lots going on around here!

I can't believe I haven't updated the blog in weeks... although it is somewhat understandable with all that's been going on around here! But I don't want to forget any of it, so here it comes all at once...

Here's quick rundown of the past couple of weeks (bullet style):
- Our KIDS adoption shirts came in! Yay! Praise God for another way He is providing the finances for our adoption! And the shirts turned out really CUTE! See Big Brother modeling below:

- Two members of our agency traveled to the DRC to visit all the kids and meet our attorney, etc the first week of March.

- During that trip we were waiting expectantly for email with some kind of update on Baby R and baby sister including new pictures.

- On Sunday, March 4 we finally got several emails of pictures of baby girl... only it wasn't baby girl. We quickly realized that the adorable little girl in the pictures was NOT the same little girl we'd been staring at and praying for this past month. {here's where my heart sank.} We quickly emailed back with a picture of our "baby girl" and pointed out the differences. Finally they agreed- this was not the same child. They said they were "working on the situation." Those 24+ hours of uncertainty I admit I struggled against fearfulness. What exactly is "the situation"? Where is our baby girl? Could they not find her @ her orphanage because she is dead? Were we emailed pictures of the wrong little girl a month ago and this little one is the real baby girl who's had her medical, etc? What is going to happen if they can't find our baby girl? When will our kids finally be home with their family?? Oh, how we prayed. We prayed and prayed for the Lord to have MERCY on us and let this NOT be a big deal. Let it be something small.

- And HE HEARD OUR CRIES: we were emailed pictures of our original baby girl and told that she is the correct child that we have paperwork for! They found her! (Although we still don't know where exactly.) She is ALIVE and we PRAISED THE LORD! ssshhhew- crisis averted. Thank you Almighty God!
- A day or 2 after our agency had gotten back to the US, we were still trying very hard to wait for pictures of baby R. We knew they were recovering from jetlag and thought of this as an exercise in patience. But we were VERY saddened to hear that no pictures were coming- they did not see baby R during their week in the DRC.
- We understand that the circumstances were somewhat out of their control, but we are still deeply saddened that we haven't seen or heard ANYTHING about him in 7 months. Please PRAY with us that our in-country aide would go see baby R THIS WEEK and take pictures of him so we can see that he is ok. After all we've been through in the last year (losing a referral for our baby boy, baby Leseli passing away @ 9 months old, baby R having malaria a week after we got his referral, etc, etc) we obviously are concerned for baby R's life and well-being. The only pictures we have of baby R are from when he was 6 months old (and he's asleep in every one).... he is now 13 months old.

baby R's sweet sleepy eyes (@ around 6 months old)

- Will you pray with us, plead with the Lord on our behalf, that He would let us pass court for both of our children very, very soon? We've been "in phase 1 (of 2) of adoption court" for baby R for 3+ weeks now and have heard no progress yet. We should be starting phase 1 for baby girl any day now (we got her birth certificate on 3/14).
- We are also bolding asking the Lord to let us bring our children home in May. Will you join us in asking our Father for this good gift? And that He would uphold and protect them every day until they can be united with their forever family! We realize this would be a miracle. But we also know that our God is not small and nothing is impossible for Him. So we PRAY and wait expectantly on the Lord to act!
Trusting in our Sovereign God,

A message from your big brother

Baby brother and baby sister, we have a message from your big brother, Jonah, to share with you today:


{You can watch it on Youtube @ http://youtu.be/kdMGJYxgIo8 }


Jonah is also excited to announce our newest FUNDRAISER below:

Please PRAY with us for 2 members of our agency who arrived in the DRC yesterday!!! Pray for their safety and protection and for a very productive trip! Pray they would get to see ALL of the children referred to families and get plenty of pictures and video. And pray with us that all the children, including our son & daughter, would  be united with their forever families SOON!

In Christ,

Care Packages for our kiddos

We have the opportunity to send care packages (again) to our children!

Only the children we are sending them to are different. It makes me sad remembering that the last time we sent care packages they were for our little girl Leseli Joyce and a baby boy (we had lost our referral for our 6 month old lil boy and we were waiting for a new referral). God's grace has carried us through these last six months. While we may never fully understand them, we do trust in God's plans for our family, and that right now He is leading us to baby R and baby girl in His sovereignty. 

