Christine & I went to the government office where adoptions are handled today. We had hoped they had discussed her case at their meeting last Friday & we would have a positive answer. When we got there we were informed that the meeting was not held last Friday, but she said they would have their meeting this Friday. Then she asked that Christine write a letter explaining her whole life story and why it is that she should be adopted, so this could be added to her case.
This is not an easy thing to ask of her. Some of her past is painful & she is reticent to revisit it, even in writing. Please pray for Christine to be able to write this letter that has been asked of her, and for God to give her the strength & wisdom to write what needs to be said.
Please also pray that they would indeed have the meeting this Friday & discuss this case, and that God would give us favor & a favorable answer from them. After this Friday the country will be getting ready to go into a time of Remembrance, as the anniversary of the beginning of the 1994 genocide is April 7th. I am sure they will not be having meetings during the days before and after that.
Thank you for believing with us. I know our God is great & he can do anything! I have great news to post on the Ten Talents blog today too...
God Bless You,
Lisa
Tuesday, March 29, 2011
Wednesday, March 23, 2011
So Close
Last Thursday we visited the office of the person who makes the decisions in regards to adoptions here in Rwanda. I'm talking about the person who can say "yes, you can adopt" or "no, you can't". She told us that our paperwork had been reviewed & they thought it was OK, but it "was not official yet". Christine was with us & the woman asked Christine all about her life story. When our time there was done she told us that she wants to approve the adoption, but this is outside of how things are normally done in Rwanda, and she would need to take it to her colleagues for approval as a "special case".
You see, normally Rwanda does not allow parents to choose the child they will adopt. It is a safeguard for the children that the government picks the child for the parents. While we understand this, we also know that God can bring a child together with parents sometimes as well.
Please be praying for us to receive the approval for Christine's adoption soon. We are hoping she will present it to her colleagues this Friday. We would just like to have it done, so we can move forward with the other necessary paperwork to make this all official.
Thank You!
Lisa
You see, normally Rwanda does not allow parents to choose the child they will adopt. It is a safeguard for the children that the government picks the child for the parents. While we understand this, we also know that God can bring a child together with parents sometimes as well.
Please be praying for us to receive the approval for Christine's adoption soon. We are hoping she will present it to her colleagues this Friday. We would just like to have it done, so we can move forward with the other necessary paperwork to make this all official.
Thank You!
Lisa
Sunday, March 6, 2011
A Unique Family
I've been thinking about this blog post for some time (and now I realize it is quite some time as I see how long it's been since I posted an update here- yikes)! Some of you have wondered about Michael, our son, how did he become a part of our family?
Last year when we were submitting our adoption paperwork to Rwanda I shared with you the background story on our daughter Christine. (Update: our paperwork is still waiting in the processing office here. I have heard that a dossier a few files back from ours was being handled recently, so someone should have ours in their hand. Please pray for this to get finished & approved quickly as it's less than three months now until we head back to the US)!
Woven into Christine's story are the details about our son Michael as well. By the time we were able to get the adoption process started for Michael he was already too old (16 years) to be considered eligible for adoption by the US government. But, our history with Michael starts long before he was 16 years old.
My husband first met this young boy in Rwanda in 2004. He was 10 years old and his given name was not Michael, but Melkiolo. If you listen to someone in Rwanda pronounce that name, you might not have any idea what name they were actually trying to tell you. (Have you ever met anyone named Melkiolo, especially when the k is prounounced "ch" and the l like "r"?) Mike could not get his name after several attempts, but the name sounded similar enough to Michael that he just decided he would call this boy Michael. All the kids loved Michael (McColm) so you can imagine that Melkiolo was proud to take on the name of Michael, and that is what he has been called ever since.
Now, let me fill in some of this with an excerpt from Christine's story: Our first desires to adopt Christine began when KaLia made her first trip to Rwanda in 2006 at the age of 8. She bonded with Christine & they loved each other enough to call each other "sister". When they returned and I heard the stores and saw the pictures, the thought began to enter my head, should we adopt Christine?
