Month two

Well it has been two months now that our dossier is in Rwanda.  This month we did receive a number that was assigned to the dossier.  We are #125 and what that means is that there are 125 other people in line ahead of us waiting for there children too.  This also means that some people like #4 have been waiting a very long time.  So it looks like another year or more of waiting for us.

When I was getting close to the end of all the paper chasing part of this adoption, I thought when I get done with this, then I will take a break from all this adoption stuff and go back to life as normal.  Well quite the opposite has happened.  I have felt lead to become more apart of the adoption group and find more ways to help, and more ways to get involved.  The biggest way I have gotten involved is with prayer.  I feel this adoption process is one of the biggest spiritual battles that I have ever been apart off (and being a pastors wife I have seen a few battles in my time).  All I can say is that Satan has a firm grip on those orphans and does not want to let them go.  So I have spent a lot of time praying for those ahead of me in the wait and have seen God so some amazing things.  But the big thing to pray for is those ahead of us would get the referrals of their children especially dossier numbers 1-10!! I also have been praying for what else the Lord wants me to do for the orphans in Rwanda??

1 month

One month down and an infinite number more to go.  Our dosser has been in Rwanda one month now, and that is so little compared to others who are adopting from Rwanda.  There are some exciting things that have happened this past month in the ministries office.  We have found out that they have a special room set up with all the dossiers in it.  They have assigned numbers to all the dossiers that have come in before June 2010 and that is about 78 or so.  They also have been going through many of the earlier numbered dossiers and looking very closely at them checking dates and signatures and looking for missing paperwork.  So a few family's have been chasing down papers for there dossiers and sending them to the ministries office.  We are hoping that this will lead to a group of referrals being given out in the very near future.

We also received some good news this month.  A couple of months ago we had applied to an organization called "Show Hope"  for some money to help fund our adoption.  Well we found out this month that they have decided to give us $2,000!!! The Lord is Good, All The Time!! What "Show Hope" does is they are the  go between adoptive family's and people who want to help orphans financially.  This will be a great blessing as we push toward saving $10,000.  We will need about $5,000 to accept our referral, and about $5,000-7,000 to travel.  If I remember to break it down into smaller sized it is not quite so overwhelming. 

One other thing I received this month from "Show Hope" was a little devotional about adopting.  It was very inspirational and encouraging, and I learned a lot.  One things was reminded of is that we are all orphans and God adopted us into his family, and what we are doing by adopting others into our family, is not something heroic, but just what God has done for us.  And that is what God calls us to do to others what I have done for you.  There were also many encouraging words from other adoptive parents, and what one mom said was, "I smile when considering how many times I complained about the wait, and I always thing to myself, "I would have waited on you forever"." This frays has reminded me that I will wait forever for these kids, because they are so worth the wait. 

Well this next month I will be praying hard for the ministry office in Rwanda to hand out 8 referrals this month.  I am also going to do a big push for the sale of coffee from our storefront.  So if you need some more coffee just click on the "Just love Coffee" link and you can order some.  At the end of the month I will get a check from $5.00 for each bag of coffee that I sell. 

Hope you have a great October, with all the leaves falling and cool crisp air, and lets work together to take care of God's orphans and widows.
Thanks
Jill

DTR 8/30/10

God is good!! Our dossier was signed today authenticated today and now it is on its way to Rwanda.  This is a major step in our Rwandan adoption, and just in the nick of time.  As a friend of mine use to say God is never late, but rarely early.  So our status in our adoption process is called DTR 8/30/10, which means our Dossier To Rwanda on 8/30/10.  We are very excited about this, but it is hard because so many others are going through major struggles with their adoption.  We will be able to track our dossier using a tracking number and watch it travel all the way do Rwanda.  The kids are very excited about this!! We will keep you posted.
God is good,
Jill

Gods hand at work

We have some good and bad news about the Rwandan adoption process.  We found out on thursday that Rwanda will be closing there doors to accepting any more Dossiers (adoption paperwork) on Aug 31!! This way they can process all the current Dossiers and reorganize there adoption process to be in compliance with a Hague standards.  Our  Dossier has been in D.C. at the U.S. & Rwandan Embassy, there they put a federal certification on it.  Our family coordinator at America world has been working hard going to D.C. for us and trying to get our Dossier finished up and in the the mail.  We were hoping for it to get Fed EX to Rwanda on friday, but it was missing one last signature, so now we are hoping for monday to get it Fed EX to Rwanda.  The good news is that as long as it has that last signature on or before the 31st then the Ministry in Rwanda should still accept our Dossier.  The bad news is that there are a whole bunch on people who have been chasing paper for there Rwandan adoptions and now the door has been slammed shut in there face.  That could have been me just a couple of months ago!! I feel so sad as I read all my blog friends who are working through some very hard decisions right now.

