Over the past few months, we’ve talked a lot about how much we want to help the families traveling to Nicaragua to adopt orphans. While we aren’t adopting ourselves (at least not at this point), we have a desire to do whatever we can to ensure the families who come here to adopt are able to finish the process. Our goal is to see these families strengthened through the process of adoption. We want them to go home loving the country where their children were born!
Ever since I posted about our plans two months ago, I’ve been hearing from adoptive families. Apparently, they are Googling for more information about adopting from Nicaragua, and finding my blog. 🙂 As exciting as that is, it is also a bit scary. We’ll be in the U.S. for most of the summer, and haven’t even officially begun our ministry! Nevertheless, we are already welcoming new families to the country, helping them find housing, taking trips to the grocery store, arranging for days at the beach, and providing child care (we’re so proud of our girls for offering to watch these kids while the moms take a break!). And sometimes we just listen when they need to vent about the process, their homesickness, or concerns about the kids.
It’s a bigger job than I originally anticipated (now that Google has indexed us ;-)), but it’s also an even better job than we thought.
See for yourself why:
Yesterday, Michelle returned to Florida with her newly adopted daughters. She had first arrived in Nicaragua four and a half months prior, with a heart full of dreams threatened by hundreds of worrisome questions. How long would she be away from the rest of her family? How would she navigate a country in which she didn’t speak the language, and didn’t have a car (or any friends for that matter!)?
This adoption care community seeks to answer those questions, so the dreams can truly take flight.
And when you see that little 3-year-old running into her (finally official!) Daddy’s arms for the first time — knowing that she will call now call him Daddy for the rest of her life — it’s all worth it.
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Want to help more little orphans from Nicaragua have beautiful reunions like that? So do we! In fact, we’re getting ready to sign a lease on a homebase so we can host families like these, by helping them transition to their temporary life here in Nicaragua before returning to the U.S. or wherever they call home… together.
Would you consider financially supporting our new program? We’re thinking of calling it F.I.T. to be Together: Families in Transition to be Together. [What do you think of the name? Hoping it makes sense, but we’re definitely open to other suggestions. :)] We’re putting together a network of people here in Nicaragua who can come alongside these families, to make sure everyone makes it through the transition and gets back home together.
We plan to continue supporting our personal living expenses with Wyeth’s salary, as long as we are able to do so. But, we could use help taking care of expenses related specifically to this new venture. The vast majority of our needs are for the up-front costs such as furniture, toys, and a vehicle. After that, our goal is to have the program be self-sufficient, where visiting families cover most of the expenses in the form of rent.
Having said that, we’d love to keep the rent as low as possible, so as to minimize the in-country costs for these families. So, any monthly donations for program expenses will be gladly accepted and used for transporting the families (everything from grocery store runs and church pick-ups to adoption appointments and tourist visits), feeding the families, and keeping them safe while in Nicaragua.
Chop Point, Inc., the parent organization of Campo Alegría, is accepting donations for this program. Choose one of these two links to make a secure donation online:
Thank you for your prayers and your consideration. We certainly can’t do this alone and so appreciate all of the love and support you give.
Encourage and discuss here