Foster Care Redesign Is Not Working In Texas

I have had several people asking me about my testimony last week at the Senate Health and Human Services Committee. I ended up discarding my planned testimony to address the misinformation that had already been spoken in the hearing. I simply spoke to the Committee about my experience and the reality of the system for children. However, the Committee did receive this written testimony.

The hearing was actually over Senate Bill 11 which has Foster Care Redesign moving forward across the state, but even more alarming is that it wants to privatize even more rolls of CPS! If you know someone who works for CPS, you need to make sure they are aware of this Bill.  It would do away with their job with DFPS. This Bill is very alarming! I will be posting bullet points tomorrow that I would ask everyone to call their Senator and Representative to voice the concerns and challenge the misinformation being given.

This is what I presented to the Committee:

To:                   House Health and Human Services Committee Members

Background/Perspective:

I am a former foster parent, mother to 9 children (6 of whom are adopted), and executive director of an adopt only child placing agency. I have managed a contract with DFPS for adoption services for the past three and a half years. I attempted to secure a contract with Providence, and currently have a contract with OCOK. I have been a part of the adoption community for the past 15 years. I have a passion to empty the Texas foster system of children who are legally free for adoption, but remain in foster homes because of a lack of adoptive homes. I have a passion for recruiting, training, and supporting adoptive homes to ensure successful, life-long outcomes for our children who cannot return to their biological families.

Problems with Senate Bill 11

First, let me thank the committee for seeing the current state of our child welfare system and desiring a change. I commend you for that. However, upon reading the majority of Senate Bill 11, I am left with a sense of dread as it is clear that the issues with our system have been misdiagnosed. The issues that plague our current system and result in poor outcomes for children cannot be fixed with the continued roll out of Foster Care Redesign or the privatization of more case management services.

My concerns over privatization of any aspect of case management for our children as well as the continued roll out of redesign across the state come not from theory or unsubstantiated fear. My concerns come from my actual experience with redesign and the current philosophy that the competition of the free market will ensure better outcomes for children.

My first experience with redesign was in 2014 when Providence, the SSCC in the catchment area for regions 2 and 9 refused to discuss a contract with me as an adoption only provider. During my first phone call to Providence I was told “We would never stand in the way of children finding a home.” That changed over the course of my 6 week battle for a sibling group of 4 to be placed in one of my licensed adoptive homes. I had a contract with DFPS. I met all of their requirements. My licensed home was located in the same catchment area, but because the SSCC would lose money by placing the children in my licensed home the placement was denied. That is a decision that was driven completely by profit margin. The outcome for those four children was a sentence to languish in foster care for three more years. One child remains in CPS custody still today. The siblings who would have remained a unit, are no longer able to live in the same home. Did redesign fix the system for those children?

Providence withdrew their contract in the midst of my conversations with the HHSC as well as Kaysie Reinhardt the DFPS Foster Care Redesign Director. As I continued to work in Region 9, my agencies home region, to place waiting children in licensed adoptive homes through my DFPS contract, I would have to wait 6 months for a case file for a little girl and her brother so that one of my families could move forward with adopting them. When I inquired time and again why we were having to wait, it was stated that the overwhelming task of transferring cases back to CPS from Providence had left the department paralyzed. What we would learn later is that every Sunday of that 6 months, that little girl went up to the alter at her church and prayed for an adoptive family. She had an amazing foster family who did a wonderful job of beginning her healing process and preparing her for a forever family. However, week after week, the little girl expressed her feelings of rejection that no one wanted her as their forever daughter. The heart ache of trauma of this little girl was extended by 6 months because of the failed privatized system of foster care redesign. I am happy to report that once redesign was out of the way, the little girl’s prayers were answered. She and her brother are thriving in their adoptive home and have far exceeded anyone’s expectations of progress in the time they have been in their adoptive home. Redesign did not fix the system for these children. And the case turn over when Providence withdrew leaves the question, what will we do with massive case turnovers when a SSCC does not renew their contract if we continue the move to privatization. There is not a good answer. It is an inevitable occurrence that will once again leave Texas children vulnerable and unaccounted for.  We are simply exchanging the cancer that currently plagues our system for another.

