http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rEzbwcMG9Gc - my prayer
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VRQruZ_oX-8 - my solace
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IBkz-ayutDk - video of Liberian kids
http://storinguptreasuresinheaven.blogspot.com/2008/08/prisoner-to-our-posessions.html - link to someone else's blog... her entry here is so powerful! (I hope it's legal to do that! If you never hear from me again, it may be because the cyber-police have dragged me away!)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VSdxqIBfEAw - I'm German, and this makes me laugh
Thursday, October 23, 2008
To sum up a year...
I'm feeling like a nerd because I know nothing about blogs... but here I am pretending to have the ability to create one all by myself ...without Jason to rescue me. I'm so NOT a computer girl... but I'm thinking this may be the easiest way to keep our family and friends updated on our life and times. Mainly- we want you to know what's going on with our adoption hopes.
Over this last year, we've been on quite the ride with all of this adoption stuff. Many of you know some of those highs and lows... but through it all, our goal has been to be obedient to whatever the Lord would lead us to.
As we looked in the foster care system, we have seen a full year of closed doors. We were open to most of the sibling groups and individual children that were presented to us (including 4 siblings- CRAZINESS!! and younger babies... which, if you know of our first year with Asher, you will understand how astounding that truly is), but almost always, we just never heard back from social workers. In June, we began to consider international adoption as an option, but hesitated to shift gears from foster care, because we felt that we might need to be more patient. We learned about Ethiopia and a little about Liberia, but just didn't feel the freedom to move toward that yet.
More months passed, more kids came about that we felt we wanted to be considered for, and again, we were not matched with any of them. Within the last few weeks, we knew that we needed to make a decision about the direction we were going to go because our home-study is almost expired; either we update it and continue to wait for kids in foster care, or we re-write the home-study as we updated it for international adoption (and we'd need to know which country to re-write it for).
After much thought and prayer, we have decided to pursue adoption from the country of Liberia, which is in West Africa. The Lord did not write this in the sky for us... nope, not quite that easy of a decision... we actually felt peace about either option. We have just sensed that all the closed doors may have been placed in our path to direct us to a new approach. We heard through our agency about an orphanage in Monrovia, Liberia with 400 children living there. These children are waiting to be part of a family right now, and we have been excited to learn about how we can fill that role! We are still desiring a sibling group, and are open to children who are up to Anika's age (8). We are in the middle of paperwork galore... but in reality, Liberia is a very simple country to adopt from compared to most others. The timeframe we've been given is 6-12 months until we can bring our children home from the time we are approved by the US (which can be a 3 month process). So- we're settling in for more of a wait, but at least we know what we're waiting for! :) We are also praying that God will expedite all the paperwork, give us favor in the eyes of all the people who must approve things, and that God will hold the children he has for us in his strong and mighty hand... protecting & providing for them.
Although some of you may think, "wow- what a waste of a whole year!", we are convinced that the Lord needed to teach us some important things, to refine us, and to prepare us for what he will do. This year has been fun, frustrating, full of questions (and a few answers too), exciting, scary, and wrought with the desperate need for patience and trust in the faithfulness of our God.
How can that not be a blast, right? :)
Thank you for your love for us, and for lifting us in prayer. Please continue to press in for us... and for the children that our whole family just cannot wait to meet!
Over this last year, we've been on quite the ride with all of this adoption stuff. Many of you know some of those highs and lows... but through it all, our goal has been to be obedient to whatever the Lord would lead us to.
As we looked in the foster care system, we have seen a full year of closed doors. We were open to most of the sibling groups and individual children that were presented to us (including 4 siblings- CRAZINESS!! and younger babies... which, if you know of our first year with Asher, you will understand how astounding that truly is), but almost always, we just never heard back from social workers. In June, we began to consider international adoption as an option, but hesitated to shift gears from foster care, because we felt that we might need to be more patient. We learned about Ethiopia and a little about Liberia, but just didn't feel the freedom to move toward that yet.
More months passed, more kids came about that we felt we wanted to be considered for, and again, we were not matched with any of them. Within the last few weeks, we knew that we needed to make a decision about the direction we were going to go because our home-study is almost expired; either we update it and continue to wait for kids in foster care, or we re-write the home-study as we updated it for international adoption (and we'd need to know which country to re-write it for).
After much thought and prayer, we have decided to pursue adoption from the country of Liberia, which is in West Africa. The Lord did not write this in the sky for us... nope, not quite that easy of a decision... we actually felt peace about either option. We have just sensed that all the closed doors may have been placed in our path to direct us to a new approach. We heard through our agency about an orphanage in Monrovia, Liberia with 400 children living there. These children are waiting to be part of a family right now, and we have been excited to learn about how we can fill that role! We are still desiring a sibling group, and are open to children who are up to Anika's age (8). We are in the middle of paperwork galore... but in reality, Liberia is a very simple country to adopt from compared to most others. The timeframe we've been given is 6-12 months until we can bring our children home from the time we are approved by the US (which can be a 3 month process). So- we're settling in for more of a wait, but at least we know what we're waiting for! :) We are also praying that God will expedite all the paperwork, give us favor in the eyes of all the people who must approve things, and that God will hold the children he has for us in his strong and mighty hand... protecting & providing for them.
Although some of you may think, "wow- what a waste of a whole year!", we are convinced that the Lord needed to teach us some important things, to refine us, and to prepare us for what he will do. This year has been fun, frustrating, full of questions (and a few answers too), exciting, scary, and wrought with the desperate need for patience and trust in the faithfulness of our God.
How can that not be a blast, right? :)
Thank you for your love for us, and for lifting us in prayer. Please continue to press in for us... and for the children that our whole family just cannot wait to meet!
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