I find myself writing this blog with much peace.... and I am wondering why. It was announced a couple of days ago that there was going to be a HUGE change in Ethiopian adoptions. This news in itself was a huge shock because of the stable reputation Ethiopia has with the "adoption" world. The organization MOWA, who must write a letter of recommendation for every family in order to pass court (in Ethiopia) , announced plans to drastically cut the number of letters it writes each day leading to potential 90% reduction in the number of adoptions. The country could go from 4,000 yearly adoptions to less that 500 a year. This would affect ALL families waiting to adopt from the country ... making their wait times possibly go from months to years and even then it is possible the country could close all access to their children. SO that is why I am left wondering WHY I am at peace?? This process has taken our family to all different levels of panic and emotions. Most of the time because we could not fathom how we could ever raise the money to adopt.....NEVER thinking for a second that the issue would be we would not be able to bring our child home from where we felt God leading us.
With much prayer and SURRENDERING to our Lord we have had the "panic" of how we would pay lifted from us....knowing that it was ALL in HIS hands anyway. And so these last couple of weeks have been good and peaceful. We have been plugging along...believing...praying....hoping....dreaming......getting really excited to meet our Ethiopian baby. AND NOW this news hits..... and YET still there is peace in our home.
I KNOW that peace in trial only comes from God but there is a part of me that is wondering "Am I in denial???" Shouldn't I be looking into what countries ARE doing well, without turmoil???? ..Is this a sign that we are NOT supposed to adopt from Ethiopia?" But for now we remain STEADFAST in our waiting.....knowing God knew this was going to happen from the very beginning.....I fight against looking into a "plan B"..... I fight against my flesh from losing hope and being DEVASTATED....
If you happen to be reading this and are a person of prayer...I would beg you to pray for this situation in Ethiopia. Not only would it keep potential families from ever adopting the thousands of orphans in that country BUT it factually means that more in more children will die in the orphanages....the wait would be too long for many to survive. The fact is even getting a "healthy" child from there means you are getting a little one with malnourishment and delays....They truly need mommies and daddies to come and rescue them.........pray.
But for now I will continue to pray...hope...believe...and dream.... WAITING on HIM to show us what to do next. May HE receive ALL the glory in ALL that we do and may HIS will be done. I am thankful for this inexplainable peace HE has graciously put on us SO I refuse to try and make "sense" of it.... I pray that is remains as we wait for what happens next in this long journey to bring our babies home..
With much love,
Kim
Friday, March 11, 2011
Sunday, January 30, 2011
Why Bother????
As I sit down to write this next entry I wonder how many people will even ever read it...and my next thought (negative as it may be) is "why bother?' Why bother writing down my feelings and the ups and downs of this process for all the world to read....Is it really just me "airing all our laundry" for others to read? And as I sit and meditate on this, I am reminded of the MANY adoption blogs that have brought me such comfort. They have spurred me on when I felt hopeless and they have been such a wonderful blessing to our family. There is something about seeing another family, even if you don't personally know them, go through almost the exact same circumstances that make you feel you are not alone.
As I posted last time...we have started the fundraising part of this process. We still have much more to do and God has been faithful in opening doors to new ways we can creatively do this. All of it has a learning "curve" and ALL of it feels somewhat awkward to say the least. My hope is that in the end we can help assist other families in all that we have learned so that those who want to love and raise an orphan BUT cannot afford the "agency fees" will NEVER let that stop them from trying.
When God first laid adoption on our hearts our first reaction was "HOW???" It seemed to BIG and we seemed too undeserving of such a blessing. AND YET HE did not stop with the wooing..... He has called me to do many things but I can honestly say that THIS is the scariest one of all...why? because it makes NO sense to the world to do something that seems this huge without having the resources readily available.
And yet I know the Bible teaches us that it is ONLY when we let HIM do the work that HE is able to receive ALL the glory. I can assure you, that in our case ... it WILL be Him that gets all the glory.
I have imaginations of one day laying my eyes on the child my Lord has made just for our family. A little one that I am already so enthralled and in love with....one in which I would already die for. My imagination is that I will run to the highest peak or to the top of a building and just begin to shout out "Look what my Lord has done"....and begin to praise Him relentlessly without limitations on my shouts and my praises... NOT because He will give us a perfect child with no impending needs BUT because He WILL give us the perfect child for OUR family...one that was chosen before the beginning of time. One in which will have to be provided for daily by HIM..as He does with our other three. But one that WILL be cherished and loved for a lifetime.
