Rebel Fighting Imminent

The region where N and A are living is becoming increasingly unstable.  They are in a dangerous place as a rebel group is threatening their town of Goma and other surrounding towns.  Please pray for their safety.  Of course, if the city is under siege and at war they will be fleeing and suffering and not processing adoptions.  More urgently at this point, their lives could be in danger.  This is a brutal and very violent group.  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NOwLpVv3I-o&feature=em-share_video_user    Please pray for this nation and our hopeful children there!  This is the very reason these precious children are up for adoption, there are millions of orphans as the oppression has had little reprieve for generations.  How can this be allowed to continue?  God, arise and defend the fatherless!

Psalm 10:8 - 18  

 8 He [the wicked] sits in ambush in the villages; in hiding places he murders the innocent. His eyes stealthily watch for the helpless;  9 he lurks in ambush like a lion in his thicket; he lurks that he may seize the poor; he seizes the poor when he draws him into his net.  10 The helpless are crushed, sink down, and fall by his might.  11 He says in his heart, "God has forgotten, he has hidden his face, he will never see it."  12 Arise, O LORD; O God, lift up your hand; forget not the afflicted.  13 Why does the wicked renounce God and say in his heart, "You will not call to account"?  14 But you do see, for you note mischief and vexation, that you may take it into your hands; to you the helpless commits himself; you have been the helper of the fatherless.  15 Break the arm of the wicked and evildoer; call his wickedness to account till you find none.  16 The LORD is king forever and ever; the nations perish from his land.  17 O LORD, you hear the desire of the afflicted; you will strengthen their heart; you will incline your ear  18 to do justice to the fatherless and the oppressed, so that man who is of the earth may strike terror no more. 

Praise the Lord!!! Real progress!

The heavens declare the glory of God over Africa, summer 2011

Are we seeing the parting of the waters?  I think we are witnessing the mighty hand of God as the walls of water stand in place and He makes provision for N and A to in fact walk through to freedom and hope.  Wow, we're so encouraged!  We got some amazing news this morning!  Significant progress was made on our case with N and A, even more than we had imagined and prayed for (Eph 3:20!).  The attorney's assistant was able to gather and process all the necessary paperwork to begin our adoption in Congo and our case was heard in court!  We were just praying and hoping for the assembling of the paperwork since that had been such a sticking point, but the fact that the case was already heard in court is another huge step!        

There are still several steps ahead of us and it's never over until it's over, but this is an important step forward.  We'll write another post soon letting you all know what's next, but for now we want to celebrate what God has done so far.  Thanks for all your prayers!

Waiting... a glimmer of hope

We are awaiting a report from our agency letting us know of any hopeful and necessary developments.  As I posted earlier, our attorney's assistant made it into Goma last week and was working to light a fire and get some paperwork moving.  He has now returned to Kinshasa so we are anxiously and prayerfully waiting to hear hopefully that something has finally started moving!!!  If it has not, we were lovingly told that it will not likely be able to progress especially now that there is no one there pushing it.  It is all very complicated and too much detail to share here but we hope that we will only have good news and be able to get back on the "adoption train" with precious N and A.  We have been praying for God to move mountains and we know He can.  We also trust Him enough to know that whatever He has planned is best.   

Overlooking the Nile River 1 yr ago, praying for our kids.  Still waiting and praying.

Meanwhile, my new friend (mentioned in the previous post below) whom you can learn more about here, sent us a brochure in the mail.  At the time they made up the brochure, they had no idea that the kids pictured there are our kids!  I can't believe it, I have a brochure pleading for the sponsorship of the kids in our orphanage so that they can all eat.  And on the front is a big picture of our very own A that I have just fallen in love with.  She is smiling!!!  And sadly very thin with a poked out belly and shaved head.  Poor baby.  I can't wait to get her home, feed her, give her a good warm bath, snuggle her up in a warm towel, lotion her, put her in her new pj's that I have been holding onto for months, sing to her, rock her, and put a bow on that bald little head!!!  When I thanked this mother who sent the pictures from her recent visit to the orphanage she said, your son was the other child in the brochure and at the time I didn't even know they belonged to you.  Huhh?!?!?!?!  I couldn't believe it.  I had already poured over every child in the pictures to find him but I couldn't recognize him.  I think I now know which one he is but it's crazy that even though I have stared at his sweet little face many a time in the only picture we had previously had of him, I couldn't even recognize him from a different angle, different expression.  They are so adorable.  I don't know if that is just because I see them through the eyes of a mother but I already love them and think they are so cute.  I have that same ridiculous pride over them that any mother has over her children.

