Our adoption, a testimony

I've told the story before about how I traveled to Russia last year and later became interested in adopting a child from Russia - but, for those of you who may have wondered, here is our testimony of how God called us into action on this......

First of all, when I originally had the idea of adopting from Russia, I discussed it with Melissa and she was less than enthusiastic. I didn't press her on it, but I prayed and asked the Lord if this was from Him, that He would change Melissa's heart. Then, overnight, she had a one hundred percent change of heart -so that she was strongly desiring to do this- that is so uncharacteristic of her and was obviously from the Lord.

After we finished our homestudy, and it was time to choose an agency, we had the opportunity to go with an agency that would pay %100 of the cost (except travel) if we would adopt an older sibling group (boy & girl, two girls, etc.) This seemed like an obvious choice for us and the only way we could afford to make this happen. I communicated with agency several times and even gave them a credit card number for the application fee - but they drug their feet and never even charged my card.

At this point, I decided that we should not move forward until we had confirmation from the Lord that we were supposed to adopt from Russia. So, even though our homestudy was done, and the "ball was in our court", we decided to wait. We prayed, we waited, we prayed and waited some more, and even fasted for a week (something I never do!). While we were waiting and praying, God spoke to me with verses like Habakkuk 2:3 "For the vision is yet for an appointed time; But at the end it will speak, and it will not lie. Though it tarries, wait for it; Because it will surely come, It will not tarry." and Isaiah 30:21 "Your ears shall hear a word behind you, saying, “ This is the way, walk in it,” Whenever you turn to the right hand Or whenever you turn to the left." Still, I kept waiting because I was not willing to step out in something this huge until God said "GO". About six weeks went by and we still had not heard anything. Then, one Wednesday night at church, a man began to pray for our adoption (we had not even asked for prayer for this recently). He prayed passionately, earnestly, intently that God would bless our adoption and open the doors for us to do it. Then, the pastor was moved to pray for us. He began to pray for us, and for the plight of the Russian orphans. He was moved to tears in praying for us. The whole evening essentially became a prayer meeting about our adoption. This was the confirmation we had been waiting and praying for. Some people in the church have even called that night "the mighty rushing wind prayer meeting" because of how clearly God spoke to us there.

The next day, I e-mailed the agency and told them to move forward with our application. I was then told that their program had changed, and they could no longer pay for %100 of the cost of the adoption. In fact, their funding was down so much that they could only pay a small portion of the cost - and we'd have to agree to accept much older children than we were prepared to adopt. It was clear that God was closing the door to go with that agency. So, we knew beyond a shadow of a doubt that God had given us the go ahead to move forward, but he had closed the door for that agency.

So, we prayed and waited some more. We started to get a little discouraged - so we attended an informational meeting about foster parenting (with the ultimate goal of adoption) through the state of Texas - it was interesting but we did not have the clarity and agreement on this that we had on Russia. After this meeting, we went to Austin, San Antonio, and Houston for a week. When we got back, we were still trying to make a decision. We were leaning toward becoming a "foster home" - but we both believed that the calling from God to adopt was specifically from Russia. Prayerfully, I went back online and started sifting through the adoption agencies and we found the agency that we are now using ("Alaska International Adoptions"). I had not seen this agency before, and so I e-mailed them and she responded back immediately and answered all of my questions in a favorable way. I had not received any response like this from any of the other agencies we had contacted. The next day at church someone handed us a check for the exact amount we needed to apply to this agency. It was clear that this was the kind of guidance that God had promised us in Isaiah 30:21. We were supposed to adopt from Russia.

Each step of the way, God has provided everything we have needed. Certainly, it has not been easy to trust Him since the cost of this is far beyond anything I could hope to accomplish on my own. I am constantly becoming discouraged when I consider the cost of this - and the limited resources that we have and the limited resources of our church. However, each time I become discouraged, my wife prays that God would encourage and confirm this to me, and He is faithful to do it. Last month, on a weekend when I was particularly discouraged about the finances, Melissa prayed that I would be encouraged at church. And, that morning, one of the other deacons was teaching and he stopped in the middle of the message he was giving and looked straight at me and said "God is going to provide the money for this child to be adopted from Russia". I have been told by more than one brother in the Lord that "they would have to be blind not see that God's hand is in this."

So, all of that to say that this was not a whimsical, impulsive decision that we made based on our feelings. Honestly, there have been many times that my "feelings" have told me that I'm crazy for doing this and that we should quit now. However, I know this decision to be rock solid, grounded in scripture, prayer, waiting on God, fasting, confirmation from many other believers, and in my mind, the most compelling, that God has provided our every need at each step in the process.

A TIME FRAME! WE HAVE A TIME FRAME!

It has been a while since my last post---- so there's lots of news to share!

Toward the middle of September we got an e-mail from our agency saying that the translators in Russia had discovered that the license of the social worker (who had done our homestudy) was expiring at the end of September.

