You Have Called Us Higher

(Before you listen to this song you will need to pause the music player at the very top of the blog.)

The Lord is a God of Justice

"For the Lord is a God of justice. Blessed are those who wait for him!"

Isaiah 30:18

There are a few phases of the adoption process. The first is the paper chase. I have spoken of the details here before. It is a laborious and tedious part of the process. We are in this process now. The second phase is a waiting phase. After all of your paperwork is submitted and sent to the appropriate officials both here and in Ethiopia we go on a wait list with other families who are being matched by our adoption agency. During this phase you wait. You can still fund raise and pray and prepare in some ways but as far as the logistical work of the adoption process you are waiting. Waiting for a referral, where you will see your child's precious face and then waiting to go meet them and then waiting again to bring them home forever! 

We are in the final stages (hopefully) of the paper chase. We have been gathering documents, filling our paperwork, and meeting with social workers for the past 3 months. As I have mentioned before the three main things we are working on are:

1. Homestudy 

2. USCIS (US Government packet)

3. Ethiopian Dossier 

We have done everything we can for the home study and are now waiting on our social worker to essentially write up the official document. This is an 18-20 page report detailing everything she learned about our family and making determining if we are fit to adopt. 

We cannot send in the USCIS packet without the home study. 

We cannot send in the Ethiopian Dossier without the home study and US approval. 

So, we wait. 

We wait with an unseen burden of work undone resting on our shoulders. I feel this burden probably most in our family. I have paperwork that needs finalized and notarized. I have steps to take to send in certain documents and wait on others. I have State Seals to get and confirmations to receive. 

We wait with the burden of our sweet children (mainly Levi) asking each day, many times a day, "When are our brother and sister going to get here?" "When is 'next year'?" "Can we buy that for our new babies?" "When our babies get here- they can sit 'here' and 'here'." And our answer continually being "I don't know sweet heart." "I hope soon" 

We wait with the burden of 2 of our children somewhere else. Maybe born. Maybe in another mother's womb. We wait wondering, "Are they okay?" "Are they safe?" "Are they being shown love?" We wait praying for faces and hearts not yet known to us. We wait with urgency for our children to be "orphans no more". 

As my mind ponders these things. As I bear the burden of these things my gracious and compassionate God speaks promises to me. He reminds me of truths I know and truths that I can cling to and rest in.

"Praise be to the Lord, to God our Savior, who daily bears our burdens."

Psalm 68:19

"Surely the arm of the Lord is not too short to save, nor his ears too dull to hear."

Isaiah 59:1

"Yet the Lord longs to be gracious to you; he rises to show you compassion. For the Lord is a God of justice. Blessed are all who wait for him!"

Isaiah 30:18

For the Lord is a God of justice. He has shown us over and over again his heart for and defense of the fatherless in this world. He has called us to join him, in his work, of defending the cause of the fatherless and making orphans sons and daughters. It is HIS work. His plans will stand. He is a God of justice. Who is working even when I sleep and who is moved by the cry of all forgotten and oppressed and he is even moved by me in my impatience and small burdens. 

So I wait on him. So I trust in his purpose and his plan. I believe in his love for, his compassion for our children. I believe he is working all things together for their good. 

Prayer Requests:

1. Will you pray for our home study to be done and in our hands this week?

2. Will you pray that we can be done with our paperwork by the end of September?

3. Will you pray that each step would be uncomplicated and fast?

Children Across the World

My sister's facebook status this morning said this:

Praying for my future nieces and/or nephews in Ethiopia today!

And it included this picture:

So many thoughts come to mind when I see this picture and when I read her status. First, I love my sister! Second, I hope others who have bought these bracelets are praying too when they look at their wrists- praying for the man or woman who made the bracelet in Haiti and praying for our children in Ethiopia, their birth parents, and us as we navigate through this journey to adoption. 

But mostly when see the status and the picture it is a reminder of a real people and difficult circumstances somewhere across the globe. In the craziness of this adoption process and the other daily distractions in our lives it is easy to lose sight of this reality: we either have now, or will have soon children that we do not yet know living apart from us in another part of this world. Children that will one day be deeply known to us, children we will one day cuddle and read books to at night, children we may teach to walk, children we will pick up when they fall and laugh at the funny things they will say. 

If our children are not yet born their birth parents are and living today. They could be facing deeply painful circumstances and decisions at this moment. Adoption is born out of tragedy. Orphans are not God's plan they are one of the many devastating results of a fallen and broken world. So, I feel it is safe to assume our children's first parents are facing painful and hard things. 

It is a helpless feeling to think that I have children somewhere else in the world facing hard things. The pain they possibly are facing losing their first parents is heartbreaking to me as I sit across the world unable to comfort or help. 

The only thing I can do is pray, because while I do not know what my children or their birth parents are  going through- my God does. They are deeply known and cared for by him. 

We are learning so much about trust as we walk through this. We are trusting the Lord for his provision financially, for strength, and we are trusting him to care for our children in Ethiopia. 

So, we pray and we ask that you would join us in praying for our children and their birth parents. Pray that they would be safe and protected, pray that they would be loved and nurtured. Pray for their birth parents- that they would know the Lord and feel peace even in their hardest moments. And maybe pray for us- that we would be brought to our children soon and continue to have what we need persevere and finish the race! 

"Listen to me, O House of Jacob, all you who remain of the house of Israel, you whom I have upheld since you were conceived, and have carried since your birth. Even to your old age and gray hairs I am he, I am he who will sustain you. I have made you and I will carry you; I will sustain you and I will rescue you."

Isaiah 46:3, 4

Depraved Indifference

We first watched this video clip a few years ago. It left a lasting impression on us and challenged us in many ways. Take a minute to watch for yourself. Be sure to push the pause button on the music bar at the top of the blog before you push play on the video. :-)

Music on our Blog

Hi friends! You have probably noticed by now that we have added music to the blog! I have created a play list of songs that have been encouraging to us as we have followed God in this adoption journey! The controls for the songs are along the top of the blog. You can pause it at anytime if the music is distracting while you read. If you would like to see and hear the other songs you can skip forward to the next song at anytime from that same tool bar along the top. If you would like to see the full play list push the little square with the lines in it to the left side of the tool bar along the top and you can see the entire play list. Enjoy!