime this year.