This was not an isolated occurrence with Providence. In the January of 2016 I was contacted by CPS and asked if I had an adoptive home for the twin sister of a 16 year old I had placed a few months prior. The sister was now ready to be adopted, and her amazing CPS worker was attempting to find a home geographically close to her twin sister to facilitate regular contact between the twins. Again foster care redesign threatened to stop the placement of a 16 year old girl simply because of financial reasons. I have black and white emails where the SSCC worker was willing to let her remain in an RTC instead of working to place her in an adoptive home that was ready to take placement – and could have moved forward without any hesitancy in the legacy system. Thankfully the potential adoptive parents along with the adoptive parents of the twin sister already placed advocated for their daughters. With the help of Representative Brooks Landgraff and Matt Krause, we were able to secure a contract with OCOK in order to place this young lady in a home where she is currently thriving – maintaining regular contact with her twin sister. For this young lady, redesign was a huge step backwards. She has a bright future despite redesign.

I hear many sing the praises of foster care redesign. There are many goals of redesign that I support 100%. However, as a person working on the ground, I do not see those goals being obtained for the children of Texas. I hear reports that are given by the people with a vested interest – either an interest in financial gain or an interest in saving face that redesign is worth the tax payer dollars it has used. This leads me to one of the biggest concerns of child advocates with privatization. How do we ensure quality outcomes when profit margin is the driving force? I am perplexed when I speak to those at DFPS as well as some who serve on the PPP for redesign. They all state there are amazing outcomes from redesign. It leaves me wondering where is the disconnect between the theory of what should be happening in this privatized system and the reality of what is actually happening for our children in care. For example, everyone I speak to about my concerns with adoptions under redesign refers to the increased number of adoptions occurring in catchment area 3b.  Yet, I have a conversation with the CASA office in Johnson County telling me that they have not had any of their children placed in adoptive homes in months and are wondering why that would be. I personally have experienced an increased delay in the process of selecting children for adoptive homes under redesign. If I am working with a CPS worker directly in the selection process, it takes a matter of weeks. Twice I have had to enlist the assistance of Governor Abbott’s office to simply get a phone call or email returned to by OCOK letting me know if children are still available for adoption or if my family was selected. Yet the numbers say adoptions are increasing. When I asked Ms. Reinhardt to see the numbers for actual adoptive placements of children who are legally free for adoption and placed into matched adoptive homes, I was told that data was unavailable. The adoption numbers being reported include those where children were adopted by their foster family as well as kinship placements. These are amazing and highly desired outcomes for those children. However, the reporting of those numbers as “adoptive homes” gives an inaccurate representation of the outcomes for our harder to place children who are remaining in foster homes when they should be in permanent, adoptive homes. 

I would encourage those on the HHSC committee to talk to the people on the ground. Ask foster families and CPS workers if they see an improvement in our system under redesign. I have yet to speak to any CPS case manager or foster family who feels redesign is a good model. At a town hall meeting in catchment area 3b, foster family after foster family expressed concerns over lack of support and poor outcomes for children. One foster family stated that they had a bed available in their home that was 20 miles from a CPS office where an infant was having to stay at the office due to no “available” bed. This foster mother was a 3b home and was therefore not allowed to take placement of this baby sleeping in a CPS office. So while redesign may show that fewer children are sleeping in offices, what do the numbers of the regions around redesign say? Is anyone looking at the entire picture to see what creating a competitive market for children’s cases does overall to Texas children? I have a string of emails I will be happy to share that show a region 3b family reaching out to a CPS worker in another region about adopting a Texas child because she has had no movement on her case in months. The CPS worker has a child she would like to consider placing in their home after visiting with the family. However, the placement is not allowed to occur because the family is told that her agency will not release her home study for a placement of any child outside of 3b. This young man’s only other family being considered was in New York. I believe this is an unintended outcome of implementation of redesign. But is anyone looking at these unintended outcomes? Or are we just looking at the numbers in the catchment area and ignoring the negative outcomes for all other Texas children?