The reason I titled this post "Gods hand at work" is because as I look at all that has been happening we can see Gods had at work in all of this.  Fist of all it is going to take an act of God to get my Dossier to Rwanda on time and the ministry still accept it, and it would take an act of God to not get our Dossier to Rwanda.  So what ever happens on know for sure it is Gods hand moving our Dossier around.  Another positive in all this is that now that the Ministry in Rwanda has closed there doors maybe they will be in a hurry to process all the Dossiers that they have.  Maybe this  will change the wait time for us.  It is currently taking Rwanda 9-11 months to get a referral from them, maybe, just maybe it will be much less.  I don't know, but am hoping.

The Lord gave me this verse on friday morning, "Job is an example of a man who endured patiently.  From his example we see how the Lords plan finally ended in good.  For He is full of tenderness and mercy." James 5:11

Update on our Dossier

I have some exciting news about our adoption. We are moving on to the next phase in the adoption process called the waiting period. On July 28 I was able to mail in all of our paperwork, also called our Dossier, to the adoption agency along with the $5,000 that goes along with it!! This is a major step in our adoption, because that is the end of our paper chase!! So now what is the big question. Currently our Dossier is in Washington DC first it will go to the US Embassy and get authenticated, then it goes to the Rwandan Embassy and get some more authenticating done to it. This could take 2-4 weeks to get done. We will at some point get an e-mail from the Rwandan Embassy with a fed ex tracking number and we will be able to track our Dossier as it travels to Rwanda!! Once the Dossier goes to Rwanda it will go to the Ministry of Family and gender services and will be added to a huge stack of other Dossier. There it will wait for 9-11 months. So yes it is still a long road to Rwanda, but we are moving slow and steady. While we wait I would ask all of you to pray with me for the Ministry so that they will be able to develop an efficient and effective method for processing Dossiers. Thank you so much for all your prayers and support.

Dossier out!!

So excited to finally get our Dossier done!! It is on its way to America World. I will update you latter on more details. Things are kind of busy at the house right now.

I-171H

I was able to trak down our last piece of paperwork yesterday and it is comming in mail!! Now we just need to update our Dr. paperwork that has expired while we were waitting, but I am hoping that will not be to much work. Also this week we were able to get the $5,000 together that we need to go with all the paperwork!! God is so good, and it is all comming together. Maybe in a couple of weeks our Dossiar will be on it's way to Rwanda!! Then the waitting really starts 6-9 months of waitting. But the good news is that time will keep ticken and we will only get closer!! Thanks so much for all of you that have been praying for us!! We are so blessed.

Garage sale Fundraiser

The garage sale was a huge success!! Thank you Lord!! We had so many wonderful donations and so much help getting is all organized and for sale.  When I opened up the garage doors and started to put it all out of the boxes and on to tables I couldn't believe how much stuff there was.  We were able to raise $2,180 in two days!! That will be a big help toward our $5000 that we need to go with our dossier. 

We are still waiting waiting on the I-171H from homeland security, it has been just over 6 weeks now.  The good news is that we have waited 6 weeks and don't have to wait those 6 weeks any more. 

I just wanted to say thank you to everyone who helped with this garage sale, we could not have done it with out you!!

Still waiting

Well May is coming to an end and we are still waiting for our USCIS approval.  I know the people at USCIS said it would only take a week or two, but they were wrong.  I have checked with a couple other friends who are waiting or have already waited and they say it could take up to 9 weeks for this piece of paper to come.  It was so cute yesterday in the car the kids were talking about how we would open presents with their Rwandan brother and sister here for Christmas.  I had to inform them that they probable would not be here for Christmas this year, because our paperwork was not in Rwanda.  They asked why it was taking so long to get there?? Well I tried to explain how slow paperwork moves through a gov't.  So we have been waiting 4 weeks now and on Memorial day it will be 5 weeks.  But like the song says, we will be faithful while we wait!! So we are gearing up for our garage sale on June 4-5 and we have already received many donations from wonderful friends.  I pray for each one of them to be blessed because of there generosity, and we are excitedly watching to see how God works through this garage sale!!

Warmer weather is here

Well May is here and the weather is very nice, some days!! We were able to go to Anchorage and get fingerprinted at USCIS and it all went well. Now we just wait a week or two for the approval to come from them!! I also started working on getting a grant from Show Hope. It is an organization that helps people pay for some of the added expenses of adopting. We also are starting to gather things for a garage sale fund raiser. I’m thinking about doing it the last weekend in May or the first weekend in June. I’m excited to see how it all comes together.

