May Numbers...

"The strength of patience hangs on our capacity to believe that God is up to something good for us in all our delays and detours"

-John Piper

It's May, so we do have new numbers:

We are now #82 on the healthy child list and
#7 on the special needs list (although it does look like we are #1 on this list for a boy)

Waiting yet another month is hard.  But, we praise God that we do still see His hand in our waiting and in keeping us grounded in Him and the Gospel.  There is great comfort in knowing that God has specific, good purposes in our waiting!  We pray God continues to keep us trusting in Him and His perfect timing, and that He would be preparing us to meet our son and parent him in a way that is glorifying to God.

To end this post, I want to share an adoption video that reflects the beauty of adoption and makes us so excited to see God continuing to unfold this adoption story of ours:

http://vimeo.com/36862661

Wait List numbers for April

Since there hasn't been much movement or change for us, I have neglected to update for awhile.  

So, I will catch up on where we are.  The 1st of March, we were told by our agency that we had moved up one spot on the waiting list, from # 91 to #90 and stayed the same on the special needs list.

We just received word yesterday that, we actually moved up a few spots this time on the list from 91 to #86.  And we are now #7 on the special needs list. 

It has been hard to wait already, and we haven't even been at it very long.  It's crazy to think that we could get a call today with a referral, or we could wait for another 6-12 months before we hear anything.  

We have been told that we are next in line for a boy on the special needs list (because everyone in front of us at this point is wanting a girl, although that could change if someone else changes their mind and switches to a boy).  We have also decided to extend our age preference to age 4.  So, we are now on the list as wanting a boy, age 0-4.  

It has been a true comfort to rest in the Gospel and God's sovereign plan for our family as we wait.  We know and trust that nothing is outside of God's control and that He knows the perfect time for our son to join our family.  

Please pray that God would continue to prepare us and our son in Ethiopia for the time that He has planned for us to be brought together.  Pray for us to grow in our faith and deepen our trust in our sovereign God during this time.  Pray that we wouldn't become impatient and frustrated as we wait, but that we would delight in God's perfect timing.  

Thank you for your interest in our adoption journey and for your prayers for us!    

Drum Roll...

So, being that it is February 1st, we just received an email from our adoption agency telling us what numbers we are on the waiting list, and, here they are:

                    We are #91 on the healthy child list

                    We are #8 on the special needs list

(For those interested, the way that they do the waiting list is by numbering dossiers as they arrive in Ethiopia.  This number tells us how many families are in front of us waiting for children.  Not all families in front of us are requesting the same age/gender of children)

The above picture shows us at the Lifeline office with our social worker, Lyndsey.  This lovely lady gets much of the credit for getting us to where we are in the process.  We are so thankful that God has blessed us with such a sweet, hard-working social worker, who has been such a help and encouragement to us.

The Glory of Our Adoption by God

The most recent update is not much of an update. :-)  Now that we have entered the waiting  period of being on the list, there isn't as much to update on.  But we do want to continue to write every week sharing what's on our hearts and how we are doing.  We also hope to encourage others who might be considering adoption with what God has done for us, has taught us, and continues to do and teach us along this journey.  

Today, we want to share a number of great quotes on adoption from the book  Reclaiming Adoption, put together by Dan Curver:

Paul teaches that God does not merely redeem us -- through adoption he brings us into the warmth, love, and gladness of his own family.  Redemption was never intended to be God's "be-all and end-all" work of grace.  God redeemed in his His Son so that he might love us and delight in us even as he loves and delights in his eternal Son.  As we shall see, adoption is God's act of making room within his triune love for prodigals who are without hope, and providing them with homes in this world and the world to come.  This is the story of adoption. 

(p. 14)

From God's perspective, adoption is not essentially about orphans at all.  It is essentially about estrangement.  Adoption is about God taking into his home those who have rebelled  against him.  All humanity is naturally estranged from God.  We are all rebels, all disobedient sons, for we are all made in his image and created to worship him, yet we have rejected him -- as did Adam, as did Israel.  Adoption is about the reconciliation of the rebellious.  Our confusion comes when we look at human adoption and end up focusing on the fact that a child needs parents.  God focuses on the fact that a lost person needs saving... The ultimate purpose of human adoption by Christians, therefore, is not to give orphans parents, as important as that is.  It is to place them in a Christian home that they might be positioned to receive the gospel, so that within that family, the world might witness a representation of God taking in and genuinely loving the helpless, the hopeless, and the despised.

(p.14-15)

The glory of our adoption by God is that it gives us the only object of affection (God) that provides rest, satisfies the longing heart, and makes the impoverished unimaginably rich, even in our soul's darkest nights.  In other words, adoption gives our restless and fearful hearts the all-satisfying love of the triune God.

(p.21)

Please continue to pray for us, as we seek to trust God in His angood timing to bring our child's referral to us so that we can then plan to go over to Ethiopia to meet him!

We are Expecting!!

           Due to the holidays, I haven't updated the blog as often as I would have liked.  But, since there hasn't been an update for about 1 month, there's a lot to tell! ;-)  
            
           Since the last post, we have now reached our fundraising goal!!!!  In about a month's time, we got the rest of the money needed to reach our goal!  Praise God!  Again, it has been so incredible to watch God faithfully provide.  He has been amazing us with His very apparent provision.  (as a side, if you have been watching the blog and our fundraising ticker, you will notice that we had to adjust our predicted $30,000 amount to $36,000, due to travel and our plans of taking Ethan and Emma with us on our second trip to Ethiopia).  Even so, we have received word from two grants in the last month, that get us all the way to our adjusted goal!
             
