Congratulations to my winners, and thank you to all who participated!
Winners, please send me a personal message on Facebook with your addresses, so that we can send you your prize!
Brian and Bethany Lievens
Melinda Tillotson
Rebekah Giannini
(Please don’t blame Gil for the awful quality of these pictures….I am definitely not a photographer!)
I realize that many, many times on this blog, I have been an advocate for international adoption. I have been an advocate for Tanzanian adoption. I have wanted Tanzanian laws to allow more adoptions.
I love Tanzania’s orphans. I want to see more Tanzanians have a heart for adoption. I want to see Tanzanian churches and Christians step up in the area of orphan care and adoption.
But let me make this crystal clear: I would never, ever advocate for someone to adopt a child, from Tanzania or anywhere, by going around the laws of the country.
I discovered yesterday that this is exactly what is happening. There are American adoption agencies, and American families–Christian families–who are attempting to adopt children in Tanzania.
Tanzanian adoption law is extremely clear. You must live in this country for three years before you can apply to adopt. There are no exceptions. You foster a child for six months, and then you apply to legalize the adoption. It always works that way. It’s a slow process, it’s a frustrating process, but it works.
I am horrified…let me reiterate…HORRIFIED…to find out that there are American agencies and families who are trying to get around that process. The only way–the ONLY WAY–that is happening is because major money is being shifted around. I’m sure the families are in the dark about this. They are trusting agencies and orphanages who should know better.
So when I see cute little fundraising pages for American (Christian) families who are raising money for their $30,000 Tanzanian adoption….the frustration, the outrage I feel just cannot be communicated in words.
All three of our adoptions have been incredibly ethical. The process here is slow and frustrating, but it works. It is also FREE, other than lawyers’ fees at the very end. So where do you think the $30,000 is going?
What do you think that kind of corruption will breed?
Sure, you give a kid or two a better life, but what happens when all adoptions in Tanzania are shut down due to corruption?
I care about Tanzania’s orphans, but I also care about Tanzania. I would never, ever endorse an adoption that will only breed more corruption, deceit, and most likely, child trafficking.
Please friends, if you are pursuing an international adoption, ask the hard questions! Be wary of “Pilot Programs” in new countries! Be wary of small agencies who don’t have much experience! Don’t cut corners! It’s just not worth it!
Please, if you know anyone pursuing a Tanzanian adoption (who is not a resident of Tanzania), share this with them. My friends, let us love the orphan. But let us love truth and justice too.
I’m only posting a cute orphan picture because I want people to click on this link. Because seriously, I’m not in the mood for impressing the world with cuteness right now.
*Update January 2016: If you are considering a Tanzanian adoption and found this post through a Google search, please contact me. I have a lot more information that I would love to share with you. amedina(at)reachtanzania(dot)org.
Please also consider reading the series I wrote on adoption corruption, starting here.
I fell in love with Jim when I was 18.
Elisabeth introduced me to him in her books. When I would tell my friends that I planned to marry Jim Elliot, they would roll their eyes and remind me that he was not only 50 years older than me and already married, but he was, um, dead. But I was not dissuaded. The bar had been set.
I still put Shadow of the Almighty in the top 5 most influential books I’ve ever read. My life changed as I read Jim’s story–a young man who was my age and yet totally and completely sold out for God in a way I had never seen or experienced.
Elisabeth didn’t put much of herself into her books about Jim, so I didn’t start getting to know her until I ventured out into her other books. If I was in love with Jim, then soon after, I wanted to be Elisabeth.
We are given the present within which to choose whom we will serve, knowing that this moment affects the next and we are accountable for it.
Elisabeth was no-nonsense. Blunt. Witty. Very smart. Tough, but gloried in being a woman. She showed me what it meant to obey Christ. She wasn’t into emotionalism or feeling sorry for herself. Her mantra was Trust and Obey. Period. Yet she knew suffering: She waited five years to marry the man she loved, and then three years later, lost him to Indian spears. She was a widow and single mom for 10 more years, during which she went back to the remote Indian tribe that murdered her husband. Her second husband died of cancer after four years of marriage. I think she earned the right to talk about suffering.