We are filled with hope that these care packages will arrive in the hands of our children at the end of this month. We are so thankful that two people from our agency are going to see them and are kind enough to let us send a little something to them. It is something tangible to tell them "WE LOVE YOU!" until we can get there and tell them in person.

{I honestly stressed way more about what to put in the bags the first time. And they didn't make it to our children. The exact whereabouts of our first 2 care packages are not really known at this time, so we sent these. But I am still hoping that they will find the other 2 and both will make it to our children. We shall see. Either way, it's nice to send donations to an orphange in the DRC. This time we sent a photo book/frame, clothes, shoes for baby R since he's 1, socks, bottles and cloth diapers for baby girl, and small toys/books.}

Picture frame for baby girl

While we don't know much about baby R, we do know that his caregiver speaks French, so we tried to make his photo book bi-lingual so she can read it to him. =)

The most exciting part of these care packages to me is that they will be HAND-DELIVERED by our agency!! They will get to SEE our children, check on them for us, and they said they will try to take PICTURES and even VIDEO for us!! Do you know that we only have a couple pictures of baby R from 6 months ago and that he is ASLEEP in every single one? I cannot wait to see my baby boy and how he has grown, although I'm sure it will make my heart somewhat sad realizing all that I've missed with him in the last six months of his life. We got to include a sheet of questions for their caregivers and I can't wait to hear what they say! (I think they're going to videotape their answers.) We are so thirsty for ANY information on our children since we have so little. I am trying to still my heart and pray without ceasing for our children, trusting that they will be home with us in God's timing. But I sure am excited to see new pictures of their beautiful faces!!!!


Love from their adoring Mommy,

Mother- Son Roadtrip!

Jonah and mommy took a roadtrip to our state Capitol on Wednesday to get our child-specific documents authenticated! It's only about an hour from our home so we thought it was well worth the drive in order to speed up the paperwork process. {Otherwise we could've mailed it in and waited for it to come back. But who knows how long that would take? We have been in the process to adopt for a year now, so I'm happy to do anything I can to keep the process moving along smoothly.} So we hopped in our car and made a fun little day of it!

OUR DOCUMENTS ARE AUTHENTICATED!! YAYY!!!
{Sorry, this picture is refusing to upload correctly.}

We even got to stop by and visit with some of our dear friends who live nearby!

Jonah and his buddy, Emma, sharing a snack.

Friends. Snack buddies. Future husband and wife? We shall see...
They would make some cute blonde-haired, blue-eyed kids. =)
And we would absolutely LOVE to have her parents as part of our family!

Next Step: We are mailing our documents off to a courier in the D.C. area today! (Which costs about $580.)

And we (Jon and I) are scheduled to get about 9 shots each next week. (YIKES!!!) Not only do I hate needles, I hate that the yellow fever shot alone is around $150-200! I am happy to get the recommended shots, I just hate how expensive they are and that our good insurance still doesn't cover them. Ahhhh well, I need to remind myself that the Lord has continued to provide for us and somehow we will pay for all these crazy shots. (I'll give you the rundown next week, incase any other DRC adoptive families behind us in the process are reading this & want to know all the shots that are recommended before you travel.)

Happily Authenticated and waiting for baby girl's abandonment decree & birth certificate,

New President and lots of Praises!

First off, the winner of the 2nd Presidential election in the Democratic Republic of Congo was finally announced today: Joseph Kibala, the current president, was re-elected by a majority of the vote. However, please keeping PRAYING for the DRC, because the opposition leader who ran against him is rejecting the results and has declared himself as president, according to the BBC.  This has a lot of people worried about violent protests. Your prayers for peace & God's protection of the innocent are much appreciated!!

In other news, we have been PRAISING THE LORD this past week or two for so much answered prayer in lives of our brothers and sisters in Christ!

*We're praising God with our friends Weyland and Katie who've been waiting years for their 2nd domestic adoption, and they are at this moment on their way HOME with a baby boy! They had around 17 birth mothers look at their profile and then change their mind and not pick them to adopt their baby. Heartbreaking. But our entire church family at Immanuel has been crying out to God on their behalf and He has answered in His timing! He has given them a son!

*We're praising God with another couple from our church who are currently in Ethiopia with their kiddos, hoping to bring their children home by Christmas. We are PRAYING God would do it and work out every single detail for His glory!

