We Are Adopting From . . . .

Rwanda!!!

Due to the current uncertainty and instability regarding adoption in Uganda, we have decided to change our adoption to Rwanda. It is a fairly new program - from what I have read, there were no more than 5 children adopted in the U.S. from Rwanda between 2000-2007. There were 17 U.S. Rwandan adoptions in 2008 and 16 in 2009.

During my research, I found a blog of a family who just brought home two baby boys from Rwanda early this year. I contacted them, and they responded quickly and were eager to help us by referring us to a ministry called Mugisha Ministries that guides families through the process for a minimal fee compared to what agencies charge. We sent our application to Mugisha a couple of weeks ago. As a part of the application, they require that you have spoken with and received counsel from a pastor regarding adoption, and we just received notice today that they received the form from our pastor (kindly filled out and submitted by one of our pastors from Summit Church in Orlando who has four children adopted from Ethiopia- an amazing and beautiful family!) and that they have accepted our application. Now I just mail them a bit more paperwork and a check tomorrow, and after that is received, they will begin helping us build our dossier (a fancy word for "lots and lots of paperwork") to send to Rwanda.

As far as time frame, it all depends on a lot of things/people/paperwork that are out of our control, but based on what I have heard and read, we will likely be travelling to bring them home within a month or two of December. It is a relatively short trip compared to Uganda, as we would spend about a week in Rwanda and then go straight to the embassy in Nairobi, Kenya, for 7-10 days to obtain their visas before heading home. We are still undecided on whether we will take Javen along, but he did get a very cute passport in the mail last week, so he is ready to go with us if we decide to take him.:)