When Mike and I started to talk about this adoption, he shared with me that he had also thought about adopting Michael. He told me how in all his trips there Michael was always helpful, pleasant, hard working, and smart. An all around sweet boy.
To continue: In 2007 the whole family went to Rwanda for 2 weeks. Again KaLia & Christine held fast to each other, and again we wondered, should we adopt her? This was the first chance for myself and Nate to go to Rwanda. From the moment we got to Kayonza (where Michael lived) Nate was surrounded by all the children there & completely overwhelmed (he was only 3 1/2 at the time). He immediately found Michael to be his safe place: he was held by him, played with him, and stuck with him no matter what! I felt like this was God's confirmation that Michael was meant to be a part of our family... At the end of our two weeks I cried and cried about having to leave, and part of that was having to leave behind our kids: Christine & Michael. When we got home we actually began to find out information about international adoption and were ready to begin, but then suddenly the door closed and we felt like we didn't have a clear "go ahead" from God. So we waited.
One year later: In 2008 we spent 3 months in Rwanda. When Christine [and Michael] were on break from school they stayed with us in a rented home. They called me mom, Mike dad, and KaLia and Nate were their sister and brother.
While we were in Rwanda in early 2009 we worked on getting documents like the children's birth certificates (not an easy task when their births were never registered to begin with, which is common). While doing this we found out through Michael's extended family that, although he thought he was 15, he was actually 16. The US government will not let you adopt an international orphan who is over the age of 15. Suddenly, we would not be able to adopt Michael after all. My heart was broken, but it was during this trip that God had been teaching me to praise him in all circumstances and to trust in his goodness. Here was some real "field application" for those truths and although I had to cry through it, I surrendered it all to God and just asked him to use us to do His good will for Michael & Christine.
Michael was able to receive permission to leave his boarding school and to come live with us so he can do online school full time. Both Michael and Christine plan to use the accelerated study option in order to move forward in their grade levels beyond what they could do otherwise. Both also hope to go to school in the US someday and this is a good preparation for that. Having them both with us right now is a huge blessing and answer to prayer!
However, even as we pray for Christine's adoption to be finalized so she can go with us to the US on June 2nd, there is a prayer request for Michael as well. We don't want to have to leave our son here when we go back to the US, even for a few months. And he doesn't want us to leave him as well. We are praying that God will make a way for Michael to come to the US with us this summer. This will require miracles on two levels: getting the US to give him permission to come (they don't just hand out these kind of visas, I'm telling you it's difficult) and also being able to afford the cost of the plane ticket, visa applications, passport, etc.
Will you agree in prayer with our family for both Michael & Christine to be able to come to the US this summer? God has done so much for us already, we know he can do anything!
God Bless You,
Lisa
and that's the way they became the McColm bunch.... :)
P.S. still praying for that Suzuki to sell so we can get a more reliable vehicle & one that's big enough for a family of 6!
Last year when we were submitting our adoption paperwork to Rwanda I shared with you the background story on our daughter Christine. (Update: our paperwork is still waiting in the processing office here. I have heard that a dossier a few files back from ours was being handled recently, so someone should have ours in their hand. Please pray for this to get finished & approved quickly as it's less than three months now until we head back to the US)!
Woven into Christine's story are the details about our son Michael as well. By the time we were able to get the adoption process started for Michael he was already too old (16 years) to be considered eligible for adoption by the US government. But, our history with Michael starts long before he was 16 years old.
My husband first met this young boy in Rwanda in 2004. He was 10 years old and his given name was not Michael, but Melkiolo. If you listen to someone in Rwanda pronounce that name, you might not have any idea what name they were actually trying to tell you. (Have you ever met anyone named Melkiolo, especially when the k is prounounced "ch" and the l like "r"?) Mike could not get his name after several attempts, but the name sounded similar enough to Michael that he just decided he would call this boy Michael. All the kids loved Michael (McColm) so you can imagine that Melkiolo was proud to take on the name of Michael, and that is what he has been called ever since.