Based on my experience, I would have to say the latter. CPS workers have been told they cannot speak out against redesign, or they will lose their jobs. My initial contract with OCOK had a silencing clause in it. Had I signed the contract as it was originally sent to me, I would not be able to sit before you today exercising my right to speak up for children without the threat of legal action against me. This begs the question, if redesign is all the numbers say it is, why do we have to silence the people who know the actual outcomes for children?

I understand the concept of free-market supply and demand. In a consumer driven market, consumer choice drives the demand for quality. I am told that is what will maintain the quality of care for children under privatized systems like redesign. Yet, I know providers who are being paid less under their contracts with OCOK than they were under contracts with DFPS. When asked why that is, service providers are told that OCOK must recoup some of it’s cost somewhere. How is paying a middle man, in this case an SSCC, making the best use of the funds available to in fact provide quality service to our children? That fact alone defies the entire philosophy of creating a privatized system that will ensure quality care of our Texas children.  We already have a vast shortage of agencies willing to license families for adoption only due to the drastic profit loss when an agency moves a child from a foster placement to an adoptive placement. That shows that outcomes for children will in fact be affected by a system based on monetary incentives. How will we ensure biological families are protected, and every child who could be returned home will be when an organization would profit from the child remaining in care? You cannot afford to give large enough incentives to reunify a child compared to what an organization would earn for keeping the child in care.

We need not look to Florida or any other state to see if privatization of DFPS case management works. The private sector in Texas, of which my organization is part, has proven is does not have the capacity to manage the vast needs of our children in care. This is why Providence failed and why we have seen no other redesign roll outs despite deadlines that have come and gone for the next SSCC to take over.

Suggested Solution:

I believe if someone brings a complaint to the table, they should have a proposed solution as well. The sections of Senate Bill 11 suggesting we continue the roll out of foster care redesign as it is as well as begin to create privatization of other case management currently under the supervision of DFPS are simply exchanging one crisis for another.

I work with amazing people with DFPS who have a heart for children. They have a desire to do their job well so children have positive outcomes. However, they simply cannot do their jobs because of caseloads and supervisor turnover. We need to funnel all of our available funds into strengthening salary scales, and hiring more workers to make caseloads manageable. We need to have accountability on the local level and empower our regional offices to engage the community and take ownership of their outcomes for children. Harris County is giving us an amazing example of how this can work. Let us learn from their success and stop redesign roll out. We cannot simply exchange one cancer for another. We need real, proven, successful outcomes for our children. We must look at the facts of redesign as they apply to all Texas children and understand it has not truly created the outcomes it was in theory able to create. We cannot allow competition for outcomes and profits in one area of Texas by an individual organization keep children from another area of Texas from receiving quality care of permanence. We must not be divided in our efforts to help children, but come together united for all Texas children.

The question I leave with you is: if you want to continue the roll out of privatization of any case management of children where demand drives quality, what is the price tag for ensuring our children have the safety and future they deserve? I am quite certain it is a price you cannot afford. 

***After hearing some amazing people who have a heart of the children of Texas speak against Senate Bill 11 and all it's challenges, it became clear that there should be a pilot program that would fully fund one region of CPS from investigations all the way through post adopt programs. Lets fund the current CPS program with the money they are using to fund redesign and see if by chance what we have now will actually work when it is fully funded! Our children do not have time for us to get this wrong....and Foster Care Redesign is too costly and has already failed in one of two attempts! Our children cannot survive under those odds! 

Save the Children...they need to change their name!

Read this!

