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! :-)

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.

It's Done -- the fingerprinting, that is!

The fingerprinting is completed and went off without a hitch, almost. It was an interesting experience to say the least. We got to the application support center in downtown Brooklyn relative quickly. We had enough time to stop for a cup of coffee and a bagel. We were able to finish our bagels and still walk in 20 minutes before our scheduled appointment time. (The appointments actually mean nothing -- it's just a way of getting people to arrive scattered throughout the day.) We filled out forms (almost identical to the ones that we received with our appointment letter) and were given a number. That's when the almost glitch happened.

Since Edward is 18 he had to go with us and be fingerprinted. He's the one that almost ran into the problem. His name is legally Ralph Edward Snyder-Ritter, but goes by Edward. When we got his non-driver's license photo ID, he decided to have his name on it as R.E. Snyder-Ritter. They couldn't put R. Edward since the program the DMV uses wouldn't allow for middle names. That's where the problem arose. He had filled out his application as Ralph Edward Snyder-Ritter and since the ID and application didn't match, even though the ID was a photo ID, he was sent to the opposite side of the room that I had been sent to, to await a conflab with the manager. Fortunately the manager okayed everything and we were good to go (Edward said that the manager had that look of "this is not worth my time"). From there, we had no problems.

Now it's a matter of waiting for the fingerprints to be processed before we receive our permission to bring an orphan into the country. PTL!!

Fingerprinting Time

It's been quite a while since I've updated and with Christmas coming, I've been soooo busy I haven't gotten around to posting.

We received our finalized home study report in the mail on December 1. So, on December 3 we mailed the appropriate copy to USCIS (immigration). We had already sent in our application and the fee for the fingerprinting. I was ready for quite a wait for our fingerprinting appointments. The website that I had been checking for time frames was saying there was a 3 month wait. Okay, I was prepared for that. However, I wasn't prepared for the time frame that is taking place.

Let me explain. As I said, we mailed in our completed home study on December 3 and by Saturday, December 8, we had received our fingerprinting appointments -- less than 1 week later. And, the cherry on top of this sundae is that our appointments are for December 20!!!! The real answer to prayer is that the appointments are for the day after Edward's college finals are finished. He finishes on December 19 at 5:00 pm and our appointment is Thursday, the 20th, at 10:00 am. I have to admit that I was concerned that our appointments might conflict with his college class schedule in the spring, but God is good and arranged for that NOT to be the case.

Once the fingerprinting is completed and we are approved to bring an orphan into the country, it's just a matter of waiting for a referral from our agency. Please pray with us that the referral comes quickly and that we can travel during spring or summer next year. We are hoping to have our child(ren) here by Christmas 2008 at the latest. Please pray with us!!

This is an amazing journey that we are on and we so often see God's hand at work in this whole situation and our lives. We look forward to sharing pictures with you when we receive them!! :-)

Merry Christmas to you all. May you experience God's blessing this holiday season and in 2008!!

One Step Closer

It's been a while since I had any updates on our adoption. We are one step closer. Yesterday we received, via the US postal system, our completed home study report. So, on Monday, one report gets sent to USCIS so that we can get approval to bring an orphan child(ren) into the country. The second report gets mailed to our agency and we get to keep 2 copies of the report.. The rest of the process is then out of our hands and into the hands of our government and Zambia.

Once we receive USCIS approval, we then wait for a referral and travel. Please keep praying with us that this process moves along quickly. The Zambian program has some details that need to be ironed out; pray that these things will be taken care of quickly and efficiently.

We will continue to update you when there is news to report. Thank you so much for your prayers on our behalf and for all the support that we have received. We love you all!!

Final Yard / Flower Sale Update

I haven't updated in ever so long because there has been nothing to update. However, we have the final tally on the fund raiser that my aunt and cousin organized. Are you ready for this?!? Drum roll, please . . . . the final total is $1,800!!! Yes, you read that correctly, one thousand eight hundred dollars!! Isn't God great!?! We are so excited because we can now send in the forms to USCIS (immigration) and get pre-approved to bring an orphan into the country. Those forms will be mailed later today or tomorrow.

So that's the latest! Thanks so much for praying for us during this journey. Please don't stop!!!

