Waiting

It's been a while since my last post.  The holiday season is a crazy one and I have let this slide. Sorry!

I have exciting news!  Our completed notarized home study came in the mail this week....which means we are on to our next step!  Filling out an i800a-an application that is sent to US immigration.  We need USCIS approval before sending in our dossier.
I am waiting on a couple supporting documents that need to be included with our i800a.  I should have the complete application ready to be mailed January 2nd!!!  Then we will wait...

There seems to be quite a bit of waiting.  Unfortunately, waiting is not something I am very good at.

This week I watched a documentary- Bulgaria's Abandoned Children. It is from 2007 and shows the condition of an orphanage in Bulgaria and what life is like for the orphans living there.

I put a link to the documentary on facebook.  I know it is long- but if you wonder at all about the plight of orphans-check it out if only to see the footage shot at 73:40-  it shows a girl- then a picture of her- then a picture of the same girl, when she first arrived at the orphanage, is placed over her current picture.

 Twelve years between those two pictures.  Twelve years of hunger- pain- isolation.

The facility was closed in 2009.  There is an article link below the video- where you can see where some of the kids are now and how they have improved.  And they have improved!

Many homes for orphans are still open. Our little girl is in one.  And no, they are not all like the orphanage in this video. Some are better.  But right now, someone I know through Reece's Rainbow is in Eastern Europe- hoping to travel home soon with her newly adopted 8 year old.

Her little girl who doesn't quite weigh ten pounds.

It's hard to wait because I've seen what life can be like for these children.

The orphaned babies are often in nicer institutions until they are moved- as young as 3 yrs- to a different place.

It is hard to think about and even harder to watch (the documentary), but these little lives- in a way- depend on someone seeing them.

I want to say this... There are workers at the orphanages who genuinely care for the children.  There are workers who do not BUT there are workers who do.  In either case they so often do not have the resources to properly care for the children.

If you watch the documentary, the problem is much deeper than the care given at the orphanages.  There is a general mind set that these children are born "diseased".  The malnutrition and neglect are not contributing to their sickness- but a symptom of their disease.  They are born this way.

There is also a reliance on government and an almost blind loyalty to the government.

 Children who are sent to the hospital- are returned with no treatment.  Their healthcare is covered by the government, but in many places they are simply not treated.  So they stop taking them to the hospital and fractured bones are left to mend on their own.

This world is broken.

And this season I feel like I'm waiting.

Hope has come.  Light has come.  Joy has come.  Love has come.

I celebrate Christmas.  Saved because a Savior came.

And I wait.

I wait for Him.

With the Hope, Light, Joy, and Love He has given.