The Education of Adopted Older Children

I want to write this as a bit of encouragement to parents who are considering the international adoption of older children.  Obviously there are a lot of factors and issues involved in adopting older children that are not as relevant when adopting babies.  One issue that is often a concern is how will the older child adapt to English and to the American education system.  This concern is true for whether you are planning on having your child attend school or homeschool.  Well, I just want to let you know that our 15 year old son, a sophomore in a public school just recently made a 93 on his United States History exam.  When you consider that he is still learning English and that just 6 months ago he did not know who Robert E. Lee or Ulysses S. Grant were, what he has accomplished is nothing short of remarkable.  This isn't to say that it has been easy.  It has required a great deal of work but it can be done.

I know that this doesn't address every issue of concern that prospective parents have but hopefully it will encourage you on this one. 

Passing on Works of Faith

In college I had a professor who said the only real ethical reason to have children is to pass on your faith.  Obviously, I would like to be able to do just that with our own children.  Of course, Scripture teaches us that faith without works is dead and if the discussion that my children were having the other night is any indication of some of the work they are planning than hopefully it is an indication of the faith they have in God to provide them the ability to fulfill that work.  You see, the work they want to do is adopt. 

Somehow a discussion began on how many children they were going to have.  All but Hannah, who said she wasn't having children (which are words of a moody teenager who is just bothered by the fact that she is greatly outnumbered with 4 brothers but who didn't want to leave the babies in the orphanage in Ethiopia), said that they were going to have children and that they were all planning on adopting.  It seems to me that this is a good work of faith to pass on.

With 147 million orphans in the world who need a home, I hope you'll pass it on as well.

Never Will I Leave You

It's Urgent!

Earlier today I received an email asking me if receiving the money for the adoption was urgent or if we had some time before the money was needed.  My first reaction was to simply say, "No, it isn't urgent."  Then I began to think a little more.  You see, the reality is that, no, it isn't urgent and yet it is.  When you adopt, particularly when it is an international adoption, there are many fees that you have to pay.  There is the immigration/fingerprinting fees, the agency fees, the country's fees from where you are adopting, the shipping fees, the fees to have your paperwork authenticated, the fees to order the numerous certificates (birth, marriage, etc.), and so on and so forth.  These fees all come at different times and different stages of the adoption process.  This is why, in our latest fundraising efforts we focused on the $830.00 that was needed for the immigration paperwork and fingerprinting (which, by the way, we did receive).  Now we have to get ready to pay for our homestudy which will be $1800.00.  Plus there are physicals for everyone in the family, TB test, state authentication of paperwork, and so on.  As you can see it begins to add up.

The question remains, is there an urgent need?  Well again, adoption is a process of steps and they have to be done in order and they have to be paid for along the way.  This means that our son will continue to wait in an orphanage in Ethiopia until we have everything here done and paid for.  In addition there is the matter of his age and his limited time left in order to be eligible for adoption.  In realistic terms we have about a year to complete this.  In realistic terms it takes about a year to complete this - if you have the money to pay for everything to get it completed.

So is there an urgency to this?  Yes and no.  As a father who desires to bring his son home, it is the most urgent thing in my world.  As a often too proud man who hates asking for help, I'm begging for it now.  I wish I could tell you more of the young boy we long to adopt.  I wish I could show you a picture of his wonderful face with his bright eyes that reflect such hope and such joy.  Then you too would fall in love.  Thank you for your help and God bless.

Nice Mommy and Daddy

If you need a reason to consider adoption, particularly to adopt older children, I submit the following two stories that are brought to you courtesy of Feromsa:

1. Out of the blue Feromsa began to discuss being at Kids Care Orphanage. In this discussion he made this comment, "In Kids Care I pray, 'Please give me nice mommy and nice daddy' and now I have nice Mommy and nice Daddy!"

2. In another discussion about being in Kids Care Feromsa offered this observation, "The big kids know that people don't want them. They want the little kids. I was scared I too big."

I don't think any commentary is necessary.