Mysterious ways...

Wondering who we would have as our new coordinator Samuel and I both received calls today from Sarah. After a delightful, heartfelt conversation with her we are both VERY happy to have made the switch!! With a heart for adoption and her clientele, she put us at ease and made us feel not only comfortable with the switch but excited it had happened!!! PRAISE GOD HIS WAYS ARE GOOD AND HIS PROTECTION COMPLETE!!!

As far as our wait Sarah shared with Samuel that there was a pending baby boy referral awaiting medicals before being ready for referral. She also stated, however, that there was a family whose baby boy referral had developed an illness and that the family was now deciding if they felt comfortable moving forward with the adoption. If they did once the referral information was gathered for the new baby and he was referred we would be #1 if not they would get the new baby referral and we would not move on the list. It may take a few weeks for all this so... more waiting...

A good lesson...

The situation presented by both coordinators at our agency have offered us the opportunity to share it as a life lesson for our family. We have discussed the ramifications or gossip, rumors, innuendos, restoration and communication. What a delight when what the enemy means for evil God turns to our benefit! HE indeed is good!

As far as our Embassy issue I emailed another coordinator, who I have had occasion to talk to via phone on a more personal level, and she gladly said she would take care of the situation. That was on the 15th and today (the 18th) she forwarded us the Ethiopian Embassy email stating the situation was noted and clear. Praise God!!!

New direction...

I called the worker at the agency I spoke to last Saturday. I called just to see how she was doing, along with her sick granddaughter who she had brought in with her the Saturday she was fielding calls. We had a great conversation, noting how much "lighter" things felt at the office and mentioned we would be hearing from the director shortly (who had been on vacation when all this transpired).

The email, which we just received, was very encouraging. The director noted that there had been a very small minority that was unable to work within the team-oriented atmosphere she tried hard to engender, that by mutual decision, the employees were no longer at the agency and that they looked forward to a more positive, cooperative working atmosphere.

From my conversation earlier with the agency worker it looks like they are already on their way with this!!!

As the coordinators turn...

My title for this post is definitely meant to bring to memory the crazy scenarios of soap operas in connection to what is happening at our agency, LOL! (BTW, haven't seen one of those in over 25 years!)

After reading a post from another family stating that our coordinator had said she was also leaving our agency, and with families increasingly upset, I decided to email our coordinator. Unfortunately her response proved vague and full of innuendos, yet amazingly it did NOT get me upset...AT ALL. I emailed her trying to encourage her to think about her own future career in adoption, the undo stress she was causing clients, and asked her to reconsider her form of communication to other families. Unfortunately I received a broadcast email a bit later (it went to all her clients) which was a repeat of the one she had sent to me personally. Very sad...

Oh and our situation with the agencies name and the Embassy? In the midst of all this back and forth she was unable to take care of it, though she suggested we email the embassy ourselves to handle it. I think I will just call the agnecy and ask them what to do.

So how are we feeling with all of this? Not frazzled at all as in our opinion, the behavior of both of these coordinators called into question their own professionalism rather than the agency's . Hard to explain but other than feeling the need to try to help this young woman out and encourage other families "this will all work out" we are at total peace!

Where is the compassion?

With our agency's Yahoo group "chatting" about the situation with the coordinator who resigned, and with "talk" of our coordinator leaving, I decided to call another coordinator I had communicated with via email and phone before we signed on with the agency. I also called the agency to talk to someone as well.

Noting that I was not really phased by the situation I asked for clarification (both volunteered to work taking calls that day). Hearts notably full of anguish for the families, they explained as they could. Piecing together their accounts and my own experiences, I was satisfied that the issue at hand involved employee and not agency issues.

So to answer my title question, I found it in the hearts of the two women I spoke to today. Their hearts bent towards meeting the emotional needs of adoptive families and ultimately the children they desire to adopt I was blessed to share with them, encourage their hearts and and commend their commitment to work on a Saturday because of their compassion for the families.

No news from our coordinator...

We have not heard back from our coordinator about our agency name issue, which is pretty odd and she usually works quickly. In the mean time I checked our HS and it appears our placement agency's name is NOT on there. Apparently she missed that on her review. Not sure where we will go from here and hopefully she will email us about this soon. I think being so close to #1, and remembering the "paperwork issues" that right as we hit #1 closed the doors on what was to be a second adoption in Taiwan, has me a bit antsy. Time to pray and give this over to the Father!

On another note there has been a bit of drama involving another coordinator at the agency. For unstated reasons she has decided to leave the agency without any notice except an email stating her departure with innuendos concerning the agency. It has several families very upset and concerned of course about the agency's credibility. Being the daughter of 2 social workers, one an LCSW director of several family preservation programs, I had heard over the years of issues concerning my mother's workers and knew this coordinators form of notification was definitely VERY unprofessional. Innuendos put doubt in some families minds about the agency but really left me questioning her own professionalism. No fear going on here.

USCIS/Placement Agency

I recently saw a post on our agency's Yahoo group from one of their coordinators stating that the placement agency's name must be written on the USCIS application so that the Ethiopian Embassy will know when to schedule your VISA interview during your "Forever Family" trip. Since we had changed agencies I wondered if this was all in order for us so I emailed our coordinator. She first told us to check ourselves with USCIS here locally but when that did not work said she assured us she would ask the Ethiopian Embassy about our case.

On another note...Though our coordinator has been on top of our paperwork it really has been increasingly hard for me to contact her. Not that she in unavailable, she answers emails quickly, just that conversations with her are distant so it has been hard for me to want to contact her. Her heart does not seem to be in it and we do not feel she is our advocate. Just a gut feeling and hard to explain unless you have been in this scenario. Of course I look forward to "the call" (our referrals!) but just wish it was from someone else since she just does not seem she is "happy" for us.