AIN'T BLOGGING GREAT?

In the adoption world, blogging is a very popular thing. This helps families journal and record their experience and also, it allows for family members, friends and other adopting families to participate in the journey.

A while back, someone surprised us & hurt us deeply by stating: "You guys think you are the only ones who have ever adopted, the way you keep going on and on, talking about it and "bombarding" us with every detail and update!"
This made us second guess our motives and question whether we were being "too much" in our sharing due to our excitment. Then, through networking and blogging with other families who have already adopted, or are in the process of adopting, we realized that we are not "the only ones", who can not contain all the excitment, brought upon by the expectation by faith, in a future where the children we have longed for so many years will FINALLY be in our arms. We feel blessed and honored to have met families who the words: "WONDERFUL & BEAUTIFUL" are just not enough to describe them. Parents, who just like us have hearts that are exploding with so much love to give, to the child/children who they know without a shadow of doubt, will be theirs, no matter how long it will take, where they will come from or who they are!!!

There are no words to describe the gratitude we feel for so many of the awesome families we have met during this process (some we've already had the priviledge to meet in person, others we may still only know through the modern benefits of the technology world). We have already mentioned some of them by name in previous posts and even included some great links (to the ones who have a public site) we do not post any of the info for the ones who have a private site, but y'all know who you are and how much we appreciate you.

This week, we are AGAIN touched sooooooooooooooooooooo deeply by a beautiful family from California, whose amazing journey of faith and love, we have been excitedly following. Here's a link to their public blog, I promisse that you will be touched beyond words (make sure to read this journey from the beginning to really see the heart of this family): http://princessisabella.blogspot.com/

So, to anyone who has ever questioned why some adoptive parents get to go "on and on and on" about their journey, remember: "This is our pregnancy, it is in our minds 24/7, it makes us feel all sorts of things, some days we have great news & updates to share (feeling good), but other days we may have not so pleasant news or developments (have you ever heard of: "morning sickness")? Hey, one thing is for sure, as our hearts keep growing with so much love and excitement, just like a belly, there comes a time when we can no longer hide it or keep it to ourselves "under wraps", we want to shout it from the mountain top and share our experience with the world - Thank God for all the ones who understand and the others who out of love, so graciously "put up" with it all!!! :>)

Love,

Sharon & Michael

PRAY FOR DAD!

Just found out today that my Dad (who lives in Brazil), was hospitalized for some tests due to an episode of extreme hypertension. Because he had a quadruple bi-pass 12 years ago, an angioplasty was done to thoroughly check everything out. The doctors concluded that his bi-pass needs to be completely re-done/re-placed, due to some blockage.

This will be a very serious and critical operation, because of his age (72) and the fact he already has the original bi-pass, therefore my older brother Roderick (Roddy), who is a physician living in Sao Paulo Brazil, is planning on flying to the Northeast of Brazil tomorrow, to see Dad at the hospital and to advise him to fly back with him to Sao Paulo this weekend in order to have the surgery next week at the "Hospital do Coracao", which is the top "cardiology hospital" in Brazil, also well known internationally. This will be wonderful for my brother will be somewhat in charge of his case and will even be able to care for him at his home, when he gets released from the hospital!

Please remember my Dad in your prayers, his name is William McGuie (Bill) - Yeap, he's Scottish alright!!! :>)

Thanks!

Sharon

STILL HOPE?????????????????

YOU BETCHA!!!!!

OK, here we go again..........................

As y'all know, the purpose of this blog is to share our journey and thoughts with all our family and friends. Sometimes (we hope MOST OF THE TIME), the news will be good, upbeat and positive - even though we know this wasn't the case in the past few entries! :<(
However, if we are being true and genuine in sharing our hearts with you, I guess we'll allow you "the priviledge" (hehehe) to see it all hang out (good days and bad). Aren't you just so glad that you get to participate in everything??? :>)

All along, we have been praying for Gods will regarding our adoption of the 3 precious little sisters from Colombia, that we had fallen in love with after finding them on a waiting list way back in March. Then, when we heard (almost 2 weeks ago) that we were not going to be able to adopt them, our hearts were broken but we did find comfort and peace in finally having an answer to our almost 8 months of "Waiting" and only prayed that the right "Forever Family" would come along for the girls, very, very soon.

