In the meantime, we have contacted our U.S. Representative and one of our U.S. Senators.  Below is the full text of the letter I sent to our senator.  Do pray for us.  We are trying to make sense of it all.

Dear Senator Paul:

I am writing because of an issue which is very personal to me.  I am extremely frustrated by a federal government which is choking the life out of everything good in America, while surrendering to what it believes is inevitable decline. The issue close to my heart this morning as I write this letter is the issue of immigration.  I have two examples which make my point.  Both of the examples are personal to me, one much more than the other.

My wife and I have adopted two children from Ethiopia.  These two children were awarded to us on December 16, 2011.  We are their parents now.  They bear my name.  However, I cannot bring them home to Kentucky.  The U.S. Embassy in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, will not allow them travel authorization into our country.  They are demanding another interview with the birth mother and will not see her until March 14, which means that it will be at least a full 3-month delay from the time we were awarded our children to the time the Embassy will hear our case.

There are 4 million orphans in Ethiopia.  International adoptions reach only a small fraction of those children. I understand some are opposed to international adoption, preferring to leave children in their country of origin. But is it really best to keep a child in an orphanage when a Kentucky family has already spent more than $30,000 and 18 months of energy trying to bring them into their home?  There are two little boys who have a home and a family, but they cannot enjoy them because of the U.S. Government.  Instead, these boys must stay in a transitional institution waiting on our government.

I do hate to sound cynical about my own government, but I am frustrated.  And, as I said, this is not the only example which has affected me personally.  In a separate instance, I have become very close to a family in Southeast Asia (Mindanao, Philippines).  We travel there yearly, sometimes even more often. This family has 4 adult children, two of whom have sought permission to enter the U.S.  One of them has a job as a nurse in California.  The other was accepted to a school here in Kentucky.  Neither of them has been allowed permission to enter the U.S.  Both have been denied, even though they are both college educated nurses who are needed and desired by employers and schools in the U.S.  They both followed the law.

When it comes to the law, the U.S. government appears to penalize those who wish to follow it and reward those who disregard it.  If my friends lived in Mexico instead of Asia, they could enter illegally, get healthcare, driver’s license, and possibly even more education at taxpayer expense, but, for some reason, they are not allowed to enter the country legally and contribute to our society, including paying taxes.  Sadly, both of my Asian friends have had to take jobs in Saudi Arabia.  I cannot tell you how much this grieves me.

Again, my question is simply this: Why are those following the law penalized, while those breaking it are rewarded? Should I bring my sons to Canada or Mexico and drive them illegally into Kentucky? Why are U.S. families who desire to adopt orphans forced into a two-year process?  Why are qualified, skilled Asian workers forced into a six-year process which still does not allow them to enter the U.S.?

I just don’t understand why we penalize those who seek to uphold our rule of law.  My wife and family are very frustrated.  I am writing to let someone who I believe cares about our country know about our frustration.

Thank you so much for allowing me time to voice my concerns. May the Lord bless you as you seek to do what is right for our nation and guide us to follow our constitution and founding principles.

Sincerely,

 

Gregory C. Cochran

Sr. Pastor, Cedar Grove Baptist Church

P.S. We have heard  many stories worse than ours. Among adopting families anxiety is running high with tales of intentional hurdles and roadblocks being imposed by the State Department on ideological grounds. Some are even claiming that the State Department is intentionally harassing natural birth mothers, trying to “catch” them in irregularities which they hope will shut down international adoptions. I do not know of any truth to these horrendous tales, but I do know they are unsettling to a parent who has already been stalled for months, simply waiting on my government to give my children permission to live with me in Kentucky.

But the real oddity of this irregular Wednesday was its connection to our adoption.  Wednesday, December 14, 2011, was the day Vickie and I would first meet our African boys.  How does one meet his child for the first time?  On prior first meetings of our children, we knew the arrangements were outside our control.  When it is time for labor, it’s time!  When labor is complete, it is complete.  When the baby is delivered–well, that’s when you get to meet him.  With adoption, it is different.  Plane tickets are purchased in advance to reach Africa.  You know well ahead of time when and where you will meet your child.