* We're praising God with our friends, April and Everett, who are in Ukraine right now hoping to rescue 3 precious children!! We're praising God for the way He has worked out the details so far and that they were able to meet their 2 boys just the other day!! (You can read April's super sweet post here.)

* We are also Praising God for the encouraging posts we've been reading on David Platt's (author of Radical) blog! We are rejoicing in their beautiful story of adopting a little girl from China! Their story and the pictures make me so excited for the day that we get to go to DRC to bring our children home!

We also have gotten little tidbits of information lately that help us know how to PRAY for our adoption more specifically. So if you are out their pleading with God on our behalf, (we are SO thankful for you) here is how you can be praying right now:
1. Pray that God would grant us a referral for a little girl before we get baby R's birth certificate!!!
(Our attorney is changing the way he's doing referrals slightly,so that he isn't giving a child as a referral until he has their abandonment decree in hand. This is probably wise, and will be better for families coming after us. So when we get a referral for our little girl she will already have her abandonment decree & we can hopefully get her birth certificate in time for court.)
2. Pray for continued protection of baby R and our little girl from harm, disease, neglect and hunger. And pray that we could bring them home soon! We're hoping by some time in the spring to be home as a family of 5. =)

"The Lord is righteous in all his ways
 and kind in all his works.
The Lord is near to all who call on him
to all who call on him in truth.
He fulfills the desire of those who fear him;
he also hears their cry and saves them.
The Lord preserves all who love him,
but all the wicked he will destroy."
Psalm 145:18-20

Calling on the Lord,

Pray for DRC Election results!

Please continue to pray with us for the DRC, that there would be peace throughout the country as the election results are supposed to be announced today.

According to this article by BBC news, about 3,000 people fled Kinshasa (the capital city) over the weekend in fear of violence and rioting once the results are announced.

Please remember the 4 million innocent orphans in this country as you pray, that God would protect them from harm, especially our baby R and all the other children matched with families!

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.

baby steps

We have taken one baby step closer to bringing our children home! Last Friday we mailed all but 2 of our notarized "child specific" documents to our agency to complete our dossier! We are waiting to send the last 2 until we find out if we are getting our referral for our baby boy this week. (!!!!!)

Some exciting news...
We did get to chat with our director Sue last night online. She will be arriving in Congo TODAY!!!! Please pray with us that she & her daughter would have a safe, productive trip! She said she will try to email us any new pictures of our soon-to-be daughter while she is there!! {We weren't expecting any until she gets back this coming weekend, so that pretty much makes my heart soar!} I cannot wait to see more pictures of her! It is strange that in the first 24 hours after our son, Jonah, was born we had taken probably 100 pictures.... and our little girl is around 9 months old and all we have is ONE picture of her! ONE!

We are SOOOO thankful that Sue is going to see her and check up on her and take lots of pictures, and maybe even some VIDEO!!! She is also going to be delivering our care package to Little Sister!!! I'm really hoping she gets a chance to put one of the outfits on her so we can get a better idea of how big she is! (Her medical didn't include weight or length, so we have no idea how tiny she might be!) No matter what happens this trip, if we get any new pictures or any video, we continue to pray for and love Little Sister more and more everyday!!

Oh, Sue also said that our Attorney does have some referrals to give her once she arrives, but she doesn't know age/gender yet. We are PRAYING that one of those children is our SON and that we will get to see his face THIS WEEK!!!! And that Sue would be able to see him & take some pictures/video as well!!

PRAY WITH US

No referral for our little guy yet. Nothing too exciting on our adoption front yet... but our Director, Sue, from Celebrate Children is in Ethiopia right now!!! And we are praying that while she is there, she will be given the letter she needs to get many newly adopted children out of UNICEF's custody and into CCI's Transition house so their parents can come pick them up SOON!!
{If you aren't aware of how ANTI-ADOPTION UNICEF is, just read this article! It will help you think twice about EVER giving any money to them ever again!! As she says in the article,"Somehow in the process of developing a system to eradicate child suffering the very people that system is designed to help—orphaned children—have been forgotten." Go read it!!}

Please pray with us specifically for our friends Justin & Bonnie and the 4 other couples they traveled with just weeks ago!! They passed court and are officially the PARENTS of these precious children made in the image of God!! PRAY that they would get an embassy date soon and and be able to return to Ethiopia to bring their children HOME sweet HOME forever very soon!!!

