Please pray for us as we begin to tackle the gigantic stack of paperwork that will be our China dossier. Unfortunately, we are going to have to start over on everything - including a few of the documents that took us the longest with Ghana and Eastern Europe. (Remember all my sad posts about waiting on U.S. Immigr*tion? Yup, we have to get in that line again.) I'm struggling to have a positive attitude about going back to square one. I think I need a picture of our little man glued to the front of my trusty purple accordion folder.
Another part of the paperwork puzzle is our home study (adoptionese for a short novel about our family). We have a one-month-old home study, but the agency that completed it does not have the appropriate accreditation to work with China. Thankfully, we found a new agency quickly and have already scheduled our first home visit for January 4.
Lil' Miss has enough energy and excitement to do the paperwork herself. (If only she were a little older than three! :) I printed a picture of our little man for her last Friday, and she carried it with her on all of our errands. She kept talking to the picture. ("Don't worry, Jonathan, we're coming to get you soon.") She even held the paper up while we were in line at the grocery store and announced to the cashier that she is getting a brother!
I love her enthusiasm. Her prayers for her brother especially melt my heart. She remembers him almost every time she prays and often asks the Lord to let us "go get him soon". When she sees his picture, she says, "That's my little boy!" I can't wait to see her love on him in person!
I do have a few specific prayer requests in regard to the China process...
1.) Please keep our little man in your prayers. It is hard to think about him waiting in an orphanage - with no idea we are coming - when we wish he could be home with us right now! We've been praying that someone at the orphanage shows him special love and attention and tells him about God's love for him.
2.) We had received two significant grants during our Ghana adoption process. One of those grant organizations has already agreed to transfer their grant to our agency's China program. (Yay!) We are waiting to hear back from the other organization. Please pray that they would be willing to transfer their grant, as well.
3.) Pray that our paperwork would come together quickly. Every step seems to drag now that we have a little face in our minds and hearts! Pray also for an attitude of peace and patience as we work through the necessary steps in the process.
Thanks so much for praying for us! Here's another picture of our sweet little man.
If you have a few more minutes of reading time, I encourage you to check out this article. (Thanks, Erin, for sharing it with me!) Part of the article is a beautiful story about a couple from Utah who adopted a little girl with Down Syndrome from Eastern Europe; the other part is a horrifying account of the living conditions for handicapped orphans. The investigative team was able to gain access into a few of the country's mental institutions. Their description is break-your-heart awful.
I've included an excerpt from their report on the institutions below.
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At the girls' institutions, most of the girls and women have shorn hair. Their teeth are decaying or have fallen out. Most are covered in bug bites and scratches. Vasilieva explains that they often see the girls in the same outfit visit after visit.
They bathe about once a week.
One little girl with Down syndrome, named Masha, clings to her visitors. She looks to be about 3 years old, but is actually 7. Experts say this is a type of emotional dwarfism when a child neglected at a young age fails to thrive physically as well as emotionally.
At a third institution, again for boys and men ages 5 to 35, the reason so many Americans were rushing to file adoptions papers for children with Down syndrome became shockingly apparent.
One step into the main institution was met with a wall of sickening odor, the smell of urine and feces. Several boys were left to sit in a sparse room that consisted only of wooden benches lining the walls and thin blankets spread across the floor.
This, ABC N*ws was told, was where the boys typically spend their days. They did not read or look at books. They did not watch TV or play with toys.
They sit, day in and day out.
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These are real places. Real children.
This is the type of institution where sweet Sofia might end up.
Reading this article made my heart hurt. No one should live like this. No one. I hope you'll take a minute to read it. I hope it changes your perspective and challenges you to speak up. These forgotten little ones need more voices to speak for them.
LOVE THE NEW PICTURE!!! Praying Tonya...you guys need a break and Godspeed to get this done!
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