Yet, our meeting was, in many ways, the same as the biological birth meetings of our 5 prior children.  Little Misiker walked up to us the moment we sat down to eat breakfast.  We weren’t expecting him at the breakfast table.  We weren’t on the lookout for him.  He surprised us as much as any of our natural born children ever did.  There he was, looking up at us, sizing us up, wondering what it meant to call us Mommy and Daddy (as the other Africans were encouraging him to do).  There were other little children running around the room. So, we weren’t certain whether this little orphan was ours.  No one told us he would be meeting us at breakfast. So, how could we know?

What exactly does an orphan look like? I don’t know the answer, except to say that I can show you how 2 orphan boys appeared when we first saw them.  Keep in mind, of course, that these boys are orphans no more.  These are our sons: Misiker Samson (age 2) and Jack Kenean (8 mos).

The 2011 adoption statistics were just released, and they showed that adoptions are down in the U.S.  Indeed, adoptions were down a significant 15% from the 2010 numbers, and down a mind-boggling 60% from the peak numbers of 2004.  One must go back nearly two decades (1994) to find a year in which there were fewer adoptions than there were this past year.

What is going on?

Apparently, government interference is going on.  I’m not an anarchist. I’m not an anti-government libertarian.  I’m not even an “occupier.”  I am a parent who is caught up in the process of adopting 2 orphan boys from Ethiopia.  In 2010, Ethiopia completed 2,513 adoptions to parents in the U.S.  Last year, the number dropped to 1,727—which means 786 fewer orphans were brought into a forever family.  The reason for this is not that Ethiopia has fewer orphans needing to be adopted: There are still more than 4 million orphans awaiting adoption.  The reason for the decline is government intervention.

Of course, the government was compelled to intervene after dozens of serious irregularities were uncovered in Guatemala back in 2007.  The nadir of the Guatemalan adoption program came when 6 year-old Anyelí Liseth Hernández Rodríguez was adopted legally by a Missouri family who were told that she was an orphan. In truth, Anyelí was kidnapped from her home in Guatemala and sold as an orphan through the criminal actions of an adoption attorney and an agency worker in Guatemala.  The attorney and the agency worker have been found guilty of kidnapping and sentenced to 21 and 16-year prison terms respectively.  They have also been forced to pay heavy fines to the mother of the child.

The Guatemalan kidnapping sent shockwaves which have reverberated throughout the sea-bed of the inter-country adoption ocean, causing a literal tsunami of regulations to flood out orphanages from Ethiopia to Manila.  As regulations increased, adoptions decreased.

Everyone appears to understand the dynamic, but who is prepared to correct it?

No one condones kidnapping and child-trafficking (at least no one with a moral compass).  Obviously, little Anyelí is caught between two families who each appear to love her and call her their own, though she can only be with one of them—and not the other.  Her case has hamstrung the will of many adoption proponents who are now forced to ask whether it is worth it if even one case comes to separate a child from her parents. No doubt, any parent would answer in the negative if it were her child who was kidnapped.

Still, as tragic as Anyelí’s case is, it is but one—one case in more than 100,000. In fact, even though Guatemala’s adoptions have been shut down because of numerous infractions (such as forged birth certificates and falsified papers), the problem cases in Guatemala represented only 3% of the total adoptions which took place in 2007.  This means, of course, that 97% of the adoptions which were completed in that year ended with needy, abandoned children being united with a loving, familial embrace.

To state the matter another way, more than 15,000 orphans in Guatemala have not been available for adoption since 2007.  Instead of being united with families in the U.S. who desire to nurture them, many orphans have been left in orphanages to formulate their own family structure, attaching to workers and children who, no doubt, come and go throughout their lives.

Even more to the point (for it is understandable that extra precautions must be in place in Guatemala), in Ethiopia, adoptions have been cut in half because of increased fears of improprieties in the adoption process, even though no actual improprieties have been discovered.  What this means is that people like me must wade through the slog of paperwork, while patiently enduring a two-year process which winds up costing about $40,000.  Other countries are more difficult than Ethiopia.

Tragically, this means that little orphan boys and little orphan girls are forced to remain alone, abandoned, and, most likely, never adopted into a family.  By some estimates, there are more than 4 million orphans in Ethiopia.  Adopting at the current rate, it would take more than 2,300 years to get current orphans in Ethiopia into an adopting family; and that is operating on the impossible assumption that no further orphans will be added to that number. The task appears impossible.