We are also PRAYING for Sue's trip to Congo next week! She will be going from Ethiopia to Congo to meet with our Attorney, check on our children, and hopefully get lots of pictures and even VIDEO!!! We are PRAYING that we would get a referral for our little boy BEFORE she leaves CONGO so we will be able to get pictures & video of him too!! She'll also be giving our care package to "Little Sister"!!! {We went ahead and sent one to "Baby Brother" too, just in case!!}

Thank you for praying with us and for helping us bear one another's burdens as Christ-centered families labor to rescue orphans!

Prayer & Update

Here are a few things you can join us in praying specifically for this week:

* For our Attorney to be successful locating true orphans in need of families.

* that the adoption process in the DRC would go smoothly!

* for the Presidential elections in the DRC in November & for all that comes with that. (This is a big deal for this newly democratic nation. We will need much wisdom in making our travel plans this fall to bring our children home.)

Also, after talking for a bit with our director from CCI, it sounds like they may have already located possible children for us & are just getting their medical testing done before they send us the official referral!!!

Can you hear my heart pounding in my chest?? Just typing that makes me so excited/anxious to see the faces of our children!!!!! It is hard to believe that this real some days! That God is really leading us down this journey to add 2 children to our family, who currently live across the globe but we have been praying about for years!
It grieves my heart when I think of the conditions they are probably living in. These pictures from another adoptive momma's trip to the DRC haunt me & cause me to PRAY! We pray daily & anytime our children come to mind that the Lord would protect our children, provide nourishment for them, and someone to care for and love on them while they wait.
It's almost unthinkable that our two precious children (and 4.2 million others) who are made in the image of God could be living in a dirt-floor orphanage with worn concrete walls and no electricity and running water. With 100 children and only 1 caregiver who will hold them and help them know they are loved? Who will feed them their bottles? What will they feed them? Will there be formula to nourish them? I pray constantly that they would not go hungry! Oh Lord, please provide nourishment for the children! 
There are no diapers so the children just go all over themselves. I can only imagine the sickness and disease that may result from this. Lord protect our children from disease & illness!
 And these are the ones lucky enough to make it into an orphanage. Out of the 4.2 million orphans in the DRC, 39 million in Africa, and 147 million worldwide I would venture to say that many, if not the majority, aren't lucky enough to make it into an orphanage.

Father, I thank you that while I was living in the disgusting pit of my sin that you RESCUED me! You brought me out of darkness into your marvelous light! "But God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us" (Romans 5:8). That is amazing God! And I thank you that I am a new creation in Christ and no longer live for my own glory, but for your glory! I pray that you would be glorified in our adoption Lord! And we bring two children into our family forever, as cherished sons and daughters! And I trust that you are holding our children in the palm of your hand and you know the plans you have for them!
In Christ, the only Son of God & perfect sacrifice for my sin,
Bethany

T-shirt update

Hey friends!!
Thank you so much to everyone who has ordered t-shirts so far!! We will get them to you soon! Here is an updated list of what sizes & colors we have left! We'd love to sell out & need to place an order for another hundred! Especially after seeing the new financial info for the Congo... it is going to be about $10,000 more than we had anticipated. But, what's $10,000 to God, the Creator of the universe right?? So, your prayers for God's provision are MUCH appreciate! We know He hears the prayers of believers!

Charcoal Gray Adoption shirts left:

15 Smalls

17 Mediums

16 Larges

6 XLs

3 XXLs

Navy Adoption shirts left:

5 Smalls

4 Mediums

3 Larges

4 XLs



To order your shirt(s) to support our Adoption, you can make your donation to our ChipIn account (on our Fundraising Tab and on the Left Sidebar near the bottom) and make sure to email me at mrsmeach1@gmail.com to let me know what color & size(s) you want.

Or you can email me at mrsmeach1@gmail.com for more info!

 

**If you need your shirts shipped, make sure you include your address and the extra $5 per household to help cover shipping costs. Thanks!

Waiting Expectantly

Well friends, we are officially "expecting"....

a referral any day!!!

We were able to chat with our director and the 4 other pilot families for the Democratic Republic of Congo on Sunday night! One couple is also from Louisville which is really cool, we look forward to meeting them sometime! We got many of our questions answered.

