And We're Off... Again!

Many of you already know this news, but here it is for those of you who haven't yet heard.

I wanted to touch base with you all and ask you to pray for our family! We are traveling to Liberia for 4 weeks, (leaving in less than 2 weeks). This time, Anika and Asher, will go with us. Kelvin and Hawa should be able to spend the whole time staying with us, so we will be a "whole" family for the first time ever. :) For those of you who have been there, you will understand in an especially real way how challenging this will be. While we are very excited to go and serve in whatever ways the Lord sets before us... we know that this will be a difficult trip on many, many levels.

So... please commit to pray for us if the Lord prompts you to! (A woman named Brenda will be joining us for the first week as well, so you can pray for her too!)

We will stay at the guest house only for a short time, unless we feel the need to have some down-time as a family. It is very expensive for us to spend a whole month there, and it would be impractical to drive to DHCV and the DM (the 2 orphanages/boarding schools) for as often as we'd like to be there. So, we will stay in a dorm at DHCV (larger of the two homes) the majority of the time.

Prayer Requests:

Safety and protection: flights, in driving in Liberia, personal safety for our family, etc.

Health: from big things like serious injury and malaria, to little things like the flu, sunburns, or reactions to foods, and everything in between. I don't know about you, but the idea of throwing up in a Liberian toilet just doesn't sound nice. (Not that it sounds nice any other way either...)

Sleep: Staying at DHCV means no lovely fans all night long! :) This one is a biggie to me... I barely slept in Liberia in June, and I am concerned that my kids will have the same issue (especially coming from frigid Minnesota winter weather). We really need the Lord to help us adjust and give us the ability to get rest each night.

The kids: Anika & Asher will be overwhelmed. They just will. But, we know that the Lord can give them what they need. We will be around LOTS of children on most days. Pray that my kids share themselves with love and compassion, and yet have the ability to stand up their ground, speak up, and not let all of the activity make them shrink away and fall apart.

Communication: We all need a supernatural ability to quickly learn to understand Liberian english (especially so we can have more meaningful time with Kelvin and Hawa), in order to really interact with the kids and staff. I'd love to build some deep relationships on this trip, and just need the Lord to allow us to fully understand others and to be understood. We have learned some basic sign language, and also desire that the Lord helps us to have special time with the deaf children!!

Serving: We just desire to be a blessing as we go. Pray that God clearly shows us, each day, what we should be doing to bring him glory and to serve others. We are intending to spend quality time with the children and staff, touch base with the other children who have adoptive families in the states, check up on how the bakery and micro-finance stuff is going, work on sponsorship updates, work on the computer issues, take note of what might be best to focus on for this summer's mission trip... but above all, we want to love on the children.

Family time: We are excited to be a family of 6. Pray that God gives us opportunites to parent Kelvin and Hawa meaningfully, time away from the chaos when we need it, and the ability to homeschool all 4 kids to a certain extent. We will also need oodles (yes, oodles...) of patience and forbearance with one another. When it's 90 degrees, you're sweating all over, and have 4 kids who want to sit on your lap b/c they NEED you... I imagine I might want to run away. :) We need God's kind of love... patient, kind, not self-seeking, not easily angered, always protects, trusts, hopes, and perseveres!

Adoption: As some of you know, the adoption paperwork is actually moving as of right now. It looked close to being done and over with this fall, but for some reason, is now moving. We have to be prepared to bring our kids HOME with us... while at the same time, be prepared to say goodbye if things once again shut down. We are in a place of surrender. God is good whether or not we get what we would like. Please just pray for our hearts (all 6 of us) to be guarded and protected, but ready for whatever God does. We do not expect the kids to be able to come home with us, nor is that the reason we decided to go to Liberia, but we are certainly not done believing that God can complete what he has begun, if it is his plan to do so! There are other families still waiting as well... pray for them too... this has been a long two (plus) years for all of us.

The Need: Pray that God gives us a continued brokenness for the great needs of the Liberian people without being too overwhelmed by it. We'll be asked for help, money, etc... and we just need the Lord to show us what our portion is.

Nitty-Gritty: Pray for God to help us in the little things too: having very little electricity or running water, drinking and brushing teeth only with bottled water (or risking sickness when we forget!), that our systems would handle the change of foods and lack of the fruits and veggies that we're used to (since they are not all safe for us to eat), communication being difficult- that we'd be able to touch base with people when we need to via phone or e-mail, remembering to take our malaria medications each day, and dealing with being dirty, sweaty and smelly most of the time! :)

That's all I can think of for now. I know, I know... it's PLENTY. There are just so many facets to this trip. Spiritual, emotional, physical, mental... I feel we'll need to totally depend on God for all these things!

Thanks for your friendship and support!
Love, Corrie