a little bit of adoption news

This is really a cool God -thing! I had been wanting to get in touch with the group The shepherd's Crook for some time. It is the organization through which a friend heard about a "Baby Secret" and contacted us with the info she had. They are not an adoption agency but a not-for-profit organization which helps to make families aware of special needs children who are in need of adoption, they help sponsor children who will not ever/ can't be adopted, they PRAY and seek God's direction for what they do. Other adoption agencies may make known to this group some of their harder to place children in hopes that someone reading Shepherd's Crook updates (see where this is going?) will ask about and adopt those extra needy children. SOMETIMES, people who are not adopting a child themselves but who desire to help make an adoption possible for other families, have set up Grant funds through Shepherd's Crook.
ANYHOW, I kept getting bad address messages when I tried to communicate with Shepherd's Crook; the addies I had when I belonged to this group years ago were no longer valid. Finally after asking a friend for better /correct info, I made contact. The couple who "are" Shepherd's Crook, along with volunteeers and several paid staffers, have a large family of bio and adopted almost all very special needs children themselves: Kathy and Scott, blessed me with the warmest most excited email in reesponse to my own!! They had heard that Secret/ DANIEL might have been spoken for, but were not sure because we didn't make that decision right away and he had been listed for quite a while before that (I heard about him in late January)
Kathy aksed if we wanted to become a part of the Shepherd's Crook Family, for prayer and support, etc....OH YES!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I will always pray with like -minded kindred spirit folks about adoptions..............mine and others!!!
BUT THEN, she told me that a fund had been set up in Secret's name way back when! There is already money in that fund for his adoption through Shepherd's Crook!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! She told me that they will reactivate that fund so that if anyone who wanted to help with his adoption could do so by donating to his Shepherd's Crook fund!! We have raised money to about complete Junior and Diamoh's adoptions, when Liberia reopens. We have a matched grant for which ever need presents first and greatest, but we do need to keep a plan for that which comes second as well. SO PRAISE GOD.....someone was already planning for Secret to be someone else's son and was preparing the way for that to happen!!!! I don't know how much is in that fund, even half the cost of a visa is HALF THE COST OF A VISA.
When I emailed Shepherd's Crook, I never expected that! I was writing to say THANK YOU for your ministry; we would never have heard about this precious baby if not for them. I wanted them to know that their ministry had been successful in being used to find a home for DANIEL!! Thank you so much my dear friend Kim for passing SECRET'S info on to us, and THANK YOU Kathy and Scott for operating SHPEHERD'S CROOK !!
Here is the link for their web site : http://www.theshepherdscrook.org
if you'd like to go read more about them.
WHEN I am able to post a real, unmasked face photo of our sweet little guy, as soon as I have permission to do so, I have the most beautiful photo to share!!
Sometimes Daniel looks a little scary ( but then so do I...I am totally NOT photogenic) but Patty took a photo of him together in his crib with another little guy, Levi who has CP. (WHO also needs a family!!!!) They were just hanging out, so to speak, and it comforted him to have that little boy close to him...his face is not scary, the angle of the photo way plays down the dimensions of his growing skull, and the image you see is how I SAW HIM THROUGH MY HEART'S EYES when I held him in March.
I CAN'T WAIT TO SHARE!!!!!
We continue to pray for Junior and Diamoh. There is no word about any progress with new adoption law in Liberia. Right now I don't even truly know if Daniel's case will still be exepmted. We wait. We pray. WE prepare. I hear of political skuttle butt, BUT no progress. The prophet
Habakkuk reminds us to "wait for it, though it tarry , IT WILL SURELY COME!!!"
and I answer " Yes Lord. I will trust You becasue I know Your timing is perfect." This does not totally quelch the ache in my arms for my children, but it gives peace to my heart. I know that my Heavenly Father loves those chldren even more than I do.