Here's a little summary of some of the things we learned during our chat:
- Our trip to Congo is going to be expensive (hotels are $100-$400 US per night!; Translators are over $100/day; Taxis are $100/day; You can see how this can add up!)
- The trip to pick up our children will be around a week, it does look like we are going to travel, but an escort is still an option. (We're praying for more wisdom in this decision!)
- There were a total of 50 adoptions out of the DRC in 2010. (It is still a very new country. There were over 2,500 adoptions from Ethiopia to the US last year.)
- We need to file our I600A asap, which will cost another several hundred dollars
- We need to send $3200 to our agency this week
- We will owe around $16,000 once we receive our referrals (this covers attorney & in-country fees,etc)

So, how can you help?
Please PRAY that the Lord would PROVIDE the finances for our adoption expenses!
PRAY that we would get approved for at least one matching-grant that we are applying for!
PRAY for us to rely on the Lord alone, and not on our own strength or humans means to provide for us!
PRAY for us as we prepare to see the Faces of our children in the next month!
PRAY for our children, that they would be protected from harm, disease & hunger!

And you can help us spread the word about our Adoption Fundraising shirts! We're asking for at least a $20 donation per shirt. We have about 85 left, sizes Adult Small through XXL.
To ORDER, you can send me a fb message or email  (mrsmeach1@gmail.com) and tell me what size & color you'd prefer! Then we'll work out a way for you to get your shirt.

Thank you for all your prayers!! Am I wondering where we are going to come up with all this money? YES! But I am trying to dwell on these verses & let my requests be made known to God, who provides for our every need! I can have a peace that surpasses understanding about our adoption finances because I know they are in the hands of the Creator of the Universe! Nothing is too big or too trivial for Him & I am asking Him to provide so that we can RESCUE & LOVE children who are made in His image. He is for orphans and adoption!

"If God is for us, who can be against us? He who did not spare his own Son, but gave him up for us all—how will he not also, along with him, graciously give us all things?" Romans 8:31-32

"Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God. And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus." Phillipians 4:6-7

An Interesting Email...

Well friends, We got a very interesting email last night!
We got a BILL from our Adoption Agency for the "Attorney fee stage one for 2 referrals"....
!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
We still hadn't heard anything from our director, (she has only been back in the US for a few days and we've been trying to be patient & not bombard her with questions as she recovers from major jet-lag)...
So we had no idea what this bill meant!
Jon sent her a quick email saying, "Does this mean we have referrals?!?!"

We found out that we do not have referrals yet, but that our agency found a great attorney in the DRC (Congo) and he has our dossier in his hands!!! So, we need to send a check to our agency asap (like this week!) for $3200 so that he can get started!

Our director said she expects us to get our referrals within the next month!!!

So, please pray with us! Pray that God would provide financially for our adoption! We are sending off several grant applications this week- please pray with us that the Lord would give us a matching-grant through one of these non-profit agencies!! Pray that we would trust in God's provision and His timing for all of our adoption! And please pray with us for our children! Pray that God would protect our children, keep them safe from harm or disease, and that they would be loved on! Pray that I would not grow anxious about the timing or having 3 children under 2 to care for! I know God's grace is sufficient, and His power is made perfect in my weakness! (2 Cor. 12:9)

Quick Update- Pray!

We just found out that our director, Sue, is in the DRC RIGHT NOW!! She has been there since Monday night! My heart almost skipped a beat when Jon told me! For some reason I was thinking it was still a week away... so this is very exciting!!

Please PRAY for her & her husband's safety, that God would work out the details so that many orphans may be rescued from the DRC through our agency, and that they would get home safely on April 5th!

Jon & I have been checking our email like crazy! We know she has internet, but its not a great connection, so even if she tries to send us an email about our referrals we may not get it until she is on her way home, or in some place with a better internet connection. Pray for us to have patience as we wait for God's plan for our family to unfold!!

So where are you?

I have been getting this question a lot lately, so I guess I haven't done a very good job of explaining where we are in the process! So, for my sake, so I can remember what happened when as I look back on this adoption journey years from now, and for your sake so you can better pray for us, here is where we are:

We are praying for the 4.7 million orphans in Ethiopia. {And would still LOVE to adopt from there one day!}

But,

Right now, our DOSSIER for the Democratic Republic of Congo is in our Director's hands! And she is in AFRICA right now! She is currently in Ethiopia, but is heading to Congo in a week or so, and she told us that she MIGHT be able to get us referrals while she is there!!!!!
(For those of you who aren't down with adoption lingo, a "referral" is basically a picture & information about a CHILD that meets your qualifications for age,etc.)