The Russian government will not accept any paperwork that is expired, so we had to scramble to try to get this taken care of -- we contacted our social worker and she said she was still waiting to get her new license certificate back from the state of Texas. Two weeks went by and we finally got the new license. Then, we had to mail it to Austin to get it "authenticated" :0) Another week's delay. Finally, the paperwork was off to Alaska to our agency.

Well, on Monday, October 26th our agency's staff in Moscow delivered our "dossier" to the Russian Ministry of Education. I got an e-mail today, and they were told that "if they find a match for us" they will issue the referral on December 22nd - along with an invitation to travel to Moscow to accept the referral on January 19th, 2010. WoW!

If all goes well, we will be going to Russia in the very heart of winter in Moscow. Brrrr~~!!

We are so very excited. Please join with us in prayer for : favor with the Russian ministry of education, for a perfect match with the little girl God has for us, and the much needed finances for the next step in our journey.

Thank you for your encouragement and support.

Translation, Certification, Submission?

There have been a couple of new developments since my last post. We received our approval from USCIS (US Immigration Services). This means that when our adoption is finalized in Russia, our child will automatically become a U.S. Citizen. This is an important step in the process, and is an absolute necessity for proceeding with the adoption. We are very thankful to have this completed, approved, and ready to go!!

So, I've considered September 1st to be our "soft" deadline for the next big chunk of money. The DOE (Department of Education) in Russia will be opening up for intake of new adoption applications anytime now. And, the next big chunk pays for translation, certification, and submission to the DOE.

Well, the 1st came and went and we only have $2,000 of the $4,000 needed for the next step of the process. I felt the need to be up front with our Agency, so I e-mailed our agency case worker and told her that we have only raised half of the money needed. I asked her whether I should go ahead and sent the $2,000 in now.

She wrote back and said that we could go ahead and send it, and she would being the translation and certification process- and that she could even move forward with submitting the documents to the DOE; but she also said that once the paperwork is turned in that things could move very quickly, and that we must have the money in hand when our referral comes in.

So this is another opportunity to trust God.... I am mailing the check tomorrow and the process moves forward; and we continue to pray that the Lord will provide the money, not only for this step, but for the steps to come.

The paperwork is headed to Russia!

It has been a while since my last post--there has not been much adoption news to tell, but here's what's happened over the last few months.

At the beginning of June, we were working feverishly to get all of our paperwork completed, notarized, and ready to go to our agency and on to Russia for translation. Then, on June 19th we got a message from our agency saying not to rush....the Russian Ministry of Education decided to take a vacation for the summer and would not be accepting any new applications for adoption until September.

So we went ahead and got the paperwork finished and ready to mail, and it has been sitting on my desk for several weeks. I had not mailed it to the agency - because we have not had the $4,000 payment that is supposed to go along with it. We have been praying for the Lord to provide the needed funds.

Then in July, the air conditioner in my car broke down. I had to spend $800 dollars for parts to fix my car. I spent about 5 weeks and 60 or more hours working on the car, and alas, my repairs have all failed and the air conditioner is not working and now the car is not even running right. I am frustrated and more than a little discouraged, but I believe that God has a plan and a purpose, somehow, even in the midst of this.

We had a garage sale last Saturday to raise money, and yet, we were still way short of the funds needed to send in the paperwork.

God works in mysterious ways. I sent an e-mail to our agency to ask a question about a letter I had received from immigration. She answered my question, and then volunteered that I should go ahead and send her the paperwork so she could get it off to Russia, and that I could send her my check later....in a few weeks.

So, the paperwork went in the mail on Saturday. It should be in Alaska by the middle of next week, and then in the mail to Moscow toward the end of next week. And, the Lord will provide the money in His perfect timing.

Mountains of paperwork

We signed with our agency two weeks ago - and we've been so impressed. They started to work for us immediately - and they have e-mailed us almost every day to give us status updates and to request additional information. Our homestudy received final approval on June 2nd!

Now, we have entered the "paperwork" phase-this is where we compile a "dossier" of paperwork to send to the Russian government to formally request a referral of a child. The package will consist of 12 documents. However, we must assemble 4 notarized copies of each document, and then we have to have 3 of those copies Apostilled. Apostilling is a process where the State of Texas certifies that the notarization was done by a licensed Notary. We found out that our Bank does notarization for free, but they may change their mind when we bring 48 documents for them to notarize. Ha!

It should take a couple of weeks to get all of this done - and then we will need to ship it to our agency, along with a check for $4,000 to cover the cost of shipping the documents to Russia, having them translated in Russian, and then have them formally filed with the Russian Ministry of Education. Please pray that the Lord will give us the grace to get this paperwork done, and that He will provide the money we need for this first "big chunk". Once we accomplish this step, we'll be on the way to receving a referral of our child! So exciting!

In addition to the "dossier" paperwork, we are also filling out applications for several grant organizations that give grants to families pursuing international adoption. The paperwork is tedious, but we are hopeful that our efforts will bear fruit. On average, these organizations receive 15-20 applications a month, but they only have the funds to approve 3 or 4 grants. So, please pray that the Lord will give us favor to receive some of this grant money.

