McClymont Family Adoption Journey Blog

Brokenhearted

2010-05-28T16:02:00.001-07:00

Yesterday, the judge dismissed our adoption petition. "M's" grandmother arranged a weekend visitation with her, and has expressed her desire to take her home full time. We are heartbroken and very sad, but we are hoping and praying that this will ultimately lead to a better life for this precious little girl.

More bad news?

2010-04-15T07:49:00.000-07:00

The drama continues. We were devastated this morning to hear that Russia stopped all adoptions. We didn't know what to think, or what was going to happen next.

Then we found out it was a false report! Adoptions are still going on! Praise the Lord! What a roller coaster!

We will be waiting until the first to middle part of May to find out about M's grandmother, but at least nothing has been stopped yet. Russia and the U.S. are meeting next week to discuss these recent events.

We remain prayerful and hopeful! The Lord's will be done in the U.S. and in Russia!

2010-04-13T10:21:00.000-07:00

After our trip we began the second half with a lot of paper work, for the agency and for grants. The week before our trip we had fingerprints taken for an FBI background check. It's a 13 week process. After our trip we went to a doctor to get our physicals done, and that paper work turned out to be a nightmare. They did a sloppy job getting the paperwork filled out twice, so Steve redid everything nice and neat and the doctor messed up on two of the 8 signatures! Thankfully the agency said that would be okay. That was more stressful than it needed to be. We also took Alexander out to Longview to see his doctor for a physical and check up. Three weeks later we still had not received the paper work from him. It got lost in the mail so the doctor graciously did it all over again for us!

After that, our fingerprints came back. Steve's passed. Melissa's did not. After three stressful weeks of redoing fingerprints (a total of ten cards), three rejection letters, and paying overnight shipping six times, Melissa's fingerprints finally passed! What a relief! The agent at the FBI was very helpful, prompt, and apologetic. God's favor was on us in that situation!

We were finally approved for a matching grant at this time as well. We had applied for at least a dozen and this was the first one to come through. The grant agency would match up to $5000, which is enough to pay the agency all that we owe. We have gotten over $1300 so far!

Just when we thought it was all coming together and we were going to get a court date finally, two things happened that could stop the whole adoption.

First, M's grandmother has contested the adoption; she refuses to allow us to adopt her. As far as we know the grandmother, who is 75 years old, does not have the means to care for M, nor does she want to, but she does not want anyone to adopt her either. A judge told her she has 30 days to become M's legal guardian or the adoption will proceed. That was heartbreaking to know we would have to wait at least another month before knowing what would happen. Within 24 hours of getting that bad news, we got more bad news.

A Tennessee woman returned her adopted Russian 7 year old boy back to Russia, saying she did not want him because he was threatening the family. This angered the Russian people and it seemed, and was even reported, that Russia would be shutting down all adoptions. Thankfully the U.S. stepped in to negotiate with Russia about what should be done, and it seems things may have calmed down a bit. We still do not know what will happen, and if we will be able to bring M home.

Last Sunday we were eating lunch with friends when Steve got a call from NBC in New York! They wanted to interview us! They found us on Facebook through our Russian Adoption Journey fan page. They had already interviewed a family who had successfully adopted two Russian children and now they wanted to interview a family in the process. Monday we got the call that they had a news crew available to come interview us. The interview would be on the 10 o'clock news! We were both so nervous but it went fine. The reporter was very friendly so we felt pretty comfortable right away. Later that evening the reporter called us and said that we would also be on the Today show the next morning! Really? Wow! Both segments were pretty short, but we are hoping it will have an impact somehow, some way. We do not know why God brought this about, but we pray that He gets the glory for it!

Melissa has been praying that the Lord would just blow her mind in this adoption and that people's lives would be changed through it. And God did it! We often wonder what God is doing and why there is such a spiritual battle around this adoption and this little girl. Many people have told us they believe God has something for us much bigger than this adoption. After the events we have faced this week, we are beginning to believe them!