I read in His word (James 1: 22) that it says, that when He speaks to us that we must listen and be DOERS of what we read. Only a couple verses down it reads "pure and genuine religion in the sight of God the Father means caring for orphans and widows in their distress and refusing to let the world corrupt you."
I know this certainly does NOT mean everyone is meant or supposed to adopt a child BUT it to me it does mean that IF your heart is open to bringing a child into your home and God has spoken to you about this, that you are to listen to Him and pray about what it may look like in your life. To some it may mean taking a missions trip to an orphanage, sponsoring an orphan through an organization, supporting a family who is adopting and so on....
I write all this to say to anyone who is considering taking this scripture "literally"... Please do not give up. Many things (and people) may rise up against you....it may seem at times that this is too BIG and surely it is meant for someone else but not YOU. Don't believe that...keep pursuing the ONE who is calling... Keep believing that He will finish what He has laid out before you. God does not always choose the wise of this "world" to accomplish His will. He chooses the ones that are willing to say , "yes Lord, yes..." "
As I posted last time...we have started the fundraising part of this process. We still have much more to do and God has been faithful in opening doors to new ways we can creatively do this. All of it has a learning "curve" and ALL of it feels somewhat awkward to say the least. My hope is that in the end we can help assist other families in all that we have learned so that those who want to love and raise an orphan BUT cannot afford the "agency fees" will NEVER let that stop them from trying.
When God first laid adoption on our hearts our first reaction was "HOW???" It seemed to BIG and we seemed too undeserving of such a blessing. AND YET HE did not stop with the wooing..... He has called me to do many things but I can honestly say that THIS is the scariest one of all...why? because it makes NO sense to the world to do something that seems this huge without having the resources readily available.
And yet I know the Bible teaches us that it is ONLY when we let HIM do the work that HE is able to receive ALL the glory. I can assure you, that in our case ... it WILL be Him that gets all the glory.
I have imaginations of one day laying my eyes on the child my Lord has made just for our family. A little one that I am already so enthralled and in love with....one in which I would already die for. My imagination is that I will run to the highest peak or to the top of a building and just begin to shout out "Look what my Lord has done"....and begin to praise Him relentlessly without limitations on my shouts and my praises... NOT because He will give us a perfect child with no impending needs BUT because He WILL give us the perfect child for OUR family...one that was chosen before the beginning of time. One in which will have to be provided for daily by HIM..as He does with our other three. But one that WILL be cherished and loved for a lifetime.
I read in His word (James 1: 22) that it says, that when He speaks to us that we must listen and be DOERS of what we read. Only a couple verses down it reads "pure and genuine religion in the sight of God the Father means caring for orphans and widows in their distress and refusing to let the world corrupt you."
I know this certainly does NOT mean everyone is meant or supposed to adopt a child BUT it to me it does mean that IF your heart is open to bringing a child into your home and God has spoken to you about this, that you are to listen to Him and pray about what it may look like in your life. To some it may mean taking a missions trip to an orphanage, sponsoring an orphan through an organization, supporting a family who is adopting and so on....
I write all this to say to anyone who is considering taking this scripture "literally"... Please do not give up. Many things (and people) may rise up against you....it may seem at times that this is too BIG and surely it is meant for someone else but not YOU. Don't believe that...keep pursuing the ONE who is calling... Keep believing that He will finish what He has laid out before you. God does not always choose the wise of this "world" to accomplish His will. He chooses the ones that are willing to say , "yes Lord, yes..." "
Thursday, January 20, 2011
Homestudy arrives...fundraising starts!!
We waited and waited and FINALLY our HOME STUDY has arrived!! We are NOW officially entering Phase 2 of this process. This afternoon and evening we all sat and put together packets to mail out to actually start our fundraising.....SCARY. Of course, we get everything typed, printed, stapled and put in envelopes ready to goooooooo and realize that we have a HUGE misprint! Our blog address was printed wrong on our cover letter....uggggg. So we took a deep breath, refocused and opened them all back up to fix the problem.... Going into this next phase of raising the money for the adoption is perhaps my most anxious part. In my mind, I can't even CONCEIVE of raising this much money ($37,000.00)....BUT I do truly believe that God can do the impossible so once again we step out on faith with much prayer and anticipation. One step further to bringing our children home.......
