WE PASSED COURT!!

"When the righteous cry for help, the LORD hears and delivers them out of all their troubles. The LORD is near to the brokenhearted and saves the crushed in spirit. Many are the afflictions of the righteous, but the LORD delivers him out of them all" (Ps. 34:17-19).

Jon & I are absolutely THRILLED and REJOICING in the Lord's kindness in giving us this precious gift!
 We found out on Tuesday that we passed court on March 5!!!
Thank you to all the saints, especially our Immanuel family, who have been pleading with the Lord with us for our adoption!
We are officially baby R's parents now!
I (Bethany) have been weeping tears of joy! Not only did we pass court, we passed court over 30 days ago AND have the No-Appeal certificate! PRAISE THE LORD! HE HEARS THE CRIES OF HIS PEOPLE!!!!

I can hardly wait to see his face again! We haven't gotten new pictures of him in 8 months! (He's asleep in every picture we have & he was only 6 months old. He's now 14 months.) We are supposed to be getting some soon, but seeing him face to face will be indescribably filled with joy! Praying it will be soon!

Please pray with us that we will also hear good news on our baby girl's case this week! As far as we know she hasn't even started the first phase of court, but we are PRAYING that she would officially be our daughter VERY SOON so we can travel in the next couple months to bring them HOME!

Thank you! Thank you! Thank you to everyone who has been faithfully praying with us and for us! We certainly feel surrounded in prayer right now and could not be more encouraged! God's grace is amazing- my flesh could never survive all this waiting- but PRAISE Him that through Christ I now have the Spirit dwelling inside me giving me the ability to exercise patience as we wait on the Lord. I am far from perfect in this area, but I know that by God's grace we have persevered (and will continue to) and not given up. The Spirit really is a sweet, sweet gift from the Lord! (And it belongs to all who simply repent of their sin & place all their hope in Christ alone to atone for their sin. Oh, God's grace is an AMAZING undeserved gift!!)

FILLED WITH JOY & PRAISING THE LORD,

Psalm 90- how long, O Lord?

Well friends, we are about 15 months into our adoption process and I confess that I have been struggling lately with feeling weary. We were so excited to start court with baby R but it has been 5 weeks and we have heard nothing. We were excited on March 14th to get baby girl's birth certificate, but since then we have heard nothing. As far as we know we haven't passed court for baby R and we haven't even started court yet for baby girl.

Everything seems to take SO LONG in the Congo. Every day that goes by I just think about what a miracle it is that our children are still alive in such horrible conditions and neglect. And so every day lately I have been crying out to our great God to have MERCY on baby R and baby girl and please let them come home soon! Of course we want them to be home with us and love on them. But we also want them to survive long enough to know the unconditional love of a family and have a chance to hear the gospel and be saved. Have mercy on them, O Lord, Father of the fatherless!

I was so thankful to get together with my friend Bonnie this morning. She and her husband went through a very long and very trying journey to adopt their 2 beautiful children from Ethiopia. In fact, they've only been home since mid-February!! And I just praise the Lord every time I see her children, because it truly was the hand of God that brought them home from a hopeless situation. But our entire church family rallied around their family in prayer and GOD HEARD. I am so thankful for these reminders of answered prayer in my life. I need to be reminded often that God really does hear the prayers of His people. I know this in my head, but sometimes I need to be reminded in my heart.

Bonnie understands what it's like to feel like you're going to be stuck in the season of waiting and pleading with the Lord forever. And asking "How long O Lord?!" She wrote a great blog post on Psalm 90, which has been a great encouragement to me, and I'm sure it will be to you as well... whether you're in a season of suffering through a long, drawn-out, emotional battle to rescue orphans or are enduring some other kind of suffering right now. 

Psalm 90: 12-17
"So teach us to number our days
that we may get a heart of wisdom.
¹³ Return, O Lord! How long?
Have pity on your servants!
¹⁴ Satisfy us in the morning with your steadfast love,
that we may rejoice and be glad all our days.
¹⁵ Make us glad for as many days as you have afflicted us,
and for as many years as we have seen evil.¹⁶ Let your work be shown to your servants,
and your glorious power to their children.¹⁷ Let the favor^[d] of the Lord our God be upon us,
and establish the work of our hands upon us;
yes, establish the work of our hands!"