SAVE THE CHILDREN FEDERATION, INC.
CODE OF ETHICS AND BUSINESS CONDUCT
Save the Children is committed to preserving a working environment that promotes integrity in its business practices. All representatives of Save the Children – employees, volunteers, interns, consultants, Board members and others – must conduct the Agency’s activities honestly, with integrity and good judgment, and in the best interest of the Agency and the children, families and communities we serve. Save the Children representatives must demonstrate conduct that upholds the Agency’s reputation, is respectful of the rights of others, and complies with all applicable laws, regulations and standards.
The following are specific requirements for Save the Children representatives in conformity with these precepts. The list is not exhaustive.
Compliance with Law, Regulations and Standards
Save the Children representatives must act in conformity with the laws and regulations of the United States and the countries in which the Agency works. They must abide by Save the Children’s own policies and procedures and act in conformity with professional standards common to representatives of other charitable organizations, non-profit corporations and non-governmental organization.

Save the Children's website has a link to their code of ethics and business conduct. I thought I would glance at it in light of some news I just received from Liberia. I couldn't make it past the first two headings of the 4 page document before the knot in my stomach just about made me puke! I can't speak for the organization anywhere but in Liberia. But what I see in Liberia meets NONE of these ethics or conduct!

My first encounter with Save the Children was in January when we went to get Toben and had four other families traveling with us. This is when a representative from UNICEF, Dr. Emmanuel Dolo, saw us eating out at a restaurant with our children and by the time we got to the Ministry of Health that morning, all the children's visas (well not technically all since in the professionalism that they always have, they had only gotten 4 of the 9 children's names correct!) had been put on hold illegally. When we FINALLY had clearance to leave after proving the adoptions had occurred legally and ALL papers were in order, we went t meet our plane. When we got home, we discovered that a newspaper article had been written which stated that representatives for Save the Children were headed to the airport to stop the "illegal" removal of these children! Really?! With as much attention as had already been drawn to our children, there is NO way that we would have gotten out of the airport with out having every "i" dotted and every "t" crossed! Did Save the Children look at any of our paperwork? NO!!!!! Did Save the Children call and talk to me, the Executive Director of both a non-profit here in the US and an NGO in Liberia? NO!

Read that first part again: they must work in the best interest of the children, communities and families they serve???? Who were they serving then? It sure wasn't the nine children about to board a plane to loving homes with plenty of food, clothing, love and the promise of a future and opportunities NEVER afforded to them in Liberia. It sure wasn't the families who had danced out the doors when they relinquished the children because they knew the children would never g hungry again and they could be free from worry about where they would get the next meal for their child! You see, the Ministry of Health and Social Welfare has NO MEANS TO PROVIDE FOR THESE FAMILIES!!! I know of two babies less than two months old that have been turned away from Deputy Minister Geebro's office without food! This is the Deputy Minister in charge of the welfare of the people of Liberia! Now I am not rocket scientist, but I would think that providing food is just the minimum required to protect the welfare of Liberia...especially to the most helpless...the children! But Save the Children would rather support the ILLEGAL work of this man than the humanitarian work of many NGO's in Liberia! Why, you ask? I don't know! You would have to ask them! In fact, feel free to do so! We tried, and never got a response! Here is the e-mail contact on their website:twebster@savechildren.org.

Please pray for these children. They did this at another orphanage before the first of the year. I don't know for sure how many they took, but 13 of the ones they took ended up in the hospital and one DIED! Tell me how that was protecting that child? MoH ended up returning the children to the home because they could not take care of them! Are you kidding me? IF conditions were so bad they had to be removed, why would they return them?

One of the Liberian legislatures that we have spoken with many times says that Save the Children and UNICEF are so against the work we do because with out the orphans, they don't have a pay check! If people like us work ourselves out of job, they are out of a job also....so they work to stop us. I hated to think there was truth in that, but the more I work in Liberia, the more it looks like he is right!

