5 for Hope: No Birth Certificate Yet...

Thursday, December 6, 2007

No Birth Certificate Yet...

Ana's new birth certificate has not yet been issued, but we received an update today detailing the situation. While the news is not all positive, Brian and I feel thankful that there is a plan in place to deal with the problem and are grateful that we have only been waiting 3 weeks (not the 2 months that some families have been waiting). We are also thankful that we are working with an agency committed to handling such situations in an ethical and Godly manner. We are asking for your prayers to complete this process so that we are able to bring her home soon after Christmas.

The following is the email we received from our program director:

"Dear Families,
I wanted to give you all an update on what’s going on in Civil Registry. As many of you know, the current situation has been that there were numerous files with forged PGN approvals. These files were caught and now all files in Mixco CR are undergoing investigation to ensure that there are no false documents. In some cases, birth moms are even being brought in for interviews to ensure their adoptions are legal. Families are going on 2 months, if not longer, in Civil Registry and children that should be home now are looking at longer waits to be united with their new families. This is a very sad situation and I know so many of you are frustrated but I need everyone to understand that the corruption that has been going on is exactly why the new adoption law and processes need to be implemented.

I spoke with our lawyer in Guatemala and she told me that she had received an anonymous phone call earlier this week from someone within Civil Registry stating that the only way to get our files out is to pay money. This is a horrible situation and as an ethical agency, we will not pay. This has also happened to other lawyers and agencies and has been reported to the PGN. For those of you that are following list servs and other postings, please understand that the files coming out with birth certificates are the ones that have been paid for OR are not in the Mixco CR. Both our lawyer and Heather have been to PGN and Civil Registry to advise them of this blackmail. We sent a letter to PGN last week asking for a letter stating all AGCI approvals from PGN are legal. The secretary of Barrios (head of PGN) called our lawyer back today and let her know that Barrios is out of town, but as soon as he gets back he will send a list of all our approved PGN files to Civil Registry to get the files out. The secretary said she will call our lawyer as soon as this occurs. We do not know when he will be back but as soon as we know that he is back, we will get that letter and get your files.

I want all of you to know that Soojin and I, as well as our staff in Guatemala, are doing everything we can to avoid all of this corruption and ensure that all of your cases are being processed ethically and legally. I know that many of you had planned on having your children home by now and all I can say is that I’m so sorry. I wish that these were issues we could control but they are all due to a foreign government that works very differently.

At this point, Soojin and I need your patience and support more than ever. We care about all of you so much and as hard as this situation is for each one of you, we also carry your burdens. We ask for your prayers at this time for some resolution and good news. We will contact you when we have further news."

That being said, we are still hopeful to travel sometime the first part of the year. We trust in God's perfect timing and right now, are thoroughly enjoying the Christmas season with Joel and Grace and their many different activities. It certainly makes this year extra special to be preparing, as a family, for such an exciting trip. It also helps to put the meaning of the season in perspective. We have been packing up numerous boxes of items to take to the orphanage with us, and I feel like this is the first year that our kids are really experiencing joy that comes from giving more than receiving. Thank you, once again, for your many prayers. We will send an update as soon as we have more information.

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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."