I will be meditating on these verses each day for the next week or two (or three). And praying that God's steadfast love would satisfy me anew every day. That HE would be enough for me, no matter what my circumstances. And that His grace would be sufficient for me in my weakness (as He promises it will be in 2 Cor 12:9). I know that I, by my own strength or determination, could NEVER endure to the end of this adoption journey. But I praise God that He will never leave me nor forsake me. And because the Spirit is now dwelling inside of me because of my faith in Christ alone for my salvation and atonement, I can use the love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, gentleness, and self-control that God gives through His Spirit (Galatians 5:22-23).
" I have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me. And the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me." Galatians 2:20.

Living each day by faith in the Son of God,

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,

our African Paper-Bead Necklaces

Our sweet friends, Justin & Bonnie, were finally able to bring their sweet babies home from Ethiopia last month! Well, we were (and are) completed OVERJOYED that God knit their family together and that they're finally home as a family of 4! When Bonnie came home from being in Ethiopia 10+ weeks she also brought home a special treat for us... 5 bags of paper-bead necklaces for us to sell as an adoption fundraiser!! Bonnie & Justin were able to pay for Justin's plane ticket to Ethiopia with money raised from these beautiful African necklaces! So they passed on some more in hopes that they would  be a blessing to us as well. We are SO thankful for their kindness and generosity!!

Each bead is hand-rolled from recycled paper (magazines, calendars, etc) by women in Africa. They are coated with some type of clear finish, so they are water-resistent but certainly not water-proof for a shower or swimming, etc. . If you want to request a necklace, you can leave a comment here, send me a facebook message, or email me @ mrsmeach1@gmail.com. Just let me know what color(s) you want, while supplies last.

We are asking for a $10 donation per necklace. (Please add $2 per necklace if you need them shipped or $5 total for shipping 3 or more.)

Each necklace is one long strand that can be wrapped

once, twice, or three times for 3 different looks! 

These are all one long strand wrapped 3 times (so they could all fit in the picture!).
Top row, Left to right: multi purple (3 left), multi pastels (3 left), multi bold (15 left)
bottom row, left to right: multi bold (see "multi bold" above), multi pink/red (3 left), multi blue (4 left)

We have already been very humbled and thankful for the $680 the Lord provided for our adoption this week through my husband's kind co-workers purchasing our African paper-bead necklaces!!! PRAISE THE LORD!!!  We are still $5000+ away from our goal, but we can see the Lord slowly and faithfully providing for our adoption and we are so THANKFUL!! And we still have around 50 necklaces left!

beyond thankful to be an adopted daughter of the King of kings,
 
PS- Our agency was in the DRC last week and we DID get some new pictures of our baby girl! She is beautiful and looks healthy (except for a pretty yucky rash on her neck/chest). We can't wait to see new pictures of baby R when they get back to the land of the free and home of the high-speed internet connection! Plus, we are SUPER excited to get the video footage they took of our kiddos!! Ahhh, be still my soul. I can't wait to see my babies, hold them, and love on them for... forever!

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,

baby R's 1st Birthday!

Today is our lil guy's First Birthday!!!
{Ok, well we don't know when he was actually born since he was abandoned, but today marks 1 year since he was found in the marketplace.}
 So we CELEBRATE!
We celebrate that the Lord preserved baby R's life one year ago and every day for the past year!
We thank God for the kind stranger who took pity on our baby boy one year ago today and brought him to the orphange, which is our gateway to him in our lives!
We thank God for his birthmother, that she gave him life and left him in a place where he had a good chance of being found!
And we look forward to
We praise God for healing him from the severe case of malaria he had back in September!
And we look forward to holding him in our arms and giving him lots of belated birthday hugs and kisses in just a few months!!

We celebrated his birthday with our parents and surprised them by putting his picture on the cake (this was their first look @ their beautiful soon-to-be-grandson and granddaughter! We decided to guard their hearts after losing our sweet baby Leseli in August. We told them they'd have to wait until we passed court and he was "official", but we thought this was a fun way to surprise them & just couldn't wait.)

{Sorry, we can't show you his beautiful face yet, but trust me HE IS A-DORABLE! A very handsome lil guy!}

Happy Birthday Baby R!
LOTS of Love,
 Your Soon-to-be-Official Mommy, Daddy and big brother =)
{And ALL of your extended family too! They can't wait to meet you and baby sister!}

GREAT NEWS!

Here I go again, typing this as it all is still sinking in and becoming real .... you won't believe what we got in our email today:  our baby girl's adbandonment decree!!

