Trouble Stirring in Liberia

Apparently there has been a major storm brewing up in Liberia concerning adoptions. WACSN is an organization that has been highly investigated by the Gov. Of Liberia. They had been told to suspend all activity concerning adoptions in January and since has released 3 children to parents in the US. They are believed to have connections in the government and pay to have children released...hence the child trafficking. Apparently there are US parents over there right now trying to persuade to bring their children home illegally. This just makes me sick! After all the right we are trying to do and waiting to do it the right way and ignorant people try to use their power and make the wait longer for us all...it's so frustrating! And they don't get the point that it's ILLEGAL!!!
You can read the clips to see details of what ensued the last few days. Long story short...Police went in to invaid the property and remove 37 children and return them to their homes and were stopped after fighting and words were shared. Government officials showed up (obviously the dirty ones) to stop the police. The police left without any children. Later in the week several government officials (the good ones) returned with police force and removed 36 children from the WACSN facility and placed them in another orphanage. Apparently the children were happy to leave???
I don't know what this means for us. It could mean we are headed in the direction of getting this all figured out, or it could mean that they just made the wait longer for all of us.
Please please pray! We just want our babies home! We wait for good news every day and we get this. I just want it all to end soon! The roller coaster is draining.
This is a clip from a newspaper article in Liberia over what has happened the last few weeks...
Newspaper Summary
36 Children Held Hostage - Rescue Ends in Fracas, Says Local Daily
(New Democrat)

o [SIC] The New Democrat newspaper reports that 36 children between the ages
of 3 to 7 are virtually held hostage at an orphanage on the Old Road run by
the West African Support Community Network (WASCN). An attempt by the Save
the Children-Liberia Department of Social Welfare and the Don Bosco Homes to
rescue the children was met with stiff resistance and threats of violence
allegedly with the support of some top government officials. In an interview,
Dominic Fratz of Save the Children-Liberia said he was shocked to see the high
level of political intervention in a case that involves the safety of children.
He said they were ordered to intervene because WACSN was acting against the
law. Ms. Lydia Sherman, Senior Coordinator of the Social Services at the
Ministry of Health and Social Welfare who headed the team expressed
disappointment over the incident and said the children will=2 0be rescued at all cost. The
group was banned in January by the Ministry of Health and Social Welfare
from engaging in inter-country adoption of Liberian children after it tried to
send three children to the United States without proper documentation.

and a few days later...

Police re-inforcement at the WACSN Home on the Old Road in Sinkor
Photo by Lucky Buckay
Gov't Takes over WACSN âEUR~OrphansâEURTM
WACSN Operator to Face the Law

Published: 27 March, 2009
MONROVIA,At least 37 children who had been kept at a home on Old Road by
West African Children Support Network (WACSN) were removed by the Liberia
National Police (LNP) Thursday on orders of the Ministry of Health (MOH) which
found the group operating WACSN allegedly engaged in child trafficking.
  Community people told this paper that a team of MOH officials and a few
police officers were seen first entering the fenced-in house to take away
the children, many of them between six and seven years. Eyewitnesses added that
WACSN guards put up stiff resistance and that it took additional police
re-enforcement to have the gatemen removed and the house invaded.

COMFORTED!

This week has been much easier. I've yet to cry and it's Tuesday! :) We got a message from Danny Beugar in Liberia. He is the minister that we worked with. He went with us to visit the babies in the AFAA house. He said it was rather close to his house. I think he hurt with us when we had to leave the babies behind. He told us that he and his wife would check in on them every once in a while for us.
Well, we got a message from him today that said he and his wife are going to find a time this week to go over and visit with them so he can update us on anything new and tell us all about the babes! Just knowing that someone else that we trust and know personally there is watching over my babies and keeping me informed on all the little things...are they crawling, saying any words??? Makes me feel so comforted! I thank God for Dan and Bea...this was part of His purpose for our trip.

13 months Pregnant!!!!

Funny side note...as I was looking at my blog I noticed my favorite quote..."Adoption is when a baby grows in a mommy's heart instead of her belly."
Well, if that's the case...I'm 13 months pregnant!!!

VERY PAINFUL but a different kind of pain...

Missing my Babies!

So, it's been 3 weeks and I'm ready to spill the beans. It's not been easy...it was just as I imagined it to be but 100 times harder! Now I know what I'm missing so it doesn't make it any easier to wait.
I have to confess something to all of you...I did not do what I promised God I would. I promised I would praise him in the storm even if things didn't go my way. I failed to do that. I have been spending the last 3 weeks feeling sorry for myself and not praising God. I came back from Liberia upset with God as if he'd let me down. I am slowly coming out behind this black cloud and learning how to praise God even when I don't feel like it.
I was taken back to the beginning of this whole journey where I was reminded that I need to long more for the Savior than my children, and I am a far cry from that right now! I have not been longing for the Savior the way I long for my children.
There hasn't been a day that goes by that I don't cry for my children, but I'm reminded that in James God tells us that "the testing of your faith develops perserverence. Perseverence must finish it's work in you so you can be mature and complete not lacking anything." I can't wait till I'm complete and this can all be over with! :)
We were able to visit the babies 3 times while we were there. The first time they cried. Onah alot more than Marie. She's my laid back little girl! Every time Onah would see a Liberian he would cry. Marie just loved to snuggle and suck her thumb!
We let them listen to a message from their big brother Colten that they couldn't really hear cause Onah was crying too hard :) and gave them their photo books which they loved to chew on.
Marie ended up falling asleep and Onah was holding her hand! It was the most precious thing ever! To think that they now have each other where before they didn't that's pretty cool to think about...at least to me.
The first visit was only a couple of hours but the next time we were able to go back we were dropped off and left there for the entire evening! They didn't cry when we came into their room and picked them up and they were very curious about Matt's facial hair! We even got Onah on video watching the boys play soccer! Here he is telling them to kick it...(ignore the high pitched excited momma's voice on the camera...and you'll have to stop the music at the bottom to hear it.)

