Praying Silas HOME! Please READ and forward!

Dear Family and Friends:
Please feel free to forward this to anyone you know who is either a praying person or someone you think may be able to help.

I will attempt to make our very long adoption story short and to make sense out of the senseless. May God be glorified.

BACKGROUND:
As most of you know we embarked on our second adoption in September 2006. After a generous gift from a semi anonymous donor – friend of a friend who was adopted himself – we started our paperwork trail. After years of infertility and loss, we had the enormous blessing of adopting Lily from China in late 2003. After a move to NW Arkansas, back home, and a start up small business we were humbled to accept a financial gift to bring a brother home to Lily – a son for us. In January of 2007 – after lots of praying – we felt led to stretch that gift and add to it to bring home 2 boys from Haiti. On January 22, 2007 – we saw their sweet faces for the first time. We named them Titus Calvin – just 1 month old at that time and Silas Jeff age 15 months. We were ecstatic and so thankful. I started a blog to write about our journey. I titled it, Worth Waiting for…our sons from Haiti. I laugh sometimes when I see the title – I had NO idea we would still be waiting nearly 2 years later.

We visited our sons for the first time in July 2007. It was a wonderful trip. We were immediately crazy about them. It was much like the first time meeting Lily. This journey was much different in that we would spend time with them and then send them back to the Orphanage to live a while longer while our paperwork was processed. It was hard and required much prayer to get through that good bye and return to life in the US. The boys were very small, obviously malnourished, but their smiles would take your breath away. We remarked about how God created us to have joy despite our circumstances – they both gave us a good picture of what that means. Titus was 7 months old at that time and weighed 9 pounds. Silas was weighing around 18 pounds at 21 months. It was one of the best weeks of our lives. On September 19, 2007 we found out that we wouldn’t get another week like that with Titus, he went home to Jesus. I visited Silas alone in October. I haven’t seen him since. We made a decision that since he was older and seemingly as healthy as he could be, considering his living in an institutional setting, it was best not to go back and forth for him or for us. We also never thought it would take this long to get him home. At the time of my last visit I also met Louis, a sweet 10 year old boy who has lived several years in the Orphanage. After returning home, I couldn’t quit thinking about him needing a home and Noel and I prayerfully made the decision once again to bring 2 sons home from Haiti. I would love to tell you more about him, but for the purpose of you getting through this letter today I will let you read about him on our blog if you are interested. Louis’ paperwork could not simply join our file in progress and therefore we have 2 separate adoption cases now with Louis’ several months behind our adoption of Silas.

In May 2008 – Haiti considered us to be legal parents of Silas. We still had a lengthy process to go through to obtain his passport and it was finally issued in September. On October 7, 2008, nearly one year after I last visited Silas our file finally made it to the USCIS in Haiti. We were so excited to have our file in the hands of the US. We thought we would be traveling within the month to bring Silas home. My friends gave me an amazing toddler shower and we started packing. We just need the US to approve the case and then issue a VISA. And here is why I sit at my computer today.

The US law reads that an investigation has to be completed to ensure that each adopted child is actually an orphan before emigrating to the US. Silas’ birthmother signed papers in January 2007 “irrevocably relinquishing” him to the orphanage stating that she could not take care of him. She had taken him to the orphanage in May 2006 and returned in January to sign the paperwork and to my knowledge has never returned to see him since. In July 2007 – while we visited the boys in Haiti for the first time, we signed paperwork at the USCIS to allow them to interview Silas’ birthmother to verify orphan status. The first appointment was set for her interview in October 2007. She did not show up and our orphanage director could not find her. In January 2008 she did show up to sign paperwork in front of a judge in Haiti – why our orphanage director did not take her directly to the USCIS office at that time – I do not know. But since then, she has disappeared again. When our paperwork went to the USCIS a few weeks ago they again requested to interview the birthmother. Our orphanage director has not been able to find her. There is speculation from her family that she could be in the Dominican Republic illegally and homeless, but they are unsure. There is also a good possibility that she is not even alive. No one knows. Previously in Haiti when a birth mother has not been found, the US has still approved the adoption based on documentation from the orphanage director stating that they have looked for the birth parent and have been unable to locate her. In the past they have used this information to support the child’s abandonment status. With all the speculation about children in the world being bought and sold there is more “government oversight” in this area now.

There are millions of orphans starving and dying or living and being slaves or prostitutes all over the world. I personally do not think this kind of government oversight prevents children from being bought and sold. I don’t think that the people that are doing that kind of thing are waiting for 2 years and following the legal processes. We do not want to bring home a child that is currently supported by a birth parent in any way. The bottom line is Silas is a very special boy that has spent most of his life hungry, sleeping on a crib board or the tile floor, not loved in the way he could be in a family. He is an orphan, he has a family, he needs to come home NOW.

Today we have received a letter of “intent to deny” Silas’ emigration to the US. To my knowledge, we are one of or possibly the first to receive this denial based on the inability to locate a birth parent. I do not understand why our case is being denied when others have not, but I am trying to understand the position they are taking – if the birthmother was available to sign papers with the Haitian judge in January then she should show up to her appointment with the USCIS.

In the letter the USCIS issued, they stated that we have 30 days to provide the “relevant rebuttal material” – though they did not indicate what that is. We have calls out to people who may be able to help us, including Immigration Attorneys, but we are concluding that we have to find Silas’ birth mother – fast. If within these 30 days we cannot provide the information the US requires then they do not offer another remedy. Our case will be denied. It is very sad. He would have to emigrate another way – which would require us to live abroad with him for 2 years first.

While all this seems a little overwhelming, we serve a God who is absolutely bigger than all this! This is a most awesome opportunity for Him to SHOW UP in a big way. Maybe you are asking ….is there anything I can do?

YES!
First – wear out the knees of your jeans with us! PRAY PRAY PRAY

Tell others – forward this – ask your family, friends, church groups, etc to pray.

Pray specifically that Silas’ birthmother will miraculously be found or that we will find a US Immigration Attorney specializing in adoptions to take our case and it will be overturned.

Pray for guidance about when to go Haiti ourselves if needed.

If there is someone you know in a government position who may be able to help, please let us know.

Please also pray for our government show favor toward international adoption. There are many families trying to get their children home from several countries right now that are experiencing opposition. I can only identify this as the handiwork of the one who is opposed to The One who calls us to take care of Orphans. -

Noel and I consider it a great privilege to love and raise children that we did not give birth to, but that God has chosen for us to parent. We love this part of our story as a family. Thank you for standing with us and for interceding on our families behalf. May God bless you and yours.

Trusting God,
Lori Tugwell
For all of us at home and in Haiti
Noel, Lily, Louis, and Silas

www.tuglor.blogspot.com

Be joyful in hope, be patient in tribulation, be constant in prayer. Romans 12:12
Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything by prayer and petition with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God. Philippians 4:6
Because God’s ear is turned to me, I will call on Him as long as I live. Psalm 116:2

I found this very interesting in my study time today.

The Hebrew word meaning “to make intercession” is from a root meaning “to assail or encounter with a request.” That word is used prophetically of the ministry of the “servant of the Lord”(Jesus): “He bore the sin of many, and made intercession for the transgressors (us)” (Is 53:12). The principal Greek verb means to “meet,” “approach,” or “make an appeal.” In the old and new Testament that word is employed in the sense of personally petitioning an official to gain a favor. Hey – that is what we are doingJ God is so awesome to show me that today!