We are so sad that she, like her soon-to-be-brother, was abandoned in a public place, but we are SO thankful to her birthmother for giving her life and having mercy on her by leaving her in a place where she had hope to be found. We're eternally grateful to the stranger who took pity on her and brought her to the orphanage. And for the orphanage caregiver(s) who have been caring for her for months!

With the email about this decree came MORE GOOD NEWS: we DO NOT have to wait a month for her birth certificate! {Because she is so young. This is an answer to prayer as we weren't entirely clear on this before!}

What does this mean?? What's next??

Baby R's waiting period after his birth certificate was issued will be up NEXT WEEK, Feb. 3rd!
After that our attorney can work on getting our cases presented in court and we will legally become their PARENTS when we pass court!! Can you believe it?!?!?! I am weeping tears of JOY just thinking about it and how soon it may be that I will officially become a MOTHER OF 3!

At one point we were told that it typically takes about 2 weeks to get a court date and 4-8 weeks after that to travel to bring them home, but who knows... we are trying to not trust in the words of man, but that it will all happen in our Sovereign God's perfect timing!!!

"The LORD has done great things for us, and we are filled with JOY!" Psalm 126:3

Joyfully,

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,

More Answered Prayer: We got a REFERRAL!!!!!

Friends, I am about to weep tears of JOY as I type this, and it finally sinks in that this is really happening, our last 5 months of prayer have been answered:
WE GOT A REFERRAL FOR A LITTLE GIRL!!!!

We found out yesterday that she passed her medical and sent official notice to our agency today that we accept this referral for the beautiful baby girl, who we'll call "baby girl" for now! =)

She was just 45 days old at the time of her medical exam a couple weeks ago, so almost 2 months old now! And she is a healthy, precious little one! She weighs around 13.5 lbs!

Please Rejoice and PRAISE GOD with us for all that He has done & all that he is about to do! We do still need to get her abandonment decree and birth certificate, but we want to take a minute and pause and just give GLORY to God for all the ANSWERED PRAYER that we've had in the last week!

Thank you Lord for entrusting this baby girl to us! Thank you for giving us the priveledge of being her and baby R's parents, raising them up in the discipline and instruction of the Lord, loving them, caring for them everyday! We can hardly wait!!!  Please help us get her paperwork in the next week or two so we can officially ADOPT our son and daughter and bring them home this spring!!!! Please give us patience and help us to trust in Your timing.

We are working frantically hard to get all our child-specific paperwork printed, signed, notarized, certified and everything else in the next 24 hours!! These documents have to be in the DRC before our court date in order for us to pass court and be officially declared as baby R and baby girl's PARENTS! =)

"Oh give thanks to the LORD, for he is good, for his steadfast love endures forever!" Psalm 107:1

Rejoicing in God's lovingkindness to His people,

one big answered prayer!

Well friends,
We got an exciting email from our agency last evening..... {drum roll, please.....}

WE GOT APPROVAL TO GET BABY R'S BIRTH CERTIFICATE!!!

So that is one HUGE answer to prayer! We are one step closer to bringing him home!

But it also means that we really need to get a referral for our little girl VERY soon. We don't want to delay his adoption. And obviously want to have him (and our daughter) home with us as soon as possible.

We got an email from our agency on December 27th telling us about a little girl that should be paperwork ready soon. It was not exactly what we've been praying and hoping for (an official referral), but it is SO close!

Would you please PRAY with us that our agency would receive the medical, abandonment decree, AND birth certificate for this little girl (or whichever little girl the Lord has for us) by next Friday?? That would be the most AMAZING 5th wedding anniversary gift I can imagine!!!! {Yep, that's right- our 5th Anniversary is next Friday.} I know it sounds like a huge request, but nothing is impossible for God. And we don't want to not receive this great gift from Him because we have not asked Him for it.

" Give ear to my words, O LORD;
   consider my groaning.
² Give attention to the sound of my cry,
   my King and my God,
   for to you do I pray.
³ O LORD, in the morning you hear my voice;
   in the morning I prepare a sacrifice for you^[a] and watch.
 ⁴ For you are not a God who delights in wickedness;
   evil may not dwell with you.
¹¹ But let all who take refuge in you rejoice;
   let them ever sing for joy,
and spread your protection over them,
   that those who love your name may exult in you.
¹² For you bless the righteous, O LORD;
   you cover him with favor as with a shield."
Psalm 5:1-4, 11-12

Next stop after we get our official referral for our daughter???
COURT!
To officially adopt both of our children! To legally become their PARENTS!
I mean seriously, I can hardly believe it as I type this out. Thank you Lord! Help- me to cling to and trust in your Sovereign plans for our family! That they are for our good and YOUR glory! And help me to have faith to believe in Your plans, even when Your ways are so much higher than our ways that we can't fathom what you're doing. I PRAISE you Jesus, that Your grace is sufficient for me and that Your power is made perfect in weakness (2 Cor. 12:9).

