Meet our Son.........Harouna

It has been quite a bit of time since my last post.  I have been guilty of updating our FB page and forgetting about this blog.  I apologize for that because quite a bit has happened since the last time I posted here.  Where do I start?

First, in September, we received word that our family has received a $5,000 grant from a foundation called ShowHope.  ShowHope is the foundation started by Stephen Curtis Chapman and they are known to give big grants to families, especially those adopting special needs.  But it always depends on how many families apply and whether they deem you needy enough for help.  I guess we were deemed needy enough which in this case, I guess, is a good thing.

Second, we spent a good bit of time this summer fundraising.  It was a lot of work but well worth it.  We also had a lot of friends helping us out and that was so appreciated.  The great news about that is that we are now almost totally funded, except for plane tickets to Burkina Faso.  So in less than one year, with the help of many others and God's blessing, we have raised a little over $20,000.  We look back and are amazed at what has been accomplished.

Third, back in August, US Customs and Immigration finally gave us permission to adopt.  We never thought it would be a big problem, but realized that because we had lived in so many places since we were 18 years old, we had to have background checks for each place.  That's not easy from a 3rd world country, but we finally jumped thru enough hoops and were approved.

Fourth, I saved the best for last, we have a beautiful baby boy that is now waiting for us in Burkina Faso.  He will be 2 years old in February and his name is Harouna(which, in English, is Aaron).  He has Cerebral Palsy but has lots and lots of potential for improvement.  We don't really have any experience with Cerebral Palsy, but are stepping out on faith believing that God is going to guide us thru and take care of the details along the way.  We are very excited about introducing him to you and we have a video to show instead of just a picture.  Here he is:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z0Ku6DrjTYw&sns=em

He's adorable, eh?  I guess I am a little biased now.

We will keep you posted on any other news and if you don't see anything posted here, our FB page is updated more often, if you want to check there.  It is under the name:  Journey of Hope.

Prayer requests:
1.  Speed in the paperwork going thru the system in Burkina Faso.  They don't usually speed up the process for special needs, but please pray that someone there realizes how desperately he needs to start with therapy and would expedite the paperwork.
2.  That Harouna would stay healthy and continue to eat well.  He's not very big right now and has just recently started eating pureed food.
3.  For the rest of the money to cover the plane tickets to Burkina.  We would like for Robert, myself and Haley to be able to go pick him up, since Haley was born in Africa.
4.  That we would be able to collect clothes, furniture, equipment that is needed for a 2 year old with Cerebral Palsy.  And we would be able to get his room set up in plenty of time before he arrives.

Thank you so much for reading this and praying for us.  Please don't post his video publicly, but you are welcome to send it to others that know us.

An Unexpected Blessing that came at the perfect time

 This last week has not really gone as expected.  Maleah and I have been working 9-12 hour days at a concession stand during the Jeux de Canada(Canada Games).  Although volunteering at the games and meeting people from different provinces has been fun, the rain and small amount of people at the park has made for a bit of a disappointment in the sales.  Fortunately, we have another week to go where the crowds should be larger and we're hoping that the weather decides to cooperate.

But just as I was beginning to feel really discouraged, we received a letter from an organization called Katelyn's Fund.  This organization/foundation advocates for adoption and raises money to give to families in the adoption process to help pay for their adoptions.  We had applied for a grant from Katelyn's Fund back in May, but were not really expecting to receive any funds from them knowing that hundreds of families apply every year.  But after a telephone interview, they decided that they wanted to award our family with a $3,000 grant.  Just as I was about to worry and wonder why in the world I was giving so many hours to a concession stand, God reminded me that He had it all in control and that He will provide in His own way.  I can go back to the concession stand on Monday and just enjoy meeting people and leave the money situation in His hands.

And the wait continues.......