I can see the end of the paper chase

We received two more certified documents today in the mail!! That means only one more to go and our Dossier is done!! (I think) Next week April 26th we are going to Anchorage to get our fingerprints for USCIS done. Then we wait for their approval letter called I-171H. Last but not lease make lots of copies of our Dossier and send it off the America World for approval and processing. Then we are done with our paper chasing!!

April update

Making a list and checking it twice

Well the adoption paperwork is moving right along. While we were gone to Hawaii our home study was finalized and mailed to USCIS. Right before I left for Hawaii I mailed 15 documents to the secretary of state’s office to have the notarizations on them certified. They all came back looking pretty!! We also received our invitation to go to USCIS in Anchorage and be fingerprinted on April 26th!!

So what is next, well I need to send two more documents to the secretary of state’s office to be certified, and then wait to get our approval from USCIS. Last but not least make many copies of all the paperwork and send it to America world for finalization along with $5,500 and off it goes to wait in Rwanda.

As the paper chase is coming to an end I would just ask all of you to join with me in praying for this paperwork to keep moving from desk to desk and that God would watch over it. Also pray with me as we watch how God provides the money that is needed to go with the paperwork. Thanks so much for all your support, and prayers.

Info I found on Rwanda

"Rwanda, one of the poorest countries in the world, is a beautiful country struggling under the weight of the devastating genocide that occurred in 1994, when over 800,000 Rwandans were brutally murdered – leaving families decimated and the country’s infrastructure in shambles. In the aftermath of this tragedy, poverty increased, particularly among children. Half of Rwanda’s population is under the age of 18. Most of these children live on less than $1 a day. The infant mortality rate remains high at 37 per 1000 live births, and illnesses like HIV/AIDS have created a new wave of orphans. (Source: UNICEF)

Since the genocide, Rwanda has made great strides in advancing its economy and stabilizing its government; however, the orphan crisis has been largely unaddressed. In the entire United States, with a population exceeding 300 million people, there are 130,000 adoptable children . Compare that to the nearly 860,000 orphans in Rwanda - a country just the size of Maryland, with total population of 10.7 million people. This number of Rwandan orphans includes children in orphanages as well as an orphan group made up entirely of ‘child-headed households’. “Rwanda has one of the world’s largest proportions of households that are headed by children (i.e. children raising children) with an estimated 101,000 children heading up some 42,000 households.” (UNICEF, 2004)
Until 2008, Rwanda did not allow international adoptions. Because Rwanda has just recently opened to international adoption, the country does not have the same advanced adoption resources and infrastructure as seen in the United States and other countries. There remains an overall lack of awareness of the crucial needs and life-threatening conditions that Rwandan orphans face."

Found this information on another web sight called 4-more.

March update

Well I guess I really don't like updating this too often, or maybe I just don't like taking the time to do it.  Whatever the case is you can tell I'm not so good at writing.  I was hoping for this to be a kind of a journal of our adoption process, but I have been keeping track of things on a calendar at home, and that has been working much better for me.  But I did want to update all of you and let you know how things are coming with the adoption.  We have been busy at work.  Our home study is done and notarized and in the mail to us this week!! That is a big step.  Also I have a list of 14 documents that need to be collected, scanned and e-mailed to AWAA for approval, notarized, and then sent to the Secretary of State to be certified.  Currently I have in my possession 12 of these documents and they are all approved and notarized.  I am waiting for the home study document to come in the mail this week, and send off all 13 to be certified.  The 14th document will take a while and I'm not even sure what that document looks like.  So that one will just have to wait.  Once all 14 of these documents are certified we will be very close to done with the Dossier!!  But the hard part is that in the middle of all this paper chasing, we are leaving on a mission trip and family vacation to Hawaii.  Yes I'm excited to go, but wish I had the Dossier done.  

The other adventure we have begun to check into is a clean water one.  We are looking into the water situation at the orphanage we will be adopting from and seeing if we can do anything to get clean water for all the orphans there.  

Ok another reason I don't like blogging is because I type up this think then I can't spell check it!! What's up with that.  Anyway thanks for reading.
Thanks
Jill

Listen to Adventure

Home study

We got some good news this week. We will be able to start our home study on Feb 5. This is when the social worker from Anchorage will be able to come and visit our home and interview us. This is the first of a couple of interviews, and this is the person who will help decide if we financially and socially are capable of adoption. So if you could keep us in your prayers during Superbowl weekend.
We also have been working on our online class for the adoption. It is an 8-10hr class that you do on-line with reading and videos to watch and quiz's to take. I think it is going to take all of the 10hr to complete. We have done a lesson every couple of nights and each lesson takes us somewhere between 1.5-3hrs. The lessons are over the whole adoption process. So the last class we watched as about the health of adoptive children. It was interesting to learn that there is a whole field of Dr. who specialize in adoptive children. None of course are in AK but they are still out their.
So that is were we are at in the process. Slow and steady we go, praying all the way.