Rejoicing & Praying Expectantly,

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,

Missing our baby girl

I am missing our baby girl today. Whose sweet little face we saw for the first time last May (and immediately fell in love with). We "officially" received a referral for her last July. We loved her and prayed for her constantly starting in May. We imagined her being home with us and part of our family, all the things we would do together. We even started decorating her room. We sent her a care package jam-packed full of clothing, shoes, toys, and anything we could think of that would communicate the LOVE we had for her.

 Then we lost her. Her short little life ended on August 19th at around 9 months old. (Just 4 days before her care package arrived at her orphange, hand-delivered by our adoption agency.)

 And today (and a lot of days) I just miss her. I wish she and baby R were home with us right now. I trust that God will give us a referral for another little girl very soon, but I will always be saddened by the fact that I never got to physically be her mommy on this side of heaven. That she died an orphan. I'm so thankful she had someone praying for her by name for months, but I so wish we could have loved on her like crazy. Hugged her. Kissed her. Snuggled her. Fed her. Told her about Jesus. Styled her head full of hair. She was a beautiful little girl made in the image of her Creator, my Creator, my God, my Redeemer. And although our adoption was not yet official on paper- in our hearts, she was, and will forever be, our daughter.

When I think of her I long for Heaven, where I hope I will able to hold her in my arms and love her and be her mommy for eternity.

Jonah, our almost 2 year old, saw her picture on the fridge just the other day and pointed and said, "baby sister."

"Yes, that's right buddy," I replied misty-eyed.

We miss you Leseli Joyce, our Audrey Joy, and we look forward to meeting you face to face one day in heaven, where I hope to spend eternity showing you the love that Christ my Savior has shown me. The love I longed to give you on this side of heaven. I pray that all of our children will see their sin and repent and believe in Jesus Christ alone for their salvation so that we can spend eternity with you as a family, in the presence of the Lord.

But I trust and take comfort in knowing that you were just a baby, and you are now in the presence of the Father of the fatherless, the King of Kings, the Creator of the universe, my Redeemer, who himself IS love.

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!!

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.

7 weeks and more waiting

So I realize I haven't updated our blog much in the past 2 months and that is simply because there is no news.

We got our referral for baby R over 7 weeks ago. And we cannot move forward with his adoption until we get a referral for our little girl as well. It can be any day now. (As it has been for the past 7 weeks.)

People keep asking us what's the latest news, how is baby R doing?, etc...
... But we literally do not have ANY new information on him. Nothing since the day we found out that he was out of the hospital, that God had preserved his life from the serious case of malaria.

So we are just in another season of waiting. Waiting on the Lord. To act. To move. To execute justice for the orphan. To grant us a little girl. To help us adopt them. To bring our son and daughter home to their forever family.

So while we wait all we can do is pray. And so we pray. And we trust that baby R is in God's hands.

Can I tell you something cool?

His birth name means "Protecting Hands".

Isn't that amazing?

Already in the short 6.5 months of his life baby R has had God's protecting hands on him, even sparing him from death!

"Father of the fatherless and protector of widows is God in his holy habitation."

Psalm 68:5

Praying and Waiting expectantly on the Lord,

PRAISE THE LORD, O MY SOUL!

" ¹ Praise the LORD!Praise the LORD, O my soul!
 ²I will praise the LORD as long as I live;
    I will sing praises to my God while I have my being.
 ³ Put not your trust in princes,
    in a son of man, in whom there is no salvation.
⁴When his breath departs, he returns to the earth;
   on that very day his plans perish.
 ⁵ Blessed is he whose help is the God of Jacob,
   whose hope is in the LORD his God,
⁶ who made heaven and earth,
   the sea, and all that is in them,
who keeps faith forever;
 ⁷ who executes justice for the oppressed,    who gives food to the hungry.
   
