Looking for an update?

I've abandoned this blog for some time. Mostly it's due to not having any 'real' information to share and feeling quite discouraged. I'm bound by not being able to share details and, truthfully, there are no real details to share... so it's a lose-lose situation.

There has been a lot of activity on the orphanage side of life. I suppose I should muster up some energy to blog about the events. However, on the adoption side of things - we are in the forever waiting mode. We are waiting for the US Embassy to issue an Article 5, where they assure they will be able to give our children visas to enter the country. We have been waiting for almost 2 months while they do an investigation. It's beyond frustrating as the clock is ticking on the amount of time we have left to complete the adoption - and we continue to pray for all of this to come to pass.

I will post when I have news that means something. Thanks for your prayers, encouragement and times when you scream with us and for us.

Windsor Road Christian Church

Tim Brooks and his wife adopted 3 sisters from Hogar de Esperanza about three years ago. Since then, Tim has kept connected with the orphanage by being the webmaster for www.perukids.com and has had it in his heart to return to Peru and serve. He and his oldest adopted daughter, Loren, led up a team from their church in Illinois and brought 25 people to the orphanage to share their talents. After spending many months emailing and coordinating their trip and activities, I was extremely blessed to be able to be in Peru while the group was here. They were very busy - painting classrooms, building a garage port for our bus, having VBS for the kids each day, holding medical training for some of the staff, playing with the kids and loving each person they came into contact with. I was touched by their open hearts and overwhelming generosity and made some beautiful friendships. Read about their trip and see pictures by visiting their missions blog http://wrcc-peru2009.blogspot.com . The group mentioned several times how the children touched their lives, but the children, staff and volunteers with never forget Windsor Road Christian and their selfless love!

If you or your family or church group would like to come serve at Hogar de Esperanza, please contact me! I would love to have you come and get to know this special place.

It's been 2 months and counting

And the waiting continues... I've (Robyn) been in Peru a little over 2 months. Believe it or not - our 'last' document (I800) was approved 1.5 weeks ago - but that's really not the 'last' thing to be done, apparently. Tons of little tiny things need to take place - filing of the visa photos, filing a DS230, re-filing the acceptance letter, paying the Visa fee, the US Embassy investigation of our case, an article 5 and an article 25... then Joel can travel - or so they say. I said I was done guessing - but it seems like our anniversary is a good date to hope for - October 5. However, my sister said to just keep telling people 'two weeks' in honor of the movie Money Pit.

I've been pretty busy while I've been in Peru - working with the administration on some upcoming changes for the ministry, working with our Volunteer Coordinator on creating manuals for some of our programs, visiting friends, and trying to not be depressed or disillusioned. I will try to post some updates on some of the activities happening here, at the orphanage and in Peru.

Please continue to pray for us, the kids, Joel and the whole entire process.

How much longer?

The questions used to be: when are you getting married? when are you having kids? how many kids will you be adopting? when will you be able to go to Peru to pick up the kids?

Now the question is: how much longer before you can go home?

I don't know the answer. I keep guessing and, basically, doing a poor job of it. We had a big delay and then a small miracle. As I explain it - people get confused and still don't understand where we are in the process. To tell you the truth, I barely understand myself. Our delay was a second request for more information. Our small miracle was the intial approval (from Peru) to adopt 5 siblings between the ages of 3 and 11. The next delay was that they didn't just go ahead and name the specific 5 on the approval. So, we have to wait for the official assignment and this week (Mon-Wed) all government offices are closed to celebrate Dia de Patriats, which celebrates their independence from Spain. Hopefully by the end of the week, we'll get our official assignment - and we can file our last document with the US Immigration office, which asks for the immigration of these specific children.

I hope and pray that Joel is able to travel to Peru at least by the last week of August - and then we'll be home 5 weeks later. Yet, again, another guess.