5 for Hope: Update #2 from AGCI

Friday, January 19, 2007

Update #2 from AGCI

Dear Families,
This week, I want to highlight our Guatemalan staff. These are people who work so hard for all of the families to make sure that your adoption is processed. Heather Radu, our director in Guatemala, has given so much to be in Guatemala to oversee the program there. I know many of you have read her story and support her fully, but I was reminded when she was visiting over Christmas that it isn’t easy to run an orphanage and home for birth mothers in a third-world country. There are many challenges that come her way and some days, she probably feels like giving up. But, she has committed herself to AGCI and to the children, the moms, her staff, and our Guatemalan families. Then there’s Danny and Melissa, our awesome legal assistants who just never seem to rest. They make sure that our updates get to us every week. And Hector, our lawyer who keeps all of your cases in order somehow and works on your behalf to make sure you can bring your child home. There’s Gaby and Ashley, who work closely with the infants at Hannah’s Hope, overseeing their care and loving those babies. They are the ones working on your progress reports, taking pictures, working with Dr. Castro to make sure the babies are healthy and supporting the special moms in their care for the babies! Gaby and Ashley work tirelessly to correspond with us so that we feel as though we are right there with them. And those special moms, what wonderful people they are! I’m sure many of us would love to spend time with babies all day…although some of you may not! A big thanks to Ester who directs our Promise of Life program for our expecting birth moms and walks with them through an enormous decision. And Dr. Castro, can I say again how thankful we are for him. We are more than blessed to have a full-time doctor who had a heart for the children at Hannah’s Hope, which led him to turn down offers he had from larger, more well known organizations! Wow!!! I know that they would appreciate a word of thanks or encouragement since they don’t get to speak with all of you unless you meet them in Guatemala. I would be happy to forward any emails on to Heather.

PGN families: Please get excited!!! The PGN now has four more advisors. Instead of 7, there are 11 now. And did you know that the PGN processes 4,000-5,000 adoptions every year. This news should bring rejoicing for those currently in the PGN, and those who will be soon entering the PGN.
For your information: We are still very much in transition within our Guatemalan program. Not only are we trying to provide the best service to all of you, but Jill (that’s me) is still being trained in the process of adoption for Guatemala. I imagine it will take 3-6 months until I start to feel comfortable with it all. Also, Naomi is on maternity leave as I mentioned before. SooJin and Kim are still here, but imagine for a moment being them and losing Naomi before they expected to, only to gain a brand new person. Yikes! I don’t want to worry you, I just want you to know that it will take time to work out the kinks. For your quick reference: please direct paperwork questions, Family court and DNA matters to SooJin, speak with Kim on case management needs, travel, and PGN, Civil Registry, and USE updates. Right now, I am working on referrals, orientation calls, program management and ongoing needs of the program, updating our literature, and handling the tougher aspects of adoption.
Also, just a reminder of our office hours. M-Th, we are open from 8:30-4:30pm PST, and F is an AGCI administrative day. If you call or email us on Friday, you may not hear back from us until Mon. or Tue. of the following week.
A heads up if you are adopting a child. That’s all of you! During the week of Easter, Guatemala celebrates their Holy Week and most governmental agencies are closed for the week. Please prepare yourself for a delay in regards to Family Court, DNA appointments, USE pre-approvals and visa appointments, Civil Registry, PGN, Foreign Relations, and the kitchen sink!!! Also, there will be large governmental meetings in Guatemala and all hotels are already reserved for these dates: March 16th to 21st and June 28th to July 8th. This means no families will be traveling at these times. We apologize, but wanted you to be aware ahead of time. If you have a USE visa appointment scheduled during these dates, we will have to reschedule your appointment.

PLACEMENTS:
We have placed two boys and two girls this week and are hoping to place a couple more this month.
We will not be calling you with new numbers until the first two weeks of February so that we can renumber the lists all at once.

FIRST TRIP:
Two families traveled to meet their children for the first time this week.

FAMILY COURT:
We had five family court appointments this week.

DNA PROCESS:
We completed one DNA appt. this week and have many more on the way!
Two families received their pre-approvals this week for the USE.
The US Embassy continues to process the pre-approvals in approximately 30 days once the DNA lab results are received by the USE.

PGN:
We had one family come out of the PGN this week!

CIVIL REGISTRY:
Two families were submitted to CR as of our last update, and we are hoping to submit six more either by today or the beginning of next week.