Monday, January 17, 2011
Our First Blog....
I am so excited that we FINALLY have a blog so we can share with our family and friends this next phase our family is embarking on....ADOPTION from Ethiopia!
It was about four years ago that God first laid this word upon my heart, "adoption". I am not really sure why I first started thinking about it. I have never had any issues with fertility (quite the opposite!) nor have anyone close to us ever adopted. I was very shocked at first that this thought kept coming up in my mind...so I started to seek God and pray about it. As I began to share my thoughts with Matt, I realized that he also wanted to add to our family BUT he had different thoughts.....he thought we should have another child "naturally"....like we had done before. However, he agreed to pray about it and we both let the topic fade.....but in my heart I continued to ponder the thought and my desire grew.
About a year later Matt and I took a missions trip to Uganda, Africa. It was here in Africa that Matt began to get confirmation from God that we should adopt. Not only did we fall in love with the country but our eyes were opened like never before to the poorest of people....of children.....babies without the most basic of necessities. We were sickened that it would sometimes take a child a whole DAY of travel just to get a dirty glass of water to drink. MANY lay in sickness and HURTING when back home it would have taken a small over the counter medicine to make them better.
When we returned home we began to look seriously into what we would need to do to get our adoption started and about this same time is when the economy and our business started to take a downward turn.
Everything "financially" began to fall apart...BUT because of where we had BEEN ..we could put it in perspective and know that we still had more than MOST of the world would ever have.
It was at this time when our family was seemingly losing everything that we felt in our spirit God telling us "NOW IS THE TIME"..... so walking out on faith we began this process of BRINGING OUR CHILDREN HOME.
I can't even really write what it feels like when you KNOW that you have a child somewhere else waiting on you...our family has been praying for this child(ren) and talking of them as if they ARE already a part of our lives. Even now as I type this ...I find I even feel nervous and think "Oh no, what if it doesn't happen?".... BUT 99% of the time my faith is greater than my doubts and I anxiously await all God has planned for our family...Now family of 5....SOON to be family of 7!!!
It was about four years ago that God first laid this word upon my heart, "adoption". I am not really sure why I first started thinking about it. I have never had any issues with fertility (quite the opposite!) nor have anyone close to us ever adopted. I was very shocked at first that this thought kept coming up in my mind...so I started to seek God and pray about it. As I began to share my thoughts with Matt, I realized that he also wanted to add to our family BUT he had different thoughts.....he thought we should have another child "naturally"....like we had done before. However, he agreed to pray about it and we both let the topic fade.....but in my heart I continued to ponder the thought and my desire grew.
About a year later Matt and I took a missions trip to Uganda, Africa. It was here in Africa that Matt began to get confirmation from God that we should adopt. Not only did we fall in love with the country but our eyes were opened like never before to the poorest of people....of children.....babies without the most basic of necessities. We were sickened that it would sometimes take a child a whole DAY of travel just to get a dirty glass of water to drink. MANY lay in sickness and HURTING when back home it would have taken a small over the counter medicine to make them better.
When we returned home we began to look seriously into what we would need to do to get our adoption started and about this same time is when the economy and our business started to take a downward turn.
Everything "financially" began to fall apart...BUT because of where we had BEEN ..we could put it in perspective and know that we still had more than MOST of the world would ever have.
It was at this time when our family was seemingly losing everything that we felt in our spirit God telling us "NOW IS THE TIME"..... so walking out on faith we began this process of BRINGING OUR CHILDREN HOME.
I can't even really write what it feels like when you KNOW that you have a child somewhere else waiting on you...our family has been praying for this child(ren) and talking of them as if they ARE already a part of our lives. Even now as I type this ...I find I even feel nervous and think "Oh no, what if it doesn't happen?".... BUT 99% of the time my faith is greater than my doubts and I anxiously await all God has planned for our family...Now family of 5....SOON to be family of 7!!!
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