Joy comes not in spite of, but because of, sorrow.
Her faith was unwavering. Her joy was infectious. She still is the most inspiring person I’ve ever known. She is such a part of who I am that I have to remind myself I never met her in person.
When I met Gil in 1998, not only was he full of passion and vision for the world, but he was a huge Elisabeth Elliot fan too. That was the clincher for me. I had found my Jim Elliot.
Elisabeth died yesterday, June 15, 2015, a good and faithful servant. May her death remind another generation of young people they need to be inspired by Elisabeth and her Jim.
It is nothing short of a transformed vision of reality that is able to see Christ as more real than the storm, love more real than hatred, meekness more real than pride, long-suffering more real than annoyance, holiness more real than sin.
(All quotes by Elisabeth Elliot, of course.)
I started this blog in January of 2007….eight and a half years ago. Grace had only been home for two months, and my first post was about how my name in Tanzania had changed to “Mama Grace” once I became a Mom. It’s still a name I relish.
This blog was named after her, back when Grace was actually little. But also because Grace is my favorite word in the English language, and everyone really does need a little grace in their lives. Or a lot, actually.
For a number of years, I mostly chronicled our lives in this space. Over time, I got more reflective. I have always loved writing, as demonstrated by the dozens of journals I kept through my childhood. My favorite class in college was Advanced Composition. But still, my readers were primarily family and friends who knew me.
Then, two and a half years ago, one of my former education professors from The Master’s College, Dr. Adams, submitted this post to Tim Challies, a popular Christian blogger. He linked to it, and for the first time, I was getting thousands of hits instead of dozens. Since then, he’s linked to my posts lots of times, bringing me many more regular readers.
It’s been intimidating to realize that there’s people out there who don’t know me, but want to read what I write. Writing publicly like this feels a little like those dreams where you look down and realize you are naked. And I often post with fear and trembling, knowing that the internet is not always very friendly to its writers.
I realize my blog is still a very tiny fish in a gigantic sea, and I am content with that. But I just want to thank you today, for reading and commenting and sharing what I write. I am truly honored and humbled. Your encouragement has spurred me on think more deeply and write more carefully. I am so thankful for you!
I love writing, but I hate technology. I don’t get web design at all. A couple months ago, it took me about three hours to get the Facebook box linked to my blog. When I finally figured it out, I realized it should have taken me five minutes. Yep. Dumb. So I was extremely grateful when the talented Suzanne Hodson of Olive Branch Studios in San Jose agreed to design a header for me. It looks fantastic, and I feel so professional now!
So, in honor of my brand spankin’ new header, and to thank all of my faithful readers, we’re going to have another drawing!
I sent three pairs of Tanzanian salad tongs back with my Mom, and she is ready to send them off to my winners!
So….if you read this blog regularly, please comment either here or on my Facebook fan page. (When I recently linked to Google Plus, I realized that now only people with Google accounts can comment on my posts. No idea how to fix that. Like I said…Technology Dumb. But anyone should be able to comment on the fan page.)
Anyway, leave a comment that gives me an idea for a future post, or tell me how you found me, or just say, “I’m in!” My three kids will draw three names, the old fashioned, non-technological way….from a hat. The deadline is Friday, June 19th. (I will wait until all time zones have passed.)
Bloggers love knowing who their readers are, so I’ve got to do something to coax out those lurkers. But even if you don’t come out of hiding, thank you so much, to all of you!
If you follow international adoption news, you’ve heard it: Birthparents are manipulated into sending a child to an orphanage. A mother is promised money to give her sweet one up for adoption. Paperwork falsified. People who know better making way too much money off of a child’s plight.
