tensile

The size (and future makeup) of our family is still undetermined at this time. 

The Russian government is not budging and the Department of State (of the United States) won't give up trying to negotiate. We're stuck in limbo, not knowing what to do next. Obviously we've not given up hope completely, as we're not pulling out of Russia, but we do need to start thinking about what else we could do, should the government finally give an ultimatum (and that answer being 'no'). It will be tough if we can't go to Russia: we're prepared for that country, in terms of language, food, culture, etc. 

And we know specifics about these kids and their futures: the most recent issue of Russian Life has an article about orphans in their country, and the bleakness of 'graduated orphans'. About 15,000 children age out of the children's homes each year. 50% of them will fall into a high-risk category (drugs, prostitution, etc.). 40% will become involved in crime. Less than 10% will attend university, get a job and become the productive members of society all governments want from their citizens. This is just a tiny snapshot of the whole article. My heart is heavy for these children and teens: they're stuck in a broken system that has been made worse with this ban.

A few generic adoption tidbits for you:

• Still unsure how this whole international adoption thing works? Check out this blog post that gives a short explanation of how to get started.
• Read this post and think about the changes life has when you say 'yes' to something, especially adoption or fostering (or, dare I say, birthing children?).
• Here's an article about self-regulation and why it's important for kids to have a stable homelife and family. 
• Some have wondered why we chose to go international (I've blogged before about why adoption for us in general). Kristen Howerton posted a very interesting statistical graphic recently*, and perhaps you can see with the portion I'm posting below why my heart aches for Asia:

• I saw a quote recently that made me stop and think, and I hope this blog does just this: 

‎"Maybe you need to tell someone your story. Because maybe someone needs to hear your story in order to make sense of theirs. And maybe we all need each other's stories so that we can understand the mystery God is writing at this time in His story." -Diane Comer

*Really, it is an interesting analysis of adoption stats regarding the United States. Go check out her full post.