Yesterday, while sitting in traffic on I24 on the way home from Nashville, I checked my email. The email I check at least four times a day because, as I have told my friends, one day I would open my email to the news that I now have five kids.
The email was there. Subject line:
"Adoption decision of Lizette and Marcelo T., children of Hancock family."
So as traffic began to inch along, I tried very hard to scan about ten documents, all in French, mind you, to see if in fact it was that we had passed court. Finally, I was able to get to a gas station, look them over for real, and find, alongside our names, the children's NEW names at the bottom of the page: Lizette Sophia Hancock and Gage Marcelo Hancock. We have passed court. A judge in Congo has declared these two children Hancocks!
The next step is passing the 30 day non-appeal period, and if no one contests the case, the actual adoption deed is issued and backdated, everything is translated, new birth certificates with new adopted names are issued, and then we apply for the US to recognize the adoption and begin the immigration process. However, the documents are dated March 15, so it seems we should have already passed the appeal period and have the deeds in hand. Why a document from March 15 is just now arriving and where is the April 15 document? All I can say is, that's the Congo. We are working on that now. Praying we get all that in the next few days so we can begin the immigration process.
Ironically, the immigration process takes much longer than the adoption itself, and that's why we are going to Washington, DC next week to participate in the March for Orphans with the national tour of "Stuck." Our family will march as well as make Capitol Hill visits to advocate for orphans who get "stuck" in the international adoption process. For example, the "orphan investigation" which the US Embassy in DRC conducts used to take 2-4 weeks, but in January, our Embassy announced that it will take at least 3-6 months because they do not have the staff to handle the caseload. Many children in Congo orphanages die of preventable diseases while they wait. It is unacceptable. The Embassy also does not begin the investigation "to determine orphan status" until the children are no longer orphans! At this point, the US will have already recognized the adoption and call them our children, yet potentially won't let us immigrate them. Something must be done. Please pray for Sam that God will greatly use him to serve orphans when he speaks in Washington May 15-17, as well as all the others who are leading this movement. What can you do? If you haven't yet, please go to www.bothendsburning.org and click on "sign the petition" to make children's right to a family our priority. This is an easy way YOU can contribute to orphan care and "Love the least of these." Thanks!
So, hopefully soon we will have the rest of the documents, including the final adoption deed, needed to file our I600 with the US to recognize the adoption. More when that comes! Until then...please continue to pray for our family of seven :)