Not Much New

There's not a whole lot of news to share. We're still waiting for our police clearance and home study write up. That could be a while yet. We're told that the NYS police clearance could take up to 2 months and the home study can't be finalized until the agency has that clearance.

The yard/flower sale keeps on going and has raised about $1,500 so far!! God truly is amazing. Who would have thought that we would ever get that much from a yard/flower sale?!? God sure did!! My aunt tells us that my cousins are willing to keep putting flowers out to sell as long as they are selling (and as long as they have them to put out). With this amount from the sale, we now have enough $$ to file with USCIS. After that, we'll only need about another $500 (in addition to what we have saved) for the second part of the agency fee. Then it's just a matter of time before we receive our referral and can travel. We don't have the travel $$ yet, but I know that God will supply that when it is needed.

Thank you so much for praying with us and supporting us in our adoption journey. God bless!

No Doubt About It

If there was ever any doubt that the Lord was behind this adoption, there certainly wouldn't be now!! We got an update on the yard sale total last evening. We are now at $1,200 and counting!!! Is that a God thing, or what?!?!?!? I'm am blown away by all of this. I certainly didn't expect this to happen, but I shouldn't have doubted. Our God is a great God and greatly to be praised!! Amen!

Home Study

It just dawned on me that I never wrote a thing about the home study, although I did ask for prayer.

For those that may be contemplating an adoption, the home study is not a big deal. It was a very painless process, just a long one. We talked with out social worker for about 3 hours. She asked a lot of questions about our families while we were growing up and our family now, how we met, why Zambia and the list goes on and on. One of the questions she asked was how Ralph and I met. It's an interesting story (if you don't know it and want to, just let me know) and she was quite intrigued. By the end of the interview process she made the statement, "This is the most fun home study I've ever done" and she's been doing them for close to 30 years.

She interviewed Edward and Johannah but that lasted about 5 minutes. She basically wanted to know if they thought that we would be good adoptive parents and if they were in favor of the adoption. No problem there!!

Roberta, our social worker, was getting ready to leave and I thought that all of my cleaning was in vain. But, no. She did want to do a walk through of the house to see the space that we have available for a child. Not a problem there, either.

The interview process was actually enjoyable and nothing to stress over. She will be writing it up and giving a a draft to read and make corrections (of a factual nature) if necessary. She'll finalize the document and send us a copy.

The only thing that I was really concerned about was the dog. However, she loves dogs and Oliver was on his best behavior so it is not a problem.

All in all, it was a great experience for us all. I am looking forward to reading what she wrote from her copious pages of notes!!

Pictures, Finally

I've finally gotten access to a quick internet connection, thanks to my son's computer. So, I can finally update everyone with pictures of the yard sale. By the way, as of Friday evening, the yard sale total stood at $1,100. The greenhouse owners, my cousins, keep adding flowers to be sold and they keep selling!! Thanks so much Ken, Jon and Dan!! Your support of the adoption is overwhelming and greatly appreciated.

Okay, now for the pictures.

This gives you an idea of how we displayed the items for sale. Since the sale was basically inside the greenhouse, we needed a way of displaying the items. These carts are usually used for moving plants around. We just cleaned off the soil and put the items on them.



In the center we were able to set up some table for displaying books, puzzles and games and clothing. Behind the clothing table is our daughter, Johannah. She worked very diligently on getting the clothes organized.



The plants made a great impact on people as they drove past. They were just beautiful!!



Cousin Dorothy, the idea lady!! She suggested the idea for the yard sale fundraiser, and her mom, Aunt Nell, ran with the idea.



Ralph, my husband, is on the left and Uncle Russ is on the right. These guys "manned" the flowers and outside sale items (like the bikes in the foreground).


Other miscellaneous photos are below:









This pictures shows the carts as they are normally used.

I think that gives you an idea of the yard sale. What a blessing it has been for us!! Yes, the amount raised has been a huge benefit, but knowing that others are supporting us in our adoption (through their donations to the yard sale) has meant a lot to us.

With the home study finished, we are just waiting for police clearance and USCIS approval. When that's done, we then wait for our referral. It's an exciting time for the Ritter family!!