Here we go!

Tomorrow we are officially mailing the application, check and requested photos to Children's Hope International. Their "acceptance" timeline is about two weeks. Then we can begin the more detailed portion of collecting information and completing tasks (like fingerprinting, etc.) for the dossier (like an adoption portfolio). We are still waiting on MBCH to confirm that they can complete our international home study update, but we decided that we were wasting time just sitting on the application, so it goes tomorrow. We are trusting the Lord to take care of the home study thing. Check back for more details.

Humor from Heaven

The Lord has found it necessary to keep me entertained as we go forward on this journey. I spoke with the ELL (English Language Learner) staff person today - she was very encouraging about the language acquisition and suggested that a child 1st grade or younger should have little trouble with picking up the English language. Our kindergarten and 1st grades - here in the US - are centered around letters and sounds. In the scheme of things - God being the source of all of this - I was not at all surprised that her roommate in college was from Ethiopia - Addis Ababa! She even said "I would love to go with you!" Last night Bob flipped over the Compassion International magazine to show me the "Ethiopian" themed t-shirts (pictured above) that upon purchase, help to support the feeding program there. Of course we bought two. You could buy some too at "https://store.compassion.com/Customer/ViewProductDetails.aspx?CatID=16&SubCatID=102&ProdID=152&Type=N" Then he opened the magazine to share the full spread article on Ethiopia. Needless to say, I have said and heard the word "Ethiopia" more times in the last two weeks than in my entire life! We eagerly await word from our previous agency (who completed our domestic home study) on what it will take to update our home study to make it international. One "reference family" from the Children's Hope International agency has been very good to correspond with me about our questions. In her words, we have so many similarities in our stories, "it is like we are living parallel lives"! She has been so helpful and encouraging. I know that the Lord hooked us up! They live in Pennsylvania, but email has brought our worlds side by side. They adopted two sisters from Ethiopia (ages 7 and 5). We were excited to hear how quickly their experience went (applied in October, traveled in April!). I know the Lord will take care of this in his time....Pray that I can be patient. We found an Ethiopian restaurant here in KC and are going to go there - just Bob and I at first - then eventually take the kids. A co-worker of mine and her husband pastor a church in town and know an Ethiopian pastor. She is getting his contact info to us and we are going to get together with him to "pick his brain" then we want to take the boys to one of their services. I want them to experience what it will be like for our girls to come here and not know the language. I hope it gives them perspective. Through prayer and leading, we know that we are going to bring two girls home. Please pray for them as they cling to each other and also to us. My new friend in Pennsylvania shared this from a Ethiopian adoption chat..."every day I wait for my adopted child(ren) is one more day a mother has to say goodbye."

GPS - God Positioning System

Here is a picture of the boys this past July 4th. Aren't they cute??? They look like they actually like each other.

This is the recent part of the adoption story in a nutshell:
Adoption has never really left my heart and Bob doesn't talk much (you know how they are), so I really didn't know what he was thinking on the subject and was a bit afraid to ask. I was afraid that he would have lost the passion that we had developed for adoption and you know it has to be both or nothing! So, about Thursday last week I said to him, "I feel like the Lord isn't finished with us yet on adoption. I know I like to think as I talk and you (Bob) like to think then talk. So, think about adoption, pray about it, read scripture with adoption in mind and in about 2 weeks, we will make a point of having a discussion about adoption." Then, as hard as it was, I left it alone. On Friday at school, the PE teacher asks me, "Are you adopting?" When I asked her why she would ask that..., she said "because Marshall says you are." Friday evening, our worship team had a gathering. Our minister of music shared with us that he and his family (wife and 4 kids) were "resigning" to become full time church planters. He said, "I asked God to show me His will and He told me church planting." Then he said something I knew, but the timing was so profound, "When the Lord shows you His will, and he does, it is not for your consideration....to compare to other options you may have...IT IS HIS WILL FOR YOU." Friday evening, I began looking around on the internet for international agencies. Ethiopia caught my attention. There are some 5 million orphans there! Then our Sunday School class topic was on the sin of omission - what hit me was that NOT adopting, when we had definitely felt the call to, was a sin of omission. The sermon was on GPS - God Positioning System. When the pastor got to the point where he said that God tells you what you need when you need it....and that if you get off track, He recomputes and gets you back on track....and that when Phillip was told to go on a certain road...to meet an ETHIOPIAN!!!" I about fell out of my chair. Bob and I talked all the way home about how to get the application going, revisit our finances (remember it was only a year and a few months ago that we became a two income family and so we have not forgotten how to be frugal!) and how fast we could get the process started! I am excited about how quick the Lord jumped on our willingness to be open and hear from Him - I am sure He is thinking, "It's about time!"

On the Road Again...

It has been so long since I blogged - is that a word? We are still in the adoption arena or so it seems. I think that God has been waiting patiently for us to come around. His will is still active and we were the ones that were blind to His intent for us. However, we believe that we are now attentive and following His lead in this adventure. We are pursuing his call to adoption - through Children's Hope International - THIS WEEK. The following postings will chronicle our journey. I really don't want to forget one single piece of this puzzle, so bear with me as I ramble. I am full up with JOY!