our dozen beautiful feet

Today I set out to get a police clearance from India.  I went first to the police station closest to our house.  They said I needed to go to a different police office.   So I went there.   I knew I’d never find it on my own, so I found an auto driver, told him where I wanted to go, and told him I’d follow him in the car.  All 7 of the guys in the room were very helpful and friendly.  They listened for awhile, had quite a bit of discussion, then told me I needed to go to the District Police Center in the collectorate circle.   So I went there.   Well, I went to the wrong building first, but finally found the right place.  I went to the supposed right office and explained what I needed.  These guys didn’t seem too interested in listening or helping, and told me they didn’t do anything for foreigners, that I needed to go to the FRO.  They showed me a piece of paper in Hindi that supposedly said all foreigners have to go the FRO (Foreigners Registration Office).   So

I n sub-Saharan Africa, 1 out of every 8 children is an orphan.  Of the 143 million orphans worldwide, more live in Ethiopia than any other country in the world. Just twice the size of Texas,  it is home to five million orphaned children.  While international adoption from Ethiopia has increased in recent years, at the current rate it would take 5 million families, $125 billion, and 2,500 years to solve the Ethiopian orphan crisis. Ethiopia is ranked by the UN as one of the four poorest countries in the world. The average annual income is less than $160. In Ethiopia, 1 out of every 10 children is an orphan. In 2008, 650,000 children were orphaned by AIDS alone. In 2007, 197 people died per day due to AIDS (71,902 annual). The average Ethiopian woman gives birth to 5.9 children. 1 in 10 children die before their first birthday; 1 in 6 die before age five. More than half of those deaths are attributed to malnutriti

The process has begun.  We’ve sent the agency application in.  We’ve applied to a home study agency.  Our social workers is in Bahrain.  We had a Skype interview last week as a pre-adoption assessment.  She said everything sounded good and gave us a list of things to get done, and we could schedule her visit.  We were hoping she could come the first half of May, but there is a lot of unrest in Bahrain right now.  She is from Australia, and her family was planning on moving back to Australia permanently in July. Now, due to all the problems in Bahrain, they’re wondering if they should go sooner.  Please pray for peace in Bahrain! Who knew God would need to bring about peace in Bahrain in order for our little girl to come home! :)  God did.... We’ve also been fingerprinted for an FBI background check.  This was crazy!  I assumed the Embassy would do this for us. I called them, on our way to the capital, and they said, “No, we don’t do that.  You have to either get a letter from

“Many are the plans in the mind of a man, but it is the purpose of the LORD that will stand.” Proverbs 19:21 (ESV) This verse has been so true in our family this past week.  For three years we’ve been pursuing adoption from India.  It’s not an easy process while living here, which is why it’s taken us so long to figure it out.  Recently, we felt like we had a handle on everything we needed, were applying for police reports and gathering other paperwork.  We were ready to apply before May.  Through a series of events that led us to a home study provider in India, we were directed to look at a different agency.  This agency informed us that India was getting more strict about the size of the families adopting from here.  Since we have three kids already, they were doubtful that we’d be accepted by the adoption authorities here.  We checked with a couple of other agencies, and they said the same thing.  We  were just about six months too late... After lots of tears, we real