128...that is the number of children currently listed on the Virginia Department of Social Services available children. A sad number. They are mostly older children who have lost all hope of getting a family. Imagine being 11, the age of my eldest child, and not having a home, a family, a bed of your own. They are bounced from foster home to foster home. 128...so if 1 child a day got adopted it would take until February 24, 2013 for them all to get adopted. Just think about that for a minute. My issue with this is that I have placed multiple calls to the Adoption Resource Exchange of Virginia and submitted an inquiry on the Virginia Department of Social Services website. The first action was taken on 10/5/12 and the second on 10/12/12...and here I am with no returned calls or emails. So my question remains...WHO is working for these children. We have taken the first steps to let them know we are interested, to let them know we want to adopt domestically and from the foster care system. One would think they would have us on the phone and get the ball rolling. Yet...I wait and wait and wait. It's maddening.
SO what am I to do?? I have started to consider going through a private agency as opposed to a state run one. That means $$$. But that is worth it. I can no longer stand stagnent, waiting for someone to do their job. The intially adoption application can be from $300-$500. The home study from $1000.-$3000.
So I see some fundraisers in the very near future. I am stoked that our adoption fund is up to $112.90. This is just a jar on our table that we put spare change in. Anytime I have any $1.00 bills I put them in there. I have an amazing friend who I volunteer to watch her daughter while she does volunteer work. Now when she picks her up she puts what I would normally charge for drop in care into the adoption fund. It is a start...
Friday, October 19, 2012
Tuesday, October 9, 2012
Road to where??
Ahhh...that is the question. I have been asking for a lot of prayer on facebook lately. Specifically prayer to move mountains. So what "mountains" am I speaking of?? Let me take you back to when I let God take over (extremely shortened version)
As many of you know, I was working a job for nearly a decade. One I was comfortable in but didn't much like what I was doing. I'll leave the details to a minimum. However, I was always complaining and wanting to leave. But financially it didn't seem possible and I was comfortable (even if there were days I was miserable). I prayed and prayed God would find me a new job. I prayed for Him to show me a way out of my situation. He did...He showed me how I could quit my job and stay home with my children. It scared the crap out of me because it was a HUGE leap of faith. Never before had I put all my trust in God. But I felt His call. His call to be home with my kids. It took some convincing on John's part. But I KNEW this was God's will...so I was pretty insistent. I open my in-home daycare and meet some awesome parents and children. But one is a very special little girl named Alanna. Alanna is a happy, funny almost 3 year old that steals the heart of everyone she meets. Alanna's parents are beyond amazing people too. Alanna has Down Syndrome and is from the Ukraine. She was adopted 18 months ago. Little by little, I talked to her Mom and she told me of the HORRIBLE conditions the children with special needs live in in Eastern Europe. Of course as soon as I researched and found out what it is like there I immediately wanted to go rescue them all! How can humans have such disregard for another human child? I will make a separate blog for that topic.
So I started talking to John about these poor children. His response was "that's sad but there's nothing we can do. We are NOT adopting". That wouldn't be an issue EXCEPT he has known since we were dating that I have always wanted to adopt. I have always wanted biological and adopted children. I, being who I am, kept bring it up and was met with a stern "NO"! Adoption was not in John's heart even a little bit. Even after I showed him pictures of these adorable kids.
Then I was reading about hosting a child for the holiday season from Eastern Europe. I figured, if he won't let me adopt, maybe he would at least let me show these children a better life. He wasn't sold on the idea, but I think he thought it was a nice break from the adoption talk :-) So I was looking through children who are available for hosting. There was one beautiful, seemingly intelligent young lady who was turning 16 during the hosting program. Once they are 16 they are no longer available for adoption. I showed her to John and he was like "She is up for adoption? What is wrong with her?" It was at that moment that I think God had finally reached John a teeny tiny bit. We talked about hosting and possibly adopting her...YEP ADOPTING!! John was thinking about it. That was a step in the right direction for me. PRAISE GOD!! But after speaking to some people, we found out that we didn't have enough time before her birthday to get the adoption going. So the one child John agreed to, we could not consider.
I was disappointed but I knew that God was trying to tell me something else. The same feeling I had when I felt God's call to stay home, I had at that moment. God was just using that girl to soften John's heart. She wasn't meant to be our daughter. I had looked at international and domestic adoptions. I had looked over a lot of photolisting in the past couple weeks just to look. But I felt like I HAD to go look again. Again, I think it was God calling me, so I did. I looked at over 2,000 photolistings!!
And there she was...Jasmine. Her picture made me stop and stare. My heart jumped into my throat. My first thought was, "she's the one". Jasmine...she was meant to be our daughter. Every time I blinked I saw her face. Every time I thought about her my heart beat a little quicker. Jasmine...what would John think?? SO...I printed up several bio's and asked John to pick the ones he thought would be good fits. After reading them all he handed me one...JASMINE! So...after talking about it and 1000 questions from John...we decided to move forward!!
