Showing posts with label international adoption. Show all posts
Showing posts with label international adoption. Show all posts

Saturday, October 11, 2014

BOOK EXCERPT: CHILDREN OF DREAMS, An Adoption Memoir: “There is a Time for Everything,” by Lorilyn Roberts





Chapter Three
There is a time for everything
Ecclesiastes 3:1

There was so much to do and so little time. If God had made a day to be twenty-five hours long, I could have filled that extra hour up with something. When a woman gets pregnant, she has nine months to prepare for her new bundle of joy. I only had two months.

Our U.S. international adoption laws were never written for the faint of heart. Not only did I have to meet the U.S. international requirements, I had to meet Nepal’s requirements as well. Each country has its own set of documentation that must be filled out, submitted, and approved.

I had to fill out an application for an I-600 Petition that permits a person to classify an orphan as an immediate relative, allowing the adoptive parents to bring the child into the country. I had to complete a notarized affidavit of support and provide a copy of my marriage certificate and divorce decree. I had to submit employment letters, plus my 1040 since I was self-employed.

My bank had to provide a certified letter stating what my average balance was for the previous twelve months. I had to show proof of citizenship by providing a certified copy of my birth certificate. I had to type up a cover letter stating I wished to complete filing of my I-600 Petition and attach my fingerprints to the document. I had to have a home study performed by a licensed social worker approving me as a prospective parent. The police department did an abuse registry check to make sure that I didn’t have a criminal record. I had to pass a physical and show verification of health insurance. It seems like there was more, but I blocked it out. I don’t want to remember.

With international adoptions, individual countries can open and close adoptions without notice or make changes in requirements. When I initially began the adoption process, I was looking at Guatemala. While gathering my documents, Guatemala closed adoptions and I had to find another adoption agency and country.

After filling out all the required paperwork, I had to make sure my passport was valid so I could travel outside the country. Then I prayed that I would stay sane because I hate filling out documents. International child referrals can take a long time because of the voluminous paperwork, or worse—political upheavals, greed, corruption, baby-selling, and deceitful scams. Sometimes it takes years to jump through all the hoops. For God to accomplish Manisha’s adoption in two months was nothing short of miraculous, but then again, we have a God who is in the business of doing what, humanly speaking, seems impossible.

Even before I left, God was taking care of every detail that would require His intervention for Manisha to be my daughter. I had no idea how close I would come to not getting her.

God had always put extraordinary people in my life to accomplish His sovereign purposes. A couple of days before leaving, as I was packing my six sets of documents, I called the Immigration and Naturalization Service in Miami, Florida, to see if they had received my dossier.

“You must be psychic,” the woman on the other end of the phone said. “Your packet was just placed in front of me.”

“No, I am not psychic. I am a Christian and I think God wants me to adopt this little girl.” She wasn’t sure what to say to that, so she continued to go through a list of things.

“I don’t see your home study,” she said. “They never gave it to me,” I told her. “It was mailed by the adoption agency that did my home study, to the adoption agency in the Midwest that was coordinating the Nepali side of things.”

“You must have that document,” she insisted. “I will overnight a copy of it to you and make sure you take it with you.”

The next day, the home study arrived by Fed Ex, and I made a copy and packed it in my suitcase. Neither adoption agency made sure I had it. A lady from the INS gave it to me overnight by Federal Express.

I could not have adopted Manisha without the home study in my possession.

After dinner and having returned to the Bleu Hotel, I climbed the three flights of stairs to my room and filled out a couple of faxes to let people know I had arrived safely. This was back in the prehistoric days before email. I walked down the stairs again to hand the papers to the receptionist. As I waited for him to finish sending the fax, another Canadian man whom I had not met earlier walked up and gave me one of those looks that makes a woman feel uncomfortable.

I tried to turn away from him, but he persisted, “Why don’t you come up to my room tonight...”

I thought I would be nauseous. The last thing I wanted to do was spend an evening with some guy I didn’t know. I tried to explain to him I was adopting a little girl, but he had no interest in hearing about that.

I quickly finished my business with the attendant and once again climbed up the three flights of stairs making sure he didn’t follow.

Ankit later told me, “You know the wickedness of man. Man is even more wicked here.” I had no reason to doubt him. More than once while in Nepal, I felt the evilness that I associated with Hinduism. It was like a coffin being lowered into the ground, a veil covering the truth, the darkness of a bottomless pit full of people with no hope.

📘📘📘📘📘




Friday, August 17, 2012

GUEST POST BY AUTHOR MELISSA MAIN: They Will Know We Are Christians by Our Love




“…and do not oppress the widow or the orphan, the stranger or the poor; and do not devise evil in your hearts against one another” (Zechariah 7:10).