Adoption mends. Adoption redeems. Adoption brings hope. Except when the brokenness breeds more brokenness.
What kind of a world do we live in, where men exploit a child who has already lost everything? Where people prey on other’s poverty, ignorance, hopelessness?
I read articlesthis week on Uganda’sadoption program, which seems to be the next African adoption program that will bite the dust. Like a long line of dominoes they have fallen: Rwanda, Liberia, Ghana…now Congo and Ethiopia are only hanging on by a thread….and next, Uganda joins the list. The headlines announce fraud, corruption, deceit. And meanwhile the children languish, on streets, in orphanages, two or three to a bed.
What I don’t understand is why there is a need to traffic children for adoptions. Greedy lawyers shouldn’t need to connive their way into stealing children. For goodness sake, there’s enough orphans to go around.
How do we define an orphan? That is the big question. UNICEF defines an orphan as any child who has lost at least one parent. ‘Tis true–an orphan of this definition does not necessarily need a new family. Maybe her Dad just needs a job or her Mom needs a place to live. By all means, let’s keep these families intact.
But I don’t define an orphan that way. In my definition, an orphan is any child who has no family, for any reason. Most of the time, that child’s parents are still alive. They are just not able to parent their child. Think about it: Are not all American foster children in this category? Every American baby put up for adoption? Death is not the only way to create an orphan. Yet all are the product of brokenness; all need the redemption of adoption.
Such is the same on this continent. For every horror story, for every “orphan” child who is manipulated away from her parents, there are a hundred more who are left in hospital beds, in church buildings or bars, or dumped down toilet holes. A hundred more who are the carnage left behind from war, famine, HIV. Many times, brokenness wins, and no poverty-fighting program is going to save that family. But maybe, just maybe, the child can be saved.
Yet instead of salvation, in comes the dollar signs and the prestigious positions, and the rescue operation turns into lucrative business. Meanwhile, a child still cries herself to sleep. And no mother ever comes.
I feel ripped in two. I see my children, my beautiful children, asleep in their beds–fed, kissed, content, hopeful. I want to tell you their stories, because it would help you to love adoption more, and give you the confidence that yes! adoption is a wondrous thing–but those stories are for them alone to tell. So instead you must trust me when I tell you that adoption was the only hope for my children….and that there are millions more out there just like them. I look at my children and I want to say to you, YES! Please give the chance of a family to one more orphan!
But instead, I find myself afraid. I feel privileged, with all my adoptions, that I have had the absolute confidence that I know everything there is to know about my children’s stories. Though each process cost me much blood, sweat, and tears, I am positive no one received any unjust compensation. But can I give you my assurance that you would have the same confidence if you embark on this journey? I just don’t know.
It shouldn’t be this way! I must trust in God’s justice for those who seek to exploit the least of these, because otherwise the anger will consume me.
In the midst of the stories of adoption fraud and corruption, remember this: The orphans are still there, millions of them. Ethical international adoptions are still possible if you are very, very careful. Do not allow cynicism and fear to keep you from considering this incredible journey.
There are beautiful bright spots, in places such as Forever Angels, where Lily came from. Forever Angels is not only the best-run orphanage I have seen, but it seeks, first and foremost, to reunite families. They do everything they can–donate formula, provide jobs, help with housing–whatever it takes–to keep families together.
If that doesn’t happen, then–and only then–do they look for adoptive families. Yet even with these protective measures, they have dozens of children available for adoption. Only a very few will ever get families. If you are a resident of Tanzania–especially a citizen–will you consider adoption in a new way today?
If you need a little encouragement, you need to watch this video from Forever Angels. And even if you don’t live here (and thus don’t qualify to adopt in Tanzania), watch it anyway….because I promise, it will make your day. Which is something you might need after reading this post.
Note added July 2016: Shortly after writing this post, my whole view of international adoption was turned upside down. Please read the series I wrote after months of research.
Powered by WordPress & Theme by Anders Norén