Lastly, our agency's International Director and his Assistant are going back to the Congo this week for their second trip.  This is a crucial trip for all of the Congo families as they are making major decisions on our behalf and on the behalf of all of the families and children who will come after us.  Please pray for their safety and for God's wisdom and favor as they navigate this treacherous and beautiful thing called Congolese adoption.

On the Move Again

After about 4 months of gridlock, we have finally gotten what seems like a breakthrough in getting the process moving again!  Our attorney sent his assistant to Goma and we got word today that he arrived yesterday and is working on paperwork himself.  He is getting the ball rolling again it seems.  In order to prove their legal orphan status for the courts, they must get the P.V. of Abandonment from the Dept. of Social Affairs and go to the courts to obtain a judgement suppletif.  We hope both of these things can happen while our attorney's assistant is in Goma this week.  Pray for this miracle!  He is also training a local lawyer to handle the case in his absence. This could be a very helpful step as it is very difficult for him to work this case from the other side of the country.

As an unexpected surprise, God has been answering our prayers in another way!  We have been praying, of course as any parents separated from their hopeful children would, that God would care for them and protect them.  I got an email on Monday from another adoptive mother in our program who is also matched with siblings out of the same orphanage in Goma.  We were able to talk and she said she was just there at their orphanage in March and that after reading my blog realized that she had met our children!  It is an amazing story really of our loving heavenly Father caring for these children and the God-given fighter spirit in this mother who would go to any cost to care for the children she is awaiting.  After being contacted and told by another party that the conditions in this orphanage are worse than could be expected and that the children are literally starving to death, she raised a bunch of funds, started a ministry, and jumped on a plane to go over and feed these orphans!  Since March, they have been all eating 3 meals a day!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!  I wept when I learned that while we were praying and trusting that God would care for them, He sent flesh and blood in the form of a mother to go and do just that!  The cherry on top is that she has tons of pictures from her time there and we were able to see more pictures of N and A than the single picture we have of each of them.  In the picture of A, she is even smiling a big smile!!!  That means a lot to me because she looks very sad in the picture we have of her so I am glad to see that she isn't too traumatized to be happy!  She looks very hungry but I trust now that she is better fed.  If you want to read this amazing story, visit her blog at sweetinterruptions.blogspot.com  She has included pictures of food delivery and wrote about what it was like to meet her kids for the first time.  You should also check out her minsitry's web-site at mercysmission.org.  You can see other pictures there of the orphanage and the children.  By God's grace pieces are coming together both in my mind and in the adoption.  We are still so far from the finish line and so we hold onto N and A loosely, though we will continue to pray and fight like heck for them.

A Small Update

Many weeks have passed now with no updates really until today.  Still the case has not progressed any further but a change has been made in hopes that things may start moving again.  The local pastor from the orphanage was supposed to travel to the kids' hometown of Masisi about 30 miles away to obtain appropriate documentation on their legal orphan status.  As expected, communication across country and trying to get the pastor to either understand what he is supposed to do to advance the legal process or just getting him to do it some time in the next 10 years (jk) has brought the case to a halt.  So, today we heard that our attorney is sending his assistant, Jerome, to Goma and Masisi to begin working on the paperwork himself.  We see this as a positive and hopeful step!  He is planning to travel next week if all goes according to plan.  Please pray for his safety as this is a difficult travel situation and that he has success finding all that he needs and working with the local government.

Whatever happens with this next step will really shed light on whether or not this case is able to move forward.  Once we get the appropriate documentation that the children are in fact legal orphans - which from what we understand, they know exactly what happened and why they are orphans but it all must and should be carefully documented - then they can move on to applying for the first adoption judgement.  This will begin the court process.  Please pray that if these are the children God intends for us that there will be some breakthrough with this visit and that something get moving and completed.  Thanks for all your support and prayers as we continue to wait.  It has now been over a year since we started the process and 6 months since we were matched with N and A.  All the US side of things has been complete for months but on the Congolese side we have a long way to go.  We have settled again in trusting that God's plan is best and His timing is perfect.

Going Forward

Exodus 14:15-16 "The Lord said to Moses, "Why do you cry to me?  Tell the people of Israel to go forward.  Lift up your staff, and stretch your hand over the sea and divide it, that the people of Israel may go through on dry ground."

As you can imagine this has been a week of disappointment, doubts, questions, bouts of high hopes, weeping, and praying for us as a family. We have come to a decision to "go forward" and keep pursuing N and A. When God told Moses and the Israelites to go forward, there was nothing in front of them but the Red Sea! We don't know that the outcome will be like that of the Israelites when God parted the waters and made a way out for them. But we do believe with all of our hearts that He can and will make a way if that is what is best for N and A and for us. We have been asking God what He wants to do regarding these two children because we know that no matter what we may think seems best to us, His ways may sometimes be different and as always, His ways are higher and better! Nonetheless, after praying and waiting we don't feel any interest in considering other children yet.