Pray for these children! Pray God protects them from these groups and the Liberian government! Pray that God's wrath and justice for His children reigns down on Liberia! People are suffering! People are dying! People are in need!

Keep praying!

The container is still in port! The whole team will be there as of tonight and two will leave on Wednesday. Some have been there for more than a week who hoped to see the outside of the building up and all they have seen accomplished is the fence going up. I know these were 'man's' plans, but it is often frustrating and discouraging when we step out in faith to do something for God and don't get to see it accomplished as we thought. Pray for these people. Pray that they don't question all of this to the point that it is a hinderance for their walk! We are so thankful for their sacrifice and encourgement to us at Addy's Hope!

Pray that the container gets out today! It will cost close to $7,000 thanks to Mr. Geebro. But that is money he is robbing from God and His orphans, not us, so God will deal swiftly with him according to Proverbs 23: 10-11. God had already blessed the project with an unexpected gift right before the first people on the team left. We, the people, thought it was for a wonderful kitchen and bathroom. But God knew that we would face this challenge! So now I believe He was providing for our needs before we knew we had them. We will still have a kitchen and bathrooms, they just won't be as "souped up"! But they will still be as good if not better than where they are now. God is so faithful! I know He has to get tired of me not seeing it!

So please continue to pray! Pray that the team does not get discouraged. The roller coaster of working with a government that tries to block aid to its most needy citizens is something that can't be discribed...only experienced. But it makes you weary quickly!

A tormented mind

It is 1:00 am. I am over the jet lag, but no where near over the injustices I witness on so many levels when in Liberia.
Callie came in over an hour ago to tell me Bella was scratching on her door. Bella is outside now, but I can't go back to sleep. My mind will not stop. When Callie came in, she woke me from a dream. The second dream since returning home that keeps me fighting for the spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak (Math 26:41).
The dreams: The first one was Tuesday night. I went to bed ready to just "wait". Not using it as an excuse to quit, just not sure where to turn. Wait on a particular issue. In the early morning hours, I had a dream. Amos and I were in a valley, no, really more like a pit in the earth. We were rolling around in a large tube that reminded me of the stuff those inflatable jumpers are made from. We were rolling from village to village gathering children. When we would have the children, we would roll to our headquarters where we would take the children and put them in the ceiling through ceiling tiles. Someone was taking the children from us in the ceiling and making sure they were safe once there. Then we would get in the tube and roll to the next village. On and on it went all the while an army surrounded the top of the pit. They were firing arrows at us. At first the tube kept us hidden. But by the end of the dream, it didn't hide us, it just protected us from the arrows. I woke from that dream and came to my Bible study chair and wrote it all down and pleaded with God for understanding, wisdom and the strength to fight. I went back to sleep knowing that "wait" was not what God intended for this time!

