waiting

family number 66!

1,739 Miles From Our Baby.

TUESDAY, JANUARY 26, 2010 AT 5:46PM | NATHAN MILLER

As many of you know Christa and I decided last year that our third child would be adopted. We have never had trouble getting pregnant and hope to have more biological children but we believe God loves adoption and that He calls true followers of Christ to be more than hearers, but doers. With millions of orphans around the world how could we turn our backs and pretend there is no need. We have been called to adopt.

Since June of 2009 we have filed more papers, sat through more training, and paid more money for each than I ever thought possible but we did it! Our family is approved to adopt a baby (or maybe two) from Ethiopia. We are number 74 in line to adopt and waiting to see that number drop to 1. Our hearts are in Ethiopia and we look forward to seeing our Ethiopian children for the first time, but on January 12, 2010 everything changed.

The earthquake in Haiti shook the world. The devastation has been on tv screens across America and many are left staring at the pictures, wondering what to do. For us though, it wasn't a question...

In 1999 Christa took the first of two trips to Haiti with an organization called Teen Missions International. She worked with orphanages on the outskirts of Port Au Prince and fell in love with the children and culture. When we were dating she told me stories of her time In Haiti and how she hoped to adopt from there, and when we began the adoption process our first choice was Haiti. Unfortunately the government was very difficult to work with. Adoptions could take more than four years to complete and the costs were ridiculous. After weighing the options we opted for Ethiopia, it is a much quicker process and not so costly. However, with the earthquake leaving thousands of people without food or clean water and the growing realization that countless children are new orphans the Haitian government has begun to release some known orphans (that is, children who were already in orphanages and have proper documentation showing their status) to families in the United States.

We have heard many stories of families being matched with orphans on a moment's notice, all across the country. There are rumors that the US government has waived their usual costs for bringing in orphans, as have the Haitians. Babies, toddlers, children of all ages are being flown in with little more than rags on their backs and a few pieces of paper which serve as proof of their identity. They are being handed over to their "forever" families, they are being given life.

Last week an organization in Indianapolis posted a request for area residents to open their homes to some 300 orphans being evacuated to Indiana. Safe Families for Children was inundated with emails and phone calls, thousands of people responded in just a few hours. By chance I caught a passing comment on Twitter about the news and something inside me moved. I didn't talk to Christa, I didn't think, I just responded. I knew God wanted me to respond, to offer my family to these poor children. As the day went on it became clear the plane to Indianapolis was not coming. Communication to Haiti was horrendous and a number of misunderstandings created bad information but the clock was set into motion.. since then Christa and I have been trying to find a child that we can graft into our home. I have spoken with people in Chicago, Indianapolis, Texas, and Kansas. Christa has emailed to Maryland, Texas and even Haiti. We spend our free time discussing what else we can do. I believe God has called us to adopt from Haiti but every door til now has been shut. We are always one step behind and just a moment too late. There is no telling how long we have, the Haitian government is handing out refugee visas to orphanages and freeing them to travel but it takes an advocate (often the orphanage director) standing in line for more than 15 hours along with more than 7,000 people waiting in line to get the paperwork. No one knows how much longer the Haitian government will allow this to happen. Now is the time to act!

I write this to ask for your help. If you have any contact, any way of reaching someone who can help please email me. We are "paper ready", that is, all of our documents are in order and we are simply waiting for a child. I'd also like you to pray. The evil one would love nothing more than to see the Haitian people starve. He cares nothing for orphans, he wants nothing but destruction, and he is who we fight against. Pray for our friends in Haiti and pray especially for the children who have nothing. No hope. No family. Pray that they will be released and given to prople who love the Lord. Pray that we find our daughter or son.. we are waiting for them.

My email address is: miller.nw @ gmail.com

phone calls

Titus just came up to me and says "mom, are we waiting on a phone call? I said what phone call ? Titus: the one to tell us about my baby sister Adia and then we can go pick her up.

waiting

we are number 74!!!!

Martin Luther King jr

Thank you, Dr. King, for dreaming of racial harmony. Because of your life and work, we live in a nation and a world that is a little bit closer to the equality and respect for our common humanity that God intended from the beginning.

Waiting Family

We are officially a WAITING FAMILY! all of our paperwork is back from Washington DC, and now begins the real wait. as far as we know we are family number 80, but we have no idea what the 79 other families are waiting to be matched with, so time frame we are looking at anywhere from 4-12 months. we will keep updating with how many families have been matched with children and that will give us an idea. Thank you for all the prayers and support.

Adia's song

Titus began singing this for Adia last night and I thought it was so sweet. he loves his new baby sister so much already. the other day he said "Mommy, it sure is taking a long time to get Adia home "