Orphan Awareness Month

On Wednesday, October 31st, our immigration paperwork was received at USCIS. That is called our receipt date. Now we will be waiting for our finger print notice and then we will drive about an hour to our state capital to get those done. Then the  prayers are that in a couple weeks following prints we would get approved to adopt 2 Chinese orphans and be able to make them US citizens.

This is typically one of the longer US side waits. After our 11 week criminal clearance wait this will feel fast. Right now they are taking about 5 weeks. The holidays may slow it down a few days and if there is a huge influx of adoptions in the coming weeks it could slow it down too, but I am praying for that first week of December to have approval.

Then that document will need to be notarized with Jay's and my signature, and driven to our state capital again for the notary to be authenticated. Then we will pay about $150 for a courier to get it authenticated in Chicago at the Chinese Embassy. Then she will overnight it to our agency. where they will finally send our all dossier to China!! What a happy day that will be.

The last couple days I have really been having a burden to get to our new little ones and bring them home. We pray daily for their protection and for someone, just one person even, to love on them and show God's grace. It is so hard, knowing that even the "best" orphanages are not a home, not a place to be nurtured. Yes, they might be "well" taken care of and yes, they might even be being shown love. But how can just a few nannies manage to nurture and truly love 30 or 40 babies? I have seen photos of Isaiah's orphanage, that were only a year old and all the babies are lying in beds alone. Only one of them had a nanny sitting on the crib holding the bottle. The other babies were holding their own bottles and their eyes looked so lost and just surviving. And not only that but the babies all had their legs tied together, which I assume was to hold on their diapers. But it was obvious that it was an archaic way to keep them on and many were too tight and kept the babies immobile. I don't blame the nannies  as China has one of the better orphanage systems typically around the world, although I am sure not all of them are "good" to the babies. I have heard many true horrific stories as well, of abuse and neglect.  How can they have hope at this sweet age when they are just run through a "boarding house", with yes, decent care givers but one that has an assembly line to take care of their basic needs? With maybe 1 hour away from their backs in a crib. Al of those babies and children need Mommies, Daddies and siblings to dote on them and meet their longing to be truly wanted.They have already been abandoned, it is not a pretty picture or life to imagine. It is reality.

Please pray for all the orphans around the entire world. There is over 145 million children without at least one parent. November is "Orphan Awareness" Month. Please make this a time to teach your children to be the advocates for the weak and helpless who can not speak for themselves.

Help your friends who are adopting. Support them when they return with their children with a meal or offering to babysit the other children. Help support them financially if you feel led. Can you give up a Starbucks coffee once a week to help a family who feels led to bring home one of these precious children? There would be many more families who would adopt if they had the money to do so. Unfortunately the government is taking away the tax credit after this year for all adoptive families, besides special needs from the US only.

 We do have a new side bar that has a sponsorship link for Reeces Rainbow for our adoption, which is tax deductible. If you are able to help us, how blessed we all would be. However, I know there are so many needs in our world today, so I am not going to beg for your help, but more for your prayers. And mostly that you would follow God in becoming advocates and true sponsors of all needy children around the world. This IS God's heart. We in America have SO SO much, it is sickening. And if we don't get what we think we need, we complain. I admit I am guilty of this before too. God is teaching me and showing me. There are dieing children all over our world. Not just lonely, hurting children, but children dieing without Christ spiritually. Satan would like nothing more than to keep them in the dark. I believe we as Christ follows should do what HE would do and that is have the children come to Him, love them and heal them.

 There is also another link for Compassion. Please consider sponsoring a Compassion child. It is ONLY $38 a month, which provides education, teaching about Christ, clean water, nutrition and medical help. Our family sponsors several and we have been so blessed by the sweet little letters we have received from our children. We also pray daily for them. My children are learning how to give up Christmas gifts in order to help children who otherwise don't even have shoes to wear. My children are learning "Compassion".  

The other prayer I am asking for is Isaiah. It has been a month since asking for an update on his weight, health and more photos. The one we have is almost a year old. However, our agency has not heard anything. I am having a difficult time not worrying about him, wondering why they would not send the asked information. I know they are busy and that is likely the reason. But what if he is sick? We also still have a local Chinese heart surgeon looking and translating his last surgery which was done last April. It does seem to be another open heart surgery. He had been put in the hospital with a cold and then had the surgery done. We feel for this little boy even more. He has been through so much in his 2 little years of life. Please pray for his safety and that God would move mountains to help us get to Elliana and Isaiah as quick as possible.