We are very excited to see what God is going to do next, so stay tuned!

Melissa's Journal of the First Russia Trip

2010-04-13T10:17:00.000-07:00

This is rather lengthy but worth the time! The Lord really worked in Russia and we look forward to what other things He has in store for us.

It was the most stressful, exciting, exhausting and emotional thing I have ever been through. Before we left the Lord gave me many scriptures to help me over the coming days and I want to share those with you. The first one is 1 Kings 18:41-46. This Scripture came to mind before we left. I was feeling tired and run down from being sick for three weeks and from anxiety and nervousness. These verses gave me the hope and strength I needed. Elijah was praying on a mountain for rain to come because they had been in a drought for 3 years. He sent his servant up the mountain seven times to look for a sign of coming rain. The seventh time his servant saw a cloud the size of a man's hand. Elijah told the servant to tell Ahab to leave in his chariot before the rain over took him. It says, "The power of the LORD came upon Elijah and, tucking his cloak into his belt, he ran ahead of Ahab all the way to Jezreel." Ahab was in a chariot and yet God gave Elijah the strength to out run the chariot. This is the strength I prayed for God to give me,to help me through the next week, and He gave it to me many times when I thought I just couldn't do any more.

Another verse He gave me is Psalm 118:17: "I shall not die, but live, and declare the works of the Lord." This was my signature verse for the week. I quoted this over and over again when things got scary. I knew the Lord was going to do miraculous things on this trip, so I knew He would get me back home so I could tell my friends and family about it.

A third verse a very special friend gave us at a prayer meeting. She inserted our names in the verse which made it very personal. Psalm 18:28-30: "For You will light my lamp; the Lord my God will enlighten my darkness. For by You I can run against a troop, by my God I can leap over a wall. As for God, His way is perfect; the Word of the Lord is proven; He is a shield to all who trust in Him." This verse so well-fitted our trip. It felt as if we were going against troops and had to leap over walls. It felt dark and yet God's light was always there and He made the way straight and smooth for us. The word the Lord had spoken to us about this adoption was proved time and time again. And He was definitely our shield!

There are more scriptures that He has given us to help us and remind us of His faithfulness. He has done so many things that I can not list them all. But I hope that all of you will be encouraged and amazed just as we have been through what He has done. My desire when going to Russia was to be a light in that dark world. God showed me that we are like candles walking around in darkness. Those around us are effected by the light we shine. A flame, no matter how small or big, shines a light on the things that are near it, that would other wise be in darkness. The brighter our light is, the more people will be touched by it.

I wish that I could account to you all the numerous things that happened up to this point. It would be pages and pages long of all the things the Lord has done to make this happen. My prayer before we left was that the Lord would just blow my mind with what He wanted to do. And He did! I also prayed for peace that is beyond all understanding. His peace was there every time I needed it. Just when I thought I wasn't going to be able to do any more, He was there to give me that extra measure.

We left the evening of January 17th and traveled all night and the next day to Moscow. It is about 16 hours travel time, but there is a 9 hour time difference so the travel took 25 hours. My first entry in my journal on January 19th:

What a journey the last two days have been! I have never been through anything as crazy, stressful, or challenging as this! Alexander did just fine when we left him at our friends' house. God gave us grace to handle leaving him. I was a ball of anxiety and nervousness though on the way to the airport. I had several moments that I thought I just wasn't going to be able to do this. There is no way I could do it in my own strength. My physical body was a mess. I couldn't eat and wasn't really getting much sleep. I had been sick for several weeks and fighting a sinus infection. I was just not feeling up to it. But every time something needed to be done or I had to go through something stressful or new, the Lord gave me strength and grace...every single time! I felt sick to my stomach a lot and I would just close my eyes and pray and the Lord would cover me, over and over again. The flights were very smooth for which I am so thankful. I was super nervous about getting on a plane again after our flight from Florida two years ago which was a very difficult one. The flight from London to Moscow was delayed an hour, which caused problems when we got to Moscow. We also had to fly around Moscow for about 45 minutes before we were cleared to land. We had to go through customs which was crowded and very stressful for me. It was going to be my first experience speaking with a Russian in their country, but it ended up going smoothly. We got our bags and found Andrei, our driver/translator/mediator. He went to get the car while we waited inside. He said, "Meet me outside at 10 sharp" which was about ten minutes later. It was kind of a shock when we walked outside and waited! It was -22 C which is about -11*F! I haven't felt cold like that before!

