The Faith of a Child, Part 2

In case you missed Part 1, read it here.

Agency decision made, we eagerly started the first set of paperwork and began the home study process, firsts in a long list of requirements. Our agency prioritizes prospective adoptive children and does not match a family with a child in the Ethiopia program until the family’s home study and immigration approval are officially cleared and paperwork is primarily ready to send to the country. Typically the Ethiopia program, mindful and protective of the children, does not share much more than a few sentences of information about Waiting Children (WC) until a family is cleared. 

Little was known about A, but John continued to believe he’d identified his brother. When we’d first seen the list of WC on our agency’s private site, there were 7-10 boys listed in Africa in our preferred age range. We didn’t know which countries they were in. Toward the end of March, we learned only two of the boys were in Ethiopia; A was one. 

Away from the kids, David and I admitted to each other we both felt a draw to A, but believed we still had too far to go in the process to be the family for him. We prayed God would provide him the right family and encouraged our kids that God would use our prayers for him, as well as the other children. Still, we decided to do what we could to move through the paperwork process quickly since John was praying for A to stay in the orphanage. You know, just in case. “Quickly,” mind you, still takes months.

The second week of July, the agency mailed our home study and application requesting approval to adopt an orphan (Form I-600A) to the US Customs & Immigration Services (USCIS). Although we were told USCIS processing times were 60-90 days, we prayed for expediency. The other 6 y/o boy in Ethiopia, who had been on the agency’s WC list, was no longer listed; we hoped it was because he’d been chosen by a family. John frequently asked me to pull A’s picture up to make sure he was still there, yet he remained convinced A was the child meant for our family. The girls had been praying, too. 

Forty-two days after our I-600A application had entered the USCIS lockbox, we received word of our approval. We were grateful. We had been approved to adopt, and A was still waiting for a family. After the agency reviewed our file alongside A’s, they issued, and we accepted, a referral for A. 

We are still months away from bringing A home, but we are thankful for the lessons in faith so far. Though John’s initial prayer struck fear in our adult hearts, it has been a joy to guide our children in praying through the process and praying specifically. Madeline, Abby and John have prayed for things they'd never heard about and for people they’ve never met: waiting children, birth families, orphan caregivers, agency workers, government workers – lots and lots of government workers – including ones who accidently issued us a divorce verification in lieu of a marriage certificate, fingerprints, appointments, applications, authentications, state seals, dossiers, and other families in the adoption process.

We appreciate others who have prayed for and with us. Please continue. As for John, he still prays boldly. The night we gave thanks for our official match with A, John upped his request ending with, "and please let A come home by Christmas."