Mini Shower for Baby Patricia

We left most of our baby tools back in the US because they were too bulky to ship. And the unexpected new adopted blessing arrived on such short notice, that we haven't been able to allocate any of our limited funds acquiring new ones.

Ana (pregnant, due in 4 months) is also having a hard time lactating enough, so we're temporarily supplementing with the best we can get our hands on. We'd really like to get some higher quality supplies from the US for both mother and baby. Here is a list of current needs that we can only obtain locally due shipping costs or perishability. If you'd like to help us with these, we'll need monetary donations:

1. Stroller (Preferably Double since I am due in 5 months)
2. Swing
3. Bouncer
4. Bottles
5. Cooler (Mini for travelling)
6. Ergo baby carrier
7. Bassinet
8. Glider
9. High Chair
10. Raw goat's milk
11. Boppy pillow
12. Bottle storage bag
13. Bumbo seat
14. Car Seat

 

And here are the items that we will need shipped from the US because they just don't exist here. You can either purchase them, and have them delivered to our contact in California (address information coming soon), or you can make a monetary donation:

Whole powdered goat milk.

Lactation Tea.

Lactose, bifidobacterium infantis, cod liver oil, butter oil, olive oil, sunflower oil, coconut oil, Frontier brand nutritional yeast flakes, gelatin and accerola powder.

 

Adoption at long last

 

As many of you know we moved to the Philippines to adopt unwanted children here. We basically gave up on that idea a few months ago after so many years of efforts with so few fruits to show for it. We had been rejected by the DSWD here because they felt that a family with a large number of children who then adopted a new child would result in jealousy in the home. A few months ago we reached out to those three families who had been supporting us monthly, to let them know they may want to support someone else who has a better chance at adopting a child in need.

 

 

 

Ongoing struggles

Publication Date: 4/19/2016

Here is an update we emailed to one of our supporters about a month ago:

We did finally complete all of the requirements for the DSWD (social worker) after more than four in-home visits. We went to the required training seminar, and gathered together all the documents, affidavits, character references, and more. Then there was 2-3 months of agonizing waiting, before we were finally informed that we had been rejected qualification by a panel of social workers who had never met our family.

The basis of their rejection was well known (by them) before we even began the application process, which was also rather frustrating. Why would they allow us to go through six months of processes and three months of waiting only to reject us for something that they knew about in the beginning? They rejected us because we already have many young children, and they want an age gap of at least two years between every child. They believe jealously is somehow inevitable when children are close in age (see attached rejection letter). We strongly disagree with that presumption of eminent malice simply because a child has several siblings close in age. Children in their care are being denied a loving home as a result of their decision. Also, we don't ever plan on having a age gap like that in our children's spacing. It may or may not happen as the Lord wills, but it likely won't happen any time soon.

My wife gave birth to Immortal Servant Doak three months after we moved here, and she's pregnant again, due in 5 months. So... yeah. :) Nevertheless, all the while we were here, we have come across adoption opportunities that did not involve the DSWD. For the most part, we have talked ourselves out of about 3 or 4 adoptions for good reason. While we are ready, willing, able, and eager to adopt, we recognize the ideal case (for everyone) would be for the child's parents to love their own children. So in these cases where an adoption is being considered, we've been able to assist the mothers and fathers directly so they may keep the blessings God has given them. Instances where there is no father or mother to be found are usually handed immediately over to the DSWD by the locals, which unfortunately (so far) bars us from helping those children in any way thanks to DSWD misconceptions. We also started touring local churches to let them know about our willingness to assist abandoned children in hopes that we'll get called before the DSWD is called. But as you can imagine, that is an uphill battle.

One single mother was contemplating abortion here (in another part of the Philippines far from us), and we were able to facilitate delivery of some material assistance from Christians in the US to her. Ana was able to talk to her on the phone and establish a good rapport, along with offering to adopt the child. But as the months went by, it became apparent that she would like to keep and love the child as her own, and we were only to happy to support her in that decision, praise God! We did take in a young 10 year old boy named Noel who told us he was homeless, and sleeping at a nearby bus terminal. After a few days we found out that he wasn't homeless, he hadn't been abandoned, but rather he did have a home to which we brought him.

Another mother offered to essentially sell her children to us, and we were able to quickly contact the father to put a stop to that nonsense.

So as you can see, it's a little awkward for us to report on the progress of our adoption ministry since we haven't adopted yet despite all our efforts. We need to keep reminding ourselves that it's not "our" adoption ministry - it's the LORD'S, and He clearly has other plans for us! It doesn't even need to be an "adoption" ministry if we can work with the parents to heal the families. But it would be great if you could pray for the hearts of the people working at the DSWD to see beyond their negative past experiences.

We plan on visiting the US in 2017 (Lord willing), and we are looking forward to visiting everyone then!

In Christ,

-Alexander Doak