Approved!

Yes, that's me making a cheesy excited smile, almost on the verge of looking a little scary.  Thank you, UPS guy, for taking the picture!

"It has been determined that you are able to furnish proper care to an orphan(s) as defined in Section 101 (B) (1) (F) of the Immigration and Nationality Act."

Basically, we've been approved!  Yup....our dossier is FINALLY complete.  This just means that our agency can finally send our dossier to Nepal.

At this point there is no definite time frame for the 2010 families.  Even though our dossier may go to Nepal, it's difficult to know when it will be processed.  Nepal is hoping to start processing 2010 applications in April, but I don't place my trust in that completely, because things are changing all the time. I can only trust that God has got this, and we have NO control over what happens.

Even now there have been several countries that are closing their adoptions to Nepal, because of unstubstantiated rumors about children being adopted out that are not truly orphans (they have one or both parents).  Nepal has gone to great lengths to make the process of defining an orphan in their country a very rigorous one.  Witnesses are required to prove orphan status, and investigations are made to further prove a child in an orphanage does not have parents.  They continue to follow the legislation as best as they can, but there are international groups out there who are trying to close adoption down in Nepal.  Personally, this makes me so stinkin' mad, because more than anything else, these children need permanent and loving homes.  Even in the United States, we are constantly trying to shorten a child's length of time in the foster care system, but red tape a seemingly million other factors continue to impede the speed at which a child is given a permanent home.  At what point do we say, "Enough is enough!" ?  We live in a fallen world.  Corruption and deceit is prevalent wherever you go.  No country has it perfect.  And no matter how strict the legislation, there will be always someone trying to break the rules.  How long will we allow our fear of corruption trump the need of child for a permanent home?

So anyways, thankfully God is bigger than all this.  But continue to pray for the children in Nepal who long for and need a permanent home.  Continue to pray for the government of Nepal, that they will be able to proceed with adoptions, despite outside pressure to shut down.

There are some 147 million orphans across the globe.  God says that true religion is to care for the widows and orphans.  So that's why I can't sit on my butt and pray someone else takes care of them.  That true religion is not just for some of us...it's for all of us.  I'm scared to death, too, but I'm excited at the same time.  The child God has for us is going to be one seriously amazing child!