Please Pray for the Rally Family

OK... I come to you all again with yet another prayer request. Our family has been blessed with so many wonderful friends on this journey of adoption. Some of them we know only on the phone or through email...others we actually get to meet and spend time with. Early in their adoption process, we were put in touch with the Rally Family. Initially they were thinking of going with Guatemala... but they decided to change to Vietnam. Their daughter was born May 19th, 2007... and they have named her Sydney. Ruth is in Vietnam now. She left to travel on September 29th... and they received Sydney around the 1st of October. However, things are not going well. I wish I had more details... but here is what I know:

Jennifer, hello from vietnam, hope this goes thru....i am praying for your adoption process. i really need your prayers because things r not going so well. been here since sept 29th, miss my kids and tom had to leave. many troubles with the last group of adoptive parents and paperwork investigations...some were not allowed to bring babies home, they wont issue visa's, am afraid that that will happen to us...what should be exciting has now been overshadowed with extreme fear and anxiety...i think i have lost 15 pounds, my pants wont stay on..(needed to but not this way) the last group has been here 5wks...i just want to take my baby home...i have her and am so in love with her...she was pretty sick, but we are on our way to recovery. i wll be devestated if we cant bring her home....my kids will be too and my faith is being tested...so i need a saint like u to pray for our family...i am not as strong as you or as strong as God thinks i am. i forgot to bring your email, so i hope u get this. take care, love ruth

I wish that I could give you more details - but this is all I know. Ruth has a blog, but she is unable to post anything on it. I cannot imagine being 6000 miles from my home, my children and Tim... and have the stress of not knowing if I would be able to bring my baby home with me. Please say a prayer for Ruth - and for all the families that are there with her at this time.

Adoption problems, bureaucracy and red tape are not issues that affect only Guatemala. In the adoption world we hear about them all the time. There is no rhyme, nor reason, nor ethnicity that is subject to scrutiny more than another...it is all sheer madness in my mind. We have families willing to open their hearts and homes to these children. We have children that NEED to be loved, cared for and adopted... and then we have the red tape. The investigations... the election strategies to close adoptions... the mismanagement of paperwork, of children being switched, of raids on orphanages... we hear of the baby smuggling in some countries... and yet, when there are children waiting... we cannot wrap our minds around the fact that still there is such a WAIT. I have said it before, and I will say it again - Adoption is not for the faint of heart. It is a hard, grueling, and emotional roller-coater ride adventure...and even knowing that before you go into it... it is still hard to keep your heart in check during the wait.

So many problems... so many issues... but nothing could be more terrifying than being where Ruth is right now... and feeling all alone. I ask you to please, as you go to bed tonight... and over the next few days... please remember this family in your prayers. They live here in Kentucky - and while I haven't had the privilege to meet Ruth face-to-face... I have spent a lot of time over the past year getting to know her over the phone and via email. She is a wonderful person, that loves her family and loves the Lord. Let's just pray this baby home... and unite this family once again!