Four years ago we left the US as a family of four and we enter this new year with the promise and hope of being a family of six. Many if not all of you know that we have been trying to adopt one of the boys that came to us as an orphan 3 years ago. Well we have finally made some progress in that but also is a regression of sorts. We found out the end of last year that our paperwork was sent to Cebu but was never actually processed. Our local social worker did not process the paper work he just sent it. It has been sitting in Cebu for months with nothing happening. We have been in touch with a social worker in Cebu and she is now working on the adoption with our local social worker, so progress. We found out though that since so much time has lapsed we have to start all over from the beginning with the whole process. Mark as many of you know has a twin sister, Marah. While talking to the social worker in Cebu she suggested that to make things look better for the Filipino government that we should adopt both of the twins. This is something that Jonah and I have talked about and prayed for but have never really heard an answer. When the social worker in Cebu told Jonah that it seemed to be our answer. So we start the process all over and will be adopting both the twins. The first step is to try and find the birth mother. This will be done with news releases that the local social welfare agency is looking for her and she will have one month to reply if she fails to reply within the one month the Agency will declare the kids to be abandoned and will be cleared for adoption. We are praying that the process will go smooth from here on out.
Since the twins are living with us now that leaves only two kids at the orphanage. We are looking to make some changes in the ministry in this next year to reduce our budget. The house parents currently do not have a home so for the next year they will stay at the orphanage and still provide care for the two that are living there but the two kids will eat their meals with us. During this time Jonah and I are looking into what it would take to become licensed foster parents instead of spending all the money to hire a full time social worker and license the orphanage. During this transition over the next couple of years we are also looking into working with our local church and the denomination as a whole to focus more on outreach and starting bible studies that may lead to more church plants. Outreach was a big focus of the church years ago but they got busy with other things and it was kind of put aside. We love doing youth camps and other possible camps that focus on different populations of people.
This is all that we fill God calling us to right now but only he knows all the details. We are listening to his voice and trusting that he will lead the way.
Pray with us in these years to come that God will make his way clear and that the adoption with go smooth from this point forward.