So thank you to everyone that prayed because it helped. One of the mountains was John's heart. He has opened his heart now and that was the major mountain. He went from a stern NO IT IS NOT HAPPENING to We will need to get her a phone, and put a TV in her room, and a bed.
I have taken the first steps with phone calls and emails. But now I ask all of you to PLEASE PRAY!! Pray that we can bring Jasmine home. I would love nothing more than to have her home by Christmas but I doubt that is possible.So my next goal would be to have her home by her 13th birthday...which is in June.
As I go through the process I will blog about it. The ups and the downs. So stay tuned!!
PS...this is the longest blog I will write...promise the rest won't be SOOOO wordy!
As many of you know, I was working a job for nearly a decade. One I was comfortable in but didn't much like what I was doing. I'll leave the details to a minimum. However, I was always complaining and wanting to leave. But financially it didn't seem possible and I was comfortable (even if there were days I was miserable). I prayed and prayed God would find me a new job. I prayed for Him to show me a way out of my situation. He did...He showed me how I could quit my job and stay home with my children. It scared the crap out of me because it was a HUGE leap of faith. Never before had I put all my trust in God. But I felt His call. His call to be home with my kids. It took some convincing on John's part. But I KNEW this was God's will...so I was pretty insistent. I open my in-home daycare and meet some awesome parents and children. But one is a very special little girl named Alanna. Alanna is a happy, funny almost 3 year old that steals the heart of everyone she meets. Alanna's parents are beyond amazing people too. Alanna has Down Syndrome and is from the Ukraine. She was adopted 18 months ago. Little by little, I talked to her Mom and she told me of the HORRIBLE conditions the children with special needs live in in Eastern Europe. Of course as soon as I researched and found out what it is like there I immediately wanted to go rescue them all! How can humans have such disregard for another human child? I will make a separate blog for that topic.
So I started talking to John about these poor children. His response was "that's sad but there's nothing we can do. We are NOT adopting". That wouldn't be an issue EXCEPT he has known since we were dating that I have always wanted to adopt. I have always wanted biological and adopted children. I, being who I am, kept bring it up and was met with a stern "NO"! Adoption was not in John's heart even a little bit. Even after I showed him pictures of these adorable kids.
Then I was reading about hosting a child for the holiday season from Eastern Europe. I figured, if he won't let me adopt, maybe he would at least let me show these children a better life. He wasn't sold on the idea, but I think he thought it was a nice break from the adoption talk :-) So I was looking through children who are available for hosting. There was one beautiful, seemingly intelligent young lady who was turning 16 during the hosting program. Once they are 16 they are no longer available for adoption. I showed her to John and he was like "She is up for adoption? What is wrong with her?" It was at that moment that I think God had finally reached John a teeny tiny bit. We talked about hosting and possibly adopting her...YEP ADOPTING!! John was thinking about it. That was a step in the right direction for me. PRAISE GOD!! But after speaking to some people, we found out that we didn't have enough time before her birthday to get the adoption going. So the one child John agreed to, we could not consider.
I was disappointed but I knew that God was trying to tell me something else. The same feeling I had when I felt God's call to stay home, I had at that moment. God was just using that girl to soften John's heart. She wasn't meant to be our daughter. I had looked at international and domestic adoptions. I had looked over a lot of photolisting in the past couple weeks just to look. But I felt like I HAD to go look again. Again, I think it was God calling me, so I did. I looked at over 2,000 photolistings!!
And there she was...Jasmine. Her picture made me stop and stare. My heart jumped into my throat. My first thought was, "she's the one". Jasmine...she was meant to be our daughter. Every time I blinked I saw her face. Every time I thought about her my heart beat a little quicker. Jasmine...what would John think?? SO...I printed up several bio's and asked John to pick the ones he thought would be good fits. After reading them all he handed me one...JASMINE! So...after talking about it and 1000 questions from John...we decided to move forward!!
So thank you to everyone that prayed because it helped. One of the mountains was John's heart. He has opened his heart now and that was the major mountain. He went from a stern NO IT IS NOT HAPPENING to We will need to get her a phone, and put a TV in her room, and a bed.
I have taken the first steps with phone calls and emails. But now I ask all of you to PLEASE PRAY!! Pray that we can bring Jasmine home. I would love nothing more than to have her home by Christmas but I doubt that is possible.So my next goal would be to have her home by her 13th birthday...which is in June.
As I go through the process I will blog about it. The ups and the downs. So stay tuned!!
PS...this is the longest blog I will write...promise the rest won't be SOOOO wordy!
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