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!!  
                 

Answered Prayer

            God has been so good to us, in that things in this adoption process have gone surprisingly so well and so smoothly.
            If you read my last post, you saw that I asked for prayer that our USCIS application would go through smoothly and quickly and that we would receive approval.  Well, it's amazing that God has definitely answered these prayers!!  Praise Him along with us!
            We just received our approval yesterday in the mail!  I couldn't believe it when I got the mail from the mailbox.  In my mind, I thought we wouldn't be receiving it for at least a couple months.  But, praise be to God, that we're approved!  And now, I'm realizing, oh, I need to start putting the dossier together then!! :-)
            Once we have everything together for our dossier (which hopefully shouldn't take too long, because we already have most of it, we just need to receive a verification letter from our medical and life insurances), then we will be ready to start the process of sending the dossier over to Ethiopia!
            It's so exciting to think that once the dossier is received, then we are obviously waiting for a child!
            Please pray for us that God provides another $1000.  We are currently at about $2300 and will need another $1000 to get the dossier sent.  God has been faithful to provide so far, so we trust that He will continue to provide in His time, keeping us trusting in Him, who is Lord over all!  Pray to this end.

It is true, though, that the followers of Jesus should fill in the gap left by a contemporary Western consumer culture that extends even to the conception and adoption of children.  Who better than those who know Christ to welcome the all-too-often unwanted and discarded among the world's orphans?  After all, our God himself gathers together "the lame" and "those who have been driven away" and makes "a strong nation" of those who were "cast off" (Mic. 4:6-7).  Jesus' gospel is good news for the sick and the disabled.  In fact, they are the very ones who make up the marriage feast of our Christ: "the poor and crippled and blind and lame" (Luke 14:21).  When we care for the sick and the disabled, Jesus tells us, "you will be blessed, because they cannot repay you.  You will be repaid at the resurrection of the just" (Luke 14:14)

- Russell Moore (Adopted for Life, p. 160)

           

Blessed

            Feeling blessed by what God is doing in our lives and family through the adoption process!  In the last 1-2 weeks, we have been so encouraged by the number of people who have decided to support us financially!  It has been amazing to see God so faithfully providing for us!  Praise God that we are getting closer and closer to what we need!  And thank you so much to those who have supported us so far!!
            We have now sent in 3 grant applications.  Please pray that God would provide for us through these.  Pray that God would work in the hearts of the people reviewing our application and incline their hearts toward wanting to give to our family.  Continue to pray that God would keep us trusting in Him, as we apply for more grants and begin to start compiling and preparing documents for the dossier.  Also, pray that our I-600A application would be processed and approved smoothly and quickly.
            At our church, the women's Bible study has been reading an excellent book by Russell Moore called Adopted for Life.  If you haven't read it, I would highly recommend it.  I just finished reading the 4th chapter that talks about if you already have children, to involve them and teach them in the process:
            If the Spirit is drawing you toward adopting, think of the opportunity you'll have to share the gospel with your already-here children. (p. 108)  Gather your children around, and let them share in the joy of what God is doing in your family.  He's allowing you to join him in his plan for yet another child to grow up hearing the story of Christ, with a family that names the name of Jesus.  God's fitting you into his purpose, 'that a people yet to be created may praise the Lord.' (Ps. 102:18) (111)
            It's such a blessed thought to think about how God is already working in our family to teach us about the gospel through this adoption!  And as we hear Ethan and Emma talking about and praying for their new brother, we are thankful that they are seeing the gospel.  And, as God is fitting us all into his purpose, we pray that our children would grow up joining us in praising the Lord!