Why John 14 Verse 18?

"I will not leave you as orphans; I will come to you." John 14:18 ESV

Back in 1995, on our 3rd date, I told Doug that I may never be able to have biological children. (The doctors had incorrectly diagnosed me with Polycystic Ovarian Disease.) He was fine with that, replying, "That's ok. My brother is adopted!"

Well, after having 2 HORRIBLE pregnancies where I was sick almost all 9 months, we decided that if there were to be any more little Amundsons in our home, that we would have to adopt them.

However, shortly after that decision, we began our pre-field missionary journey. Pre-field was fun, exciting, challenging, frustrating, and just plain exhausting. All of this would have been condusive to adopting, but with moving from house to house and then not having enough bedrooms for each child to have their own locking door, God closed the adoption door during pre-field.

We wondered if He would open the door back up in December of 2007 as we headed out to language school, but were told that it was impossible to adopt from Costa Rica, so God told us to wait again.

So here we are, at another transition time. God's provided a perfect house in Chile with space to raise 4 kids in. He has provided the experienced friends who have recently been through the adoption process or are currently going through the process, on couple in Chile adopting from Haiti. He has even been answering prayers that I have been praying for over 6 years now. But wait! The door isn't open just yet!!!

After returning from Chile in November, I began looking into adoption from Chile. It is much cheaper and ideal for anyone living there. However, we've learned that we would have to have our permanent residency visas before we could even apply to adopt. Some of our friends have been waiting for their visas for over 1 1/2 years. That means that in 2 years we could begin the process of adoption. But with over 500 waiting families and the region only completing 19 adoptions last year, we'd have to wait even longer. Then it will be time for furlough.

So, after it looked like God was closing the door to Chile, I began looking at other Latin American countries. After contacting many of those agencies with other programs in Latin America, I was consistently told that they could only help us adopt from a NON-Hague country. (Ok, the easy way to explain what this means, is that the Hague is like the control for all countries who wish to participate and have certain standards. The Hague is kind of like the UN of adoptions.) All of these agencies that I had contacted only worked with Hague Latin American countries, so they kept referring me to Ethiopia which is a Non-Hague country.

Ok, Ethiopia, we can handle that. Doug visited there on a short term missions trip, so we understand some of the culture, but is that what God is really saying????

Let me take a moment and mention the prayer that I have been praying for 6 years. My sister has 3 beautiful children. The last 2 are twins, a boy and a girl. I have always wanted twins, and since we already have 2 beautiful biological kids, a boy and a girl, I would like to adopt a biologically connected set of siblings. In reality, it wouldn't matter if one was older than the other, but I feel biologically connected kids would help with their sense of belonging and connection later on. So, I have been asking God for biologically connected siblings, but if possible a boy and a girl set of twins.

So, back to Ethiopia. After NUMBEROUS times of being pointed toward Ethipia, I looked into one of the websites and its program in Ethiopia. They specifically mention "Twins Available." An answer to prayer right??? Well, the more we talked and prayed about it, the more we realized that we'd REALLY like to have a Latin American child, since after all we already speak Spanish, and we'll be living in a Latin country.

The next step was to find out if there are any NON-Hague Latin American countries. Well there are 2. Honduras and Nicaragua. There is a wonderful website www.rainbowkids.org that lists a bunch of agencies by the country that one is interested in. Well only one agency popped up for Honduras and when contacting them, that door was closed to us. There were 2 agencies for Nicaragua, but one of them has since ceased their program, so we were left with one agency.

As I looked over their website, there was a waiting childrens list. Most of the children that were listed were from Estonia, but there was only one listing for Nicaraguan kids. A little boy, named Christian, age 2, who has a twin sister. We've seen a picture and some video and are awaiting more information.

However, God is asking us to wait once more. Since we are ABWE missionaries, we are required to have our field team's approval to adopt, and then our regional administrator has to get that approval, approved by the board of directors. The next meeting of the board doesn't happen until March, so we wait some more.

We don't want to apply to this agency if we find that in Chile we could adopt easier than what has been presented to us thus far. Therefore when we land in Chile we'll be contacting some agencies and finding out the FULL picture. Second, we will see if Christian and his sister have been adopted yet. Third, God obviously wants us to wait some more upon Him for His timing, and His kids for our family.

Prayer Requests as of 1/5/09

1. Christian is in a special needs orphanage due to some developmental delays, possibly caused by hydrocephally. This doesn't scare us because God has uniquely given us previous experience with this, as Doug's nephew was born with hydrocephally and has some delays now as well. Pray Christian gets the treatment and assistance he needs now, and in his forever family, even if that isn't our family!
2. Christian's sister, unknown name, is in a separate orphanage and therefore, we are concerned about attachment disorder. Pray they are reconnected soon, possibly before being adopted.
3. Pray for their forever family. There are A LOT of couples interested in them, not just us.
4. Pray for the 2 children that are supposed to be a part of our family. We don't want to step out of what God has for us.
5. Pray that God would make it clear as to which 2 children are to be ours! God seems to be leading toward Nicaragua, but if it isn't these twins, then which kids? Will we be asked to adopt 2 unrelated kids?
6. Pray for all those kids who need forever families, that Christians would step up and adopt one or two.
7. Pray for the finances of this adoption. This is NOT a part of ministry. It is ALL personal funds. We have a little bit saved, but we are praying for grants, fundraisers, and gifts to help us follow God's will in this.

God is good all the time, and all the time, God is good!

Thanks for taking the time to wait and pray with us! We'll let you know as we know something new.