The waiting game in adoption

I love what Sear Frost wrote over on her blog today, it was exactly what I needed to hear so I thought I'd share it. I'm always encouraged by what I read on other adoptive mama blogs, I also LOVE Jen Hatmaker, that woman is amazing.

"This is why Jen Hatmaker is incredible. Love her. Check her out here

On Waiting in Adoption:

"Forget whatever timeline you were given at the beginning. Forget you ever heard that. Put that in the trash can. Adoption will change, shift, slow down, hit snags, be weird, be difficult, take longer than you think, take longer than you can stand. This will happen. When someone gives you a timeline, say

 "Thank you for that cute little sentence. Flush."

Potential adopters, let me tell you this: Get your "YES" straight at the very beginning. Decide on it. Roll around on it. Put it on the table and shellack it. Because you cannot let every delay and snag derail your certainty about adoption. When you say YES, you are saying YES to enter into the suffering of the orphan, and that suffering includes WAITING FOR YOU TO GET TO THEM. I promise you, their suffering is worse than yours. We say YES to the tears, YES to the longing, YES to the maddening process. YES to the money, YES to hope, YES to the screaming frustration of it all, YES to going the distance through every unforeseen discouragement and delay. Do not imagine that something outside of "your perfect plan" means you heard God wrong. There is NO perfect adoption. EVERY adoption has snags. We Americans invented the "show me a sign" or "this is a sign" or "this must mean that God is closing the door" or "God must not be in this because it's hard" but all that is garbage. You know what's hard? Being an orphan. They need us to be champions and heroes for them, fighting like heck to get them home. So we will. We may cry and rage and scream and wail in the process, but get them home we will."

Mothers Day

Mother's Day is quickly approaching

 and our friend Rachel Wurzbach of 

Rachel Wurzbach Photography 

has generously offered to host a fundraiser in honor of our adoption. Book a photo session during the month of May, and sitting fee payment proceeds will go to our adoption fund. Such a sweet and amazing gift. Rachel is an amazing photographer and also has a wonderful heart, so if you're looking for some family photos, check her out! 

Thank you Rachel!!!

Photo courtesy of the wonderful Rachel Wurzbach 

Goodness Gracious!

It's already Thursday and we're over halfway through our week with Give1Save1. 

So far you've helped us raise $794.00! 

That's almost $800, and our week isn't even over yet!

Thank you so much to everyone who's shared our link and story so far

You are forever a part of our little family. 

But wait, there's still a few more days!

Thanks for continuing to share, 

we can't wait to tell our little guy everyone who played a part in his story. 

 

  

God is faithful

My my my, this about sums up how we feel as of right now. 

God is faithful, and He's still good! 

You go girl!

Because Daddies need to share too!

Justin was asked to write a guest post about our week on Give1Save1 for Josh Griffin's blog, 

Morethandodgeball

Josh Griffin is the youth pastor for Saddleback Church in Southern California

They have an awesome orphan care ministry and are doing great things for Jesus.

Check out what Justin has to say about becoming a daddy, in a kind of unconventional way. 

Morethandodgeball

Mexico..

As some of you probably know, we took a group of our high school students on a short term missions trip to Tijuana, Mexico over spring break a few weeks ago. 

Thanks to everyone who prayed for our safety and time in Tijuana

Many eyes were opened

Relationships were built

Love was shared

This trip was a bit different than trips done in the past, it was a lot more relational-which was awesome.

We were able to visit 3 orphanages

Built onto a house that will provide shelter for three families (and we got to meet one of them!)

The boys were able to go into the Juvenile hall (which is called the Semi) and hang out with some of the boys who call the Semi home 

We shared meals together, laughed together and shared Jesus together. 

Here's just a snapshot:
(sorry it's a little blurry)

Give1Save1!!!

Tomorrow we head to USCIS and get fingerprinted, it's the last thing that we have to check off our paperwork list; once we get our letter back from USCIS, we will send our dossier to Ethiopia and can officially be a waiting family! We "officially" started this journey back in the end of November, and it has been amazing how God has broke us, changed us, blessed us and opened our eyes more throughout these last 5-6 months.  


We have the amazing opportunity to be the featured family on Give1Save1 this week.  I found about about Give1Save1 a while back and was so amazed at how these women just basically started a place where all you do is get adoption out there, share peoples stories and donate just $1 (or more). That's all, donate $1 help to bring a child home. I love it, and I love the community that has been formed through it.  Below is just a little of our story, stop on over to 

Give1Save1

Check it out,

Please share it with your friends

Hear some more of our story. 

Justin and I had been trying to get pregnant for a while, when my mom asked me "Do you think you're not able to get pregnant right now because God wants you to adopt?" It's funny because by that time, God had began to tug at my heart for adoption-I had no idea what to do with that call at that time, but I knew I needed to begin to pray for Justin's heart-that it would be softened towards adoption as well, as so I did. For a long time.  About a year before we "officially" began the process, we read over various countries statistics, criteria, needs, ect. I was shocked at what I was reading and learning-much of which kept me up at night in a panic knowing what was happening in our world.  God was beginning to soften and open my heart to caring for the orphans and the widows.

"Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself from being polluted by the world."

-James 1:27  

It's amazing how even the little things bring me happiness now, turning on the faucet to get some water (which much of the world can't do) having 3 (plus more at times) meals at day, not having to walk miles and miles just to GET water.  

I am so thankful that when my mom asked me that question, I was willing to listen, I would encourage that if you ever even thought about adoption or foster care, that you listen to those thoughts, you're not having them just because, 

maybe your life is about to be wrecked too, 

in an amazing way. 

We love you all so much! Thank you for being a part of our families story. 

"Once our eyes are opened, we can't pretend we don't know what to do. God, who weighs our hearts and keeps our souls, knows what we know, and holds us responsible to act." 

Proverbs. 24:12