We had a hard time finding the apartment building and had a really hard time getting someone on the phone to help us get in. It was very frustrating! It was after midnight before we could get into bed.

Andrei is pretty much all business. He rarely speaks unless it is about adoption related stuff. He knows how to get things done and he's very good at what he does. He also drives like a madman! All the people in Russia do but Andrei has to be among the worst drivers...and he's good at it! We were sort of prepared because we had read posts about him on the agency's website. Someone said, "Get in and close your eyes!" They weren't kidding. He drives very fast, in and out of traffic, and the first time we were out with him he drove on a sidewalk!

This morning we went for our meeting with the department of education (DOE) and I was so nervous! Andrei warned us that they would be invasive and asking lots of questions, which made us more nervous. I still could not eat and we had not slept much so I was very tired and feeling out of sorts. We had to wait 40 minutes before getting called back. During this time another American couple came in and they are adopting a little boy so we were able to pass the time talking to them. We finally went back and the meeting went fine and was not as stressful as expected. We had to answer a few questions about our work, home, and the environment M would be in. After we left we asked Andrei about M and how much he knew about her. He said there are no perfectly healthy children in Russian orphanages and that she is in an orphanage that is particularly for children with severe developmental delays. We asked about the medical conditions that were listed on her referral because they sounded serious. This is what the referral said: deformation of bone-muscle structure with related changes in heart-vessel system which explains that one system ahead of behind in growing, either muscle, bones growing faster , either heart growing faster than bone-muscle structure. He said that was nothing. It meant she was growing like a normal child does, basically it means she's going through growth spurts. He said she is extremely healthy, only very delayed. That helped us feel much better. He also said people never come to visit the children in the orphanages. They never see new people, and not to be upset if she runs away from us, cries, or won't come near us. He said that is perfectly normal, especially towards men because only women work in the orphanages. So while we got good news about her health we didn't know what it meant when they said she is severely delayed. Is she mentally challenged, does she have Fetal Alcohol Syndrome, or does she just need a family to love her and care for her? We have to wait until 5pm tomorrow to see her! Ugh! The waiting! We are going to try to meet up with Mary and Sarah from the Moscow Calvary Chapel Bible College tomorrow to do some sightseeing before going to see M.

I was finally able to eat some lunch today, first real meal in about 3 days. I'm trying not to think about Alex or home too much. I do miss him and I don't want to get depressed by thinking about him all the time. I'm not worried about him. I'm sure he's having fun.

January 20, 2010:

Today was a busy day. We've been trying to get our visas registered but it's just not working out. The apartment management is suppose to do it but they are refusing to do it. So we have to find the travel agency who sent us the Russian invitation to have them do it. We went on the metro, the underground subway, to find the place but after hours of searching we could not find it. We did manage to find our friends, however. It was cloudy and a high of 5* today and it was snowing! We met Mary and Sarah at McDonald's and then we walked to Red Square. It was very cold, but it was still fun. I loved seeing the St. Basil Cathedral, especially with the snow on it. It's just as beautiful in person! We only had an hour so it was a very rushed trip. Mary and Sarah are very sweet and so encouraging to be around. I am so glad we met with them and I am looking forward to seeing them again!

All of our running around was exhausting, but there was no time to rest. When we got back to the apartment we had 30 minutes to get ready to see M. Steve was really nervous about meeting M, but oddly (considering the last few days) I was at peace about it.

