We are having a meeting on Sunday January 31st entitled "Thinking about ...Thinking about adoption" If the thought of adoption has ever crossed your mind and you want to learn more about the process....come to this no pressure meeting where adoptive parents can tell you about their experiences. We will have handouts, good conversation, and delicious French Vanilla Coffee creamer...mmmm.
We don't have a confirmed room number, but follow the signs. Adoptive parents will be around to answer any questions for as long as there are questions to be asked.
Friday, January 29, 2010
Sunday, January 24, 2010
Travelling Family Alert!
MY FAMILY!We started the adoption process to adopt a child (up to 3 children actually) from a small Christian orphanage in the West African country of Ghana. The orphanage is called Beacon House and is run by an American woman who has been in Africa most of her life.
This is technically an independent adoption, but there are volunteer coordinators in America that help in the same way an adoption agency would, except they volunteer and do so from a place of love and obedience for the Lord's desire for us to care for orphans.
We received our referral in November - actually I received the call while I was watching my daughter, Lilianna, sing at the Christmas program practice on a Thursday night at Clearbranch. Our new daughters were orphaned in March and have been at Beacon House since June, they are 8 years old and 20 months old (just one month older than Benjamin - our baby).
We were told on Friday that we needed to travel to Ghana for court on February 5th - so we have been a tad frantic getting travel arrangements made, finding babysitting for our other children while we are gone for 10 days!
Unfortunately, I can't share pictures of our girls until the court in Ghana has issued an adoption decree and we are officially their parents.
We leave for Ghana on February 3rd and I plan on blogging all about our experience and posting photos here so that anyone affiliated with Clearbranch that wants to follow along can read at their leisure and lift up my family, my new girls, Beacon House, etc to our amazing God!
Friday, December 4, 2009
December Playgroup!
Hello everyone! This month's playgroup is tomorrow at my house. If you need directions...shoot me an email facesofthefatherless@yahoo.com It will be from 10am to noon. I am baking up some gingerbread and I will actually buy some new coffee for my itty bitty little coffee maker.
I hope you can take time out of your busy holiday schedule for some fellowship with other adoptive families. It is definitely hard this time of year!
Wednesday, November 4, 2009
November's Child of the Month
Mandy is our child of the month for November...you can read about her on our side bar. She has a very common heart condition that is easily repaired...and I think we all know know the power of the arch support!Miss Emma - who was October's Child of the month has a family inquiring about her right now...I will, of course, keep y'all updated!
November is National Adoption Awareness Month and other important days this month in the adoption world include November 8th - which is Orphan Sunday. November 21 is National Adoption Day. There is just something about November...maybe it is the beginning of the holiday season...maybe it is the weather turning colder and season's changing that makes me think about expanding my family.
Pamela's post on foster care was wonderfull...I was so glad to read about her experiences. She will be having a foster care workshop at Clearbranch on Sunday Nov 15 during the 9am service.
Don't forget our Adoptive Family Playgroup this Saturday, Nov 7th from 10 - noon at Clearbranch family life center...we may be playing outside it is going to be a beautiful weekend!
Sunday, October 25, 2009
Fostering in Alabama
My husband and I have been married for 6 1/2 years. Before we married, we attended our first orientation meeting on adoption. We knew fostering was for us. We sent our packet in 3 different times and 3 times our paperwork was lost. We were discouraged but felt like God wanted us to do something different but still get involved in fostering. We were at a friends home, who was a social worker at the time, and she encouraged us to get involved. She referred Greg and me to a therapuetic care agency. We contacted the agency the next Monday and to our surprise they immediately wanted to meet with us.
On Saturday, we had our first homestudy. And guess what? We did not even have to leave our house to do the GPS classes (10 week prep class for becoming a foster parent through DHR). They offered for us to do a self study and meet with them once a week about the information we were reading. It was great. We loved it. After 10 books and meetings, 2 additional homestudy visits, CPR classes and a TAPS class, we were ready to go. It was 4 or 5 months before we had our first placement.
Our first placement was a young lady who had been in the system for a very long time. She had been in more than 17 placements in a 6 year period. We cared for her for 8 months. We learned a lot from this experience not only about foster children but about our own family. The first thing God wanted us to learn was that we were not able to fix all these kids and that we were not superhuman parents. The second lesson was an evaluation of our family beliefs and values. We created a family rule book that included our thoughts about how we planned to raise our children, what our expectations were, our goals and beliefs for our children, and consequences for those rules when broken. Our book has been around for almost 4 years now. It has been updated, revised and revamped as we learn more about children in foster care and as our family dynamics change with each new placement.
The reason we got involved in foster are was to adopt. I can not have any more children and we really wanted another girl to add to our bunch. We have had many children come and go but none so far was the child God has chosen for us. We have come close to adoption only twice. Once was a little girl that we had for 15 months. She left us to return to a family member and it really broke our hearts. We did not give up though because we know God has something in store for us. We have had more than 35 children come through our home in a 4 year period. That is more than 35 children we have had the opprotunity to demonstrate what a true family can be and how God can change things for them. We have had opprotunities to witness to and encourage children that may have never had this opprotunity otherwise. We are still waiting for God to place that special child that will become ours. We have faith that He has something in store we can only dream. Each child brings new challenges, lessons to learn, and opprotunities to make a difference.