    The LORD sets the prisoners free;
 ⁸ the LORD opens the eyes of the blind.
The LORD lifts up those who are bowed down;
    the LORD loves the righteous.
⁹ The LORD watches over the sojourners;
    he upholds the widow and the fatherless,   but the way of the wicked he brings to ruin."
Psalm 146: 1-9

PRAISE THE LORD! PRAISE THE LORD, O MY SOUL!!! That is all I could think as I hung up the phone after talking with Cheri from our adoption agency just minutes ago! "Baby R is out of the hospital and doing well. He is still on some medication for the malaria, but he is back at Mami's orphanage."
PRAISE THE LORD!! Blessed is he whose help is the God of Jacob! Whose hope is in the Lord his God!

Baby R has been HEALED!! He is okay! God heard our cries on his behalf and UPHELD the ORPHAN! We and soo many believers with us went to God over and over asking for JUSTICE for the ORPHAN and GOD HEARD.... and He ANSWERED!!!

PRAISE THE LORD, O MY SOUL!!!!

Thank you, thank you to every single one of you believers out there who prayed with us on behalf of Baby R!! The Lord has taught me so much about persevering in prayer and being persistent, like the widow in Luke 18!!

PRAISING the true & LIVING GOD who HEARS the PRAYERS of HIS PEOPLE,

Falling on our Knees again

Well friends, I don't know what God is doing right now, but He is doing something.

Just yesterday I posted about how God was calling me back to pray with confidence that He hears and delights in answering prayer. And today I received a phone call that has given us reason to once again get on our knees before the Lord.

Our sweet agency worker, Cheri, called me around 2:30 this afternoon to tell me that the 5 month old boy we got a referral for about a week ago (Ya, we hadn't even announced this on the blog yet..) is in the hospital with malaria. She said it's serious.
So will you and every believer you know please join with us in asking God to heal baby "R" quickly and preserve his life so that we might adopt him and raise him up in the fear and admonition of the Lord?! We are praying that God would use this illness to showcase His power and His glory and remind us that He hears!! But no matter the outcome, please pray that we would be able to Praise the Lord and trust in His good plans for our family!

Here is one passage from yesterday that is FUELING my prayers today!

Luke 18: The Parable of the Persistent Widow

 ¹And he told them a parable to the effect that they ought always to pray and not lose heart. ²He said, "In a certain city there was a judge who neither feared God nor respected man. ³And there was a widow in that city who kept coming to him and saying, 'Give me justice against my adversary.' ⁴For a while he refused, but afterward he said to himself, 'Though I neither fear God nor respect man, ⁵yet because this widow keeps bothering me, I will give her justice, so that she will not beat me down by her continual coming.'" ⁶And the Lord said, "Hear what the unrighteous judge says. ⁷And will not God give justice to his elect, who cry to him day and night? Will he delay long over them? ⁸I tell you, he will give justice to them speedily. Nevertheless, when the Son of Man comes, will he find faith on earth?"

Fasting & praying on behalf of baby R,

Bear One Another's Burdens

We have written about our friends Justin & Bonnie on here before. They are a sweet couple from our church whose paths crossed with ours when we decided to adopt. We sought them out to glean wisdom from them before we chose an agency and officially started our adoption journey. (They were ahead of us in the process.)  They are in the midst of a very long process to bring 2 beautiful children home from Ethiopia. We have wept with them during their adoption process over may different things and got on our knees on their behalf and begged the Lord to have mercy and to act. Even now, we pray constantly that the Lord would help their son and daughter (who are officially theirs now, per Ethiopian court) to be released from UNICEF, brought to our agency's transition house, and COME HOME soon!!!!

As they wait and cling to Christ, they have even wept with us over the life of our baby girl, Audrey Joy, who beat us to Heaven and the loss of our referral for a precious 6 month old boy. Bonnie wrote a very sweet post asking for prayer for the DRC and our family that you can read on her blog.  We are so thankful for the many faithful brothers and sisters in Christ that the Lord has brought into our lives, especially through our church family @ Immanuel.  Countless people have prayed for us, wept with us, encouraged us, and served us.

We know that "Weeping may last for the night, but JOY comes with the morning." (Psalm 30:5) We cannot wait to be on the other side of this adoption road, with all of our kids home with us and to REJOICE with Justin & Bonnie and be able to look back and see God's faithful hand over every step. Until then, we will fight to cling to Christ and our hope in Him.

In the Valley

A sweet friend sent me Sovereign Grace's "Valley of Vision" cd last week and I have had this song on repeat ever since:



Amazing lyrics. Full of truth. And hope.