Many of you have sent us sweet gifts and words of congratulations and encouragement as we welcomed home our little Langdon Jo on April 19th. We can't believe that we are parents!
The same week we welcomed home Lanie Jo we received more news about our Nica Nugget. Nicaragua slowed their adoption program back in 2017, the country actually declared that they no longer have an orphan problem. They changed all of the orphanages to daycares and were not matching children with waiting families unless they had special needs. While this was discouraging we continued to move forward knowing that with our in-country connections that we have a decent chance of being matched quickly.
The week we brought Lanie Jo home we found out that Nicaragua was struggling with more than a confusing decree in regards to adoption. In the middle of April Nicaragua's president, Daniel Ortega, made a social security reform that led to political upheaval. We have known that Nicaragua struggles with political divides but this brought the divide to a new, and scary, level. We are thankful that the Nicaraguan people are stepping up for their rights, freedoms, and hope but are also saddened that it took violent protests and the loss of 63 lives. As the Nicaraguan people call for Ortega to leave office so they can move back towards democracy for the first time in years, many protests and demonstrations took a scary turn including burning buildings, violence towards student protestors, and tens of thousands of people in the streets.
Now as you can imagine, this upheaval has rocked this country and in turn, has completely stopped any movement for adoption. In fact, one of the buildings that has been burned housed, Mi Familia, the Nicaragua adoption program. We are still waiting for news and praying that this is resolved quickly and peacefully. We are ready for adoption to be open again. Our hearts break thinking about the orphans that are not getting matched with families because of political issues.
It hurts to think that our nugget could be caught in the middle of this. We have been praying that God protects the people of Nicaragua, our dear friends that live there, and that our future child and their birth family remain safe. We have no way of knowing what will happen or how long it will take for Nicaragua to see peace and open up adoption again. However, we are fully confident that we are meant to adopt from this country. That God called us here to wait on our nugget as long as it takes. We are grateful to have Lanie Jo home and healthy as we pray for her future sibling.