Waiting
waiting
Now we just wait.
Just got the e-mail that our Dossier (a packet full of documents and forms that state we are who we say we are) is on it’s way to the Democratic Republic of Congo!
République démocratique du Congo
The most populous nation to speak French as their official language.
Smack dab in the middle of Africa.
It’s the largest country by area in Sub-Saharan Africa (the area of the continent that lies south of the Sahara Desert) and the 11th largest in the world.
The Democratic Republic of the Congo was formerly known as, in chronological order, Congo Free State, Belgian Congo, Republic of the Congo, and Zaïre.
The Second Congo War, beginning in 1998, devastated the country and is sometimes referred to as the "African world war" because it involved nine African nations. Despite the signing of peace treaties in 2003, fighting continued in the east of the country in 2007. There, the prevalence of rape and other sexual violence has been described as the worst in the world. The war is the world's deadliest conflict since the Chinese Civil War, killing 5.4 million people since 1998. More than 90% were not killed in combat, dying instead from malaria, diarrhea, pneumonia and malnutrition, aggravated by displaced populations living in unsanitary and over-crowded conditions that lacked access to shelter, water, food and medicine.
47% of those deaths were children under five.
There’s your brief synopsis on the Democratic of Congo. We didn’t originally think we would be adopting from Central Africa, but the more we prayed about it, the more God led us there. Originally, we looked more at eastern Africa, knowing we would like to continue our work there, and be able to bring our kids back to where they are from, having already made friendships and connections there. But God always has different plans than us. We realized this when we were surprised by the miracle of Max after we started this adoption process the first time around. With how Max entered our world, we knew that every child after him would enter our lives in a surprising way….because that’s how God works.
Now I think about that as we wait.
Because one day, in the near future, we will get a phone call, and the person on the other end of that phone call will tell us who our baby is, where they live (which orphanage in Kinshasa), and then send us all the information they have on him/her.
So today we don’t know who our baby is, and tomorrow we could. It’s so much different this time around…even though Max was a surprise, we had 9 months to get to know him before he entered the world. This time, the baby will already be born and will already be forming a personality. Woah. So cool.
I wonder if they are already born…I wonder how long we will have to wait…I wonder what the Congo will be like. In all my research on the country, I won’t KNOW the Congo until I smell her, shake the hands of her people, walk on her soil. I won’t fully know my baby until I see his (assuming it’s a boy) country. I am so excited that I will meet him and his country at the same time.
We are beyond thrilled with the fundraising so far. Tony’s race was a hit, the garage sale, and Give1Save1…and we are really excited about the fundraisers we have coming up. (Stay tuned) In fact we just hit the $6,000 mark on our one time donations! Thanks to the people who are keeping us in your prayers and supporting us all the time! If you want to help us reach our goal of 10,000 one time donations….please visit our website:
Get in your tax deductible donations before the end of the year! We would be so blessed and honored to be a part of your families yearly giving.
God Bless you all, Jen Tony and Max!