The time continues to pass as we wait for US customs and Immigration to pre-approve us to adopt.  The paperwork was sent to them over 2 months ago, but they seem to have issues that we can't get a background check from Mali, West Africa.  Even after explaining to them that Mali does not keep records on people who have lived in their country, plus the fact that they've been in a war for the last 6 months, USCIS still thinks we should be able to get that document from them(though Mali has no clue what a background check is).  So we need your prayers that someone at USCIS would have the common sense to realize that if we have been cleared in 3 states, 3 countries and by the FBI, then most likely we don't have a criminal record in Mali, West Africa. 

But we have faith that USCIS will come thru and give us pre-approval.  Once that happens, then the orphanage in Burkina Faso will send the paperwork and US approval to the Burkina Faso Government.  Then all that paperwork is sent to several different government offices there for approvals, documents signed, etc.....At that point, we will be able to give you the details of the little guy that we are adopting.  Until then, it is still TOP SECRET.  Well, not really, that just makes it sound more dramatic. HAHA

As for fundraising, I(Sharon) will be working a concession stand for the next 2 weeks during the Canada Games.  The Canada Games are a bit like the Olympics, except on a much smaller scale.  Sherbrooke is hosting the games this year in which each province can send a team to represent their province in around 25 different sports.  The first week, I will be working the concession stand for the softball games and the second week for Sand Volleyball.  Each day will be 10-12 hour days, so it will be long but hopefully productive in raising money.  

Again, thank you for your prayers, support, encouragement, etc.   I look forward to the day when we will be announcing that we are travelling to bring our little "top secret" home. 

Another step done! :D

I am so excited to say that we have finished the paperwork that will eventually be sent to Burkina Faso.  We already had some of the paperwork that we had collected for our Home Study, but about 70% of the paperwork had to be notarized.  But it's all notarized and is on it's way to the agency, which will scan it to Burkina Faso to be translated into French.  Then when the agency has both the French and English along with approval from the US Customs and Immigration that we are pre-approved to adopt, they will send that along to the Burkina government.  From that time, they have told us it is usually 6-12 months until we travel to receive our child.

Which reminds me, we are still in the process of praying about a specific child.  I can't tell you very much about him yet, but he is young and has Cerebral Palsy.  He doesn't seem to have severe CP, but it's hard to tell. Please continue to pray with us that we would have a peace about this child if he is supposed to be a part of our family.

Now, a few facts about Burkina Faso.

**Burkina Faso used to be called Upper Volta until 1984.

**Burkina Faso means "the land of upright and courageous people."

**The capital city is Ouagadougou (pronounced Wagadugu).

**There are more than 60 languages used in Burkina Faso.

**The adult literacy rate is 29%(male) and 15%(female)

More facts to come at a later date.  Thank you for your support and prayers as we journey forward.

MOVING RIGHT ALONG

It has been almost 2 months since our last post and things have been moving along quite rapidly.  It's so exciting to see the steps being crossed off and know that we are that much closer to having our child home with us.  Though we don't know for sure which child that will be yet, we are certain that God has already chosen him and will reveal that when the time is right.  

So......what have we been doing the last 2 months?  Glad you asked because we have been busy.  Since our home study was finished, we have paid the adoption agency fee that we talked about in March.  We have filled out grant applications for 6 different foundations(if you know anything about grant applications, that is not a small feat, with each application being about 5 pages long along with 5-15 different supporting documents to go with each).  We have raised $2,720 for our next payment to the Burkina government.  And we've filled out the paperwork for the US government to start the process of adopting a child overseas. We also have completed about 20 hours of online adoption education classes.   Plus we've planned about 4 different fundraisers for the summer, which I'll tell you about in a moment.

But even with all that done, there is still more.  Our next step is to work on the Dossier, which is a packet of information and documents that will go straight to the Burkina Faso government.  It is comprised of about 20-25 pages, most of which have to be notarized and translated into French.  As we start on that, we still have about 4 more grant applications to fill out and send.  So needless to say, we won't be bored this summer.  In between soccer games, mission teams, summer interns, family vacation and family coming to visit, we will have a fun-filled summer.  

