Many of you saw my intagram post rejoicing as we passed the 1 year mark on our adoption journey but anticipated a possibly difficult call the next day from our case worker.
Then many of you saw the instagram post pleading for prayer as our hearts broke hearing new news.
Here's a brief synopsis of what we heard...
To go into more depth, there is a panel that has been established in Uganda. Their main job is to find permanent homes within Uganda. This panel works at the local and national level. There are 19 children's homes willing to work with the panel to first and foremost find kids permanent homes within Uganda. There are some who sit on this panel who are in favor of international adoption and there are many who are not in favor of international adoption. Our agency had worked with 5 children's homes: 1 is fully working with the panel, 2 are extremely cautious and going to use the panel as a last resort and 2 are unwilling to work with the panel at this time. (There is massive level of distrust in the government as they have been very corrupt: we do believe they are truly trying to do what is best for the child in this case.) That leaves our agency working with only 1 home who will fully submit to the guidelines of the panel. Our chances of adopting just decreased by 80%. Of the children in this home, the panel will probably only allow "older" children and children with "special needs" to be internationally adopted. The significant distrust of this panel have left international adoptions through our agency in a standstill with no timeline or even a estimate on a timeline
The panel's main job is to place children with Ugandan families or reunite them with their biological family. The absolute last resort is international adoption.
We had few options:
1. Switch to another agency (there aren't many we trust and which we feel are honoring Uganda with their adoptions)
2. Switch programs to another country our agency works with
3. Leave adoption all together, Uganda is just too risky
4. Stay with our agency and stay in the Uganda program knowing there is no guarantees and no timeline and the continued possibility that international adoptions will close completely.
This left us with was aching hearts and questions on what do we do? We spent the day praying individually and then talking together about what this looks like for us and our family. I spent hours looking at other countries within our agency, other agencies with international programs only to quickly close out the page not feeling like it was right. I saw countless faces on "waiting" child lists and still didn't feel they were meant to be part of our family.
Throughout the day, I repeatedly heard God telling me to "stay the course" and to "be still" (Exodus 14:14). When we were talking Chris said, "I feel God is telling us to 'stay the course'" It was powerful to know that God was speaking the same thing to us individually. We decided that night to stick with the Uganda program but wanted to take a few more days to pray and seek wisdom from family and friends.
We are staying the course, whatever twists and turns, mountains and valleys, storms and calm seas. We aren't walking away, choosing another country or giving up on adoption all together. We have no idea when or if our family will grow through a Ugandan adoption but we are pursuing it until all doors slam closed.
We want to let our child/children know that we fought everything to bring them home, that seemingly insurmountable circumstances didn't send us fleeing, that we fought with everything in us and didn't walk away. So we are staying the course, this road may be many many years long but until God calls us away, we are sticking to it. At this point we don't know what each new day will hold but we feel confident we are called adopt from Uganda.
Then many of you saw the instagram post pleading for prayer as our hearts broke hearing new news.
Here's a brief synopsis of what we heard...
To go into more depth, there is a panel that has been established in Uganda. Their main job is to find permanent homes within Uganda. This panel works at the local and national level. There are 19 children's homes willing to work with the panel to first and foremost find kids permanent homes within Uganda. There are some who sit on this panel who are in favor of international adoption and there are many who are not in favor of international adoption. Our agency had worked with 5 children's homes: 1 is fully working with the panel, 2 are extremely cautious and going to use the panel as a last resort and 2 are unwilling to work with the panel at this time. (There is massive level of distrust in the government as they have been very corrupt: we do believe they are truly trying to do what is best for the child in this case.) That leaves our agency working with only 1 home who will fully submit to the guidelines of the panel. Our chances of adopting just decreased by 80%. Of the children in this home, the panel will probably only allow "older" children and children with "special needs" to be internationally adopted. The significant distrust of this panel have left international adoptions through our agency in a standstill with no timeline or even a estimate on a timeline
The panel's main job is to place children with Ugandan families or reunite them with their biological family. The absolute last resort is international adoption.
We had few options:
1. Switch to another agency (there aren't many we trust and which we feel are honoring Uganda with their adoptions)
2. Switch programs to another country our agency works with
3. Leave adoption all together, Uganda is just too risky
4. Stay with our agency and stay in the Uganda program knowing there is no guarantees and no timeline and the continued possibility that international adoptions will close completely.
This left us with was aching hearts and questions on what do we do? We spent the day praying individually and then talking together about what this looks like for us and our family. I spent hours looking at other countries within our agency, other agencies with international programs only to quickly close out the page not feeling like it was right. I saw countless faces on "waiting" child lists and still didn't feel they were meant to be part of our family.
Throughout the day, I repeatedly heard God telling me to "stay the course" and to "be still" (Exodus 14:14). When we were talking Chris said, "I feel God is telling us to 'stay the course'" It was powerful to know that God was speaking the same thing to us individually. We decided that night to stick with the Uganda program but wanted to take a few more days to pray and seek wisdom from family and friends.
We are staying the course, whatever twists and turns, mountains and valleys, storms and calm seas. We aren't walking away, choosing another country or giving up on adoption all together. We have no idea when or if our family will grow through a Ugandan adoption but we are pursuing it until all doors slam closed.
We want to let our child/children know that we fought everything to bring them home, that seemingly insurmountable circumstances didn't send us fleeing, that we fought with everything in us and didn't walk away. So we are staying the course, this road may be many many years long but until God calls us away, we are sticking to it. At this point we don't know what each new day will hold but we feel confident we are called adopt from Uganda.
Is it just me, or are we on a strikingly similar path. Both Negretes, both adopting and both from Uganda! We encountered some rough terrain at the beginning of our journey that left us unsure what to do next. You can't go wrong trusting in God! If you do look into a new agency, we have been so happy with Bethany Christian Services. Will be praying for you and this journey!
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