On the way to the orphanage Andei warned us that the orphanage director is an angry woman and she is crazy! She doesn't want M to be adopted or any child in the orphanage to be adopted. When we asked why, Andrei said there are many reasons why the directors don't want the children to be adopted. Andrei said she would lie and tell us there are many problems with M. She even said M couldn't walk well and was running into walls etc!

When they brought M into the director's office we were taken back a little bit because she didn't look like the picture we had gotten a month ago. We almost thought they brought us the wrong child! She is absolutely adorable! She was gently nudged by an orphanage worker and told to come over to me. She gladly took the stuffed monkey we brought for her and she was all smiles! Her smile is something else! It lights up a room! She hugged me and held on to me the whole time. She played with Steve too, though she did not want to touch him directly. Her smile did not leave her face the entire time. She was very quiet and wouldn't even laugh out loud. She tried to talk to us and we tried to talk to her as best as we could. We thought Andrei would be translating for us but he left the room. We would have to learn how to communicate with her somehow without a translator! She named the monkey "Chi chi" after a monkey in a Russian fairy tale. It was amazing to be with her. She is so sweet and beautiful! Andrei has done many adoptions and even he was raving about her and saying over and over again that she is very cute.

Something really amazing happened that first evening we met her. Let me back up a little bit. The week before we left I had two dreams about M. One was just sweet about getting to hold her. The other dream was about meeting her. In this dream she was about 6-7 years old and she liked Russian poetry. She had written her very first poem and read it to us. When I woke up, there was such peace in my heart. I realized that she was not old enough to write a poem yet but I still thought it was a sweet dream. Well, that evening when we met M, she started talking in Russian and of course we didn't know what she was saying. When she was done speaking, everyone clapped. Andrei then told us she had just said her first poem! Unbelievable! What an amazing God I serve! What a sweet thing for Him to show me! How precious are Your thoughts, O God!

There was no doubt after meeting M that we were going to adopt her. She is amazing. We will let Andrei know in the morning and we will have paper work to do. He said it could be 3 months before getting a court date! Ugh! We have a lot of paper work to get done before we can apply for a court date. I hope it's not that long! I wish I could put everything in here that I am feeling and all that has happened. It has really been amazing!

We will go see M tomorrow at noon for an hour. After we say we want her and sign a paper then we can take pictures and videos. She will also have pictures of us, Alex and our house to help her remember us and prepare her to come home.

January 21, 2010:

Wow. We are completely wiped out and it has been stressful. What a crazy day.

We have been waking up every night around 2:30 and can't go back to sleep for about 3 hours. I had a very hard time getting out of bed this morning. We rushed to go to the DOE again to let them know we want to adopt M, but when we got there we found out the person we needed to see would not be there until 2. So we went to the orphanage to see M. She was all smiles again! We helped her get bundled up to go outside, which was different for us because people in Texas don't wear snowsuits and layers of clothing! It was very very cold out so we didn't stay out long but she went down the slide and walked around with us. She giggled for the first time with us when Steve played peek-a-boo behind a tree. After that we went inside and she showed us her play room, bedroom and bathroom. There were 8-10 other small beds in her room, each had a stuff animal on the bed. In the play room another little girl, who was very talkative, latched on to me. At this point M became more possessive of me, which I think was a good sign. The little girl held my hand while we walked around upstairs and looked so sad when we had to leave her behind. M also gave us a piece of her Christmas candy. We only saw a few children today, but Andrei said there are 54 children in this orphanage and there are over 100 orphanages in Moscow. The ages in this one are from 3-16.

After the tour of the orphanage we gave her a sticker book with farm animals. She really enjoyed it and soon there were stickers clothes and faces! When that got old she put them on Chi Chi her monkey.

After that we said goodbye and headed over to the DOE again. On the way I began to get a migraine. Steve prayed for me and I kept praying while we sat in the office and waited. The flashing light disappeared, but the pain did not come! Several hours later I had a headache but it was when I could eat and sleep it off! God is so good!

