Connections, Tree's, School & Toys

It has been a great week.  We have been able to connect with a number of families that are with Living Hope and going to be adopting a child from Honduras.  What an encouragement.  Even though we knew there were quite a few, when we got the list and then connected with a number of the families through email it just made me smile.  The reality was even more evident.  IT is really weird... sometimes it seems so real that we are adopting and at other times it feels like we are just pretending, like it isn't really real.  Communicating now with these families makes it feel more real again as we are in this next waiting phase to hear if our paperwork has gone to IHNFA or not.  At the same time I have been following 2 families blogs that are both home and traveling home and to see the joy in these little faces with their new families-what an encouragement.


Last night while I was sitting with the girls Alexa was wondering on the world map (I know I have shown her before) where Honduras was and wanting to see where we will be flying on the whole map.  It is so neat to see each of the girls processing this journey in their own way.  It is hard to tell at times who is more excited about this.  Even voicing that if they have the choice on what trip they would choose to go on they have said "hands down, the second trip-they won't want to leave her".  Reality hit hearing them voice that, how hard it is going to be to leave her there and pray that the time we will be apart will go quick.

A really cool opportunity  to support Honduras and the children of Honduras was shared through another families blog that we wanted to pass onto those following our blog.  A toy company that started to help with unemployment and to build up the countries natural resources.  The companies name is Tegu.The money that comes in from the purchase of these incredible blocks goes to sending children to school or planting new trees in their rain forest.  With Christmas coming up this is a great thing for something new and creative.  Please check out this site and even if you are not able to purchase any of their block please send the link onto others.  This toy is a bit expensive but when you think what your money is helping to go towards, it is a great gift to the person you are giving it to as well as giving back.

Hoping soon that we will be able to say that our paperwork is at IHNFA.

Fellow Pilgrims on the Journey

We had the opportunity to have dinner with another family in the area that are adopting a little girl from Honduras.  I graduated from Souderton High School in 1989 with Dave, and it was a lot of fun to catch up and hear the journey that the Lord has brought each of us on since then.  It was a lot of fun to have our families together for the evening.  They are a few months behind us in the process...hopefully our stories were an encouragement rather than a discouragement.  They are in the process of pulling together all of their documents for their dossier.  I remember the overwhelming feeling that washed over me as I saw the check list for all that needed to be collected.  It is good to have a family on the same journey of adoption going through same agency to the same country.  Through good friends, we have been introduced to their cousin that is going through Living Hope to adopt from Honduras, and through a fellow pastor, we have spoken with another couple only a few miles away adopting from Honduras through Living Hope.  It has been encouraging to have fellow pilgrims on this adoption journey. 
Alicia spoke with our contact at Living Hope today and found out that eight families from Living Hope received word that their dossiers have been translated in Honduras.  They believe that within a month our dossier should be authenticated by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, and reviewed by IHNFA, which means that if all goes well, by Thanksgiving, we'll be ready to be matched up with a child.  We are still planning on getting our referral next spring, yet we'll rejoice if it is sooner.  It is good to know there are a number of families on this journey with us.  Fellow pilgrims on this journey!

Translated!

Earlier today, I made the comment to Alicia that it seems there are a number of areas of life right now that are "in transition, and I just have to wait".  At church, we are hiring a new Pastor of Youth and Family Ministries, but he doesn't begin until November 1...waiting!  Yesterday, I sent in my last assignment for my doctoral work before beginning my dissertation, which I cannot begin until it is approved...waiting!  For the adoption, our paperwork continues to be in the process of being translated...waiting!  I gave blood this afternoon, and as I sat there waiting for a pint of blood to be drained from my arm...waiting...Alicia came in and held out her phone to show me an email from our agency.  The translation of our paperwork has been completed.  There is still nothing for us to do, but at least our waiting has entered another stage.
So what is the next step in the process?  With the translation complete, our paperwork has been sent to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs for authentication, after which it will go to IHNFA for review.  IHNFA is the government agency of Honduras that oversees adoptions.  Once our dossier is reviewed and approved then we move to the stage of being matched up with a child.  We have not been given a timeline for all of this, and that is OK, since the timeline for translation was "2-3 weeks", so we were told in the middle of August when our paper work was sent to Honduras.  It is still our hope that we will know the identity of our daughter before Christmas, but there is a good possibility we may need to wait until the spring.  We are rejoicing in the fact that we now move to the next stage of waiting.  Thank you for patiently waiting with us!

December...?

This morning, I was asked by my Conference Pastor if I had any news about the adoption.  At first, I stood there as silent as this blog has been, then I shared with him that there is news but it is a bit confusing.  Our dossier went to Honduras in the middle of August to be translated.  That process was only supposed to take about two weeks, we are now up to almost a full two months.  We have found out through other blogs and our adoption agency that there was some restructuring in IHNFA (the Honduran agency responsible for overseeing adoptions).  We heard rumors of the director being removed from her position, we heard rumors of a strike of IHNFA employees, we heard about a number of employees being fired, and we heard of a multi-million dollar budget shortfall.  Some of these rumors are completely true, some are partially true, and some we just do not know.  We were told that we should expect the process to take a lot longer than originally expected, so as a family we prepared to need to wait until the spring for our referral.  A few days ago, Alicia found a blog of another family dated October 7.  They had sent their paperwork down, expecting two weeks for translation, and with the news coming out of Honduras, they were preparing for a long wait, only to learn that their paperwork was translated (in about 2-3 weeks) and moving on for review.  We are not sure why their paperwork was translated so quickly and ours remains in process, but we were encouraged that the process seems to still be moving.  Yesterday, we received an update from our agency saying that there is a new acting director for IHNFA and they are looking to move the adoption process along.  There are over 11,000 children in the process with IHNFA.  Our agency said that the families in process should receive a referral before the end of the year.  Lord willing, we will have a picture and information about our daughter before Christmas!  Thank you for your love, prayers and support!