So we COULD possibly see our children's faces in the next week or two!! It's incredible. I am obviously still somewhat in denial or I would be bouncing off the walls with excitement!!!!! I think I am trying not to get my hopes up in case it doesn't work out... because we technically don't meet their marriage requirement of 5 years (but have been told by multiple other agencies that shouldn't be a problem) and there's lots of unknowns because we're a "pilot family". But at the same time it all seems to be happening so quickly that my "prepare way ahead of time" self doesn't know what to do. I was the girl who studied for an exam starting a week or 2 before and didn't even look at the material the day of. So I was all preparing myself to get on the "waiting list" for Ethiopia two weeks ago, with a 3 month wait for a referral, and then 6-9 months to bring him home.

Then the Lord threw open this door to the DRC and it was like "Get your dossier to us by the end of next week" and "I may get you a referral while I'm in DRC in 3 weeks" and "It should probably take about 6 months to have them home after you get the referral."  I guess I'm a little shell-shocked (in a good way). This isn't how my little plan was supposed to unfold. But hasn't God already reminded me SEVERAL times during this adoption process that I AM NOT IN CONTROL? For some reason that's a hard one for me to remember! I guess He knows that, and saw that I needed to be reminded AGAIN to rely on Him alone. So honestly, that's what I've been doing. I feel completely out of control of all of our adoption details (which I AM, so probably a good reality check) and I have just given up trying to control it and have been turning to the Lord in prayer daily- for our children, that He would work out all the details of our adoption, and that everything would happen in His perfect timing. (Not the "average adoption timelines" that I have been relying on and planning our life according to!)

Of course He would open the door for us to rescue orphans from a fairly "new" country, where we don't have hundreds of people to compare our experience to or know what to expect at all. But that's ok, because my God created the universe and everything and everyone in it! He REIGNS over ALL.



We sang this song this morning at church, its an awesome Sovereign Grace song that I used to have playing on my blog, and it was a great reminder that I just want to glorify God with my life- however HE wants to do that! So let His will be done in me!

So, if God is calling us to adopt from the DRC - then that is exactly what we want to do, anything, as long as His name is glorified! It may not be the "adoption experience" we were envisioning {we may not even be able to go to the country to bring our children home, more on that later}, but at the end of the day (or hopefully the end of this year!) two children will no longer be orphans, but loved and cherished children in a home that loves the Lord.

We are still going to the Lord in prayer on behalf of the many families we know that are adopting from Ethiopia and the millions of orphans who still need loving familes! But the Lord has also opened our eyes to the extreme plight of the orphans in the Congo as well... if you want to see some of the pictures that have been on our minds as we pray for our children, you can look at this adoptive momma's photos from her trip to bring her son, Miles, home from the DRC. But be warned, they are NOT for the faint at heart. The Lord may just open your eyes to the need for these children to be RESCUED.

"But you, God, see the trouble of the afflicted; you consider their grief and take it in hand.
The victims commit themselves to you; you are the helper of the fatherless." -Psalm 10:14

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

Please pray for our babies! I look at the pictures from this orphanage every few days and it causes me to PRAY for our children! PRAY that the Lord would protect them from harm and disease! PRAY that they are LOVED ON and would form loving attachments with a caregiver until we can bring them home to love on them forever! PRAY that they will receive food and nourishment!

I have no idea if the orphanage they are in right now is like that one, or if by some miracle it is nicer (and similar to the ones we've seen pics of in Ethiopia) but the sad fact is that orphans in the DRC don't appear to be cared for nearly as well as the orphans in Ethiopia {which makes me love & respect the great work Ethiopia is doing even more}.  Hopefully we will learn something soon, as soon as our Director gets back from the Congo (or possibly while she's there, if she can get a decent internet connection!). We covet your prayers for our child(ren) where ever they are! And for us that the Lord would be preparing us to love and parent them well! (Yes, we realize that it could be a little crazy over here with our son being only 18 months old in six months, but we know that if the Lord calls us to it, He will sustain us through it!)

Wow, that was long! If you're still reading, well hopefully that answered most of your questions! =) Good night! All this blogging has worn me out. ha