We still did not get to meet with the DOE so we came home for an hour and I slept hard. I woke up ten minutes before we had to leave to see M again. My head was only a little sore but I was still so tired.

This night we played with paper dolls with M. She was figuring out quickly how to punch out the dolls and clothes and put them together. Even Andrei commented how good that was. The director had told us we needed to find M a profession that did not require intelligence! Ha! After paper dolls, M had enough and fell asleep on my shoulder. It was just too much for her. That's okay. I just wanted to go to sleep too.

We finally got someone to register our visas, so that's a relief. Things are coming together. I'm trying to eat more but it's still hard and now I feel like I am coming down with a cold or my sinus infection is coming back with a vengeance. This has been a rough week for me physically. God will help me get through it.

And we set up the webcam so we could see Alex, and he could see us and we could talk. He is doing really awesome, and seems very happy. He seemed to be more interested in seeing himself on the computer than seeing us. Ha ha! I miss him but I am glad he's doing so well.

January 22, 2010:

Our last day in Moscow was no different than the rest: very busy! Andrei's driving has gotten worse and crazy as the week as progressed. Today he missed his turn, so he backed up into oncoming traffic to make the turn! I guess anything goes in Moscow!

We visited with M for 4 hours this morning, and this time we went to a different room. We were alone with her and M showed us a completely different side! She was being very cute, laughing out loud, teaching us the Russian alphabet. She pretended to be her teacher which was very funny! But it got out of hand and we had to force her to sit and settle down. She is testing us to see what she can get away with. She would not act that way in front of any of the staff because they wouldn't let her get away with it. We have found she can be defiant and stubborn. We will have our hands full! She just needs some love, attention and discipline.

After that there was no time to eat lunch. We had to go get the paperwork notarized, and when that done we went back to the orphanage to see M for the last time this trip. When we got to the orphanage we were motioned down the hall and seated in a room where the children were putting on a play. We had missed most of it, and we could not understand it because of course it was in Russian. However, the children did very well with remembering their lines and with their acting. These are severely developmentally delayed children? Right after the play they served pierogies and they were good. Afterwards we found M and she was in a princess dress with her hair in a bow and white sparkling shoes on. Obviously these clothes were for special occasions only. We tried to tell her she looked beautiful but I don't know if she understood. On the way back to the teacher's room, where we had been earlier in the day, I saw several Russian children I would have loved to brought back home! They are all beautiful and deserve to have a loving home. One boy who was probably 3 asked us (in Russian) what our names are and if we are American. These kids are smart! In the teacher's room M began to get a little wild again. When I tried to teasingly take something from her she went to slap my hand. She also threw things at us, all in play, but it was not good. She also said no to us a lot. There was wax fruit in the cabinet and she was taking bites out of them. It became a game to her because she was getting attention, even if it wasn't good attention. Oi. It was a tough day. I will admit I had my doubts about taking her home but the Lord has made it so clear that this is His will and He will help us handle her when the time comes. I do worry about bringing her home, and how she will do with Alex, but it will work out. God is faithful. I was kind of surprised at myself when I cried after saying goodbye to her. I didn't realize that I had become so attached to her. Who knew spending 15 hours with a child would tear me up to leave? I wonder if she has any idea what's going on.

We leave for the airport in 3 1/2 hours. Then we wait there for four hours before we board the plane. If the plane is on time and we make the subway on time in London then we will try to go see Buckingham Palace during our layover. I really like Moscow and my heart goes out to all the people there. They need Jesus. I will miss M but I know she is well taken care of until we return for her. The Lord worked on the director's heart and she is perfectly fine with us adopting M. She is just really protective of the children in the orphanage.

Looking forward to getting home and seeing my precious boy! I have missed him. It has been the most exciting, stressful, difficult week of my life. I don't understand the Lord's purpose in adopting this little girl, but it is very evident that He wants us to do it and that the enemy does not. It's been a week full of spiritual warfare like we have never experienced before. But war or not, I want to do the Lord's will. That's my heart's desire, and He will give me everything I need to accomplish it!

