All in a YEAR!

It's been well over a year since I sat down to type out my thoughts here on the blog.  It's been a year of lots of change in our family.  It's been a journey for sure.  Today marks a special day for us so I thought it most fitting that I take this opportunity to "pick up the pen (or the keyboard)" and start back at it.  I've missed it, but I've been WAY TOO BUSY to think about it honestly.  Several times it's been a passing thought that I should blog maybe even post some pictures but then I was too busy actually living the life God has blessed me with to journal it or blog it.  But, I'm going to try to be a little more consistent with this because honestly, it's therapy for me.  It's a way to get so much stuff out of my brain and heart and onto the page.

 

A year ago today we were a family of four on the adoption journey. 

 

 



We'd been waiting and waiting and waiting some more.  We had wondered more than once if "the call" would ever come and we'd thought more than once that maybe at some point we'd decide that it was time to give up.  We'd started the journey shortly after Anna Claire was 2 and she'd just turned 7.  Five years of waiting had trickled by.  We'd completed more paperwork than we could have ever imagined.  We'd read more about adoption than we could have dreamed possible.  We'd met all sorts of people who shared the journey.  We'd hoped and prayed and listened some more.  We'd started the journey in the international program with our adoption agency (Bethany Christian).  We'd soon realized that God was taking us down a different path.  We'd switched to domestic and thought maybe that would mean a 6 month, or 9 month, or even just a year wait, and we had already surpassed that.  BUT, we had resolved that God is the GOD OF TIMING not just TIME.  We had prayed again and again for a birth mother and father and a baby that was in a situation about which we didn't know all the details.  We had prayed that somehow in some way we would get to speak grace and mercy and LOVE.  We had prayed that God would be present and real and in every detail.  We had continued to wait and wait with small glimmers of hope now and again but nothing of real substance UNTIL!

 

On November 20th, we had received a call about a baby boy who had been born in Nashville.  We were asked if we'd be willing to have our family profile shown.  Our caseworker shared a little information (very little) with us.  I called Jason.  I called my cousin  who was always my go to person about medical questions.  I called Jason again.  I called our caseworker back.  YES!  We were willing.  Show our family profile.  She'd let us know either way once a decision was made.  A week went by.  No news.  I called our caseworker just to check and she said she didn't know anything and would let us know as soon as she did.  I had peace.  Nothing really strong either direction.  I just remember telling Jason.  "Who knows?  Maybe the mom has decided to parent.  Or maybe we'll get a call in a few months."

 

Fast forward.  DECEMBER 18, 2012.  8:30 in the evening.  We're at Jason's workplace preparing for a breakfast for his co-workers the next morning.  His cellphone rings and it's our caseworker.  Very strange because she almost always called my cellphone.  Immediately my heart knew something was up. It didn't immediately register that it was about the call from a month ago.  She talked with us casually and then asked, "So, what are your plans for Christmas?"  "How would you feel about having a baby for Christmas?"  I think we were all ready to erupt!!!!!  Anna Claire fell to her knees and started saying, "Thank you, Jesus."  In that moment, it was worth every moment of waiting that the 5 years had held for us.  Our caseworker started rattling off all the details.  I was writing frantically.  She explained this was the same little guy from a month ago.  She told us the details of his story and why it had been a month since the original call.  This was Tuesday, December 18th.  We would go to Nashville on Thursday December 20th to meet the birth family and on Friday, December 21, he would come home to us, HIS FOREVER FAMILY!!! Those were crazy, busy days.  FRANTIC at the best.  We had to buy a car seat,  Get the bassinet out of the attic.  My brother and sister-in-law brought over tubs and tubs of clothes (thank goodness otherwise he would've been wearing some pink sleepers).  We had to buy diapers and wipes and a diaper bag and  . . .  WOW!  I bet we looked and acted like crazy people.  But, oh what precious memories.  Those moments were amazing.  God was so faithful.  Meeting the birth family and hearing his story.  Naming our baby boy and seeing him for the first time.  Hearing his interim family tell about his first five weeks and knowing they had loved him deeply.  God was so faithful.  We know beyond any doubt that just as God's word promises, He had known our little guy in the secret place.  He had knit him together.  He had protected him in his mother's womb.  He had watched him breathe his first and had soothed him and had sent him a family to care for him until we could. 

 

Today marks the one year anniversary of our call. What a year it's been! 

 

 

 

 

 He has been pure joy to our family.  He adores his big sisters and they think he's absolutely the best.

 

 

 We look at him and absolutely can't imagine life without him.  We see in him what it means that our Father chooses us, makes us His own, calls us His children.  We cherish him beyond what is humanly explainable and we are overwhelmed by the gift it is to be his parents.  We are so thankful for his birth mom and dad.  Every time we communicate with his birth family I am in awe of how God has answered our prayers that we would get to see Him at work in every detail.  I am thankful that we get to share grace and mercy and love and that we get to walk this journey.  I am thankful that God has plans that are BIGGER than us. 

