We've been told that adopting from that registry of children can be swift which is fine and good, but can also cause us to have to deal with a third agency because the children on that registry come from many, many agencies so there are hoops to jump through to have a child transferred, if you will, from another agency to Wide Horizons (our agency). It's not uncommon, but sometimes there's a waiting period (like 3 months) during which the child has to remain with his/her original agency before they can be adopted by a family outside of that agency. I know -- we feel the same way -- more caveats. Nonetheless, we're taking our time to consider all the angles.
Then, yesterday, I was at Avery's gymnastics gym and the father of one of the gymnasts approached me. He's a pastor and when he and I were introduced a week or two ago by a mutual friend she told him of our plans to adopt. He told us he had traveled to Ethiopia many times and will likely be going back in a month or so. He remembered from our first meeting that our plans to adopt from Ethiopia were up in the air so he approached me to say that he knew of Japanese orphans and refugees who will be coming to the States due to the tsunami and he wanted to let me know in case we'd like to consider adopting them. Omigoodness. Seriously? I always marvel at what God could be doing. I realize this may not be the direction that He's taking us, but it did cause me to wonder for a second if there's any connection between our adoption being paused right now and this man approaching me with this possibility.
When the earthquake happened in Haiti we heard the same thing (that orphans and refugees were coming here and needed families to take them in). We tried to respond, but were told we couldn't take in children (even temporarily) without a completed home study. Adoption wasn't on our radar at that time, so we hadn't even begun the process. God is so cool -- it's awesome to think that we're actually in the position to respond this time.
Will keep you posted once we make a firm decision.
Oh, and if I may...any of you who feel drawn to the plight of orphans, some friends of ours are really advocating in an amazing way for some families who are truly in the throws of a mine field of obstacles -- financial and legal. If you would like to learn a little more and lift these families and the children they're trying to adopt in prayer, it's much, much, much needed. Wow, do these situations need prayer.
(Make sure to read back a couple of posts -- I believe the first one is a plea of some sort and then you'd want to read the most recent one. They're linked).
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