Efforts of governmental agencies—no matter how well-intentioned—are hurting thousands and thousands of children in need of familial love.  The current downward spiral of inter-country adoptions needs to be reversed.

Chuck Johnson of the National Council for Adoption gets it right in this quote from a USA Today article: “This trend is not right, and it is not good for children.  Given the increasing number of orphaned children worldwide, the continued decline in intercountry adoptions means that children’s most basic needs and rights are being denied.”

May the Lord raise up more advocates to speak up for the little ones who need familial love.

I bring up this matter of esoteric music trivia simply to say (as you can tell) that we have echoed the sound of silence since last April.  From April until November, our blog has joined the “ten thousand people maybe more, people talking without speaking.”

We hope you heard our silence. To us it was painfully deafening, as we went week after week after week after week with no word from our boys–with no word from anybody about our boys.  Oh, there were rumors here and rumors there about the bureaucratic breakdowns which would likely lead to further delays, etc., but there was no real word about our boys.

Finally, we got word that the courts will take our case on December 16, 2011.

However, adoption does cost alot of money. By the time we have completed this adoption, we will have spent around $35,000. Granted, not all adoptions are this expensive. For example, if you go through the state, like some Godly friends of ours are planning to do, you won’t spend anywhere near what we are spending. But, we felt a strong leading by God toward an international adoption, so here we are.

I wanted to write about this subject because, at the beginning of the process, we felt like giving up when we heard the costs involved. I probably don’t have to tell you that most pastors aren’t getting rich. But we’ve been frugal with our money for years, and we have saved a good bit, but $35,000? Hardly. So, we thought, adoption is not for us. Then, God put it on Greg’s and my heart almost at the same time to earmark around $15,000 that we had been saving for the future needs of our family. This was an incredible thing to Greg, because he knows me so well, and he knows that, sinfully, I tie alot of my security to how much money we have saved, instead of finding my security in the provisions of Christ Himself. When I think of how faithfully Christ has provided for me and my family over the years, I am ashamed that sometimes I still don’t trust Him. Just the fact that I was happily willing to use $15,000 for this adoption is a testimony to me of how much Christ has changed my heart. In fact, I was willing to go into our retirement funds! Greg vetoed that idea. He is a wise man.

Several Christians who had already adopted assured us that God would make the funds available that we need for this adoption. We learned about and applied to Christian organizations like Lifesong and Show Hope that encourage people to adopt by giving grants and helping to raise the money needed.  The outpouring of love in the form of finances from family and friends has been humbling and gratifying. Sure, asking people to donate money is awkward. We don’t feel comfortable asking people to give their money so we can buy things. Imagine asking anyone you know (besides your parents, I mean) to give you money to buy a new car. Or a new house. We should be uncomfortable doing things like that, because, after all, the Bible commands us to provide for ourselves and our families (2 Thess 3:10).

But we also know that several Christians want to help make the adoption of orphans a reality. Being a part of fulfilling the James 1 commandment is very exciting, whether you are the one adopting or the one helping financially or the one sending money to care for orphans through the World Hunger Fund. I encourage you to pray about that. Maybe God is calling you to adopt. You shouldn’t worry about the cost, because, as we have found, God really does provide. (Remember, state adoptions don’t cost very much at all.) Maybe you should help with the World Hunger Fund, which is administered through the Southern Baptist Convention. Maybe God is calling you to donate towards an adoption. There is at least one family I know of who would be thankful!

By the way, if you do want to contribute to our adoption, you can easily do so. Make your donation payable to Lifesong for Orphans. Write our last name, Cochran #1802, in the memo section, and mail to Lifesong for Orphans, PO Box 40/ 202 N. Ford Street, Gridley, IL 61744.

We stated that our preference was to have a brother-sister sibling set.  We thought it would be best to have children biologically related, and we couldn’t really say that we preferred boys over girls.  So, our preference was one boy and one girl who were biologically brothers and sisters.

We didn’t think much about it when our I-171 form came in and stated that we were approved “For 1 or 2 children.”  We understood the phrase to be government-speak for “two children.”  Little did we know that the quirky language on our form would prove quite Providential.

