Elections Today, PRAY!

The elections in the Democratic Republic of Congo are taking place today. Please PRAY for peaceful elections and peace and respect when the results of the election are announced on December 6th.

Pray for the safety and protection of baby R and all orphans and innocent people now and for the coming weeks and months.

And please pray with us that God would grant us a referral for a little girl this week!! We have seen Him answer many prayers in our friends lives lately, and know that He hears the prayers of believers. We pray that He would be glorified in placing a little girl in our family this week so you can praise the Lord with us!!

Praying for our Daughter & Elections

Will you take a minute right now to PRAY with us for our daughter and son? Will you PRAY that God would grant us a referral for our little girl very, very soon? We have had our referral for baby R for 3 months now, and have been waiting to be matched with a little girl "any day." Please PRAY that that day would be SOON, even this week!

We know that God is the one who gave us this desire to rescue orphans,to adopt a boy and a girl, and we are trusting that His timing is perfect, even when it's taking way longer than we could've anticipated.

Also, please PRAY with us for the upcoming Presidential election in the DRC. Please pray for peaceful elections in this war-torn, newly democratic country. (I believe this is only their 2nd democratic election!) And pray that whomever is elected will be supportive of adoption and not hinder orphans being rescued.
You can read a little more about the elections in Congo here.

a long, hard road

Man, I have been overwhelmed today with the long, hard road that so many families we know are on right now in their effort to rescue and care for orphans.

I will share more about that in a minute, but first I want to remind myself of something. We are now 10 months into our journey. It has been longer and harder than we had planned, and it is far from over. But my God is the God that created the universe and everything in it. And He is in control. He is sovereign over all things. We found out this week, after reading over a translation of baby R's Abandonment decree, that we had read his birthday wrong! (We forgot that the French switch the day & month around when writing out the date.) Well, we actually found out that it wasn't even his birthday, it is just the day that he was found in the market. The day that the orphanage caregivers knew that he even existed. And while it kind of breaks my heart because I feel like I just lost 2 months with this little guy, whom I pray will one day soon be my son, it is okay because God already knew. So our sweet baby R is not 7 months old like we thought, but 9 months old. Just 3 months away from his 1st birthday, which I was really hoping he would get to spend with us. I just wonder how old he was when he was found in that market. How many days or weeks did he spend with his birthmom? But I will probably never know the answers to those questions. But these are small things in light of all the other things going on right now.

If you know Jesus as your Savior will you please pray with us for our adoption and some of our friends and acquaintances?
Will you PRAY for our friends Justin and Bonnie who have been persevering on this crazy rollercoaster of adoption even longer than us? Will you pray that the Lord would give them strength and faith to endure the rest of their journey & that He would MOVE on behalf of orphans in Ethiopia, especially their son and daughter, so that they can come home to their Christ-centered forever family very soon?

Will you PRAY with us for another family we know adopting from the DRC whose baby has died before they could bring him home? We know this pain of losing a child you had never met face to face but already loved more than words can describe. Please pray that God would comfort them, and give them a peace that surpasses understanding (Phil 4) as they mourn the loss of their baby boy. Please also pray that God would give them strength to persevere in the midst of their pain, as they have a referral for another little boy as well. And while you're praying, please PRAY that God would heal this little guy, who is currently in the hospital.

Will you PRAY with us for all families who are adopting, that God would give them (us) the patience, strength, and perseverance that He promises to provide through His spirit (Gal 5:22) to all who believe in Christ alone for salvation? Will you pray that we would bring glory to God in the midst of the trials we face during the process of rescuing orphans and that more Christians eyes & hearts would be opened to the 147 million orphaned children around the world? And would pray for us to not grow weary and to remember that any suffering that we go through during the process to adopt is WORTH IT to save the life of a child made in the image of God? And these sufferings are little compared to what orphans worldwide go through every single day.

Thank you for crying out to the Lord with us. He is our Creator. Our Redeemer. The King of kings.
"And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose. ²⁹For those whom he foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, in order that he might be the firstborn among many brothers. ³⁰And those whom he predestined he also called, and those whom he called he also justified, and those whom he justified he also glorified." Romans 8: 28-30

I don't know exactly what God's plans are for our family. But I trust that they are for our good and his glory. This is the post I wrote just 5 days after baby R was found in the market last February... at that point we still thought we were adopting from Ethiopia. God has opened and closed many doors since then and we are confident that He has directed our paths to where we are now, so we are trusting in Him in the midst of all the crazy twists and turns!


Clinging to Christ,

An Actual UPDATE!

This, unlike many of our posts in the last 9 weeks, is an ACTUAL, REAL UPDATE with actual, real progress that we are PRAISING GOD FOR!!

Our agency has received a copy of baby R's Abandonment decree!

Here's what happens next (as I (hopefully) understand it):
1. Abandonment decree
2. DRC government will wait 30 days to see if any family member surface and protest the decree that baby R is an abandoned, orphaned child.
3. After these 30 days are over, they will issue a "Non-appeal certificate"! {To my understanding, after this point we are free & clear to adopt him!}
4. There is a 2 week waiting period, and then a birth certificate will be issued (I'm thinking/hoping our names will be listed as his PARENTS!)
5. Wait for a court date to OFFICIALLY ADOPT him!
6. After baby R is officially our son, we just wait for an Embassy date to go to DRC &  bring him home.

While we are excited to be moving forward and making progress toward baby R being our son, it is also saddening. We learned a little bit more of his story. He was abandoned in a market, someone found him and took pity on him and tried to find his parents, but no one knew anything about him, so the kind stranger took him to an orphanage. I wish I knew the reason his birth mom abandoned him and left him there. Could she not afford to feed and care for him? Whatever it is, I'm thankful that she chose to let him live and left him in a place where he was sure to be found. I'm praying for her today, wherever she is, if she is even still alive. I'm sure her story is filled with much suffering. I pray that she would know Jesus as her Savior.

We are so sad for all the suffering that orphans worldwide go through every day, but we are thankful that the Lord has led us to this little guy. We have been and will continue to PRAY that nothing would prevent us from being able to adopt him and bring him home to be part of our family forever. It has been a long 10 months in this adoption process, but I pray daily that God would give me faith to believe that He will help us rescue orphans, and that He will help us adopt and bring them home to our family forever. I know that He is the one who called us to do this, so I am trusting in His plans for our family and our adoption story.

Thank you for everyone who is praying with us! We know God hears the prayers of believers! Please pray that we would get a referral for our little girl very soon!

"Father of the fatherless and protector of widows is God in his holy habitation.
God settles the solitary in a home." Psalm 68: 5-6

PS- Don't forget to wear an ADOPTION SHIRT to church this SUNDAY in honor of Orphan Sunday.