I have not been angry for the last 2 months, or even in the depths of despair. I have just haven't had anything particularly nice to say so... There have been days that I have basked in the Father's love and was eager to learn the lesson He had for me. Some others that I wanted to shake my finger toward Heaven, and say, "I don't want to learn any more lessons today!" Sometimes I have wondered if I dreamed this whole thing up and that it is never going to come to fruition, and I have brought my whole village(you) out with me on a snipe hunt. ooOo the doubt that can creep in. We are not out of the woods. I will still experience these days over and over on this journey.
I do have a bit of progress to report now. And I am feeling ready to share. We have decided to use an agency. Those of you who are familiar with International Adoption Processes may understand this better than others. If you want the short version, skip from here to the last paragraph. It won't hurt my feelings, I won't even know! :) We have been trying to do this independently all along, because we felt like we needed to be involved in some of the decisions that most agencies will not let you be part of. For example, knowing the name of the attorney they use, picking your own attorney, visiting the baby homes, meeting or emailing with the directors. They want to do all of that for you. I don't think that their motive is evil; as if they don't want you to know that they are doing things unethically. I think they just want to remain the middle men. They could not answer the hard questions that I had about trafficking and we don't play like that. Just hoping that the people they work with know what they are doing, nah.
We need to be able to research the attorney that they have always used, and visit with the directors. We aren't the kind of people that can sit by and be lead by the blind. Furthermore, we want to know that the child is a true orphan. We want to be certain that the attorney didn't go into the village and pay the families for their youngest child/burden, with a promise that 'they will have a better life if you sign this paper and send them with me.'
So we have done a lot of research and are very happy with what we found. Good ethical people who are trying their best to take care of the children of Uganda. The dilemma that we have been facing since our visit to Uganda in February is that the directors of the baby homes are hesitant to refer a child to us as independents. There are a few reasons and one being that they have a hard time getting communication from families who are not with an agency, after the adoption is complete. The baby homes are required to do post-placement reports on the children that they adopt out. If a family has an agency they will help the orphanage get the information that they need. They said that they have had independents in the past who have cut all communication after they had the child at home. Even cases where they felt like they were good parents who were taking care of the children, but just didn't take the time to let them know that. Then the baby home is in trouble. So we understand the hesitation with that. We have paid for post-placement reports with the agency that did our home study. But that news wasn't good enough for them. smh
All of that to say. We are using an agency and told the directors of the baby homes and one of them email me back very quickly saying, 'that is great news and they want to work with us!' Our attorney is waiting to hear from her this week. So, my beloved village, please join us in prayer this week as we await some good news. We have been waiting on good news for a long time now, but we are hopeful that there is a possibility that we could get some soon.
Love you all. Seriously.
tif
