Faith

When adopting, especially internationally, there are many times you have to sit back and rely on faith. Have faith that your child is out there in the world, waiting for you. Have faith that your agency and attorney will process your case in the most efficient manner possible. Faith that your child is growing, developing, and flourishing without your direct care. Faith that after all the hurdles are jumped your child will come home, to your arms, forever. Faith.

Yesterday I was checking out a friend's blog and learned about two remarkable women who must have tons and tons of faith. Their cases have been kicked out of PGN (the government agency in Guatemala that approves adoptions) since November. In short, the birth mother's ID card was not signed by the mayor when it was issued because of the civil war in the country, and now it cannot be signed by the current mayor. They are in legal limbo. On the top of that challenge they are in Guatemala fostering their darling babies with no idea when they can return to the US. I cannot even imagine what they are feeling in the face of all these challenges. They are truly courageous Guatemamas! If you want to know more, check out Cheri's website. She is documenting her journey to bringing home her beautiful daughter, Elaina.

I'm not sure what action we can do here in the good ole US of A, since the difficulty is with a foreign government. I do know that we can contact the USCIS, Dept. of State, and our elected representatives in Washington. We need to make sure that when the US implements the Hague treaty (a treaty designed to standardize the process of international adoption) later this year that it is clear about what actions and documents need to be filed/completed. We need to ask our representatives why international adoptions have this needed oversight but domestic adoptions do not. We need to have our representatives in DC do everything in their power to keep international adoptions open during this implementation process. We need to contact the media to relate our personal stories of adoption, so that adoption is not just presented in a negative light for the national and local markets. Finally, we all need to pray for all the families that in are the process of bringing their babies home, regardless of the country in which that child was born. Maybe our collective faith can make these times of challenge that much easier for those who are experiencing them.

******** EDITED TO ADD: Within just a weekend this fantastic collection of Guatemamas that have connected online raised over $3600 to help these two families, and donations can keep coming in until Friday. WOW! May our collective faith help these families come home forever together soon! *********