Adoption can be a wonderful beautiful amazing thing.
But it’s also messy and complicated and risky and not quite so black-and-white as I originally supposed.
World has orphans. Orphans need families. Families adopt orphans.
Sounds nice and tidy, but oh is it ever-lovin’ not.
Before I jump into an explanation, let me share a non-update update.
I haven’t blogged about our adoption lately.
Mainly because for a long while there, nothing was happening.
Well, that has changed.
I can absolutely say that things are happening. A big decision was made and we’re moving forward with a strange mixture of caution and eagerness.
I promise that as soon as I can be less cryptic and more specific (hey, that kinda rhymes), I will. As soon as I have something I can share, I will gladly shout it from the rooftops.
Until then, I’ll say this:
We’ve learned so much. Our brains are water-logged with all the learning.
We’ve seen the sticky, rarely-talked-about underbelly of adoption, especially from impoverished countries like Congo. We’ve learned that the greater the need in a country, the greater the risk for corruption. Which should give you a hint at what we’re up against. DRC is one of the poorest nations in the world. It is a war-torn country ravaged by AIDS and poverty that has resulted in an orphan crisis that is most grievous.
Yet I wouldn’t encourage anyone to adopt from there until they’ve done much praying and are willing to do much research.
How does that work?
If there’s an excess of orphans, let’s hurry up and adopt them, right?
Well, not quite.
There are orphans who will never have a family unless they are adopted. In which case, go adoption!
But then there are orphans who already have a family. A family who wants to raise them, but can’t feed them, so they end up in orphanages that can feed them. Orphans like the ones mentioned in this post.
Many orphans in Congo fall into that second category. They don’t need a new family. They need assistance reuniting with the one they already have.
Yet there are agencies and lawyers in country who have turned a blind eye to the corruption, to the fraudulent papers, to the lack of investigations done to ensure that the children being adopted should actually be adopted. Which is exactly why the U.S. Embassy in Kinshasha is now requiring an additional 3-6 month investigation before they will issue any Visas. They are trying to clean up the mess these agencies and lawyers left behind.
So what do we do with this information?
For us, it meant reconsidering everything. We tossed around domestic infant adoption, foster care, trying to conceive on our own, changing countries, stopping altogether.
But the more we prayed and fasted and sought guidance, the more our hearts kept landing where we originally began.
The DRC.
Only this time we come armed with knowledge we didn’t have in the beginning. And knowledge is power, right?
Right.
So we’re going to wield that power. We’re going to use it to help us do all we can to make sure we’re not somehow adding to the corruption in the country. To make sure we’re doing everything possible to navigate an ethical adoption.
This means asking the tough, uncomfortable questions. This means taking extra precautions – like a third party investigation. This means checking my emotions at the door, because my mama heart yearns to race headlong with eyes and ears shut tight. This means being on our knees, praying for God’s best and God’s truth.
This means TRUST. Oh, heaven, trust.
It means surrendering all my fears to a God who knows everything–not just my past, present, and future, but our child’s past, present, and future too.
Come what may, He’s got a plan and a purpose for having the Gansherts on such a crazy, nutty, eye-opening journey. To Him be the glory.
Now, If you’d like to help we crazy, nutty, open-eyed Gansherts travel such a journey, then please hop on over to our Adoption Fundraising Blog.
Because it’s big-time time for another fundraiser. One that I am totally, completely psyched about. It involves a puzzle, a sharpie, and 500 willing hearts. I get teary just thinking about what a testament the end-product will be to our little one someday. We’re also selling t-shirts and hosting an online Tastefully Simple event! So come on over, read the details, and know that we covet your support and your prayer.
All donations are tax-deductible, thanks to Lifesong for Orphans!
Let’s Talk: Have your eyes ever been opened to something you had no clue about before?
He has shown you, O mortal, what is good.
And what does the Lord require of you?
To act justly and to love mercy
and to walk humbly with your God.
~Micah 6:8
The very first thing I ever wanted to be when I grew up was a writer.
