Our journey began several years ago when Joy and Cole Portis adopted sweet little Samuel from China. God began to place a desire in my heart to adopt. At first I dismissed it just as a sweet idea that in theory was something to fantasize about, but the reality of it was “I” never could do it. God continued to plant this seed. Everywhere I turned, I was hearing adoption stories, facts about adoption, and pleas for help. The desire became stronger and stronger even to the point where I could just feel her at times. I felt strongly that we should adopt a little girl.
At this point, I approached Andy about the idea of adoption. While he had not felt this calling, he was open to praying about it. We shared the possibility of adopting with our two children, Dow and Beth, and asked them to join us in seeking God’s will. After two years or so, my desire was still there, but Andy nor I felt that God was giving us the go ahead. Then in April of 2008, Andy shared that if I still felt God’s guidance in this area, he felt led to begin the process. I immediately experienced peace about the decision and knew it was all in God’s perfect timing.
While I had researched agencies and countries to some extent previously, I began to pour every extra minute into online research. From the time I first had the desire to adopt, my mind immediately went to Guatemala. However, adoptions were closed with this country. I looked to China. Adopting from China would take so long, and we were not sure if we would meet all of their strict guidelines. The process for other countries seemed so difficult with requiring long in country stays or two trips. All of that just seemed so hard and of course, I was looking for “easy.” Andy had just returned from India on a mission trip in April 08. We thought surely this was where God was leading, but India wasn’t right either. Finding the right country was proving to be harder than we anticipated which was surprising.
I had read about a small Eastern European country called Moldova (never heard of it prior to this). When I discovered the adoption process would take two trips, I immediately closed that door. No way could we make two trips plus it would be so hard leaving her after the first. I was definitely looking for the “path of least resistance.” A week later, we received a letter from Anne Graham Lotz organization called AnGel Ministry. Anne was planning a Just Give Me Jesus revival in (you guessed it) Moldova! As far as I can remember, this was only the second time I had ever heard of this country. However, we sent a donation that day and failed to connect any dots.
The next day on my way home from Bible study, I received word from the Lord. In a strong but quiet voice the Lord simply said, “Moldova. No matter what it takes, I have a child for you in Moldova.” I thought my heart was going to stop. I almost pulled over right there on I-85 North! God’s direction was so clear, and I am so thankful because through a lot of doubts, I have returned to that day many times for affirmation. I didn’t get to speak with Andy until the next day about God’s directions (He was in LA with our pastor, Jay Wolf, whose daughter-in-law, Katherine, was undergoing brain surgery). When I did, he didn’t question me about the decision at all. He just trusted that I had heard from the Father!
I began to research agencies that worked with Moldova. As you can imagine, there were not a lot. I was looking at two: one in California and the other in North Carolina. After making contact with the agencies, I chose Carolina Adoption Services in NC. I spoke with the program director for Moldova and she was ready for another family. Everything began to fall into place.
Lifeline Children’s Services in Birmingham conducted our home study over the summer of 2008. While gathering information for our home study and completing forms, questions, etc. was time consuming, it is very doable. My advice is to do a little each day and stay organized. Since Moldova is a Hague Convention country, we were under new guidelines. Once our home study was completed and reviewed by Alabama State Dept. of Human Resources, we filed our I800 with NBC (National Benefits Center) in Sept. of 08. We received approval from NBC at the end of Jan. 09. We were ready for a referral!
A week after we received approval, we learned of an investigation of an official that worked in the area of international adoptions in Moldova. Due to this, international adoptions completed in the past couple of years were to be reviewed, and a temporary delay has been placed on families who are currently registered to adopt. This is an election year (elections will be held April 5th) and this may stem from a political struggle for power. At this point, we have no idea when we might get a referral. It is so reassuring to know that God is in charge of the situation, and we will adopt our daughter in His perfect timing.
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