Good News

Our social worker told us that when they had a match for us that she would call with "good news".  Well, we have our good news!!!

We are matched with a 7 1/2 year old boy from Ethiopia.  His name is Kidane.  (pronounced Ki-don-ee, the i is short).  I wish I could show you pictures but that is against Ethiopia laws.  Yes, we have a match, but we still have to fly over to Ethiopia, appear in their courts and make it official.  

When do we fly??? Well, we don't know.  They said it is taking about 4 or 5 months right now to get a court date.  Soooo, we wait again. Once we do fly over the first time and do the court thing we come home alone.  Then we wait one more month while the court "processes" the papers. Then we fly over for the 2nd trip and bring him home! 

I know many of you are asking why only one?  I thought you were adopting siblings?  Well, we were asking for siblings.  We knew there was a need for siblings but it was for sib. groups of 3 or more.   Then we found out the next greatest need was for older boys (either in a sibiling group or single child).  Almost all of the older children in sib. groups were 10 - 14 years old; too old for our family since you have to keep birth order.  So God led us to Kidane.

At this time we don't want to share any more specific information until he is able to understand it himself. Right now we don't know how much English he understands if any. We don't want him  to hear about himself from others. 

YES

We decided to move forward with an older child adoption.  We started out wanting to adopt a sibling group.  The need in Costa Rica was for families to adopt sibling groups of 3 or more.  We were only approved to adopt a group of two so because of that and other reasons we switched countries.  We felt the needs in Ethiopia were much greater overall.  So we wanted to adopt a sibling group of two from Ethiopia.  Well the need is even greater for older boys.  They are waiting for families.  The literature says it is harder, older children have experienced more trauma.  They may have more attachment issues, more behavior issues, more everything.  The social workers keep asking us "are you sure? do you really want to do this? it is not going to be easy.".  We said YES, YES, and we didn't ask for the easy road.  How many times must we say YES?  But we know they want to make sure the child/children aren't going into a family that will give up on them.

We will never give up.  We are in it for the long haul.  Yes, we want to give love, unconditional love, to an older boy.  We just ask for all of you, our friends and family to keep us in your prayers.   I just can't wait to bring him home.  Yes, it will be work.  Who said parenting was supposed to be easy?  Yes, it might hurt.  Giving birth hurts, but it is so worth it!

Say YES today to whatever God is asking you to do.  You won't regret it.

Wishing

I guess that just when I think I have everything figured out that it all changes.  But one thing I do know is that when God is in control it will turn out all right.  God knows which child He is going to bring to our home.  I can't wait till I have good news to put on this blog.  I can tell you that it won't be long. 

I wonder what my adoptive mom was thinking waiting for me to be born.  I know she wanted me, that's all that mattered to me.  Growing up I knew that my mom and dad loved me soooo much and that's all that mattered.  It was my favorite bedtime story.  I would say "tell the story of how you got me"   I knew they chose me and brought me home.  I am going to tell our child the same thing.  I chose you and I love you soooo much.  I will love you forever!  There is nothing you can do that will stop my love for you.

You know that is how it is for all of us in this world.  God loves us soooo much, there is nothing we can do to stop His love for us.  And He chose each one of us.  Adoption is teaching me so much about God.  He risked everything for us.  He loved us knowing that we might reject Him and not love Him back.  I know that our child may not choose to love us,  but it won't change our love for him.  I know that everything we read and hear says that our lives will be changed.  It may be a hard road, especially since we are adopting an older child.  But, it doesn't matter.  I want to take the risk.  Because it is soooo worth it!

If I can bring smiles to his face, if I can hold him when he cries, if I can kiss his owies, if I can help him learn, if I can hear him say "mommy, I love you", if I make him feel safe and secure, then I will feel like the angels in heaven who rejoice over 1 saved soul.  I will rejoice over 1 less orphan!

Just an Ordinary Day

Well,  I really should be heading to bed.  But just had this urge to write something.  It keeps me busy and away from the kitchen where all those cookies keep calling my name!  Today was a good day.  The sun finally peeked out mid-day and warmed us up.  It was my last day to cook in the cafeteria this week!  I get the rest of the week off!!! Yippee.  Our daughters are designing T-shirts for us to print and hopefully sell as a fundraiser for the adoption.  I can't wait to see what they create!

Yesterday was also great.  I worked from 8:30 to 2:30.  I came home to a clean house!  Thanks to my sweetie.  We had a group of high school students over for supper and then took them geocaching.  It was a fun evening.  Although, the weather was not cooperative.  It rained, rained, and rained some more.  We all came home sopping wet.  But a cup of hot cocoa did the trick and warmed us up.  We also started up the woodstove for the first time this fall.  I love the smell of  a woodstove!  I think I am ready for winter to come.  I wonder what our new child/children will think of our cold winters.  Sometimes I think we live in the north pole.

Time to head to bed.  Hard to sleep.  So many thoughts going round and round.  How much longer?  What will it be like to meet for the first time?   Then I remember, "Be anxious for nothing, but in everything through prayer and supplication, make your requests known to God, and the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and minds!" Philippians 4:6.  Thank you Lord. Good night.

A Little More of Our Story

We considered adoption when we were dating.  It was important to me to have children.  I always wanted to be a mother.  So I asked my husband, Russell, if he was willing to adopt children if we didn't have biological children.  He was more than willing to go that route.  We did end up having biological children, which was very important to me.  Why?  Well, because I myself was an adopted child and I really wanted to have someone who looked like me.  It might seem trite to some of you but it was a deep yearning in me.  However, I had a yearning inside to have more children.

I have often thought throughout my life that since I was adopted I would grow up and adopt a child and complete the "circle" (that's why I put the word circle in our blog title).   I remember in 2003 checking into adoption and found out it was soooo expensive that I never pursued it at all.  At that time our daughters were 6 and 4 years old.  I was disappointed but thought it was just something "rich" people did.

In 2007 our family went on a mission trip to Nicaragua.  We went to visit the village where we had once lived. You see in August 2001 we had gone to work at a mission outpost in a jungle village for one year.  It was one of the best experiences in our lives. During that time we fell in love with the Miskito Indians.  We particularly remember a little boy named Adoni.  He followed Russell everywhere.  He was the same age as our older daughter (at that time 5 years old).  Well, on our return visit in July 2007, we realized Adoni was abandoned and living with various relatives in the village.  So we started the process of trying to adopt him but it didn't work out, and we were heart broken. 

God was still leading us.  I believe He was gently leading us to open our hearts to other children.  I would hear about orphans on the christian radio station.  I learned about Steven Curtis Chapman and all work his family has done for orphans.  I heard a testimony of a girl who was adopted from an orphanage in Russia and how much it meant for her to have a family.  I love music and I heard the song all "I Want for Christmas is a Family" and my heart broke.  I had been given a family, now I need to be a family for another child. So, I spoke with my husband about it and he agreed that we should move forward.  He felt that God was asking him to do this as well.

So, here we are on the waiting list.  Our arms are open wide ..............come home............