February 2009

Dear Friends and Family,

We want to thank you for your prayers and encouragement while we have been fighting for Elena Rebeca’s freedom from poverty, corruption, and government run “care”. This last December, we finally finished the needed paperwork to get her in official placement with our family. Sadly, even though we are her legal guardians, we still do not have full rights to her according to Romanian laws. She is still a child of the system and we can’t make a move without her mother’s consent.

As I informed you in my last newsletter, Elena’s biological mother has recently agreed to give up her rights to Elena and place her in the State’s care. Once this takes place we will have the option of adopting her and therefore gaining all rights to her and insuring her safety.

We have been waiting to hear the date of the scheduled court hearing from Child Protection since early December. Shortly after I sent out last month’s newsletter, Andrei received a frantic call from Romania. It went something similar to this:

“Andrei we have the court date for Elena’s birth mother.”
Andrei: “Great! When is it?”
“Tomorrow morning at 8AM.”
Andrei: “TOMORROW?! I am in America! Why did you not call me before now!?”
“Well we knew the date for a week but every time we called we got your answer machine.”
Andrei: “Have you heard of something called… leaving a message!?”

Obviously it would be impossible for Andrei to arrive in Romania in time for the Court hearing, but we knew that they would reschedule a date immediately following the one missed. Right away, I flew into survival mode. I was running around the house trying to get in touch with Elena’s birth mother, looking at flights, starting laundry, and trying to accept the fact that I would be without my husband and helper for an indefinite amount of time.

I called a fellow missionary in Romania to ask for assistance with contacting the birth mother. I was very discouraged when I received the news that Elena’s mother was out of the country and no one had seen her for a month. This worried Andrei and me because if she could not be found, Elena’s future would be in jeopardy. We purchased Andrei’s plane tickets with the faith that we would find the mother in time for the new court date. By God’s faithfulness, Andrei received a phone call from the mother when he landed in Romania… .YEA! She was still out of the country and did not have the money to return by train. Andrei sent her money for a train ticket and she arrived the Monday before the new court date.

Andrei was not allowed into the courthouse, but he was encouraged to overhear that the judge said she would approve the abandonment and place Elena in the State’s care. We still have about a month to wait until the official paperwork is issued to the local Child Protection Office. Please remain in prayer about this situation.

Also please pray for all the babies in government care. Many babies, although in foster families, are still in danger. Every week we hear of two or three cases of a baby/infant being abused, mutilated and/or killed by their placement parents or guardians. This is not an exaggeration. This is why we are so passionate about protecting this precious little one.

California here we come! The entire Andries Family will be visiting Southern California from March 2nd to the 18th. We want to meet with as many of you as we can. Please let me know ahead of time if you want us to visit and I will “schedule” you in ; ). I am hoping to have everything planned out before we leave so that we will maximize our time in California. We also have some needs as well: 1) a vehicle that will fit two baby car seats, 2) one front facing car seat, 3) one rear-facing car seat, and possibly 4) two porta-cribs. Please email us at sufficientbread@gmail.com. We are so excited to see you!

God bless you,
Andrei, Kelle, Aryana and Elena

Prayer Requests:

• Continual prayer for the corruption that is so rampant in the Romanian culture and government.
• Prayer for our social workers at Child Protection: wisdom, grace, and strength as they stand up for us in Committee meetings at Child Protections Headquarters.
• Praise for the continual health of Elena and her overcoming almost all fetal alcohol symptoms.
• Prayer for all the babies in government care.
• NEED: We could also use some toddler clothes for the girls(12mo-2yr)… if you have some hand-me-downs… let me know.