Tonight, the dream is similar. Only this time it is not just children. It is all of Liberia that is uneducated and discriminated against because they have no voice. Proverbs 29:7 is the verse God has given Addy's Hope for this time: "The godly care about the rights of the poor." I started the press conference with this scripture. In my dream, I am begging two officials to hear my plan to bring US teachers to Liberia to train Liberian teachers. I am asking them to help me set up the mentor program. But they are not listening because another program that is full of empty promises is taking them away from me. No matter how much I scream or what I tell them, they will not listen....they keep blowing me off. The dream changes. I am standing in a hall way watching a parade of people dressed in the finest clothes with jewelry dangling from them laughing and shouting how wonderfully successful they have been in gathering gifts for the people of Liberia. They are pulling wagons that have ornately decorated boxes with their video games and fine clothing spilling from them. I am standing on the side line watching in disbelief as I wonder how they think the people of Liberia will benefit from such items! The parade I am watching is made up of people from my old church.
Since returning from Liberia, the battle of flesh and spirit with in myself is so strong! "It is the Spirit who gives life; the flesh profits nothing; the words that I have spoken to you are spirit and are life." I see a country where corrupt officials, greed, fear of being displaced keeps a people group down. I hear words that would appear to mean that the Ministry in charge of the welfare of the children of Liberia would prefer death to adoption! That makes me want to stand up and fight, to give life!
But then I return home. I see the four children who call me mommy on a daily basis. I desire to be all I need to be for them. I fear they are not getting all they need from me because they share me with 19 families and 57 little Liberian children. I see a house that is a wreck because I don't have time to keep it the way my husband desires. He has been so patient these past few months, but I know he and my children are my first ministry. So as I see this, I want to quit again. I want to put all of Liberia out of my mind and be American through and through. I want to get lost in all the traditions and hype of Christmas...still focusing on Christ, but getting totally lost in the "feelings" of Christmas. I want to adopt that baby that God has placed on my heart, yet with the demands of an agency, I can't imagine adding a baby right now. Add midnight feedings to my already sleepless nights and no drugs made will be enough to keep me functioning during the day to answer parents' phone calls and e-mails! But if I quit the fight, if I waived my red flag, I could spend my days rocking a baby, reading books to Ava, playing football with Toben, riding bikes with Noah, cooking with Callie and snuggling with my husband. I could be the stay home mom that I know God called me to be in my first years of mothering. I still believe strongly in being a stay at home mom! That is why my children will not go to daycare even though this has turned into a 40 hour + a week job!
Then there is the financial struggle. More and more I hear the voice in my head saying, "Well, if you are going to be working full time anyway, you might as well go back to teaching. Just think of what you could do with all the money you would make from teaching! Your debt could be paid off in less than a year!" Yes, that is the voice of the enemy. But it is so tempting! Worldy? YES! Flesh? YES! But remember, the Spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak!
But to do all that would mean I forget Moses, the community leader who nearly jumped up and down with excitement that a school was going up in his community. It would mean forgetting one of our Nannies that came to us. There was a man paying her son's tuition, but because another "Pastor" told him to stop, he did. So now her son can't go to school. Do you know how much his tuition is? $35 US! I paid more than that for stamps for Christmas cards yesterday! On judgement day which will be straw and which will stand the fire? It won't be the Christmas cards! Done! John in Liberia will go to school! John and I will see to that! But he is just one of thousands upon thousands!
The two week old baby that was brought to the Ministry of Health right before we met with the deputy minister...turned away without assistance! Yet we can't find a home for her because they want to tie our hands! Really?! Adoption is worse than starvation? How can that be?
I attended one of the adoption awareness meetings that the President's Committee on Adoption sponsored while I was there. It was a joke! It was not an awareness meeting, it was an adoption bashing opportunity! The presenter said the Liberian government is not against adoption, but then proceeded to tell only the negative sides of adoption. When she was finished spewing her venom, she said, "Now I will take three and only three questions from the audience." What? I thought this was an informational meeting! I guess it was really just a platform for her to give her personal opinion on adoption. All the while the adoption service provider's rep sitting on that committee sat there and said nothing! A lot of good he is doing! (He is NOT form our agency by the way!) Even the people around me (Liberians...I was the only white person in the place except for the presenters' personal assistant that was with her!) said, "Adoption is a crucial issue, this should not be rushed!" All the comments from the audience were positive! Yet, I would bet my life that if a report is given to President Sirleaf on that meeting, it would be told the community where it was held is against adoption. President Sirleaf has labeled corruption as "Public Enemy Number One". When you see a public enemy, arne't you supposed to report it?! But who do I report the sighting to? No one seems to listen. I have a letter from the President's office dated Feb 8, 2008 stating that she will personally see that Minister Gwenigale and his ministry work with us according to Liberian law. Almost a year later that has not happened. So if you can't report even to the highest power, what hope is there for ending corruption?