Right now, we have two children placed in our home with the possiblility of adoption in the next 8 months. Both seem to be a good match for our family but we are still waiting for God's voice to say go........
If you have ever thought of helping children either through adoption or fostering, know that our own country and state have many children who need a wonderful, loving, Christian home. Some are rough around the edges like an unpolished gem, some have the potential to become so much more. Most of these children just need someone to believe in them, love them and encourage them to make better choices in life. Maybe you are that person. If you are, please contact your local DHR agency or another foster care agency. Our children need us. It really does take a whole (village) community to raise a child.
On Saturday, we had our first homestudy. And guess what? We did not even have to leave our house to do the GPS classes (10 week prep class for becoming a foster parent through DHR). They offered for us to do a self study and meet with them once a week about the information we were reading. It was great. We loved it. After 10 books and meetings, 2 additional homestudy visits, CPR classes and a TAPS class, we were ready to go. It was 4 or 5 months before we had our first placement.
Our first placement was a young lady who had been in the system for a very long time. She had been in more than 17 placements in a 6 year period. We cared for her for 8 months. We learned a lot from this experience not only about foster children but about our own family. The first thing God wanted us to learn was that we were not able to fix all these kids and that we were not superhuman parents. The second lesson was an evaluation of our family beliefs and values. We created a family rule book that included our thoughts about how we planned to raise our children, what our expectations were, our goals and beliefs for our children, and consequences for those rules when broken. Our book has been around for almost 4 years now. It has been updated, revised and revamped as we learn more about children in foster care and as our family dynamics change with each new placement.
The reason we got involved in foster are was to adopt. I can not have any more children and we really wanted another girl to add to our bunch. We have had many children come and go but none so far was the child God has chosen for us. We have come close to adoption only twice. Once was a little girl that we had for 15 months. She left us to return to a family member and it really broke our hearts. We did not give up though because we know God has something in store for us. We have had more than 35 children come through our home in a 4 year period. That is more than 35 children we have had the opprotunity to demonstrate what a true family can be and how God can change things for them. We have had opprotunities to witness to and encourage children that may have never had this opprotunity otherwise. We are still waiting for God to place that special child that will become ours. We have faith that He has something in store we can only dream. Each child brings new challenges, lessons to learn, and opprotunities to make a difference.
Right now, we have two children placed in our home with the possiblility of adoption in the next 8 months. Both seem to be a good match for our family but we are still waiting for God's voice to say go........
If you have ever thought of helping children either through adoption or fostering, know that our own country and state have many children who need a wonderful, loving, Christian home. Some are rough around the edges like an unpolished gem, some have the potential to become so much more. Most of these children just need someone to believe in them, love them and encourage them to make better choices in life. Maybe you are that person. If you are, please contact your local DHR agency or another foster care agency. Our children need us. It really does take a whole (village) community to raise a child.
Saturday, October 24, 2009
Blanket Tying for Mexico Mission Trip
This is a group of us tying blankets to take to Mexico and hand out to the children in the villages and hopefully at the orphanage near by. While the mom's were cutting and tying the kids were making cards to hand out.
Uganda
I have joked with my husband on multiple occasions that "all the cool Christians are adopting from Uganda". Around the adoption community the number of Christians adopting fromUganda has definitely exploded. It is relatively new to international adoption and there are a lot of Christian based orphanages working in Uganda right now.The majority of adoptions are independent, although, Lifeline Adoption Services does have contacts and will facilitate for you if you are scared of independent! I believe they have been placeing children from Uganda since 2007. You can find out more about their program at the Lifeline informational meeting on Sunday, Nov 22 9am in W105 at Clearbranch. It can definitely be scary to be out there all by yourself trying to navigate an adoption.
Uganda's national language is English, and it is a Christian country - 84% of the population is Christian. There are 2.4 million orphans in Uganda and the median age in this country is 15.
ADOPTIONS: I mention it is an independent process, although there are agencies such as Lifeline that will walk you through it. Your travel time is approximately 6 weeks in country on one trip. You go to court and the court in Uganda does not issue an adoption decree...instead it grants legal guardianship to you - and you are able to obtain your child's immigration visa with that and then you have to re-adopt in the US. Here are some blogs of adoptive families who have completed adoptions or are in process in Uganda:
Loved as First Best
Tanya Adopts (Alabama Family)
One Egg Short of A Dozen (Alabama family)
Grace in Uganda (adopted from and now lives in Uganda)
There are lots more if you look at the links from the above blogs. One of the orphanages that many adopt from is the Sanyu babies home near Kampala.
Orphan Care: There are many orphan care organizations that work in Uganda. It is hard for me to say which came first...the large population of Christians or the large number of Christian Humanitarian projects...showing the world how we walk as Christian goes a long way! Many of these organizations work in multiple countries. One of my favorite blogs in the world is the first one, Amazima.
Living Freely (coordinator for Hope Chest in Uganda)
There are lots of opportunities for mission trips to Uganda. Visiting Orphans has a great 2 week one where you spend part of the trip in Ethiopia and the other part in Uganda. It is 2 weeks in Africa so it is relatively expensive...but I personally would love to go on this one June26 - July 9th.
If you have any questions about Uganda or feel that God is calling you to help the orphans in Uganda...email me or give me a call and together we can pray and find the right way for you to help these beautiful children!
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