Journey of Faith:Our Little Guy From China

Throughout this past year that we have been waiting in our journey to adopt from Nepal, I have been reading a lot about Nepal and adoption in general. Prior to choosing Nepal as the country our child was born in, I knew nothing of beautiful Nepal. I am not even sure I could have told you a year ago that Mount Everest was in Nepal. I am embarrassed to say that, but it is true.
I am now amazed at how this country has grown in my heart. Not just because I know it is the birth country of my son, but because it is truly a grand country. The rich culture, beautiful landscapes, and the meaning of family and friends to the Nepali people is why I have grown to love it so much.
I cannot say that I would have thought about Nepal if it had not been for this journey. I know that God has a perfect plan and his plan for us was to adopt from Nepal and to be connected with this country. Now I blog to tell all I can about this country and the need for adoption!
I cannot wait to meet my son! This will be the most special and blessed day of our lives. I also cannot wait to see what the future holds. My hope is that my family can travel to Nepal with us at least once when we bring our son back to visit his birth country. A LOT of things go through a person’s mind when waiting in the adoption process...

Last week was a rough week. I could not wait for the weekend. Then the weekend came. I payed bills and put together a kind of budget to see where and when we would have the rest of the money for the adoption. For some reason I have been paying way too much attention to money and I have been getting stressed about it. I just want to have our next payments ready and in the bank. Once we get a referral we have to have $9700 and the post placement fee of $2400. It doesn't help that our cat Romeo had to go in for emergency services last weekend. I wouldn't have had it any other way but to take Romeo in but gosh, I had no idea how my mood would be affected when I saw our savings account.
We went to church this morning and it is exactly what I needed. The memory verse for this week is Luke 12:31--"He will give you all you need from day to day if you make the Kingdom of God your primary concern."
This has been quite an issue for me for many years as I have let my thoughts be consumed by this adoption. I do know that he will provide. He always has and always will. I need to refocus my attention to reaching people for Christ!

Nepal Tidbits:
Nepal's population is 29.5 million
Kathmandu's population is 1 million
UN Human Development Index: 142 out of 177 countries
Life expectancy: 62 years
Nepalis who live on less than US$2 per day:82%

Last week there was no news coming out of Nepal. Will there be some news this week?

I thought the last day of Tihar was October 19th, then I read on the web that some were saying it was October 20th. I figured the source I took it from was wrong until I saw on Nepalnews.com(written on Tuesday, October 20th) that…

“The people of Newar community are celebrating Bhai Tika, the main and final day of Tihar, on Tuesday. The other Nepalis, however, celebrated the same occasion on Monday.
As the Newar community observed ‘Mha Puja (worshipping one’s own body) yesterday, they are celebrating Bhai Tika today.
This is the first time that the final day of Tihar, Bhai Tika is being observed on two days.” Nepalnews.com

This might explain why I couldn’t find a definitive answer on the web.

Well either way, the festival is over and there is no word of anything, not a peep, nothing...waiting...

This just in from the PEAR (Parents for Ethical Adoption Reform):

US Embassy in Kathmandu Not Conducting Preinvestigations

On September 29, 2009, the DOS issued an Adoption Notice for Nepal that contained the following statement:
"As part of required processing for orphan adoption cases, the Embassy conducts a thorough investigation of each case. Prospective adoptive parents should be aware that the investigation process may take several months, which could mean that prospective adoptive parents who travel to Nepal before the investigation is completed will need to spend a significant amount of time in country."
Some US adoption agencies and prospective adoptive parents interpreted this statement to mean that the Embassy would be conducting pre-investigations and completing the investigation prior to the family traveling to Nepal. PEAR contacted both the US Department of State, Office of Children's Issues and US Embassy in Nepal for clarification on the statement. According to both the Office of Children's Issues at the Department of State and the Adoption Unit at the US Embassy in Nepal, visa investigations commence after the final adoption decree and no pre-investigations are occurring at this time.
PEAR has been in continued discussions with the DOS to change the Adoption Notice to correctly reflect the process in order to avoid confusion and misinterpretation. At this point, the DOS and US Embassy are consulting on the proper wording for the Notice.We will update with any further information as we receive it.

I am a little bummed by this news. I just pray that when our time comes to travel that the investigation for our child goes smoothly and there are no issues to be found. I wish we could travel after the investigation is over but it sounds like that will not be the cast. It is not that I would not like to spend more time in the country of my son's birth, but Tim will need to get back to work right away. The 2-3 weeks is going to be tough enough on his job so we hope that this is all the time we will need to be in country at this time.