Defend the Cause of the Weak and Fatherless

We are hoping to have some exciting news regarding our adoption process later this week! We hope to be moving forward (finally) in some of our paperwork steps! Check back soon and we will share as soon as we can!

While we wait I wanted to share with you a bit of what I am processing in this season of my life. I am re-reading the book "The Hole in our Gospel" by Richard Stearns. If you have not read this book- please get a copy today and read it. As I read it a second time I am more convinced and convicted regarding our call as believers to live more radical, compassionate, and justice focused lives. 

The book this week references Ezekiel 16:49:

"Now this was the sin of your sister Sodom: She and her daughters were arrogant, overfed, and unconcerned; they did not help the poor and needy."

Most of you reading this have some ideas that come to mind when we hear of the ancient cities of Sodom and Gomorrah. It has been taught in churches and referenced in culture. Most of us think of grievous sexual sin, and while that is true, read again what God says is the sin of that wicked nation. They were arrogant, overfed, and unconcerned. They did not help the poor and needy. A city known for it's wickedness and the destruction that came as a result is a city that is arrogant, overfed, and unconcerned, and they did not care for the poor or needy. 

As I read these words thousands of years later I am haunted by the truth they speak of the very country I call my own. But more than speak to this country, I tremble at how truthfully they speak of the Church in America. Us. We- who call ourselves followers of Jesus. Me. 

The "Hole in the Gospel" argues that the Church in America has reduced the Gospel- the Good News of Jesus Christ- to a sort of "fire insurance". We have taken this message with words only. We have taken it to people with eternity only in mind while ignoring (or at least disregarding) their current state of suffering and despair. We have failed to live the "Whole" Gospel as Jesus did. Proclaiming a truth that has the power to redeem this entire world order. This "Whole Gospel" has always been meant to save people for eternity and redeem their circumstances right here and now. Jesus' life on earth demonstrates this with every healing, with every move of justice, and with the compassion he demonstrated for hurting people. 

I believe the church has (along with reducing the Gospel to "fire insurance") become complacent and has increasingly believed the lies of this world and subtly and slowly started to blur the lines between people of faith and the world surrounding us. We have been numbed to the pain of the world and told lies concerning our responsibility in it. Generations have been brought up believing the lies of the American Dream. And generations of church-going people have been told that this is also for them. Generations of church-going people have been taught politics and religion as if they are one in the same, as if America and it's values and concerns are and should be the primary concerns of the people of God. 

"The first Reformation..... was about creeds; this one's going to be about deeds."

~ Rick Warren

As I read this book for the second time I am more convinced that God is calling his people to repentance and action. The words of the prophet Ezekiel should cut to our hearts. Arrogant. Overfed. Unconcerned. 

Arrogant.

Overfed.

Unconcerned.

Church- we need to repent. We need to ask God to show us our arrogance, our indulgence, and our lack of concern. We need to ask for mercy and forgiveness and we need to ask him to begin to break our hearts with the things that break his. 

I am no longer content to go about life acting as if the world isn't hurting. As if I can't do something. As if my petty discomforts take precedent over the lost, hurting, and dying in this world. What Jesus calls us to is radical. Following him means sacrifice, compassion, justice, and surrender. 

I have recently been led to learn more about a country in Africa called the Democratic Republic of the Congo. It is a dark and horribly violent country. People are being killed, raped, and tortured by a number of rebel groups from within their own country and from surrounding countries. 6 million people have been violently slaughtered since 1996. Countless more women and children raped and abused. The US government has known and effectively done nothing. The UN has known and done nothing. The world knows now and is doing nothing. I watched a 26 minute video yesterday detailing the DRC's situation. It was very difficult to watch. I wanted to turn it off continuously through the 26 minutes. I wanted to walk away and pretend I had never seen it. But then I remembered that real people are living this horror right now. Real parents watch (or have watched) their children murdered in front of them. Real children have watched their mothers raped in front of them. Real families live in fear of this right now. I had to sit in air conditioned safe home and watch 26 minutes of the lives of other people- real people. 

And I was broken. It was far from comfortable. But I had asked God to begin to break my heart with the things that break his. I had asked him to break my complacency. And he is doing that.

Because I believe that God is compassionate, he is just,  and he loves deeply every soul suffering in the hell of the DRC. I believe in the room lined with orphan babies- silent because they have learned in the first months of their life that crying gains nothing- he is there.  His heart aches. I believe he sees the injustice and hears the cries of his people. And I also believe he has purposed and called his people to be his hands and feet. He has called us to:

"Defend the cause of the weak and fatherless; maintain the rights of the poor and oppressed. Rescue the weak and the needy; deliver them from the hand of the wicked."

Psalm 82:3,4

As the 26 minutes came to a close I felt overwhelmed. What could I possibly do in the face of such widespread violence in a country across the world? I am still (and will continue) to seek answers to that question. I do believe that each of us can do something. 

The DRC is one example of suffering and pain in this world. One place where the Gospel of hope can bring life and power and can turn upside down the current order of things. But the world is full of this need. It is full of pain, suffering, and injustice. 

I believe that the church in America (with all of it's resources and influence) can be and must be a part of God redeeming work in this world. I believe God is calling the church to a reformation. But this reformation must begin with individual followers of Jesus.

Each of us must ask God to "break our hearts with the things that break his."

And then ask him "What are you calling me to?"

Here is the video I watched yesterday. This video is not for children as it describes extreme violence and shows the devastating effects of it. 

Will you pray for miracles?

Hi friends. We are getting closer. Our paperwork is slowly and I mean s.l.o.w.l.y. coming to the end. We are waiting for our final homestudy draft. Our social worker has emailed twice this week with 2 different drafts. She told us yesterday that she hopes for the final one to be complete today! (for those of you where this is just a bunch of adoption lingo all blurring together- the written home study is a 18-20 page report on our family after the visits our social had with us and reviewing a bunch of paperwork we turned in) If it is completed today she will email a copy to our Adoption Agency in Michigan. They will review it and if satisfactory they give our social worker (here in Minnesota) the green light to mail us a notarized official copy!

As soon as that is in our hands we mail out our USCIS packet to the U.S. Government!

Would you pray today?

Would you pray for speed.

Pray that we would not need any revisions.

Pray for our social worker here in Minnesota and our agency in Michigan.

Pray for us that we can have all documented paperwork correct and ready for the second our home study is in our hands.

Today I will be putting together all of the paperwork I have had ready for months. I will be calling our agency to make sure everything is as it should be with what I have done. I will be getting a mailer and addressing it to the government office where it will be sent.

Sophie asks me pretty regularly if I am praying for a miracle. I guess I do pray for miracles pretty regularly. Today I ask you all to keep praying for miracles in this adoption process.

I have prayed from the beginning of this whole process that we would be done with our paperwork by the end of September.

I am still praying this.

But it would be a miracle.

Thankfully I know the God of all Creation - who daily works miracles. Every step of this process as been nothing short of miraculous.

After the USCIS paperwork goes out (praying by early next week!) then we will have 2 of our 3 main steps in our paperchase done!

After we get our approval from the U.S. government we can send off our Ethiopian Dossier!

Then we can breathe.

Then we can wait.

Thank you friends for joining us on this journey. Thank you for praying us through this and for coming alongside of us in so many ways.

We are grateful.

As I type this Levi is talking to Dan about "when his babies come home".....

my heart is full of anticipation.

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!