And remember, this is the government that we, the US tax payers, are sending MILLIONS of dollars! For real?! Give me a million dollars and lets see what Liberia looks like when I get done! It may not have fancy government buildings, but I bet every county would have a school with trained teachers and curriculum that will make learning in a structured progression! That is what will change Liberia for tomorrow: EDUCATION! Then these officials cannot run over people because of fear and ignorance!
So what can I do? Well, I am not sure. That is what has been rolling around in my head for the past hour. A letter to the Mansion has been composed but not sent. Contacts are in the works with my local representative to find out who is handling the money for the Liberian SEED bill (maybe law by now, not sure). And I can ask you who are reading this to join the fight. Contact your congressman and ask the same thing. Require accountability for this kind of money being sent over seas. In a time where they say we are in a recession, wouldn't money like this be better off in our own land if it is only going to pad the pockets of officials in the foreign country? You will find no one with a bigger heart for the people of Liberia, but the PEOPLE of Liberia are not getting this money!
It became a big joke as we drove around. I was traveling in a 1980 something blue hatchback car with no ac and a window crank that fell off many times in my hand....and riding in it proudly, I might add! We would pull up beside US AID cars, brand spanking new SUV's with tinted windows and AC. US AID is the number one distributor of the money the US govn't is sending over there. Even one the other adoption agencies had the same issue. When on one of the compounds, I counted SEVEN new cars! All SUVS and trucks, except for the Mercedes sitting there! But we drove proudly on to that compound in Ol' Blue! If you ever see an Addy's Hope car that is new, it will have a big "donated by" sign on it! My Liberia staff knows money like that will not be spent on cars...it will go to more beds or a refrigerator or bigger generator...something that will serve the CHILDREN!
Yet, we are the agency being discriminated against. I would venture to say we have processed the least amount of adoptions but done the largest amount of humanitarian work percentage wise. I am not tooting my horn, that is just what God has called us to do....however, it is frustrating when we are not then allowed to help more! We have offered to care for unadoptable children that the Ministry needs to place temporarily. We just want to help!
We spoke with another official at the Ministry of Health who understands! She sees children and mothers constantly that need help. She understands that the government does not have the resources to help, and until they do, adoption is one option to keep the children alive and educated..basic human rights! She shared story after story, even showing us pictures of some success stories thanks to donations of formula by some NGO's. So before I left, I took her a box of formula. Babies should at the very least have food! Mothers who have no milk and no friend who have milk have no options. Formula there is $10 US for a can that would last about two days for a new born. Remember, the average Liberian salary is $150 a year! You do the math!
After the very discouraging adoption "awareness" meeting, Amos, Pastor Paul and I went to eat and debrief. We were all fired up....after I had a good cry! Amos hates it when I cry, so I try to keep to a minimum.....I hate it when I cry too, but sometimes I just can't help it! Anyway, we were talking about the concept of adoption. I have to confess that on this trip, I really struggled with it. Are we doing the right thing? Should we just be fund raising and trying to keep children in families? There is an awesome organization doing that right now in Liberia and they are making an impact with orphanages and are working closely with the Ministry of Health. Praise God! It is Orphan Rescue and Relief (I think that is the right name, I will look it up and put their link somewhere later). But God through many people showed me how adoption is our calling...not all of our calling, but part of it. For whatever reason, He needs some children to be adopted. Is that the total answer, NO! But it is one of the many answers. As we talked about it, I brought up that adoption is God's design. For whatever reason, he has created adoption. He adopts us. There are many stories in the Bible of children who are adopted...I mentioned Moses. Then Amos made a profound statement! He said, "Yes! And Moses redeemed his people!" Wow! I wrote it down! 'Moses, the adopted son and by God's design , redeemed the people of his birth!' That is what I fully believe many of the children adopted by Addy's Hope will do! They will return to Liberia or they will send their resources there in order to redeem Liberia and the suppressed people of that country! Pastor Paul says he is going to have a billboard made with that quote on it to promote adoption! Go Pastor Paul!
Thank you for listening. Hopefully, now that it is off my chest, I can go to sleep!

