We wanted to give everyone an update as what is going on with our adoption journey. We were devastated by the closure of CWA, but were moving on!! We have talked to two agency so far, and are praying about possibly switching countries to Dem Rep of Congo. We need to make a decision, and soon so we can bring our girl home.
We feel that every child deserve a forever family where they are safe, fed, and truely loved. It is a hard decision try to pick a country, there are so many beautiful children in need of a home. So we are trying to rely of God for this decision, only He know where our beautiful girl is.
An orphanage is no way to grow up, not knowing what a family is, and never being truly loved.
We also wanted to say thank you to those who are checking out our blog for the first time after hearing our presentation this morning. Our goal is to raise awareness of adoption, hopefully by encouraging others to either bring another child into their home, or help someone who is in the process with funding. Thank you for listening to us today, and enjoy the great African coffee!
https://justlovecoffee.com/about/beneficiary/mullenhour/
We received an email yesterday afternoon from Christian World Adoption (our adoption agency out of North Carolina) announcing their closure immediately. WHAT!?! What is going on with our country that a great christian organization that is doing God's work cannot keep their doors open....
- Less American's are adopting, it has dropped 64% in the last 10 years, which is sad because there are more orphans in the world than ever before.
- Adoption is taking longer than ever before, the wait time for China is now 5 years, where a few years ago it was just a few months (people are not wanting to wait this long to add to their family & it takes a lot of time and extra money to keep with with paperwork before it expires).
- The world of adoption is unpredictable. Many countries have changed their policies or closed over the years (just as Russia recently announced). There are few countries willing to cooperate with the Hague Requirements.
- Adoption is expensive....$30,000 to $60,000 depending on country and travel requirements. OUCH! We do not have this money laying around, as the majority of American's. So do they increase the price and risk even less people to adopt?? Something needs to change, and fast.
Our agency referred us to continue the process with Illiens Adoption International, however it needs to be approved by the MoWCY (since all of our paperwork has Christian World Adoption as our agency).
Please pray that the MoWCY (Ministry of Women Children Youth Affair) approves changing agencies without changing paperwork, pray for a smooth transition, and please continue to pray for funding. We are basically stuck until we get a few thousand more. Thanks everyone!!
Our most recent art project that is taped all over our back door. Seriously, we have at least 6 on our door! It brings in some color during our dreary Ohio winter, and is a constant reminder of where our little girl is. All 3 girls had a great time making colorful Africa's on a cold, snowy afternoon!
We wanted to thank everyone for your generosity over the past few weeks with donations & buying our t-shirt! We are truly blessed having supportive family, friends, & co-workers! Every penny helps us get to our goal! Were still not there, we have a long way to go, but praying that we will be there soon.....
Not much new to report. Our documents were returned from our Courier, The Assistant Stork, on 01/30/2013. If anyone is in the adoption process, I would highly recommend their services! So now we wait for funding. Our adoption agency, Christian World Adoption, has asked that we keep the completed dossier (our pile of documents) until we have the entire fee. So now, we wait & pray for funding. We know that God won't let us down.
If anyone is still interested in shirts, we have a few left (18 to be exact)!!!
**Pink~ Small to Large
**Navy~ Large & Extra Large
Were not sure if we'll be ordering more, if we do it will more than likely be a new design! We've had a lot of fun designing shirts and have a ton of new ideas! Our girls even designed a children's shirt! Let us know if anyone would be interested, if there's an interest we'll get more ordered and out to you.
Our sweet Dakota, patiently waiting on girl number four to play with her!