We do believe in taking a pro-active approach when pursuing our goals, but we certainly do not believe in trying soooooooooooooo hard to force something, if it is was never meant to be (for we would hate to live with the consequences thereof). We also do not believe in "blaming or being mad at God" when we don't get "our way" after we profess to believe and pray so hard for "His will to be done" regarding something we wanted so badly (that would just be too hypocritical). Nevertheless, in order to tie up some lose ends and be able to find complete closure, we sent our agency a formal list of questions we needed clarification on and addressed any concerns that were raised related to their handling of our case. We decided, that to avoid receiving more "vague answers", we would include our Case Manager, the Director for the Colombian program, the regional Director of our agency and the Executive Director, in our correspondence. Heck, we even sent a copy to be sent to the ICBF Director!

Well, we may have ruffled some feathers (in a good way), we have started to receive some answers (even if half way) and today, we received an email stating that there has been some additional consideration of our case by the Director of the ICBF and now there is some talk that they are not ready to release our "Official letter of denial for the girls and approval for 2 other children," because they may want to re-evaluate and re-consider us for the adoption of, yeap you guessed it: Catalina, Patricia and Daniela!!!

Needless to say, we ARE GOING TO and MUST protect our hearts at this time, therefore, we will be very cautious in our "HOPE", I guess we prefer to just wait and see what happens. We were told that we should have some sort of FINAL answer prior to December 15Th, when the Colombian courts close for the holidays and won't re-open until after January 15Th. We just pray that this is not some sort of cruel misinformation we received!

Hey, on top of all these new developments, we have been cleared to start receiving referrals from Brazil this week through Limiar and as if this wasn't enough, we received a call today from a local agency we had found through a couple who domestically adopted a sibling group of 5, they were inviting us to their adoption orientation meeting next Tuesday http://www.theoaklandpress.com/stories/051406/loc_2006051402.shtml

So the truth is: if we weren't already a bit confused about this whole experience before, we certainly are now more than ever: "dazed and confused." Still, we can't help seeing glimpses of light in our horizon, no matter how long it may take for the clouds to clear, we know that the sun will one day shine very bright, in the smile of the child/children that God will in His perfect timing, place in our arms!!!

Thank you "BIG TIME" for continuing to believe along with us!

Much love,

Sharon & Michael

THANK YOU!!!

Hope you had an awesome Thanksgiving holiday, counting your many blessings with all your loved ones!

Thanks again for your very encouraging comments, emails, phone calls and most importantly, your love. Please continue to remember us in your prayers, that we may have peace and wisdom for the decisions that are ahead.

We wish you all a wonderful fun-filled and happy few weeks, as you participate in the hustle and bustle of preparations for Christmas and New Year's!!!

Love,

Sharon & Michael

HAPPY THANKSGIVING EVERYONE!!!

YES, HAPPY THANKSGIVING EVERYONE!!!

We have some news to share with you: yesterday - Friday (11/17), we had a formal conference call with our agency where we were told that Colombia did not release the three girls to us for adoption. They did however approve us to adopt 2 other children, but not the three sisters we applied for. They did not specify the age group or the gender of the children they approved us for yet, so we are now waiting to find out and once we do, we will make the decision of whether or not to pursue the new process further (for as we clearly told the agency, this isn't a decision we make over night or under pressure, as though we are buying a car or a house: "Oh, if I can't get this one, I'll just get that one instead" - there is no comparison, it is definitely such a deep consideration, when it comes to our future family and the children we long for!

We are human and of course we are and were very sad when we heard the news, for as you know we had already allowed ourselves to fall in love with the girls and were dreaming of the possibility that they would become our daughters. We must now allow ourselves some time to grieve and let go of the dream we had started building for ourselves and who we thought were going to be our daughters, for this is only the healthy thing to do for our emotions. However, we must say that we are also feeling a great relief to FINALLY have a solid answer and not be in limbo anymore. We have always been aware that from the very beginning, although we were completely approved to adopt, the final decision regarding the "specific" case/sibling group we were interested in, did not belong to us or the agency, but to Colombia's ICBF office (Child Welfare Service) in charge of representing the particular case/children. There may have been some concerns over the fact that we never had children before and those particular children were a bit older and may have some special needs, issues or concerns due to their background (we really weren't given any reasons, so for our records, we have requested a full legal explanation of why we were not approved). We did feel absolutely ready for them and had prepared ourselves through parenting classes and trainings related to adopting older children, we felt ready to accept any challenges that would come with the adoption, but ultimately the Lord is in control, He alone knows the true reasons why this will not work out as we expected, He alone knows what is best for us, but most importantly: who will be the best family for those beautiful children. We prayed for His will in this matter, so we must thank Him for the answer and have peace in the outcome, as we continue to completely depend on Him for the healing of our hearts!