Now, let me fill in some of this with an excerpt from Christine's story: Our first desires to adopt Christine began when KaLia made her first trip to Rwanda in 2006 at the age of 8. She bonded with Christine & they loved each other enough to call each other "sister". When they returned and I heard the stores and saw the pictures, the thought began to enter my head, should we adopt Christine?
When Mike and I started to talk about this adoption, he shared with me that he had also thought about adopting Michael. He told me how in all his trips there Michael was always helpful, pleasant, hard working, and smart. An all around sweet boy.
Mike, KaLia, & Michael (he is next to them in the red & blue jacket) 2006
To continue: In 2007 the whole family went to Rwanda for 2 weeks. Again KaLia & Christine held fast to each other, and again we wondered, should we adopt her? This was the first chance for myself and Nate to go to Rwanda. From the moment we got to Kayonza (where Michael lived) Nate was surrounded by all the children there & completely overwhelmed (he was only 3 1/2 at the time). He immediately found Michael to be his safe place: he was held by him, played with him, and stuck with him no matter what! I felt like this was God's confirmation that Michael was meant to be a part of our family... At the end of our two weeks I cried and cried about having to leave, and part of that was having to leave behind our kids: Christine & Michael. When we got home we actually began to find out information about international adoption and were ready to begin, but then suddenly the door closed and we felt like we didn't have a clear "go ahead" from God. So we waited.
One year later: In 2008 we spent 3 months in Rwanda. When Christine [and Michael] were on break from school they stayed with us in a rented home. They called me mom, Mike dad, and KaLia and Nate were their sister and brother.
Our last day in Rwanda, 2008.
Six months later: we were back in Rwanda for another three months, but before we left [the US] I had filed applications to be approved by our government to adopt internationally.
While we were in Rwanda in early 2009 we worked on getting documents like the children's birth certificates (not an easy task when their births were never registered to begin with, which is common). While doing this we found out through Michael's extended family that, although he thought he was 15, he was actually 16. The US government will not let you adopt an international orphan who is over the age of 15. Suddenly, we would not be able to adopt Michael after all. My heart was broken, but it was during this trip that God had been teaching me to praise him in all circumstances and to trust in his goodness. Here was some real "field application" for those truths and although I had to cry through it, I surrendered it all to God and just asked him to use us to do His good will for Michael & Christine.
April 2009, Michael is on the far right.
Since we left Rwanda in May 2009, it has been our family prayer every night for God to help us with Christine's adoption and to somehow make a way for Michael to be a more permanent part of our family as well. Not too long after we came back to Rwanda last August, Christine decided to leave her boarding school and begin to do online high school. During a visit with us Michael found out about it and began to want to do the same thing. Some other things you should know about Michael: he is very computer savy and has always been an excellent student. In 2008 I gave him the name Kumaramaza (in the Kinyarwanda language this means "determination" or something close to that) because once he sets his mind to learning something (i.e. computers, music, swimming) he doesn't give up! (He has shortened it to the nickname "Kumacs", pronounced "coo-max", fyi.)
Michael was able to receive permission to leave his boarding school and to come live with us so he can do online school full time. Both Michael and Christine plan to use the accelerated study option in order to move forward in their grade levels beyond what they could do otherwise. Both also hope to go to school in the US someday and this is a good preparation for that. Having them both with us right now is a huge blessing and answer to prayer!
However, even as we pray for Christine's adoption to be finalized so she can go with us to the US on June 2nd, there is a prayer request for Michael as well. We don't want to have to leave our son here when we go back to the US, even for a few months. And he doesn't want us to leave him as well. We are praying that God will make a way for Michael to come to the US with us this summer. This will require miracles on two levels: getting the US to give him permission to come (they don't just hand out these kind of visas, I'm telling you it's difficult) and also being able to afford the cost of the plane ticket, visa applications, passport, etc.
 |
| Michael & Nate, 2011 |
God Bless You,
Lisa
and that's the way they became the McColm bunch.... :)
P.S. still praying for that Suzuki to sell so we can get a more reliable vehicle & one that's big enough for a family of 6!
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)