Pray With Faith

I prayed this morning as I do every Sunday morning, that God would speak to me through Pastor Danny and through His Word. I also prayed as I do every morning, that He would bless my marriage to Shane, protect our baby, and provide for us financially. He not only convicted my heart this morning in service about how powerful words are, and how I need to guard my tongue, but He also totally used someone else to bless my heart. Our sweet pastor's wife, Cookie, sells Premier jewelry and is very good at what she does. On several occasions she has held jewelry parties and donated the profit to help the youth to go to summer camp. Today she approached me before service and told me that there is a new catalog coming out, and that she wants to host a party for us and donate the profit towards helping Shane and I bring our baby home from Africa...I was speechless. Why should I be surprised though? When we pray, we should pray with complete faith that God is going to take care of it, and know that He will use special people in our lives to accomplish the task for His glory. Cookie, your generosity blesses my heart and I can't thank you enough. Thank you to all of you who read our blog, pray for us, and are excited with us. Get ready for the new Premier catalog! ;)

adoption books

Besides the outfit, these two books are our only other purchases so far. I don't have much to put in the baby book yet, but hopefully will have a picture of "baby Ethiopia" this year sometime!

First Outfit

I bought this outfit and gave it to Shane on Father's Day - Shane loves dinosaurs and when I saw it I couldn't pass it up! We got size 12 mo. since we have no idea how big he will be when we go get him (we requested infant-12 mo.).

Forward Motion

So, this week we were finally assigned a family coordinator - YAY! Our family coordinator will be the one to walk us through the entire adoption process, and coordinate our adoption with the powers that be in Ethiopia. With her "welcome email" came 18 attachments. These documents begin what is called the "paper chase". We will need to have medical exams, birth/marriage certificates, local police clearance letters, financial documents, a home study (including four face-to-face visits), employment verification letters, letters of recommendation, proof of insurance, power of attorney, family photos (including pictures of Theo!), and a left kidney. Okay, just kidding about the kidney, but they do need a lot of stuff from us! I am sitting at the kitchen table with Shane surrounded by a pile of papers and feeling a bit overwhelmed, but still very excited and hopeful. A lot of these things will have to be put on the back burner for the next few weeks since we will be on the Jamaica missions trip and then summer camp, but we will tackle them when we get settled back in at home. We will have to make a large payment before we can apply for any grants or assistance, so we will be checking with several different banks early next week to take out an initial loan. I refuse to stress over this because we know God will provide the money for us to pay it off during the process. Thank you for all of your prayers for us and for being excited with us! We love you all.

The Luke 15 Father

Jesus was always giving stories to help his disciples understand deep truths that otherwise could be challenging to understand. One of the most well-known parables is the parable of the Lost Son, or Prodigal Son. Usually, the emphasis is placed on the son and what we can learn from his mistakes. Knowing the son represents all of us as people, there are significant principles to take away. However, we can also take a look at the Father and find incredible characteristics as well. Not only was he a loving and compassionate father as we can obviously see, but he was also approachable. The son messed up BIG time. He wasted all his father's inheritance and made a mess of his life because of one bad decision after another. To think that after all of that he felt comfortable enough to return to his father is amazing. What a father he must have been for his son to return after such a life.

Yesterday was Father's Day. For so many people, this national holiday brings grief, anger, and buried resentment because of their 'shadow of a dad' in their home. My heart goes out to those people and I'm so sorry. A dad is more than a male bodily presence in a house. A daddy is someone who puts the best interest of his kids before his own interest. He is someone whose work WILL NOT prevent quality time with his children. Godly fathers train their children to live God's Word out based on their actions, not just words. A good father does not tower over their children to strike fear in them to satisfy their own power cravings. I think if a father is actively practicing these things out on a regular basis, covered in love, then their children will find him approachable. This doesn't say a father's children will not make mistakes, but will know where to find help when they 'come to their senses'.

I don't know where my son is right now. I don't know if he is even born yet. That's not what's most important. As a father-to-be, my prayer is that I will be the kind of father that my son needs. I don't want to be known as a shadow in the home. I know my son and I will not always see eye-to-eye on everything. I also know that, just like me, my son will not be perfect and will make mistakes. Rather than just trying to prevent my son from making mistakes, I think it's most important to be a place of refuge for when my son realizes it was a mistake.

Like every son, I learn from my dad. I learned things to repeat for my children and things to do differently. My son will say the same. May God encourage every father to be better than they were yesterday.

I love you dad.

A poem for our son

Unknown Title

A half a world away
Sometimes it seems we’re so far apart
But a half a world away
Is not too far for a journey of the heart

My little one, my bundle of joy
My precious son, my baby boy
I know you’re waiting too

A half a world away
A child waits for a family of his own
While a half a world away
A family waits to come bring him home

My little one, my bundle of joy
I’m whispering a prayer
My precious son, my baby boy
I hope to soon be there

I pray that we
Will no longer have to be
A half a world away

-Unknown

Our Paper Pregnancy

I just read a blog written by a family who is adopting from Africa as well. The wife compares how she feels at this stage of the adoption ,to how she felt when she was pregnant with her two children. I have never been pregnant before, but I do know some of the typical symptoms, and I tend to agree with her...

I beam when someone talks to me about our adoption/our baby. I cannot walk by baby things without stopping to look, and wondering how certain outfits will look on our baby. I have trouble sleeping because of the excitement of being "pregnant". I dream about what my baby's face looks like, and about the very first time I will get to hold him. I worry about my ability as a mother - will I be able to give him everything he needs? I am emotional and I cannot concentrate very well. I love him so much and I haven't met him - I don't even know if he has been born yet. I am only lacking the funny cravings and the growing belly. Yes, I may not have a baby growing under my heart, but I definitely have one growing in it!

So, here's where we are in our paper pregnancy. We are awaiting a call from a family coordinator which will be assigned by our agency. We will then begin the "paper chase", or dossier. This is a long list of documents that have to be prepared, translated, and sent to Africa. While all this is going on, we will be completing our home study with a caseworker. We will also be handing over (gulp) a lot of money to the agency at these two points in the process...money we do not have, but we know that what God ordains He provides for. We will start fundraisers soon as well. That is, after we finish the Jamaica missions trip, summer camp in NC, and when Shane returns from two weeks in Romania with our pastor. Whew!

When will we be able to go get our baby? It depends. After the dossier is completely submitted, we will wait for a referral. This could take up to six months :(. That would put us at going to get him in the spring sometime. Of course we know that God's timing is perfect, and we will get the phone call to go get him at exactly the right time. Please continue to keep us in your prayers!