Dare I Hope?

We are re-visiting the whole adoption for several reasons. I don't want to say a whole lot since we haven't even told our kids yet or other family members. It's not definite, but I'm hoping. Please pray!

I Think the End of the Dream is Here

Well, we didn't actually make a decision. It was sort of made for us. We waited to hear from our agency and never did, so our fingerprints have expired. I highly doubt that we will pursue our dream any further. At this point, if we were to continue, we would have to have our home study updated, our daughter fingerprinted by the local police and then all 4 of us would have to be fingerprinted for clearance to bring an orphan into the country. That adds up to lots more $$ that we just don't have.

This has been a hard day for me once I realized that this was happening. You see, I had picked out the song that we were going to have sung at our children's dedication (our dd was going to sing it). I heard it today while I was listening to my favorite CD. It was then that I realized that my dream of adopting had come to an end. Well, not the dream really, just the realization that we wouldn't be adopting.

It's a difficult thing to think about, but God knows what is best for our family. I still believe that there are children in Zambia that would benefit from the love and nurture that we could give them, but it's just not to be. At least not now. And since we aren't getting any younger . . . well, you get the idea.

If for some reason things change drastically, I'll be back with that news. But for now, this blog is just going to sit here without any updates. It's my journal of our road to adoption and that will never change.

Thanks for following along on this journey with me. I have appreciated all of you that have prayed for us and stuck by us. Thanks, too, to the many of you that have donated $$ to help us in this journey. I hope that you don't think that your money was wasted. We can't control the outcome; we can only do what God leads us to do. In that regard we have learned much!

We love all of you!

Carolyn

PLEASE PRAY!!

If we come to your mind in the next few days, please pray for wisdom for us. We're not sure if we are going to continue to pursue this adoption. Things in Zambia do not look as good as they did when we started this venture. Even if we were to get a referral today, I would probably have to live in Zambia for 3-4 months. That's just not possible for us financially or pragmatically. The thought of not adopting breaks my heart. This has been my dream for 32+ years.

We need a miracle and need it real soon! Thanks for standing with us in this journey.

Blessings,
Carolyn

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! :-)