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,