Once upon a time....

Flash back to 1999, we were a family of four. Happy in our new roomy house and comfortable in our ways. A few years later, the Lord blessed us with an additional little package, little boy #3. Now we were a family of five and sure that would be the end. As time moved on, so did we. The Lord used the time that passed to open our eyes to His will. Several years ago, Bob and I individually heard the call to adoption. It has been a long "pregnancy", but during this incubation time, the Lord has brought us to where He wants us to be. Spring 2010, we traveled to Ethiopia where two little angels were waiting for the Lord's timing - to become our children. Now we are home and can't imagine life any differently! What a blessing to be in His will.

Galatians 4:5 says "God sent Christ to buy freedom for us, who were slaves to the law, so that He could adopt us as his very own children." We are just following his model. A Perfect picture of salvation.

Sunday, October 12, 2008

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.

Wednesday, October 8, 2008

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."