I'm sure some of you have been wondering if we were still in the adoption process. Sometimes we have even wondered "Do they (the adoption agency) remember that we are sitting out here waiting for a child?" Well, they do remember and we have received some initial good news.
About 2 weeks ago, we received an email from our adoption social worker and it started out kinda like some of the other ones, that they still didn't have any referrals from the country we've been working with. Then it took a turn, they have been getting more referrals now from another country in that area (southeastern Europe) and that they currently had one for a little boy that they thought we may be interested in and wanted to know if we would be open to changing countries. "Of course!" we thought, but we wanted more information on what all would be involved in changing countries before we received information on the child. We didn't want to get emotionally attached to a child before we knew if we'd be able to actually make a change in countries work. Of course there are administrative things, i.e. paperwork, that has to be done but there were 2 other big hurdles in changing to this country. One of the hurdles is money. It is going to cost us about $5000 more than we were expecting to pay to complete an adoption in our initial country. Part of this additional cost is because of hurdle number 2. This hurdle to us was an even bigger obstacle to overcome, travel and time in country. The country we've been focused on required 2 trips with one being about a week and the other being about a week and a half. This new country is only 1 trip but it requires that at least 1 parent remain in the country for....wait for it....6-8 WEEKS! This is actually what had ruled this country out for us initially. How could either of us be gone from our jobs for 1 and a half to 2 months and still get a paycheck?
I began checking with my boss and 12Stone to see if there would be any possible way we could work out something so that I could take the time off. In the mean time, Jen started looking at what time off she had. Since she rarely takes any sick time off, she discovered that she had accrued enough sick hours to equal about 60-65 days. Since weekends wouldn't count in time off, she would have enough time to be gone for 2 months and still have some time left once she would get back. So immediately God had showed us the answer to what we thought would be the biggest hurdle in this! Meanwhile, checking back in with my boss and 12Stone, they didn't know exactly how it would work, but they were willing to make it happen. It looks like if all goes well the travel would happen in the February or March time frame and that Jen would be the one to stay in the country the full 6-8 weeks with Austin and I going over with her for 7-10 days and then coming back home. I would then have to go back out at the very end for us to finalize the adoption.
Once we knew that we had the travel figured out, we let the adoption agency know that we did want to move ahead with getting information about the child. So, they sent us over his name as well as some videos and pictures of medical records. Because of privacy and security issues and concerns we unfortunately can't share the name of the child or the videos & pictures on a blog or social media at this time. The initial information we've received is all positive. The little boy will turn 4 this month. In the videos we watched he seems to be a happy little boy, he runs around and plays and smiles a lot. The talking in the videos is all in Hungarian so we obviously don't know what is being said or what they tell him or ask him to do. We are very blessed to know a family across the street from us that are originally from that area of the world and know some people in their church that could translate the videos for us. We have received permission from the adoption agency to watch the videos with them and let them translate for us what is going on/being said. We are hoping to meet with them this week to have that happen.
The medical records we have pictures of are also all in Hungarian. The adoption agency, Lifeline Children's Services, is working on getting those translated for us. They also have a doctor on the ground in the country that will be checking everything out for us and they have another person heading to the country this week to check in with the boy and the foster family he is living with. The hope is he will be able to fill in some blanks as well as get some questions, that we had, answered.
We were ready to move forward and pretty much had said so to our social worker on the phone. She advised us to wait a little bit to get the information back from the doctor and the person that will be meeting with the boy and family. We aren't expecting any red flags but it does make sense to get as much information as possible to make the best decision we can for our family and hopefully for this little boy. Right now we are excited but trying not to get TOO excited until we have all the information. It does feel like God is opening doors for this to happen so we'll see how it unfolds.
While we know that God provides we also believe that sometimes we have to do our part in that, even if it's uncomfortable. So....this part is uncomfortable to me but, we have two asks. One is that you would continue to pray for our obedience to whatever it is that God has for us in this and that he would reveal that to us. The second has to do with the extra $5000 we have to come up with and I hate asking people about/for money but.... Would you consider donating to our adoption? If you have already, THANK YOU SO MUCH but would you also keep your heart open to hear if God may prompt you to help out some more? I know it's getting into the Christmas season and if it doesn't work for your family to donate, that is ok! We would just ask that you continue to pray for us and that God would provide! We are nervous but excited to see how God will unfold all of this.
If you do want to/can make donation, just click the link in the upper left of our blog that has the Promise686 logo. Any donation made that way is tax deductible. Thank you all for taking this adoption ride with us and we will keep you updated as things move along!
