Fairview case draws scrutiny from Liberian ambassador | NewsOK.com

Fairview case draws scrutiny from Liberian ambassador NewsOK.com

.

Parents for Ethical Adoption Reform

Here is a response to the last article written by PEAR.

.

The Baby Business

This article will give you the small glimpse into some issues in the adoption world. I will be following up this article with some responses from adoption advocates and agencies that work with orphaned children daily and see the devestation in foreign countries.

.

Hannah is crawling!

.

Heart Broken

Well I have started this post several times and just can't seem to finish it.

Several ladies from Global Orphan Outreach visited our orphanage/foster families in Liberia last week. It was a wonderful time for them to see the children, put in a well in a poor jungle community, speak with the University about installing wheelchair ramps for the handicapped, taking the foster moms and children to the beach, as well as meeting with the Ministry regarding the direction of adoptions.

Visit their site http://www.globalorphanoutreach.blogspot.com/ to see pictures and read about the trip.

The news from the Ministry was not what we had hoped for. I was going to say the news was "not good" but that would be saying that God's timing is not right. I know He has a plan!! I just have to continue to remind myself of this...daily, hourly and sometimes every few minutes. Anyway I have digressed. The Ministry has said that they will not be completing any adoptions at this time. They are changing to a Hague country, meaning only one agency currently doing adoptions in Liberia has the accreditation to continue. There will be no private adoptions, which is what we were doing, with the Ministries blessing I might add. No adoptions will take place, period, until the Children's Bill is passed. Right now the Ministry is accrediting foster homes and orphanages. Once that is finished they will move onto accrediting adoption agencies. In all reality we are looking at the end of the year to travel to pick up our children and probably more money than we had planned.

If all of this was not enough, we receive word yesterday that our little boy has passed away. Solomon John died last week in his sleep. He was not sick and had been playing as normal that day. The next morning he did not awake. As you can imagine this is heartbreaking to our family. We have counted Solomon our son for a year now, just waiting to go pick him up. This has not changed our direction, only strengthened our resolve to bring Hannah and Hosanna home as soon as possible.

While we don't know why God has allowed our son to pass away, we do know that He has a plan. He who sent His own son to die for me because He loved me and chose me.

Why has this adoption taken so long. I really can't say. I may never know, but I do know that our family has learned many lessons. We have learned to love deeper, even when we haven't met. Pray harder, even when the answer is 'wait'. Trust more, because we know God is in control.

Please pray with us that God will allow our girls to come home safely and in His timing!

.

Maybe soon....

Liberia has officially announced that adoptions are taking place!! Things have been moving slowly in Liberia since about December, but no official word was given until yesterday that things are moving again!

A few new challenges may be in our path. One, the government of Liberia is requiring that both parents travel and appear in Monrovia for an exit interview. While both of us traveling was our desire, the timing now will make it more complicated. Two weeks ago we had a little baby girl, our tenth child. The challenge will be taking her to Liberia with us (concern for her health) or leaving her for a week here in the US. Also in order to bring the triplets home we will have to travel with them on our laps on the plane, if we take the baby we will need more help in our travels.

We know the Lord has a plan and we are both excited to see what He does. We are also very excited about bringing home our little ones in the next couple months. One lesson I have learned is not to try to run ahead of the Lord. We are almost 2 1/2 years into this adoption process. I had my plans from the beginning. I was sure we would fill out our paperwork, obtain our approval and travel all before our ninth child was born. Well she is turning two at the end of this month. The Lord had other plans which we now see were for our good.

.

Still Waiting

This week we received word that our three little ones are growing well. They are eating well and gaining weight. So many things are happening with international adoption right now. UNICEF is doing everything they can to halt adoptions in Liberia, Ethiopia, Haiti and many other foreign countries.

This week Liberia has announced that they will be putting a hold on adoptions again, third time in two years. Two days later the Ministry of Health in Monrovia announced that adoptions will proceed again, though slowly.

Where are we at? We are waiting for the accredidation of our agency under the new laws. We also wait while Liberia continues to get their process ironed out. We will be sending paperwork over with our agency the beginning of April. Once our paperwork is accepted by the embassy in Liberia we will receive the children's visas, medical reports and the clearance for them to leave.

We continue to send support and pray for our little ones. We are praying they will be home before their second birthday in July!

Due to the fact that we do not have a travel timeline, we are waiting to see who will travel and when. The airlines will require three adults to travel to hold the children on the plane. Andrew and I would love to travel and as of right now that is our plan, but we have several options.

Ways you can help.....as time gets closer we will be taking donations of frequent flyer miles. We will fly from Georgia to Belgium and then into Monrovia. There is a possibility that Delta Airlines will open a direct flight to Monrovia from Atlanta, which would be wonderful! The airline will require the children to have tickets as well, but they are much cheaper than a full ticket, as they will be sitting on our laps.

So we continue to wait.

.