And oh yes, then there is the fundraisers.  About a month ago, Robert and I realized that we have to raise almost $9,000 by the end of this summer.  If the money doesn't come in, the adoption doesn't progress and with adopting a child with special needs, time is very important for them to reach their full potential.  After an initial panic attack, :) we started trying to think of ideas for fundraising.  We have already had a Car Wash, in which many of our wonderful friends here in Sherbrooke helped, and we were able to raise $600.  We also have a Garage Sale planned, a Basketball shoot and 3 on 3 BB tournament during our local festival, a summer long selling of raffle tickets to win Canadian hockey tickets and 2 weeks of working a Concession stand during the Canada Games.  

I get a little overwhelmed thinking of it all, but I've found that taking one day and step at a time is how to survive it.  And God has been faithful to provide the energy and  finances so far just when we've needed it.  He's used friends and family to provide money, to help with fundraisers, to make FB pages, to sell raffle tickets for us, etc... I wish I could mention each name that has given and helped in different ways, but I know I would forget someone.  You know who you are and we are so very grateful for each of you.  When we finally get this little one here one day, we will all celebrate together and thank God for using each of you. 

So until the next post, we will be continuing on.  We pray that your summer is filled with peace and joy also.  You can also keep up with us on FB if you search under Journey of Hope-Parcours vers l'espoir.   

Finally!!!! Now on to Phase 2( which really means " hand over more money")

Yes, the date came and the Home Study interviews finally happened.  A wonderful Social worker from Virginia came for the weekend of March 15-17 and interviewed all of us.  It wasn't near as painful as we'd heard and I'm happy to say that WE PASSED.  We still have 2 documents to get translated into English, but once that's done, we'll be ready to move on.

We're so thankful that this part of the process is finished.  As many of you know, we have been working on this for a long time.  We've had many changes from the country we were going to adopt from to the child we were thinking we would adopt.  Although I don't understand the reasons that certain things haven't worked out, I am still confident that God is in this, His timing is perfect and He will provide in the times when we don't know where the money will come from.

Which, btw, is right now! :)  Our next phase is for our agency to send in a formal request for us to adopt a special needs child in Burkina Faso.  Before they will do that, we have to pay them the agency fee(which happens to be the largest chunk that we will owe at one time).  Once that is done, we will be formally matched with a certain child and we'll be able to send out a picture of the little one that will become part of our family.

We're excited that this journey is progressing, but we need you!!  We need you to pray that God, in His perfect timing, would answer and work out all the details and provide what's needed.  Here's some specific ways to pray:
1.  That God would give us ideas of ways to fundraise for this next payment to the adoption agency.
2.  That we would apply to the right foundations that donate money to adoptive parents.
3.  That God would watch over a certain little guy in Burkina Faso and keep him healthy.
4.  That this part of the fundraising won't take long so that the needs of this child could be met as soon as possible.

Again, thank you for going with us on this journey.  We appreciate your encouragement and support as we try to follow God's leading in this part of our life.  

Nemo is no longer my favorite fish!!

If plans had gone as expected, we would at this very moment be about 95% thru the home study interviews. But because of a very large winter storm, named Nemo, that blasted the Northeast on Friday, the social worker was not able to travel to Quebec to do the interviews.  We were very disappointed and were looking forward to this step being behind us, but for some reason, it will have to be another weekend.

So, thank you for your prayers.  We will let you know when we have another date.  This time, please pray that all the cute little fish remain in the ocean and don't make their way up the east coast. :)

5 days and counting....