            About the grants... we want to praise God for answered prayer and Him working in the hearts of the committee members in choosing us to receive a grant.  We have heard, that with an increase in people adopting (which is wonderful), getting grants has become much harder and  more competitive than it used to be.  So, we know that God worked to provide us with not just 1 grant, but 2!!  We have to tell you about one of our grants because it's a cool story. ;-)       
           We had just received an email on December 21st saying that we had been chosen for a matching grant from Hand-in-Hand.  And then just two days later, we received a call from friends saying that they wanted to support us and had already decided on an amount.  The amount that they wanted to give is exactly the amount that this grant will match and give us!   We are blown away by how God has been working in others' hearts in wanting to care for orphans, as He has been working in our hearts!  
              
             Through this adoption journey it has encouraged us greatly to see God providing.  We definitely feel that God is preparing the way for us to do what He wants us to do.  It gives us hope and confidence in the days to come, as we prepare to meet our child for the first time and face many unknowns!     
              
             As we have reached our fundraising goal, we want to again thank all of you who have supported us financially and prayerfully!  What an immense encouragement and blessing you have been, as you partner with us in answering the call to care for orphans!  

              Our most recent update it that the dossier arrived in Ethiopia this last Tuesday, January 8th.  So, we are now officially on a waiting list and will be notified at the beginning of each month what number we are on the list.  We should hear Feb. 1st what number we're starting at!  The amount of time that we have been told that we will most likely wait is about 1 year.  Although, if God gives us a child with special needs, it could be a bit faster.  
               
               We will continue to update you along the way!  

The doctrine of adoption is one of the most precious doctrines we have as children of God.  Just to be called "children of God" is such a wonderful blessing.  Because I am now in God's family, I have a new relationship with God.  No longer is he just a being far away; now he is my Father.  What a tender relationship that is!  I really belong in God's family.  The Holy Spirit says to me, "you belong here.  You are part of the family."  In a day when people feel alone and families are broken, what a wonderful gift this is.  Adoption is indeed a precious truth for me"
                                        - Robert A. Peterson

  
                 

Dossier Sent and God continues to provide in Profound ways...

A lot has happened since our last post!  We are excited to say that our dossier has been sent in and God was so faithful to provide the money that we needed for our payment!!

(which, for those who are wondering, the dossier is pretty much everything that we have done up to this point, that is put together in one large document... it's pretty much everything you would want to know about our family and probably more. :-)  When sent, the dossier makes 6 trips in the mail, until it finally reaches Ethiopia and is fully processed, at which point we will officially be on the waiting list.  We have been told this takes about 1 month)

We can't believe that we are already to this point in the adoption process!  We praise God that things have gone so smoothly and that God has been providing!  Adam and I were just talking the other day about how amazing it has been to see, that once we started the adoption process and made the initial payment, we have had the money that we needed for each step of the process!  It's amazing that we haven't been held up at all due to finances!  Praise God!  It's been such an encouragement to witness our God providing so clearly for us!  

And we continue to praise Him, because just this last week, after we had already sent the dossier and made that payment, we see God providing for us in preparing for the next payment. The next payment that we are looking toward is the referral payment, which costs about $9200.  We pay this amount when we receive information about the child God has for us, and decide to accept the referral.  And then we wait for a court date from Ethiopia to go and meet our child for the first time.  We are amazed that God has used the tremendous generosity of others, just in the last week, to provide for $6,505 of our referral amount!!  Praise our God who is good to provide for His children!

Deuteronomy 8:18

And you shall remember the Lord your God, for it is He who gives you power to get wealth, that He may establish His covenant which He swore to your fathers, as it is this day

1 Chronicles 29:12

Both riches and honor come from You, And You reign over all.  In Your hand is power and might; In your hand it is to make great and to give strength to all

Prayer Requests:

1.  Please pray that, as we're about to be put on the list to wait for our child, that God would give us wisdom and peace in thinking through the special needs that we will be open to

2.  Please pray that the dossier will be processed smoothly

3.  Please pray that we would receive a matching grant!  We have applied for a number of matching grants, and are hoping to get one, because, if we did, our amount of $6505 could be about doubled!!

4.  Continue to pray that God would be preparing our family to receive this child

  

Update for This Week:

           We are so encouraged by all that God is doing in this adoption process!  Not only is He teaching us much about Him and the gospel, but He is truly proving Himself to be the God, who is good to provide! (Psalm 68:10).  
           On Sunday we were given another $575 from our church family.  And now that puts us close enough to be able to send our dossier into our agency, once we receive the letter we need from our life insurance.. hopefully that will come this week!!  Praise God!  
            It's been amazing to see our church surround us in support, encouragement, and prayer during this journey.  Our church may not be huge, but they have supported us financially in a huge way!  
            It's such a blessed thought to think of our church coming together and answering the call of caring for orphans together!
            We just want to say thank you again to everyone one who has partnered with us in supporting us financially and prayerfully!  We are humbled and amazed at God's goodness to us through you!  May God get the glory!!