God's Got This

We had our March (monthly) conference call last week about updates for our countries program.  Here are the highlights:

• Our international case worker recently returned from a trip to our adoptive country and she had a lot of great things to tell us about her trip and also some hard things to hear. 

• Referrals are still on the slow side...but if all goes well, there could be 4-5 new referrals in the next 2-3 months. Remember from this previous post, I mentioned we are around number 12 on the wait list. 

• Our agency is working on another partnership with an orphanage that they visited recently. It is over capacity and under staffed. This partnership would take months to set-up, so those potential referrals wouldn't come for another 6-8 months. 

• Court dates are running smoothly for now. Once a family receives a referral, it is taking about 4-6 weeks to get a court date and to travel for that first trip. The first trip is still estimated to take 3 weeks, but most families have been closer to 2 weeks. So that's good news. 

The hardest news to hear, we received the day after our conference call. The international adoption team decided to officially extend the wait time for a referral from 3-12 months to 12-24 months. Yep. I found out about this last night and didn't even tell Travis until today. This sounds weird, but I just didn't feel like talking about it, or saying it out loud. Saying it out loud made it real. 

We have been waiting 8 months, which I thought was a while. But now we aren't even to the minimum point of 12 months...and 2 years...that just seems crazy. I'm not saying we are thinking about giving up...it's not even a question, but I am saying I am a little discouraged. The reason it bothers me is because there are children in orphanages right now... without parents, families. Often without food, medical care, hugs and kisses, being rocked to sleep, being picked up when they cry. 

I wish I could explain all the reasons why it's taking so long to get a referral. Here are a few, and it's more complicated that this, but I'll keep it simple.

• Our adoptive countries negative view of international adoption and adoption in general
• Myths about the fact that Americans adopt internationally because it's cheaper or they don't have the best interest in mind for these children (trust me, it's not cheaper and we love these children dearly)
• It's a pilot program and it just takes time to establish a trusting relationship with orphanage directors
• Background investigations: before a referral is given to a family, each child has a thorough investigation to assure they are truly orphans. This prevents things such as child trafficking or children being sold for money. These investigations take time. If during the investigation, it is discovered that the child is not a true orphan, that referral process is stopped for that child.

I don't have time right now, but I want to say a bunch of things like God's plan is perfect, His timing is too, He is in control...

We'll just leave it at: God's Got This.