Our adoption agency called yesterday and presented us with yet another dilemma.  The good news was that they were beginning to look for our children.  The bad news was that there were no sibling groups available.  So, our choices were limited.  We could wait for an undetermined amount of time for a brother-sister sibling set to become available.  That would be option 1.  Or, we could agree to adopt two different children who are not biologically related.  Or, option 3 would be to adopt only one child instead of two.

What would you do given those options?  Would you wait for the siblings to become available?  Keep in mind (from our earlier posts) that there is quite a bit of instability in Ethiopia right now. Waiting might take years or thwart the adoption altogether. What about option 3? Would you choose to get one child instead of two?

We chose to go with option 2, adopting children who are not related.  Though this will cost about $800 more than we originally planned, it is a much more suitable option than waiting longer for children who may never be approved to come.  Option 2 was also better than adopting only one child (option 3).  Out of a $35,000 adoption process, the $800 seemed insignificant when compared with the difference between one child or two.

Here is where Providence comes in.  The agency explained to us that Option 2 was available for us only because our I-171H said that we were approved for “1 or 2 children.”  Other parents had on their forms that they were approved for a sibling group.  They would have to amend their home studies to get non-siblings.  But, because our form was a bit more ambiguous, it fit the scenario of Option 2, allowing us still to get two children without further approvals.

The conclusion is this: We are moving along in the process.  The adoption group in Ethiopia is now finding two children for us less than 5 years old.  They, hopefully, will be referring them to us soon.  Our two children will probably not be brother and sister biologically, but they will be siblings soon enough when we bring them home.

A second order of trouble is brewing as well, which is already threatening orphan adoptions.  The Ministry of Women’s Affairs (MOWA) in Ethiopia is contemplating a move that would severely restrict orphan adoptions from the country.

We have learned that if MOWA proceeds with a plan that is now being considered, then adoptions from Ethiopia will decrease by 90%.  If you wish to understand the plan better, you can read this statement from the Joint Council. The bottom line is that the action would drastically cut down the number of adoptions from Ethiopia.  Children who are ready for adoption now could end up waiting 7 more years before getting to their parents.  Can you imagine having parents ready and willing to adopt you, but the government tells you that you must wait 2,555 more days?  It is a tragic plan that will hurt many people unnecessarily.

Even if you aren’t interested in or able to adopt from Ethiopia, you can help the orphans living there by signing this petition from the Joint Council.  The Joint Council is working with several agencies to work out a resolution to this problem, making it possible for orphan adoption to continue in Ethiopia.  Vickie and I, along with everyone who is waiting now to receive a referral from Ethiopia, would appreciate your taking just a minute to sign this petition, urging MOWA to reconsider for the sake of orphans in Ethiopia.

Addis Ababa, Ethiopia

The question was put to me, “Why did you decide to adopt from Ethiopia?”  My short reply was, “I’m not really sure.”  But that isn’t the whole story.

We came to our adoption decision over the course of more than 15 years. The first testimony we heard was from a woman who had adopted a little girl named Hannah from China.  Our hearts immediately were turned toward China. Through a mission trip, I had the privilege of visiting Hong Kong and mainland China.  I loved the country and the people (not necessarily the Communist government).  But China was not for us. We never qualified financially to adopt from China.

Time wore on, and we continued having biological children, plus collecting seminary degrees.  Adoption was placed at the end of the “really big things” to-do list.  It never left our hearts.  We reaffirmed our commitment to adopt at the 2009 SBC meeting in Louisville, KY.  Through tears, we agreed to move forward after hearing a testimony from Russell Moore.

We thought it would be prudent to adopt from Asia—from the Philippines to be precise. We make an annual pilgrimage there to conduct pastoral training sessions. So, we are familiar with the country, and we adore the people.  It seemed a natural fit, especially since the Philippines welcome Christian parents.

