We watched the journey of family and friends who adopted, heard their stories, knew their struggles, and had heard time and time again "there is nothing easy about adopting". We are still very early on in this process (likely 2-3 years before we have our kids home), and are already starting to see how difficult the waiting is, how difficult the not knowing is, how difficult the "its out of our control" is. And yet we know, without out a doubt, this is what God has asked us to do here where we are and now in our lives.
Today, I read a post from a blog of some folks serving in Haiti that Abbie's grandma had posted on Facebook. It's really really good, and thought I'd share it here on our blog. Beware, this will give you some great insight into Haiti, but also be a great challenge to your own life.
http://mshaiti.blogspot.com/2015/12/dirty-is-why-we-are-here.html?m=1
We are also excited to share that we have a date for our home visit! January 20th we'll be spending the afternoon with our social worker in our home, sharing about our life and family, so she can write the home study report we need to file our official application for adoption in Haiti. Please pray for us these next 5 or so weeks leading up to our home visit as we finish up some "parent training" and "adoption preparation" classes.
Hope you are all able to enjoy this great Christmas season, and able to remember and reflect on the reality that God took on the mess and flesh of humanity to come into this broken place and our broken lives to show us His great love for us!
Merry Christmas!
Sunday, December 13, 2015
Saturday, September 19, 2015
Thursday, September 17, 2015
The Benefits of Technology
There are some things about having and using technology that are pretty incredible. For example, I have a weather app on my phone that shows the weather, humidity, allergy information and UV intensity (as well as other things) for our area of the world. One thing I often catch myself doing throughout the day is checking out the temperatures and current conditions in Haiti at the same time.
Yesterday was incredibly rainy and chilly; a soup and homemade bread kind of day. We wore layers of clothes, made hot meals, and snuggled up under blankets with cups of tea. Of course I was checking out the weather on my app many times throughout the day to see how much rain had fallen and what the temperature was. Here the temp was in the 40s and in Haiti? It was 89 degrees with a "real feel" of 99. Whoa!! Talk about different!
As I checked on the weather and waited in line with Paul and the girls to get our fingerprinting done for the next part of the adoption process, I was reminded of just how much of a culture shock our children will have. Weather just being a smidgen of what they will experience.
My prayers today revolve around all the extreme differences our children will face when they come home and praying that Paul and I will have wisdom to help them adjust to all the "new" they will be facing when they come home.
Isaiah 43:19
"See, I am doing a new thing! Now it springs up; do you not perceive it? I am making a way in the wilderness and streams in the wasteland.
Yesterday was incredibly rainy and chilly; a soup and homemade bread kind of day. We wore layers of clothes, made hot meals, and snuggled up under blankets with cups of tea. Of course I was checking out the weather on my app many times throughout the day to see how much rain had fallen and what the temperature was. Here the temp was in the 40s and in Haiti? It was 89 degrees with a "real feel" of 99. Whoa!! Talk about different!
As I checked on the weather and waited in line with Paul and the girls to get our fingerprinting done for the next part of the adoption process, I was reminded of just how much of a culture shock our children will have. Weather just being a smidgen of what they will experience.
My prayers today revolve around all the extreme differences our children will face when they come home and praying that Paul and I will have wisdom to help them adjust to all the "new" they will be facing when they come home.
Isaiah 43:19
"See, I am doing a new thing! Now it springs up; do you not perceive it? I am making a way in the wilderness and streams in the wasteland.
Saturday, September 5, 2015
Thankful for YOU: Audio Adrenaline - Kings & Queens
Today I am overcome with gratitude for people all over the world who are a part of orphan care. I have heard many times this past summer of people joining trips to go all over the planet to serve people and bring the love of Jesus. There were/are many people who went/are going to Haiti as well.
I am so grateful for these people who are giving of their time, vacations, comfort, and money to serve the people of Haiti. I was thinking about how each person going may not think that they are doing much, but it means the world to Paul and I. YOU who are going, thank you!! YOU may be holding and loving and playing with our child/children. YOU may be painting their orphanage, giving them lovely colors to see. YOU may be feeding them, and serving them. YOU may be giving medical care to our children/child or loving and helping and caring for their birth mother. You may be helping to set up programs that help families in poverty stay together. These thoughts overtake me and my imagination can keep going with all the ways YOU make an impact.
I am so very thankful for YOU who support children financially around the world so that children can attend school and get an education. Support also helps families stay together, lessoning the financial load of a family and allowing their children the ability to learn and get free meals each day.
**THANK YOU for loving well!!**
Matthew 25:40 NIV
"The King will reply, "Truly I tell you, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers and sisters of mine, you did for me."
**If you are interested in helping in Haiti specifically check out the Hands and Feet Project and see all the amazing things they are doing to impact and serve Haiti. Such amazing things happening!!**
Tuesday, September 1, 2015
Moving Things Along
Wow, did August come and go just like that? We didn't even get a blog post written, but it was a good month of plowing through paperwork and moving closer to the goal of getting our Dossier compiled and off to Haiti. This past weekend we were able to check off the final items on our task list in order to get a homestudy visit scheduled. Hopefully later this week or next we'll hear from a social worker and get our home visit scheduled to happen here in September! While we are waiting for that, we'll try knock off a few other tasks and documents we need to collect for our placing agency in order that once the home study is completed and the report is written we'll be able to certify everything in our dossier and hopefully get it mailed off to Haiti in October!
Thanks for your continued prayer and all the kind words of encouragement; as well as asking how the process is going. Sometimes that's a hard question to answer as things are slow, and honestly not exactly exciting… but we know they are necessary and they are helping us toward the day when we'll bring that precious child(ren) home! God has blessed us immensely with loving family and friends, and by providing just what we've needed in order to pay for each fee as its been due while we've moved along in this process step by step.
Thanks for your continued prayer and all the kind words of encouragement; as well as asking how the process is going. Sometimes that's a hard question to answer as things are slow, and honestly not exactly exciting… but we know they are necessary and they are helping us toward the day when we'll bring that precious child(ren) home! God has blessed us immensely with loving family and friends, and by providing just what we've needed in order to pay for each fee as its been due while we've moved along in this process step by step.
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