Be Still

Naturally, the question everyone asks is "how is the adoption coming along?" The short answer is - slowly. When we found Li Meng's referral in April and made the decision to pursue his adoption, we had thought perhaps things would move more quickly the second time around. This is not the case. A number of things have changed. We are with a different and much larger agency. China has changed some of their rules and processes. The U.S. State Department has implemented new regulations for approving adoption immigration from certain countries - including China. This is the biggest obstacle at the moment. If you want details, you can do a search on Hague Convention and Adoption. You will see that the intention was to protect children from illegitimate adoptions and child trafficking. The effect, however, has been to bring the adoption immigration process from Hague Convention countries to a halt since April 1. We are actually among the blessed to be with an agency that is even able to accept applications for these countries. Several agencies are in the "pending certification" stage or have been denied certification under the new regulations. Our former adoption agency is in the "pending" category and has not been able to accept applications since April 1. However, even the approved and certified agencies have been having tremendous struggles. Our agency has yet to have a adoption immigration approved since the implementation of the regulations. I have read blogs from other agencies that are also reporting that every single home study they have submitted has been rejected since April 1. I've been told the rejections have all had to do with technical points and wording rather than the content of the home study. Obviously, this does NOTHING to help orphaned children. The ultimate effect is to slow down the process, increase the agency costs, reduce the number of agencies that can place children which will result in less children having a family. At this point, our home study cannot be completed because our social worker is waiting to find out what wording will be accepted. We actually sent an email note to our U.S. Senator, Gordon Smith. I know many people have been contacting congress. I hope and pray they will realize these regulations have not been well implemented and take action to remedy the situation. In the meantime, it is personally very frustrating. We do not know when we can anticipate having our immigration approval which is needed before we can send our dossier to China. At this point, we have done everything we can do to expedite the process. We are left to Be Still and know that our little boy is in God's hands. He will watch over him and bringing us together at the right time. Thank you to all of you that have been praying. Hebrews 10:23 Let us hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering, for He who promised is faithful.