In the meantime, we have obtained some information about a wonderful non-profit organization called Limiar (means "Threshold" in Portuguese - the idea of a child leaving their painful past behind and being able to walk through the threshold of a door that will lead them to a wonderful new future filled with hope). They do a great work in Brazil with orphanages and the courts and since 1981 have assisted many North American and European families in the adoption of over 1400 Brazilian children. Being originally from Brazil (Sharon), we have always had a heart to adopt from there but were always told the process would be too difficult and complicated. Until we found Limiar and talked to several families that adopted through them. We have received the information packet from Limiar and have submitted an application and have already been approved to start receiving in-depth information and photos of waiting children and sibling groups. The good thing is that there is no obligation or pressure to commit, but if it so happens that we feel led to pursue an adoption in Brazil, because we are already completely approved to adopt and Dossier ready, we just have to have some minor adjustments done to our original paperwork and then Limiar submits the documentation directly to the courts in Brazil.

Of course as you can all see, we have a lot to think about right now, but most importantly: TO PRAY ABOUT!!!

In summary: (1) we already know we are not going to adopt Dulce Catalina, Olinda Patricia and Daniela, (2) at the same time Colombia has approved us to adopt 2 children (possibly younger children, but we have not been given any of the details yet), (3) then we have this new information about Brazil (the fact that there would be no culture or language barrier is something to greatly consider)????????????????

We do ask that as you consider our experience, you would actually continue to pray for the precious three little sisters that although we never met, touched our hearts sooooooooooooo deeply. We know for a fact that they still have not been matched with a family, so please pray that they will not be lost in the system as many are, as just another file due to bureaucracy and sometimes, questionable rules. Pray that they will eventually (actually, soon) be removed from foster-care (before it's too late and they become too old) and be given the blessing of a future filled with hope with a wonderful "Forever Family" to call their own, that will show them what it truly means to be cherished, nurtured and loved unconditionally!

Therefore, as the wonderful Thanksgiving Holiday approaches, Michael has taken some time off and we are going to take it easy and relax and not worry about anything. We know that we have a lot to thank the Lord for, so many blessings He has given us and one of the blessings that we are most grateful for this year, are the faithful family and friends (you know who you are) ;>) - who have been there for us during this journey and we know will continue to love, pray and support us, in whatever new journey we embark on or decisions we make. We also want to specifically thank Kelly & Tom, Ruth & Jeff, Krista & Troy, Michelle, Ralene and all the other "Colombian families" for the networking support and for so unselfishly sharing their journeys with us, we have learned SOOOOOOOOOOO much from your experience!!!

We will continue to use this blog when there are any updates or news to share. One last thing to remember as we celebrate Thanksgiving is: "God is good, all the time and all the time, God is good!!!"

Much love and gratitude and wishing you a blessed Thanksgiving from the bottom of our hearts!

Sharon & Michael

CELEBRATING OUR 9TH WEEK ANNIVERSARY (OF DOSSIER SUBMISSION) & A VERY SPECIAL LETTER!!! :>)

Today is almost 7 1/2 months since we started this process and the "9th week anniversary" of when our completed Dossier was sent to Colombia; since then, we have had to do a bit more "paper-chasing" which was all sent in 2 weeks ago, but we still haven't heard anything. This may not seem like much for those who are waiting for a referral, but keep in mind that our process wasn't for an unidentified infant, but for an "older sibling group" of children who were already identified and have been waiting for their forever family for at least 2 years. We had been told that the process was going to be much faster, so this added "wait" and not knowing is a wee bit stressful! We also noticed that the girls information was removed from the agencies private waiting list, and the only other children that were removed were the ones who have either already been adopted or are no longer being represented for adoption by the agency. So, needless to say right now we have about a gazillion questions that are not being answered and of course, as some of you already know, saying that our emotions are a bit raw right now is a bit of an understatement :>)Those of you who are following our journey and know from experience what it is to long for a child for quite some time and then still not know if the ones you have chosen will be yours in the end, can certainly relate!