January 24,1010:

The trip home seemed very long. The flights were smooth, but I was getting very tired and sore from sitting in the plane. Our flight from Moscow to London arrived early enough that we got to go see Buckingham Palace, changing of the guards, Westminster Abbey, Houses of Parliament, Big Ben and Green Park, all in two hours. It was about 42*, so it was warm compared to Moscow but still pretty cool when walking outdoors for two hours. I am glad we were able to go sightseeing. It was fun and we don't know if we will get that opportunity again.

When we picked up Alexander he seemed pretty excited to see us, but he didn't want to leave. He was stalling. I am glad he had a good time with our friends and they seemed to really enjoy having him there.

2010-04-13T09:56:00.000-07:00

We have been so busy trying to get things together for the adoption that we fell behind in blogging it! In this post we will catch up to our first trip.

December 22nd we got our referral for "M". She was six at the time. we kind of thought maybe we would have definitely feelings about it when we got it but we really didn't know what to think. There was a diagnosis that we were concerned about: a heart/muscle/bone growth issue. If it was serious we didn't know if we wanted to adopt her because of finances in trying to take care of a child with a serious medical condition and we didn't know how this would effect her life. We spent a lot of time in prayer. A friend shared a verse with me: "As cold water is to a weary soul, so is good news from a far country," Proverbs 25:25. What a sweet word for us! A few days later we decided to travel to meet M! We would be leaving January 18th just three weeks away! Steve called American Airlines to see if there was any way they could use our airline miles. She sounded doubtful, and then shocked when she realized she could get us to Russia and back using fewer airline miles than we had expected! Another door the Lord opened for us! The Lord also provided the perfect family to watch Alexander for us, so we did not worry about him. Melissa struggled for weeks with a paralyzing fear that didn't even make sense to her. The Lord delivered her from that the week before we left! We were also short in our funds and the Lord provided money for what we needed up to that point. What an amazing God we serve! What happened in the coming weeks, especially on our trip, is hard to put into words, but the next post is Melissa's journal from the first trip.

Our adoption, a testimony

2009-11-01T16:04:00.001-08:00

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!

2009-10-27T18:47:00.000-07:00

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?

2009-09-07T18:14:00.000-07:00

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!

2009-08-02T19:08:00.000-07:00

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

2009-06-05T16:21:00.000-07:00

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!

2009-05-23T18:22:00.000-07:00

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?

2009-05-17T17:20:00.000-07:00

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."

The Homestudy is DONE!!!!

2009-02-21T19:40:00.001-08:00

Today was a big milestone, the "home visit" portion of the home study. This marked the conclusion of a hectic month of preparation. First, there were the doctor visits. All three of us, including Alexander, had to go see a doctor to make sure we were healthy enough to adopt. Then, there was the paperwork. A twelve page application, background checks, letters of reference, and we both had to write an autobiography. On top of that, Melissa worked her tail off to get the house ready with a lot of reorganizing, throwing away stuff, and scrubbing and cleaning. It has been an exhausting several weeks!

The social worker came at 9 O'clock prompt. We have had a number of social workers visit our home over the past year to work with Alexander, and so we expected this visit to be similar, I guess. All of the social workers who have visited us in the past have been very laid back and chatty. However, our home study worker was very formal. Nice, polite, but very businesslike. There were many hard question about our personal lives and how we interact with each other, and how we plan to interact with our adopted children. It was rather intimidating, but we got through it and anticipate that we will be approved without any problems. We all sighed a big sigh of relieve when it was done, and promptly went to Red Robin for lunch and to celebrate.

