The PAIR Process

I have been waiting for more news to share before I updated our blog…but things are taking so long, I decided I would update anyway since so many people are wondering what’s going on! In our What to Expect When You’re “Expecting”  post, we explained the adoption process and what was coming next: the “PAIR” process.

The “PAIR” process was put in place to “protect prospective adoptive parents and promote the best interests of children” by the Ethiopian and U.S. governments. According to the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) website , the PAIR process “allows USCIS to review the child’s eligibility to immigrate to the United States in every case before prospective adoptive parents establish a permanent legal relationship to the child.” You can learn more details about the PAIR process here.

We officially submitted our case to USCIS to begin the PAIR process on April 23^rd and on May 15^th received a Request for Evidence (RFE) from USCIS. This RFE asked for five more documents to be submitted by August 6^th in order to complete our case so they can make a final determination as to whether or not she will be eligible to immigrate to the United States.

Our agency staff in Ethiopia has been working on gathering these documents since May 15^th and we unfortunately still have no news to share. We have not seen any of the required documents yet, and continue to be told that they are “working on it” or “pushing for results.” This is a very similar scenario to what we have been through time and time again in the past with other agencies, which lead to…nothing. We are struggling to trust that anything is being done for our case as we have been “burned” so many times before. We are doing all we can from here to ensure that our case moves forward, but August 6^th is fast approaching and we still have nothing in our hands. If we do not have these 5 documents by August 6^th, there will be a “denial due to abandonment.” Reading those words sting. In times like these, we just have to completely trust God and allow him to do his work.

Easier said than done.

The hardest part for us as the days go by and we continue to wait with no results…is not even about the paperwork and “PAIR” process. Yes, that is what we are focused on at this time and it is what is required to move forward, but ultimately this is about our DAUGHTER. Our precious little girl is living one more day without her family, living one more day in conditions unimaginable to most of us, one more day when her poor belly is distended and sour from pains of parasites, one more day when she doesn’t have her sisters there to laugh and play with, one more day when she doesn’t feel our arms around her, one more day when she doesn’t get a goodnight kiss from her mommy and daddy…one more day…

A photo of "Hope" holding the art work she made for me the other day at the Out of the Ashes (click here for link) compound

Please pray…for us to surrender and trust this process to God fully, for the staff in Ethiopia to be motivated to make our case a priority and get all the documents needed turned in before the deadline, and more importantly than anything…for our sweet daughter as she continues to wait to come home.  We know God has and will continue to provide and care for her, but please pray for her heart as she longs to be with us.

Do Not Worry

25 “Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink; or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothes? 26 Look at the birds of the air; they do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much more valuable than they? 27 Can any one of you by worrying add a single hour to your life?

28 “And why do you worry about clothes? See how the flowers of the field grow. They do not labor or spin. 29 Yet I tell you that not even Solomon in all his splendor was dressed like one of these. 30 If that is how God clothes the grass of the field, which is here today and tomorrow is thrown into the fire, will he not much more clothe you—you of little faith? 31 So do not worry, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’ 32 For the pagans run after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them. 33 But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well. 34 Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of it’s own.

Matthew 6:25-34