Tuesday Night

I will attempt to post...I have little Courage sitting on my bed playing with a puzzle, but she just became keenly interested in the computer! She touches it and grins...and is getting closer and closer to the keys! All the other kids are in the living room watching the new "desk" aka: DVD player! I brought movies for them. They just finished Barney and Bibleman and are now watching an animated Bible.



Today we went to the Embassy and met with the Consular. We got some wonderful information and plan to implement some things with new kids...which will cost more money! So if anyone wonders why we charge the fees we do, I will be happy to share with them all this costs that pop up!



Then we went to the Ministry of Health to get an appointment with the man that controls the main reason I am here....case histories! When we walked in, he was standing there, couldn't avoid me, so we went in to talk. The first thing he says is that there was a 2 week old baby in his office just then that was in need of care. I immediatly said, we will care for her! So he picks up his phone to call the mom. Couldn't get her, but said he would let her know. The bottom line is a lady looking for help for her child came to him, and he sent her away! But this is the office that is telling us adoptions shouldnt happen? So by the time we got done with our round the bush conversation, I just came out and told him that I was not holding my adoptive parents off any longer as it looked to me like we had a human rights issue. If they cannot care for kids and would prefer to keep them on the streets, starving, without education and clothes, then seems to me we have a human rights issue! I told him that I would no longer ask my adoptive parents to not conatct their senators, etc to voice their concern over a government that would let their children starve rather than be adopted. At that time he said we would need to end our conversation so he could eat his food and we could make an appointment to come back. He said I could calm down and come in relaxed and kicked back like him. I laughed and told him I was relaxed and calm. He hasn't seen me any where near riled up yet! I am not Liberian in that way! So this man who would glady give us a baby to care for, doesn't want us to do adoptions! Craziness! I just don't understand! I am really trying, but I don't get it!



On the funner side of things, when we were headed into town, we dropped one of the matrons off with Alphonso the youngest baby we have ever had inthe home. I got to hold him in the car, and he laughed and laughed! He was just precious! But my heart sank as I knew it would be months before his new mom could hold him and he woudl change so much! The babies are the hardest for me because I know how I would feel if my tiny baby was changing every day in my abscence! Toben was a little easier as he didn't change that much in the time we watied, but babies change every day!



After the ministry of health, we went to the baby store! I had a blast! I bought two baby beds, a walker , some more baby dolls for the girls and a musical mobile to put inthe crib. I need to get more beds to put in the container as I think we can find some at garage sales, etc cheaper, but we need beds now for these babies! I want our home to be as excellent as it can be since we represent God's work.



After that we went to lunch. I had one of those moments that you just think God planted you in. Earlier, I had been talking to the driver, and found out that he desires to Pastor a church, spread the gospel and shepherd God's people. Over lunch we talked more, and he shared his heart on the body of Christ. We have the same heart! It was so neat to hear him! I had wondered earlier if he might be the pastor for the church we want to put out on the compound, and after hearing him, I think he just might be!



We all sat around dreaming about what we need...the home, a school, and what the man told Jeremy today is a clinic! He says that even when they can afford to go to get medical attention, they die before they get to the hospital. So clinic got moved up on the list. We just need money! They got to see me throw my tempertantrum about how I hate money!!!! So I have to get home and get to work on raising funds for all of this!



When we got home this afternoon, I started sorting through the BOXES of books two of our wonderful families collected and sent over here. The kids started looking through them, and I got excited! I have to just make sure the staff knows the books are to be USED and not just sit there!



Well, I need to let Jeremy e-mail his wife! So I am going to sign off. Serena has come in to sit on my bed, and Courage is not to happy about sharing her puzzle!

Need a good laugh?!

My friend doing an international adoption e-mailed me this today! It made me laught out loud! It is not funny, really, but it is so ridiculous that you have to laugh! And those of us adopting know how believable it is to actually get such an e-mail from USCIS! :) This is not a joke! She actually received the e-mail just like this!


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