It was so neat to see them giggle and jabber. We got some video footage of them as well that Colten loves to watch. That night we were able to feed them bottles and put them to bed. They fell asleep in our arms...well Marie did...Onah stayed up with his daddy watching a movie with all the other kids.
The final day was hard. We knew by this time it was evident that we weren't taking our children home. We got to the AFAA house at about 8:30 and planned on spending most of the day with them till our plane had to leave. Oretha had called and said she didn't get a meeting with Eva Morgan but she did get a meeting with the minister of Social Welfare, glorified name for case worker. We left the house and went to meet her and basically got blown off. She didn't have time to talk and stood in the hallway telling us there was nothing she could do. She told us there was a baby dying and wouldn't make it home but he wasn't going anywhere...just like that...no emotions about dying children...I wanted to blow up right there and ask if they had no compassion, but I didn't. I kept quiet and let my husband do all the talking...which he was great at. We basically wanted to let her know that she could still do case studies through the ban that way when it opens up things would move much faster, but she was not willing. We told her we understood about all the corruption but thought it was unfair that good agencies like AFAA were being lumped into all the corruption. I don't think she understood us cause she didn't really respond to that.
She did tell us that what s holding up the ban is that basically two parties are arguing over how long adoptive families should have to stay in Liberia when getting their children. One party says 3 months (which is crazy thinking that we could leave our families and jobs for that amount of time and expect to come back and have a means to support our families) the other party sees that as rediculous and says 10 days is long enough. She said once that's settled the ban will be lifted and it should be soon, but in Liberia who knows how long soon is???
We met with Bob Z. a liberian governor on Sunday. We gave him all of our information from our agency and he said he would see if there was anything he could do to help us but not to get our hopes up. In Liberia you are looked at as corrupt if you go in and try to go over officials heads to get things done. It will appear that we paid him to do this and he's making money off our situation, so he wasn't going to make any promises. He agreed that it wasn't fair for AFAA to be lumped in with all the corruption.
We were able to go back for about 45 minutes and spend a little more time with the babies before we had to say goodbye. When it was time to say goodbye I couldn't let go of them. It was the longest goodbye ever. I couldn't stop kissing them...I hope they remember me. I laid them down in their beds for the last time and gave them one last long kiss before walking out the door not being able to control the tears.
So we left the country without our babies and hope to return soon! Keep praying and until then enjoy the pictures that we have for now and the video of my sweet baby boy!
Since back we found that Oretha had called Cheryl very upset because she felt like she had let us down. She said that Oretha knew we weren't happy when we left, mainly because I was crying, and asked Cheryl to tell her she was deeply sorry. I know she loves my babies and I know she wants them home with us, I pray God delivers them soon!

Treasured Memories

To my precious babies, Onah and Marie:

I miss you so much!!! Much much more than you'll ever know I'm sure! We met you for the first time 3 weeks ago, and I can still feel you in my arms! I can feel your soft skin on my lips. I wanted to write this and let you know how much I love you and what I learned about you the first time we met!
Onah, you are a little fighter! You were so terrified of mommy and daddy. The first time I held you, you just cried and cried. You soon learned though that I loved you and the crying stopped. Marie, you were such a little sweet pea. I always heard people come back and say you are so small and you are such a little 'sweet pea' and I found for myself that is what you are!
When mommy and daddy held you, you just snuggled right in and listened to our heart beat. Marie you love to suck your thumb! Just like your big brother...Colten that is :) You loved to chew on your picture book that mommy and daddy made for you!
We were able to come and visit you 3 times while we were in Liberia on our mission trip. Mommy wished she could come every day but we were busy helping the people who needed us. We hope that one day you will have the amount of love for Liberia as we do and will help the hurting people who need Jesus' love.
One night we were able to feed you your bottles and put you to bed. Onah you scarfed yours down!!! You had milk all over your face,...it was pretty cute! Marie, you were as content as could be in mommy's arms. You fell asleep drinking your bottle and mommy had to wake you up so you'd finish it. Mommy got you in your pj's and snuggled up with you! You fell asleep in my arms and I tucked you into bed. Do you remember me singing to you? I sang one of Colten's favorite songs: "The rocking horse song".
Onah stayed up like a night owl with daddy watching the tv with all the other kids! He's going to be a daddy's boy just like Colten!
The day we left was hard for mommy. I know that God will reunite us soon and all this hurt will be a thing of the past. I can't wait for the day I get to come and get you and bring you home forever! I covered you in kisses, probably enough to last you till I can come and get you! I hope you know you are loved and missed greatly! I long for the day I get to see you again, but until then lots more kisses sent from me to you! Love you so much and treasuring the memories we made!
Mommy

Treasured Memories