Adoptions and Missions

Well things are moving right on along! :)

We have turned in our HS paperwork and are trying to get together a date when we can get in to meet with the SW so that we can get it completed. I can’t tell you how excited we are to get this going! I keep reading blogs about parents meeting their children for the first time and remembering when we did that same thing.

It’s so funny though…the meetings with both of our boys weren’t the warm and fuzzy type. Neither of them were running to our arms happy to see us. N did let D pick him up initially but then as soon as D walked out the door to take his shoes off N got down and screamed and didn’t want to come near us. It took days of visiting to get him to warm up. NOW he’s a giant love bug and ‘argues’ with me about who loves who more.

E was so very sick and unhappy when we met him. D and I were stressed to the MAX on that trip so it wasn’t at all warm and fuzzy. He screamed and cried literally from the moment we left AHOPE to go back to the hotel. He would NOT enter the room. I can’t tell you how we praised God that He chose that day to get us our Visa and the LAST 3 seats on ET airlines that nite! I think we would all have been screaming and crying by the end. :)

I think it’s kind of like giving birth to my bio kiddos… the first experience was awful to say the least. It produced an amazing blessing but left me with months of health issues. Yet I chose to do it again.

And we choose to adopt again. I think it’s because we see the reward after the labor. So much paper work. So much time. So much pain. So much rejection and in some cases guilt. Yet now we see these boys and see our family and know that God planned it just right.

I can’t WAIT to see what happens with this next journey! Will we keep up our streak of rocky beginnings? That’s ok. Will we get ‘lucky’ and transition easily? Will our children be older or younger? What will they look like? Will our children at home transition well? Will we? N sat down next to me the other night and snuggled in, he sighed and said “Momma I can’t wait to we have more brothers and sisters”.

On top of all this adoption planning I am still working on our mission trip as well. That’s been harder to do. Not because I am less committed, but because the funding for that isn’t coming as well as we had hoped. We had great support from the beginning, but our church is struggling and it’s hard to get them to support things. We are working on some other fun ideas ...God has a plan. I know He does.

He’s been able to answer prayers in some interesting ways. I have been keeping up with my friend T who grew up in Korah and is now going to Addis University to learn to be a Computer Engineer. We have been sharing prayer requests and learning about each other’s lives. He tells me about the ministry he is working from his church. He goes out and speaks to the street kids and tells them about Jesus. He also has had 3 sets of teen girls that have come to the church he works with that are recently orphaned and need homes and care. Just yesterday he told me about a 16 yr old girl that is now caring for her baby sisters. He sends me their pictures so that we can pray together for them. He also helps to find families and women in Korah that the girls can live with. Recently he asked me to pray about him being able to get a lap top. It would help with his ministry as well as with his future career, the computer he’s been working from is over 5 yrs old…which in computer speak is ancient.

Anyway, I asked a co-worker…one of our IT guys… if he would keep an ear out for someone maybe wanting to upgrade a lap top and willing to give up the old one for T. The co-worker contacted me to let me know that he will be taking care of it himself. And you know the cool part? He’s Muslim…he know’s I am Christian and what it’s for… I just love that we are working together to answer a prayer.

So we keep praying for the mission trip and the funding. I know He has a plan. We have relationships there that I know He is cultivating for a reason.

Will you pray with us? For our adoption, for our future children, for the mission trip, for T and the young women finding themselves alone and at serious risk.