5 for Hope: OUT of PGN!!!

Thursday, November 15, 2007

OUT of PGN!!!

It is with GREAT joy that I write this update today... After 8 long weeks, we are officially OUT of PGN!!! Ana's paperwork was approved and signed today! We are still somewhat amazed that we finally received "the call". We are so very grateful for the many prayers offered up on our behalf. It is truly the work of God which has allowed this process to go smoothly for us. There are countless cases that have been stuck in PGN well over a year. God has been so very faithful throughout this whole process and we give Him the glory for this wonderful news. It was quite a sight at our home this afternoon...The phone rang at approximately 4:33 p.m. :-). Brian had just gotten home from school and we had just taken a moment to look at some photos of Ana that were taken by a friend of ours who was on a mission trip at Hannah's Hope all last week. When the phone rang, I picked it up and immediately recognized SooJin's voice (our case manager). She told me that she had just received word of our approval. The next few minutes were filled with tears, "wo-hoos" (from Joel and Grace) and lots and lots of jumping around the kitchen. I hardly remember the information that she told me following the good news, but thankfully, she sent us a follow-up email clearly stating all the steps that need to happen next. Here they are...1. Ana's birthmom needs to come to Hannah's Hope sometime in the next few days to sign the final adoption decree. This will make Ana legally our child. If she is unable to come and sign the document, our legal team will utilize the Power of Attorney we signed in June and Ana willat that point be legally ours. (If the POA has to be used, this will add approximately 1 week to the processing time.) 2. Ana's adoption must be registered with Civil Registry in Guatemala. This is where they will issue her a new birth certificate with our lastname on it. This step in the process used to take only 1 week, but is now taking 4+ weeks. (PGN has asked them to review all of the adoptions a final time before granting new birth certificates.) 3. Ana has to have a second DNA test to ensure that she is the same baby that started this adoption. (Crazy, but it is required...) This takes about 2 weeks. 4. All of the documents in Ana's case need to be translated back intoEnglish. 5. Once the positive DNA results are received, Ana's paperwork is passed on to the U.S. Embassy in Guatemala and they issue us a Visa appointment. The appointment is usually 1-2 weeks from the time we are notified. At that time, we can purchase plane tickets and go pick her up. While it still may be mid-January before we are able to bring her home, we are absolutely THRILLED to have this part of the process behind us. At least now, all of the other steps are predictable and fall within a specified time range. Again, we thank you so very, very much for all of your prayers. It has made such a difference!

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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."