In the meantime, we were reminded this week YES, ONCE AGAIN that we are not the ones in control here, but the Lord is STILL THE ONE and we must continue to trust ONLY in Him, that the children that are meant to be part of our family will somehow find their way to us. We continue to be reminded of this fact when we see the examples of so many wonderful new families we have met through this process and also a dear couple, friends of ours for many years, who are currently in Brazil adopting a gorgeous baby girl, who God brought into their lives when they least expected. This is indeed so true: "The children God has for us, will miraculously find their way to us, no mater what!!!"

God is so good and His mercies are indeed new every morning, He gives us the strength to continue on this journey and He gives us the faith to continue to believe and persevere. We know that the child/children He has for us is just waiting for us to go and get them, no matter where that will ultimately be, whether it's Colombia or somewhere else, it's only a matter of time!

Finally, we want to share with you something that came to my heart while having devotions this week, it is a letter I wrote as I felt God's love demonstrated in the way He so faithfully continues to supply our hearts with peace and faith to keep on believing!

________________________________________________________

FROM: God
ADDRESS: Heaven & in your heart
PHONE #: P-r-a-y-e-r (Call anytime, there's never a busy signal or voice-mail, I always answer)!

DATE: Eternity

RE: My gift to you!

Dear Sharon & Michael,

I am writing this letter to inform you that I have decided in my perfect plan for your lives, that when the right time comes I will fully entrust the two of you with the gift of a beautiful child/children named:___________________________

Please know, that this child or children will not be given to you as your possessions, they are mine and always will be, but out of trust for the deepest desire of your hearts to become parents and the enormous amount of pure and sincere love which I can see overflowing from your hearts, I will bestow upon you the great responsibility to "cherish, nurture, guide and honor" these precious little ones, so that they can grow up with the opportunities to become all that I have created them to be and fulfill their purpose and full potential as human beings!

I understand that many times, you have questioned the reasons why you had to suffer from infertility and the many emotional lessons learned through that experience in the many years you've been together. There were so many times when your hearts ached for answers and you felt that I was not listening, but oh my dear ones, the truth is that I have never left you nor forsaken you, I have always been there all along, silently preparing for you in the depths of my love!
Just think, if it had not been for the difficult road you had to travel, you would have never gone on this long journey that will ultimately, lead you to the awesome final destination: "Your Beautiful Child/ren" - The one/s who were truly meant to be part of your family. The one/s that in my omniscience I knew by name and had a plan for, even before the foundation of the world, the one/s whose substance I knew even before they were yet formed in the womb that carried and birthed them, the one/s who were fearfully and beautifully made by my own hands and through these hands, yes, my very own hands, they will be placed in your arms and forever in your hearts, so that you may become their Real Mom and Dad!!! (Read Psalms 139).

I am the giver of all good things and am always near. Just wait and you will see, that soon, very soon, your lives will change overnight as you adjust, bond and learn to become parents, things may (better yet, will) become busy and hectic at times, but please remember that I am always only "a prayer away" so, feel free to "call me" anytime!
I will always be available to also: "cherish, nurture, guide and honor you," just as you will do with your precious little one/s; that is because Sharon and Michael, you are and will always be my beloved children, also "chosen and adopted" by me to fully partake in my inheritance which is freely given to you through my son Jesus Christ!

Much love yesterday, today and forever!

Your heavenly Father,

God
Copyright © 2006 Sharon P. All rights reserved.

WELCOME TO OUR NEW & IMPROVED SITE!!!

Here, we will be able to continue sharing our thoughts, but will also be able to share a lot more photos and eventually video with all our wonderful family and friends who have been so faithful in following our "Journey to family" and supporting us during "Our Pregnancy of the Heart!"

By the way, someone asked why the photo of flowers on this post? Well, several reasons: because flowers are a good way to welcome you to our new site, white/cream roses just happen to be my favorite and Medellin (where the girls come from), is known in Colombia as the "City of Flowers", so when we see these beautiful and very colorful roses, it reminds us of the girls!!! :>)

*** Most of you already know by now that we have discontinued posting on our "Caring Bridge" site: www.caringbridge.com/visit/theperrychildren but we're still in the process of transferring all the original info from Caring Bridge & previous blog on to this address; in the meantime, feel free to continue leaving comments at the end of any post (we just love reading all your encouraging thoughts)!!!

Love,

Sharon & Michael