We'll keep you posted as things move along.

At last....forward motion!

Wow! A lot can happen in a week. As I said in my last post, we were getting frustrated with the lack of activity. The agency we had originally thought to go with had downgraded their financial assistance program to a point that it would not be useful to us. I had not heard from our homestudy social worker in over two months - and the last time I talked to her she said that she was temporarily unable to send homestudies to Russia (political thing-long story). And, although we had received confirmation from the Lord that we were supposed to adopt, the "next step" was not at all clear.

We were, in fact, seriously considering dropping the Russia plans. We were looking at signing up to foster & adopt through the state of Texas, instead. However, we both still felt very strongly that the calling was specifically to adopt from Russia.

Last Sunday after church a dear sister handed us a card with a check in it. We glanced at it to see the amount, and put it back in the card. I immediately felt a sense from the Lord that this money was to go to our adoption process. Later that day, Melissa and I discussed how we should spend the money, and there were several possibilities that came up. However, I still felt very strongly that this money was supposed to go to the adoption.

Sunday night, I was really starting to get discouraged. Ok, downright despondent. I find it very, very difficult to pray when I'm really down -- but Melissa and I prayed and asked the Lord for direction on the adoption. We were quickly reaching a point where we needed to go ahead with the Russian adoption - or to change directions altogether to start the foster training program.

On Monday, I received an e-mail from our homestudy social worker - the first contact from her in two months. She has been cleared to send homestudies to Russia, again. She asked if we had chosen an agency yet, and she attached the rough draft of our homestudy.

We looked over the homestudy and it is clearly written specifically for Russia - to use it for the foster care system would require major revisions - and it is doubtful if any of the foster-care agencies locally would use a 3rd party homestudy, anyway. Again, we felt a confirmation that our calling is for a Russian adoption.

I began the daunting task of reviewing agencies again. After several hours of looking at the same agencies over and over again, I stumbled upon an agency that I had not noticed before - this is a small agency that ONLY handles Russian adoptions. It is run by a Russian woman, and it is less expensive than many of the other agencies. They have an excellent reputation. I emailed her for information and she responded quickly. Again, this just seemed like the Lord's hand. They seem like a great fit for us.

On Wednesday, I decided to deposit the check that we received on Sunday. I looked at the check again, and in the memo field was a simple note: "Adoption Process". This was a huge confirmation to us - The check was given specifically to go toward our adoption. And, since the foster care system doesn't cost anything - clearly, the destination is Russia.

So, on Friday, I mailed the contract. We signed with an agency. **Gulp!** I was very nervous mailing that envelope, along with a $1,000 check. And yet, as soon as I did, I felt a peace from the Lord. Melissa and I are more at peace about this than anything we've ever done; and that's saying a LOT.

One more little miracle this week. With the $1,000 check in the mail to the agency, our next big expense is the USCIS approval... Another $900. This afternoon I sat down and paid the bills, and I was shocked to find out that we have enough money to cover the payment to the agency, to pay all of our bills this month, to complete the USCIS application, AND we still have enough money left over to pay for Melissa's doctor appointments that are coming up in two weeks. I honestly do not know how we had this much money left over.

Throughout this adoption adventure, the Lord keeps bringing me back to the stories of Jesus feeding the multitudes with just a few loaves of bread. It's going to take the same kind of miracle (a few times over) for us to complete this adoption--but so far, it's been a miraculous journey.

Thanks for your prayers and encouragement.

Forward motion?

OK, so it has been a couple of months since we completed our Homestudy; and so far, there hasn't been much forward motion. We took "a couple of weeks" off from the process to pray and seek the Lord's will; and we received some pretty powerful confirmations.

See Melissa's blog entry http://mcclymontfamily.blogspot.com/2009/04/newsy-note.html for all the details on the confirmation(s) we got.

Shortly after this Wednesday night prayer meeting (which has since been nicknamed the "mighty rushing wind" prayer meeting by some in the church), we sent in our application for the agency we had selected. And they never processed it!

Eventually, I contacted them...and they sent us back some various e-mails saying "Are we really sure we want to do this?etc..etc.." And, at this point, I sensed the Lord saying "wait." So that's what we've been doing....for what seems like forever now.

Last week, I decided to contact the agency again...and now the news is that their "waiting children" program has changed, and they can no longer offer the amount of assistance they were offering before; and the restrictions on which children they can take have gotten a lot more complicated. Clearly, this program is a closed door for us now.

And, yet, we're feeling a desire and an urgency to move forward with this adoption.

We could sign with any number of agencies... I don't even know how to choose... We also attended an informational meeting with the State of Texas' "foster-to-adopt" program. We're both uncertain about fostering, and we both feel like the Lord was leading us to adopt from Russia; but we are open to other things if He guides us in a different direction.

So we need your prayers for wisdom and discernment and help in making such a big decision. We seem to be stuck in a "rut" and I'd very much like to get out of it and experience some "forward motion."