As most people are getting excited about the Super Bowl on this Super Bowl Sunday, we are thinking about something else.  In 5 days, we'll be starting the intense Home study interviews with  a social worker coming from Virginia.  We have prepared and are still preparing for her arrival, the questions she will ask and the paperwork that we have to give to her.  If you think of it, please pray for our family this next weekend.  Although we know that God has been leading in this, it's easy to get stressed and anxious about everything being just perfect.  But as you know as well as we do, we are not perfect and our family is not perfect. And we want to convey to her that though we are not perfect, we want to open our home to a child that has been left behind and show him/her our love and the love of a perfect God who created him/her for a purpose.

As I told you in the last post, by January 31st, we had to know the country we were adopting from.  Though we don't seem to know why, all doors seemed to close for our family to adopt from Haiti.  Our hearts will always be close to Haiti and I can see us being involved in Haiti for many years to come, especially the orphanage that we wanted to adopt from.  But God seems to be leading in another direction, across the Atlantic Ocean, to a very poor country in Africa called Burkina Faso.

Burkina Faso is in West Africa, bordering Mali(where we lived for almost 4 years) and also bordering Ivory Coast(where Robert grew up).  The UN has rated Burkina as the worlds 3rd poorest country.  It is also the leading cotton producer in Sub-Saharan Africa.  I will give more details and share more facts about Burkina in the posts to come.

Thank you again for your prayers and encouragement as things have progressed.  

There is progress!!

As I reflect on this last year, I have to say that it's been a roller coaster of emotions, setbacks and struggles in regard to adoption.  We've been on this journey since January 2012 and were hoping to be farther along in the process.  But God knows the situation, the timing and us better than even we know ourselves and I believe He's working for our good.  And in the last few months, He has led us to a new agency that is helping us to proceed quickly thru the home study process.

Over the Christmas holidays, we frantically worked on filling out paperwork that has to be sent to our agency.  They included background checks from 4 countries and 3 states, child abuse checks from 3 states, FBI checks, autobiographies written, addresses of where we've lived since we were 18, tons of financial statements, and 10 hours of adoption classes.  And there's still more to be done, such as bloodwork for all of us, full medicals, and references.  All these things take quite a bit of time and we've discovered, resources.

And the very best news of all is that we finally have a date for the home study interview with the social worker.  Our date is scheduled for Feb. 8-10.  We are flying a social worker from Virginia to Quebec to do our interviews.  This will be an intense weekend of interviews, home inspection, looking at our finances, etc......  We've been trying to work this out for months and finally have a date to get this done.  Once this is done and all the paperwork turned in, then USCIS will determine if we are fit to be adoptive parents.  I would ask all of you to pray for us during that time that God would give us peace to enjoy the weekend and that we would be able to continue in the process.

And while you're praying, please pray that God would lead us to the country we are to adopt from.  For over a year now, we have thought that Haiti would be where we adopt from.  We still hope that is so, but at the moment, Haiti is unofficially closed because of reworking their adoption guidelines.  There is no guarantee of when they will be open again.  For 3 months, they have been telling agencies that they would be open, but still nothing.  And we have to make a decision by January 31st of what country to adopt from.  If we thought that Haiti would open back up soon, we would wait.  But with 3rd world countries, there is just no telling how long it could be.  Thus, on Jan. 31st, if Haiti is still closed, we will go with an African country that is open.  We are looking at a few different countries at this time.

We are still looking to adopt special needs, whether it be minor or more moderate special needs, we're not sure of yet.  We don't know who that child/children will be yet, but I believe that God knows.  We also don't   know exactly where the next payment(around $5,000) is going to come from after we pay for the home study, but again, we believe that God knows.  We are doing this on faith, that the One who is leading us is going to provide everything that we need.  It's a bit scary, but I have this incredible peace that we are doing the right thing and God is giving us each day more of an excitement and passion for it to happen.

I want to say a big thanks to each of you for your prayers, encouragement and support.  If I could, I would list all the people who have given to us and supported us thus far, but I'm afraid I would leave someone out.  You know who you are and we are so grateful for your help, but especially your friendship. And definitely, the thing we need more than anything is your prayers.  Keep them coming and we will keep you posted!