I love my husband!  Immediately after the phone call (that he stayed so composed through while I sat silently in disbelief with tears dropping to my shirt) Chuck had the following thoughts.  Just because something is difficult, looks impossible, is time-consuming or inconvenient doesn't mean we should choose the easiest route.  There has been such a stronghold of evil over this region where over 5 million people have died in the past decade and we are going to just say, it's difficult so we should give up?!  Some things (and lives) are worth fighting for.  Maybe there needs to be someone to "blaze the trail" and try to open up a pathway for many other children to make it out of Goma and into a family.

I loved his train of thought because my heart was of course attached to these children.  We have been praying for them by name several times a day for months now.  We have their pictures blown up big side by side on our refrigerator.  They already feel like part of our family.  Then I had to allow my dreams of having them soon and young to crumple away as I have been praying and praying that they would make it in time to adjust a little before beginning Kindergarten and pre-school!  Looks like they could be older yet and we might miss even more of their childhood in waiting.  Or... it may not happen.  It is a "risky adoption" kind of like a high risk pregnancy.  There are many unknowns and no child has yet been successfully adopted out of Goma that we know of.  I think there have been a few adoptions out of the Congo altogether. (If you are reading for the first time, you may want to read our post on "How did we choose the Congo?")

Many of you may be wondering how it happened that we were matched with "unreachable" children.  I want to affirm that we have a SUPER agency who is in a pilot program with Congo.  They were very upfront that there will be many unknowns as they chart new territory.  We don't fault them at all.  We think we may see God's perfect timing in letting us get in at the beginning while they were still even considering Goma.  Remember while we were in Uganda and pursuing Ugandan adoption God seared the word "Zaire" into my heart and mind and the very next day our agency opened up a program in the Congo?!  I don't think this was coincidence.  Had we started the process now, we would have missed these kids because Lifeline is now focusing only on the much safer and sure city of Kinshasa.

Potential contacts that have developed in a matter of days that give us hope that God might be making a way to adopt N and A from Goma:

• A dear student at Princeton whom Chuck has been mentoring weekly for 3 years now is named Moses and is from one of Congo's bordering countries, Rwanda.  When Chuck told him the news, he phoned his mother right away.  They now live in the US but still have family in Kigali, Rwanda.  She gave us contacts of family members in Rwanda who know people in Goma and the surrounding region.  These contacts in Goma and Rwanda have already expressed eagerness in helping us in whatever way they can.  It's not clear whether these contacts will actually assist us in this adoption, nonetheless, this was promising news within just a couple of days after our disappointing call.
• Another dear friend, Matthew Pearson, just took a new job working for Living Water International and will be traveling into Uganda and other nearby countries often.  If paperwork needs to be transported (there is no courier system in the Congo) he may be able to help somehow in that process.  Also, he will have many trustworthy contacts through his work.
• Our agency called today and had just talked with our attorney in Kinshasa this morning.  They seemed much more hopeful that it could happen but it could still take a long time.  Next step for prayer.  Someone from the orphanage must travel (where travel is difficult) about 30 miles to the kids' hometown of Masisi to gather appropriate information and documentation that they are in fact orphans.  They know the story but it must be documented in proper legal format.  He has to learn from Armand, Lifeline's attorney in Kinshasa, how to do that.

We don't know how this will turn out, but in faith we are walking forward.   God knows what is best and He loves His children (us included!)  Inexpressible gratitude goes to our families, co-workers, and many friends who helped keep our heads and hearts on track.

A very difficult phone call

From our agency we got a call Tuesday.  The International Director and his Associate had just returned from their first trip to the Congo, as we are in the pilot phase of the program.  We are among the first families trying to adopt children out of the Congo.  With each point, our hearts sank lower and lower.

"Things went really really well in Kinshasa...



But we learned that there is even more of a world between Kinshasa and Goma than we anticipated...



Communication between Goma and Kinshasa is next to impossible and travel across country is too dangerous...



We want to make sure you understand that it would be really really difficult to make it happen...



It could take not 6-8 months but much much longer if not indefinite...



We will only be proceeding with adoptions out of Kinshasa at this point...



 We will leave no stone unturned if you plan to continue to pursue N and A in Goma or we could match you with other children in Kinshasa...



We are praying for you and will wait to hear from you..."



We have had 2 days to cry and dare to hope.  We are seeking God for clarity and wisdom.  Yes, we are already attached to these children but it is much much more than that.  Didn't God orchestrate this thus far?  Or did He?  Will we give up so soon?  We know His plans will never fail.  These children and all the children in Goma need hope.  They need someone to look past "difficult" and trust that with God NOTHING is impossible.  But to move ahead, we must know that He is with us.  Please pray as we make a difficult decision.