Our next big step is to sign with an agency. We have been praying and researching different agencies for a couple of months now, and we are tentatively leaning toward a particular agency that has a special program for adopting waiting children. Waiting children are children who are less likely to be adopted for a variety of reasons, and therefore this agency has a established a fund that pays for a significant portion of the adoption expenses. In our case, we are considering adopting two siblings who are somewhat older (perhaps 3-6 years old). These children qualify for the special program because they are older, and because they are siblings, two factors that make them much less likely to be adopted. (People typically try to adopt infants, and only one at a time). We see this as a good option for us, because we really see this adoption as a calling from the Lord, and it seems as if it would be a blessing to adopt a child who is less likely to be adopted because of his or her age.

On a side note, we met a pastor on Wednesday night who was visiting from another church in Missouri. He and his wife had recently finalized an adoption of a teenage boy from Mexico. This was our first opportunity to talk to someone who has actually done an international adoption, and he was very encouraging and reassured us of God's ability to provide the needed finances to get this done. I personally feel that the Lord arranged for this brother to visit our church on Wednesday night just so he could share his experience with us.

Well, that's it for now. Thank you for your prayers, and encouragement! We appreciate it very much.

Homestudy scheduled

2009-02-07T06:43:00.000-08:00

Great news! We have the homestudy scheduled for the weekend of the 21st! We are in the process of filling out all of the paperwork, and boy there is a lot of paperwork! It is kind of like filling out a job application, but even more in-depth. There's a background check, and we both have to write a small autobiography. Also, all three of us will have to be interviewed and we'll have to go have physicals done. Wow! The entire process culminates in the home visit, where the social worker will come out and spend three hours interviewing us and checking to make sure our home is a safe environment for adopted children. I think that if we had started this process a year ago we would be very intimidated at the thought of doing this, but the experience of having the social workers and therapists come out to work with Alexander over the past year has really helped us to be prepared for the homestudy. We really see the experiences of the last year as being the Lord's hand in preparing us for this. God is good!

Also, we went and applied for Melissa's passport last Saturday. (I already have mine from the mission trip in August) It was a small, seemingly insignificant step in the overall process, but it was still exciting! I think it is important to set goals along the way and this was one that we actually got done! Woohoo!

After the homestudy, we need to get our USCIS approval. This is basically pre-approval from the United States government to adopt a foreign child. This costs $830, so that will be our next big financial goal.

Also we are very quickly approaching the point where we will have to make a decision about an adoption agency. This is a very huge and important decision, and I'm still not even sure how to begin to make it. There are so many factors to consider. So, please pray that we would have wisdom in making this decision.

It's a start...

2009-01-17T18:16:00.000-08:00

It's hard to say exactly where our adoption journey began. If I had to pick a specific moment when it first came to our minds, I would say that it was during my preparation for my mission trip to Russia in August. I found out from George Bryson, the director of Calvary Chapel Church Planting Mission, that we would be visiting an orphanage while in Russia. Melissa joked that I'd probably come home with a baby sister for Alexander. We both laughed about it, and neither one of us had thought seriously about adopting. Ironically, I did not get to visit the orphanage on the trip, but the idea of adopting was born in our minds; and over the next several months our "joke" turned into serious consideration, and from that it seems to be well on its way to being a desire of our hearts.

Today was a big milestone! I finished the website about our adoption plans! I'm sure I'll fine tune it some more, but for all intents and purposes, it is done! I started the website over the new year holiday, shortly after we found out that we weren't going to be having a baby, afterall. At least not right away. And, now it is finished.

I think that this is a big milestone, because now we can send the link for this site out to all of our family and friends. I am hoping that this will get everyone on board on the "prayer wagon", praying that God will open the doors for this adoption to take place. And, perhaps it will open doors to find some donations to contribute to the cost of this endeavor, as well.

We are now praying about the next step. We need to have a homestudy done and there are a few things we can do prior to selecting an agency. And, we need the Lord's wisdom in choosing an agency. There are 39 agencies accredited by the Russian government, and others that operate under the legal umbrella of the 39. I have requested information from dozens of agencies and we've spent hours pouring over the material they sent us. So far we're not closer to a decision, but there are other things that we can do first, and so we'll cross that bridge when we get there.

More to come...