Room for Another

Pin It Now! I know some of you BARELY read this blog. You just browse at the photos and hope to find free coupons or something. So for you, I will just get to the punchline... we are pursuing adopting a boy from the Philippines! Okay, go look at the photos now. Well, there are only two - that is my kids' reactions when I told them the news. Now for my real friends. Read on for the details.


Last week my girlfriend, Stacy, was in town with her babysitter, Josie. They came over to my house on Thursday, which is significant because had Stacy come over on Friday instead (which we were debating about) then Josie would not have come. Josie is 19 years old. Grew up in the Philippines. Her parents have been missionaries there for about 17 years. In the last few years they started an orphanage in Manila.
For those that know me well, you know that I have always had a heart for adoption. And I have always said I did not know what it would look like - through foster care, international, etc. And in the last few months I have been talking about it and praying about it everyday. Just ask my husband! I just finished a book on adoption called "Successful Adoption: A Guide for Christian Families." Shiloh keeps saying he wants another biological child and then we could adopt. And I feel so strongly about adopting an orphan that I really don't have a desire for another biological child. The fact that I throw up for 9 months of pregnancy is just icing on that cake.
I have been fervently praying that God would change Shiloh's heart (or mine if necessary, but I had a hard time praying that one) and that God would bring our hearts in alignment on this issue. So Josie comes over and we began chatting with her about her life in the Philippines and the orphanage. Oh and the funny thing is - neither Shiloh nor I really know anything about the Philippines. But my heart is so for adoption that I really never cared about the place the kid came from. Just say the word "orphan" and I am all ears and tears. But Shiloh's ears perked up when he heard Philippines because some great volleyball player (Dan Landry) came from there and played at UCLA. Thanks Dan, whoever and wherever you are, for being a part of God's plan and an answer to my prayers. We tell Josie our situation and she asks us what age child we would want to adopt. We told her the ideal thing would be to keep the birth order so we would want to adopt any kid younger than Lydia (who is 11 months old).
And then she goes on to tell us about Moses (who is about 4 months older than Lydia - oh well what are you gonna do?)...and then we see a photo of him. Click the link below.

Moses

Come on, people. How could you resist? Even Shiloh couldn't. So off we are on this huge adventure.

I called Jeff Long (Josie's Dad) in the Philippines that night. Over the last week I have been researching on the internet, calling adoption agencies, etc. trying to see if adopting Moses was even possible. Here is what I have found out (and what you can be praying about because there are a lot of contingencies):

Kids International Ministries (where Moses is) is in the process of getting the "declaration for abandonment" for all their kids to be officially adoptable. In the meantime, they are working with an adoption agency in Kansas to try and coordinate future adoptions. This agency, His Kids Adoptions International, is in the process of getting themselves to be an agency licensed with the Philippines government. And we don't know how long all of that will take. Teri, the director of His Kids, is hoping it will be sometime this year.

Here is the real kicker though - The Philippines (along with many other countries) do not look favorably on preidentified children (for example, "Hi we are the Hagens of Cali and we want Moses. Please, please, please). This is the whopper prayer request because at this point Shiloh is only ready to adopt Moses. If we cannot get him, he is not ready to take another kid (at this point anyway) because he still wants one roasting in my oven. BUT, he is willing to proceed on faith (and so I am because you know I will be crushed to walk away empty handed) with pursuing Moses despite what looks like a long shot. We know that God is in control of all things and so this roller coaster ahead of us will be exciting.

We have picked an agency locally to work with to get our home study and post adoption services, The Family Network, Inc.
We should be meeting with them soon to get the process started. There is A LOT of paperwork that needs to be done. I am going to get it all done as soon as I can so that we will then just have to wait on the governments... and you know how fast they are - like cheetahs. No maybe more like cheetos. Teri (His Kids) said that pessimistically we are looking at 12-18 months before Moses could be a Hagen. Prayerfully, I am looking at sooner than that! Soon as possible! And that, my friends, is the scoop. Will keep you posted. And because you endured this long blog I have included a bonus photo below. It's one of those bad Hagen photos. Look at me and feel better about yourself. Go ahead. Indulge.
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