Yet, we just couldn’t decide for sure.  Then, three things happened which directed us to Ethiopia.  First, our friend Jim Bob Outland told us that we would not get a “sign” to make it plain where we ought to adopt.  His advice was simply to pick a country and go for it.  Second, we had the opportunity to meet two great young men who had been adopted from Africa.  Andrew and Lightning Ahlers played soccer on a team with our Johnny and Polly, and we thoroughly enjoyed them.  This got us thinking about Africa.  They were from the small country of Liberia, which is now closed to U.S. adoptions.  We knew we couldn’t go to Liberia, but we started thinking more about Africa.

A third thing happened that pushed us over the proverbial edge in making our decision for Ethiopia.  Vickie was reading to the kids from Operation World.   Operation World profiles every country on the planet and speaks of each country’s economy and religious identity.  She learned that Ethiopians are often very poor.  The poverty in Ethiopia exceeds the poverty of the Philippines.  Also, there are other disadvantages to the children of Ethiopia; it is not unheard of for the children to be conscripted into the army at a very young age.  So, when Vickie read this, her heart burned for these children.

She told me about it, without knowing that I, too, was feeling more inclined toward Africa.  I thought of how 150 years ago, Americans were sending boats to Africa not to adopt children but to enslave them.  I thought of how I had seen tensions between blacks and whites in America.  After all, I grew up in the deep South.  I have seen discrimination.  So, I thought, if we are going to adopt, why not go all the way and adopt from Africa? The gospel picture of adoption comes through more clearly to me than ever before when I think about how the gospel breaks down every barrier and dividing wall.  So, I want our adoption to be a wall breaker.

We looked into the procedures for adopting in Ethiopia and found that we could qualify.  Vickie and I are not yet too old for their standards.  They allow large, Christian families to adopt.  And they don’t require us to make $80,000 or more per year.  So, we qualify.  We decided happily to make Ethiopia our target country, and we are confident that, even now, the Lord has two of our children there just waiting for us to bring them home.

Finally, just for the record, I do know that Ethiopia has great coffee.  In fact, I know that coffee originated in this ancient culture.  But I promise that is not the reason we chose Ethiopia. Seriously, it’s not the reason (but it doesn’t hurt to look forward to visiting a coffee plantation there, does it?)

UPDATE: Christian persecution increasing in Ethiopia.

The approval letter did not really come in the form of a letter. It came in the form of a I-171H form.  I suppose the form represents government efficiency.  I’m not making fun of the form or the people who completed it.  I am, however, making fun of me and Vickie because we received the form and didn’t know what it was or how to read it.  We have been waiting anxiously for the approval. When we got it, we thought we were supposed to be excited, but we weren’t sure.  So, we couldn’t commence to dancing until we made some phone calls.

Vickie called our adoption agency, but they didn’t answer.  She finally called our friend whose company did our home study.  The friend answered and asked what the form # on the letter was.  We had not even noticed the number.  Our friend said the number would be in the lower corner of the form.  It was plainly marked I-171H.  She said, “You got it. That’s the one.”

So, now that we have the I-171H, we are officially ready for a referral.  The referral will be a recommendation from the adoption agency concerning the 2 children they believe we should receive from Ethiopia.  We don’t have to accept the first 2 children they refer to us, but we don’t really know how we could reject them either.  So, for the moment, we are waiting to find out which 2 children are being have been chosen for us.

We are approved for 2 children from 0-6 years old, preferably a brother-sister sibling group.  We thought it was especially fitting for us to get the USCIS I-171H approval form on our eldest daughter’s 18^th birthday.  What a treat!

And we surely did have much to celebrate. Earlier that day, we received word that our

Addis Ababa, Ethiopia

dossier (for an explanation of the dossier, read here) arrived in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia’s capital city. What does that mean? Well, we are now officially on the referral list. And that means that, as I write, an Ethiopian named Woudneh  is searching for the two kids who may soon have Cochran for a last name. Our kids! They are somewhere in Ethiopia, and they are ours, by God’s grace! Hmm, do ya think we have something to dance about? But wait—there’s more.

Just moments before I opened the email about the dossier, Greg gave me the news that someone had placed $800 in the offering plate on Sunday, expressly for our adoption fund. So God has placed it on the hearts of other people to love Him and our children and us enough to sacrifice and give their own resources to help us get our kids home. The faithfulness of God—and His people—never ceases to astound me.

Yeah, we’re Baptist—and we’re dancing!