Anyone who knows me (Lorilyn Roberts) knows my heart for children around the world. Most of us are unable to wrap our minds around the enormity of the plight of orphans and how that translates into the lives of children—until we put a face to it. Recently a friend of mine traveled to Mexico to visit an orphanage, and I asked her if she would be willing to share a few pictures and thoughts on my blog.

In Melissa Main’s Words


“We visited Door of Faith Orphanage in La Mision, in Baja California, a state in Mexico. It's odd but there is a state of California in both Mexico and the US.

I traveled to La Mision, Mexico… to build houses for poverty-stricken Mexican families and to provide support for orphanages and other charities. We distributed food to needy families and offered encouragement to workers at the orphanages and no cost day care center….there is an incredible amount of joy and satisfaction in giving to those in need and changing their lives forever. People are designed for a purpose. Helping others fulfills one of our hearts' greatest needs and helps us to discover our purpose in life.”

Children come to orphanages in Mexico because of abuse, neglect, and poverty. Some families are too poor to care for their children. They leave the children home alone while they work out of town and then they are picked up by the Mexican government and placed in orphanages. Sometimes they are left alone during the day if the parents work in town.


Tony, the 10-month-old baby in the photo, was left home alone during the day. His head was flat and dented in the back. He is very snuggly and responding well to the love and attention he receives at Door of Faith Orphanage. Sometimes babies are sent to orphanages when a mother is very young…

*~*~*~*

I have been touched personally by two small children from Nepal and Vietnam. Here are the referral photos of my daughters—they were orphans before I adopted them.



What would God’s news headlines be if He were to script today’s top stories? I have no doubt he would urge Christians to take care of the orphans and widows. Over one hundred fifty million children go to bed hungry each night. Many have lost their parents due to aids, starvation, and lack of clean water. Whenever the news covers these heart-wrenching pieces, my heart breaks because the needs are so great. Feeling overwhelmed can paralyze you from doing anything, but one person can make a difference—and you could be that person.

If you would like more information on how you can be God’s loving hands and face to a child—who longs to know Jesus’ love, here are a few links. It doesn’t take a saint to do a heroic act—it only takes a willing servant who says yes to God’s whisper in his heart.



Hope’s Promise http://www.hopespromise.com/



Today my children are normal American kids—the transformation with a little bit of love is amazing!




You can also visit Melissa Main’s blog at http://mainwriters.com/

Friday, March 9, 2012

GUEST POST BY CHRISTIAN PASTOR BOB SAFFRIN


 

Today I received this email from a reader of my book Children of Dreams. I was moved because it was written by a Christian pastor, Bob Saffrin, who just recently returned from India. So many children, so many needs. What we could do if more Christian families would choose adoption, or even sponsor a child internationally.




Lorilyn,
I read your book Children of Dreams on the 20+ hour plane ride to India. I thought it would be a book that appealed more to women but I wanted to read it because I am trying to read stuff that will help me be a better author. 
I was surprised. I think it is the best book I have read for as long as I can remember! I was so touched by your struggles to have a family and how well you related it all to God’s own efforts to have a family. Mercy is not my giftedness but I have been on many trips with “moms” who cry over little naked village children with no hope and no future. They cry as we get into our rented SUV and drive off, leaving them behind. 

This year I met a 12-year-old boy who worked in a brickyard making bricks by hand by filling a wooden mold with mud. He had no family, his mother just dropped him off there when he was 5 because she couldn’t feed him. I asked him how much money he made. He said he had to make 1000 bricks a day. It took him 12 hours, 7 days a week and he made 5 rupees a day (10c), and they also gave him rice. This boy was a virtual slave and I stood there and there was nothing I could do. I made friends with him, had him teach me how to make bricks, and introduced him to Jesus but in the end, I got in the car and drove away. 
I was touched as I read your book to hear of two little girls who God rescued from the darkness and the hopelessness. I wish every woman that is considering an abortion could read your book.  I’m so glad that in your book you recognized that they truly are children of dreams but they aren’t your dreams, they are God’s. You just got to go along for the ride. Little by little I’m learning to let go of my dreams and connect with God’s dreams for my life.
Some of the cultural issues you dealt with in Nepal reminded me of India. In India, unless you are in a major city there is no such thing as TP. If you ask they don’t even know what you are talking about. When I meet with new team members for India I usually tell them they can bring their own or I will have it for sale for $1.00 a sheet. It seems that God has given you and me a similar call to adventure. By the way, I looked at your Facebook photos because I wanted to see Manisha and Joy and I discovered that you and I share the same birthday – Oct 17th. J