After much prayer and research, we believe God is leading us to turn our adoption focus to Ethiopia. We have re-applied to our adoption agency and are waiting to get notice of acceptance into the Ehthiopia program. It is so weird that we're starting all over again. Oi. We're supposed to be getting some money back from our facilitator in Ukraine. Please pray that everything goes smoothly with that. I must say that a one-week stay in a warm country is a nice adjustment, as are many other aspects of Ethiopian adoption. We'll keep you posted on any further developments. Jump over to our new blogsite as we chronicle our journey to Ethiopia:
http://hollandadoptiontake2.blogspot.com
Gina
Tuesday, April 29, 2008
Friday, April 11, 2008
Disembarking from the Ukraine Train
Over the past couple months we have been following blogs of people going over to Ukraine to adopt children. As we've been watching many stories play out we've noticed that it has become increasingly difficult to move forward in that country if you want a young child under the age of 4. Just recently, a family that is working with the same agency we are, went over and spent 5+ weeks chasing down multiple referrals only to return home without a child. We were following another family via their blog that is from Florida and they also returned home without a child after multiple jacked up referrals.
So, about two weeks ago we began praying to see if God wanted us to continue with Ukraine or head a different direction by seeking another country or possibly domestic. We have been asking for clarity and wisdom and that God would be clear in His leading.
God could have spelled it out in my Alphabits, but instead He chose a different, less freaky way. Wednesday I (David) got a call from the Eastern Europe program director from our agency and she informed me that the State Department of Adoption in Ukraine would not be accepting our updated documents and that we could re-submit our dossier in 2009 with the slim possibility of receiving a healthy referral for a little girl under 5. Apparently the word coming from Ukraine is that they have no healthy children under age 8 available. It's not true, but that's the party line. She went on to say that if we chose to stay in the program that they would support that decision and assist in any way they can, but she did not recommend it based on what has been transpiring over there. She has never been this direct in her counsel, but it has never been this bad in Ukraine either.
So, later on today we're going to call her and officially remove ourselves from the Ukraine program. It's a very odd feeling because for the last 18 months we've been all amped up to adopt a little girl from there and now that is not going to happen. It's sad because we KNOW there is a little girl over there that would match our request. But, there is some relief as well because neither of us wanted to go back there for so long and get yanked all over the place jumping through all the hoops you have to and still likely coming home childless.
Please pray for us as we back everything up and start from square one. We're not sure which road to take, but we clearly see that God has stopped the Ukraine Train and it is time to disembark. Thanks for following our story, we'll keep you posted on the next step!
So, about two weeks ago we began praying to see if God wanted us to continue with Ukraine or head a different direction by seeking another country or possibly domestic. We have been asking for clarity and wisdom and that God would be clear in His leading.
God could have spelled it out in my Alphabits, but instead He chose a different, less freaky way. Wednesday I (David) got a call from the Eastern Europe program director from our agency and she informed me that the State Department of Adoption in Ukraine would not be accepting our updated documents and that we could re-submit our dossier in 2009 with the slim possibility of receiving a healthy referral for a little girl under 5. Apparently the word coming from Ukraine is that they have no healthy children under age 8 available. It's not true, but that's the party line. She went on to say that if we chose to stay in the program that they would support that decision and assist in any way they can, but she did not recommend it based on what has been transpiring over there. She has never been this direct in her counsel, but it has never been this bad in Ukraine either.
So, later on today we're going to call her and officially remove ourselves from the Ukraine program. It's a very odd feeling because for the last 18 months we've been all amped up to adopt a little girl from there and now that is not going to happen. It's sad because we KNOW there is a little girl over there that would match our request. But, there is some relief as well because neither of us wanted to go back there for so long and get yanked all over the place jumping through all the hoops you have to and still likely coming home childless.
Please pray for us as we back everything up and start from square one. We're not sure which road to take, but we clearly see that God has stopped the Ukraine Train and it is time to disembark. Thanks for following our story, we'll keep you posted on the next step!
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