Going Private

Due to the volatility of International adoption, we have decided to make this blog private. We hate to do this because we really wanted this blog to be available to anyone interested in adoption. We wanted to use it as a tool to keep our friends and family up to date and also to educate people about International adoption and the process. To follow our blog privately, please click on the follow button. You will need to create a google account. You can do that by using ANY email address. It does not have to be a google address. This blog will be going private in the next week, so please join quickly. If you miss the "deadline", please FB or email us and we will send you an invitation to join at any point in the future. Thanks!

While We Wait

Here we go – it’s easy to say that God’s timing is perfect, but believing it is not always so easy. It turns out there was a tiny - and I mean TINY error (a typo on a 5-digit license# out of pages and pages of information and supporting documents) on our home study. Because of that number transposition, we are now waiting to have that one page corrected, resigned, re-notarized, etc. before we can mail our paperwork to Immigrations.

So, while we've been waiting on our home study, we have continued to educate ourselves about the Congo. I have to be honest - the more we learn, the harder it is to be at peace with the waiting.


Some quick statistics from various sources:


-The infant mortality rate is more than 8/100.


-4/10 children don't live to see their first birthdays because of the lack of safe drinking water, malaria, and other issues.


-1/5 children dies before their fifth birthday.


-There are 5 million orphans in the DRC.


-Some say that the DRC is the poorest African country.


-Some adoptive parents have experienced first hand the devastation and poverty in Congo. We’ve read of adoptive parents who have had their child pass away before they could bring him/her home (can’t imagine that one).


The statistics are daunting. We wonder how much difference our family can make. We’re just your average American family.

Leave it to a nine year old to put that one in perspective. I was talking about how there are so many orphans in Congo and Hallie (who refers to herself as the “ninester” since she’s nine years old) said, "Yes, but we're going to save one, Mommy. There's going to be one less. One orphan is going to have a forever family!" We've heard many adoptive parents say the same thing, but coming from the mouth of a child made me realize that “5 million orphans minus one” is not a cliché. It is a reality. There may be 5 million orphans in the Congo, but when our child comes home, there will be 5 million minus one!

Thank you for supporting us in this journey.

Our Home Study is Complete!

Our home study is complete!! We received official notice today that we can expect it to arrive in the mail within a day or so. The home study is the main piece of our dossier. Now that it is complete, we can begin the immigration process. We've been told that this process takes the longest. It can take a couple of weeks or a couple of months. The prayer is that this adoption process moves according to God's timing.

Well, since this has been posted of Facebook (this wasn’t for publication for a little while), I can now officially let you all know that we will be having “company” for our adoption journey. We’re so excited to be sharing this experience with George’s brother and sister-in-law, Art & Vickie. Art & Vickie have also applied to adopt from the DRC.

When we first began considering adoption, my thoughts were that we would adopt from Korea. Art & Vickie have two biological children and four adopted children from Korea. We absolutely love our nieces and nephews and figured Korea would be a logical place from which to adopt. As I’ve said before, God has been leading us in this process and Korea was not part of His plan. People have told me that God leads you to the country where your child is. I truly believe that because we already feel so incredibly bonded to a child in the Congo we’ve yet to meet!

Instead of Korea, His plan was for us to adopt from the DRC. Art & Vicki have a heart for adoption and have talked about adopting more children, but weren’t sure they’d meet the criteria for Korea anymore. Long story short – I mentioned the DRC to Vick one day and said, “Wanna join us?” I thought they might be interested, but since we don’t have the opportunity to talk frequently, that was all that was said.

When I contacted Vickie to let her know we were definitely filing our application, I asked again, “Are you joining us?” She answered my question with an email that said, “Does this answer your question?” Attached was correspondence she’d had with adoption agencies on the DRC. Unbeknownst to me, she had spoken with many of the same people as I had (not just at our adoption agency). How confusing it must’ve been for them to have two very focused women with the same last name trying to weed out the details that would lead them to their children! I’m sure they were thinking, “Didn’t I already talk to Mrs. Laubach once (or twice or three times) today?” While Art & Vickie are in Hawaii and we are in Pennsylvania, we’ve both chosen the same adoption agency. We’re hoping that it will work out that we will be able to travel to the Congo together when the time comes to pick up our children. Please be praying for them as well as for us.

In the meantime, we’re continuing to work on paperwork. Our home study is nearing completion. We’ve gotten our fingerprints, pet immunizations, etc. I don’t know how I’ll feel when the paperwork’s finished. I’m not an overly patient person. The paperwork makes me feel like we’re being productive - like what we are doing is getting us one step closer to our child. Somehow I don’t think the waiting will give me the same satisfaction as checking items off my list of things to do! I’m reminded that it doesn’t matter what we do. Things will happen as they’re supposed to. Ecclesiastes 3:11 tells us that God’s timing is perfect. The waiting, whether it ends up being short or long, is all part of God’s plan and His timing.

Ecclesiastes 3:11 “He has made everything beautiful in HIS time.”