IN TRANSLATION:
We have 4 cases currently in translation; once everything has been translated these cases will be submitted to the USE for their pink slips!

IN US EMBASSY:
Five files have completed the CR and translation steps, and we submitted these files to the US Embassy this week for their pink slip.

PINK SLIP:
One family traveled this week to pick up their child.

Blessings,
Jill, Kim and SooJin

No comments:

Post a Comment

Favorite Family Verses

The grace of God will not take you where the will of God can not sustain you.

I do not occupy myself with things too great and too marvelous for me. But I have calmed and quieted my soul..."
~Psalm 131: 1-2~

"I can do all things through Him who strengthens me."
~ Phillippians 4:13 ~
(Brian chose this verse to be engraved in Jen's wedding ring.)

"No one has ever seen God; if we love one another, God lives in us, and His love is perfected in us."
~ 1 John 4:12 ~
(Jen chose this verse to be engraved in Brian's wedding ring.)

Our Thanks to You...

For those of you who have gone through the adoption process, you understand what a blessing it is to have a "cloud of witnesses" that surround you, uphold you in prayer, and agree to give up their time to assist in the incredible amount of paperwork that accompanies this decision. We have been incredibly blessed by the love shown to us by our friends. Many of you have spent hours filling out letters of recommedation, have made countless trips to the bank to have documents notarized only to find out that they need to be renotarized (and renotarized, and renotarized). Many of you have prayed for us, not only over the past few months, but the past few years, as well. Words can not adequately express our gratitude to you for the wonderful gift of your friendship. Thank you, from our entire family, for helping us to bring Ana Hope home to our family. And now that we venture forward, as a family of five, we continue to be blessed by your friendship, your prayers, and your constant support in caring for our family.

About All God's Children International

The following is "Heather's Story" as described in her mother's book The Strength of Mercy" (Jan Beazely). "Many years ago, when I was just eighteen, God called me to walk into the fields of the fatherless in Romania. There I was honored to find my sister Hannah. I had no way of knowing that Hannah’s adoption was just the beginning of what God had planned for my life. My call became my family’s mission as well. We were probably very much like your family, very ordinary, and one day God just asked us to answer His extraordinary call. Many people have asked me, “How did All God's Children International begin?” My answer is simply this... The first time I walked into a Romanian orphanage in 1990, I was overwhelmed by what I saw and I wanted to do something. Hopeless little orphan faces stared up at me and hardly responded when I reached out to touch them. I remember praying with tears running down my face, “Lord, there are so many…and their needs are so great… How can I even begin to help them all? God spoke back to me clearly. “Heather, you see the multitudes, but I know each one by name, all I’m asking you to do is to try, just help them one at a time.” So that is what I did. A month after completing Hannah’s adoption for my parents, AGCI officially became a Christian adoption and relief agency. I returned to Romania to help give the children I left behind the second chance they deserved. One child became two. Two turned into three and now over the last 16 years we have been privileged to give thousands of second chances to orphaned children not just in Romania, but Bulgaria, Russia, Guatemala, Nepal, Vietnam, Kazakhstan, Ukraine, Macedonia, India, China and now Ethiopia. Through our foreign adoption services, our orphan relief and child sponsorship programs, as well as our Hannah’s Hope children’s homes, AGCI continues to make a difference in little lives. We have indeed grown over the years, but my passion to rescue and care for children has never changed. I continue to help them one at a time. I understand now that the compassion I felt was there for a reason. God’s voice is never silent concerning the orphan. If you listen you can hear Him whispering in the darkness at night. He continues to shout from the rooftops at daybreak. He fervently lays before the world His concern for the orphan. So never overlook small beginnings, never dismiss the vision God plants in your heart concerning a needy child. I believe that you are not reading my words by accident, but rather by divine appointment. Thank you so much for listening to my heart. I am praying that I have encouraged you to ask, “What can I do?” For somewhere in the world today an orphan needs your help… they wait in the fields of the fatherless hoping for a second chance. There is nothing in life more overwhelming then to walk through orphanage doors around the world and hear the heartbreaking echo of the orphan's cry. Nothing more unforgettable than to watch countless children run toward outstretched arms longing for just one embrace. Nothing more painful then to gaze into silent orphan eyes pleading for someone to come and care. And there is nothing more humbling than to witness such desperate need and then not be able to give every orphan child the second chance they deserve. Together we can soothe their cries, provide the embrace they long for, and send someone to care."