 

Merry Christmas from our family of FIVE!!!!

The Face of Haitian Adoption

I read a great post today on another blog, "Rage on the Minivan". I thought her post was worth sharing, so if you're interested in knowing more about Haitian adoption I invite you to visit and read the facts. The facts are sometimes overwhelming, but I found them to be reassuring to me as we push forward. They remind me that we must stay the course even when the paperwork is daunting, the cost is overwhelming, and the timeframe seems ridiculous. The orphan is near to the heart of God. He commands us in James 1:27 "to take care of the orphan and the widow." We must not grow weary; we must stay the course! There are 163,000,000 orphans around the world counting on us!!!! We can't reach them all, but we can make a difference for one (or two) of them. And, every Christian can do something--adopt, pray, sponsor, support. . . What can you do?

Please continue to pray for us. We are seeing progress daily. Monday marked our last visit to complete our homestudy. We're just waiting for it to be written and approved. Then, we can file that ever so important government document--the i-600a. In the meantime, we're collecting each piece of paperwork that must be in the dossier and then it will be notarized and apostiled and on it's way to Haiti!!! We're hoping that this could be completed in the next few months. We've added a link for the orphange on "Blogs I Read"--GLA Haiti. You can read blogs from the orphanage here to get a peak at the orphanage where our son/daughter(s) will spend their life before coming to be a part of our family.

Here are the links I've mentioned. I hope you'll take a few minutes to read and above all else, please PRAY!!!!

Blog Post about Haiti Adoption Two Years Post Earthquake

http://www.rageagainsttheminivan.com/2012/01/haitian-orphans-two-years-later-still.html

God's Littlest Angels in Haiti

http://www.glahaiti.org/

Blessings to your family as you pray for God to break your heart for the things that break His!

One Step Closer to Haiti

Many of you know that for the better part of 4 years our family has been on the journey of adoption. We first started praying and researching and praying some more in the summer of 2007. This journey has not been a straight path with no bumps or twists or turns for us, but it has been one where we have seen the hand of God and learned to trust that He who calls you enables you and will sustain you even in the darkest of nights. Now, at the beginning of 2012, we are finally seeing things begin to take shape and believe that we are indeed jumping the last of the hurdles and entering the final stretch of the race as far as paperwork is concerned.

We have our final home study visit on Monday with our wonderful caseworker (Kelli) at Bethany Christian Services. She will then finalize our home study and we will be able to file our I-600a (Application for Advance Processing of Orphan Petition) with the USCIS. Once we have fingerprinting done and approval from our I-600a, we will be well on our way to submitting our Dossier (the BIG BULK OF PAPERWORK one piece of which is the home study) that will travel to Haiti AFTER being notarized, state sealed, and authenticated in the U.S. Then, the waiting begins for our referral (the picture of our little one(s)).

Would you help us pray?

Would you please pray for us that the next few weeks of paperwork collection, notarizing, state sealing, and authenticating (is that really a word? HA!!) will go without too many kinks? We read the blog for our orphanage regularly and receive newsletters from them, and the truth is that there are many little ones who are waiting. . . just waiting for their FOREVER FAMILY!!! We are confident that God's timing is perfect and that things are totally in his control, but we need you to pray for us that through each step of the following weeks we will be diligent, that careless mistakes will not be made on our part or the part of agencies who are completing time sensitive documents.

Would you also continue to pray for our little one(s) in Haiti? We have no way of knowing if they are already in the orphanage or if even in the next months their mommies or daddies or grandmas or grandpas or aunt or uncle will have to make a very difficult decision, a decision to give them a hope and a future, to choose life for them rather than death because of malnutrition or disease. Would you pray for their sweet little hearts and minds as they grieve this loss and as they learn to trust those who are taking care of them in the orphanage? Would you pray for their birth families who love them but can't care for them?

Would you pray for the orphanage workers--Dixie, John, Susan, Molly, Melissa, and others--who are rocking them, feeding them, teaching them, and making sure they are loved and cared for until God places them with their forever family? Would you pray for their strength and well-being? Would you pray for their protection again evil and harm? Would you pray that they would have wisdom beyond their human understanding to know what is best for each child in each situation?

Would you pray for Jason and I as we seek God and ask Him to prepare our hearts and our home for the transition that will occur as we grow to a family of 5/6 and learn to parent a child who has been through more than we can even understand or grasp?

Thanks for sharing our journey. God has turned our hearts to Haiti, and we can't wait to bring our son/daughter(s) home!!!!