One Less

153 Million.

That's the current estimated number of orphans in the world.

While we were in China, we passed a man on the street who will forever be ingrained on my heart. He was a street beggar. His legs were terribly deformed and twisted to the point that you couldn't even tell whether they were all there. He was homeless. He was unable to walk or to do anything to care for his personal needs.

All I could think as I stepped back from our group to get my emotions in check was,

"His mother never came for him."

And I don't mean his birth mother. Only the richest of the rich in her part of the world would have been able to afford his medical care. She must have made the most courageous and heart-breaking decision she could...to take her child to the only place that could offer him even the possibility of a better life - the orphanage - in the hopes that someone with more resources than her could offer him a better life.

At the moment I saw the beggar, I was thinking about his adoptive mother. Somewhere out there God had equipped, prepared, and called a family to be his forever family. And they didn't go.

There are currently 153 million children in the world waiting for their adoptive parents to come for them. These girls and boys need medical care to make them physically healthy. But even more than that, they need adoptive families to pour love into their precious souls.

I am certain that beggar would have been my son, if Russ and I had never come for him. That truth was seared on my heart the moment I laid eyes on that man. I am so grateful to him for giving me that revelation.

Adoption is hard. It comes with different challenges than biological families. Your family has to be willing to put in the time to understand attachment issues, medical diagnoses, and the grief and loss that every adopted child experiences...not just in the beginning "get to know you" time, but also on birthdays, Mother's and Father's Day, and during class projects on family trees when the loss of parents is realized again and again. I believe that adoption is most certainly a calling from God.

I also believe God has already called 153 million families to adopt these precious children. It may be your family's calling. It may not be. But make it a conversation for your family, amongst your friends, and in your church, because these children are unable to advocate for themselves. Get the word out, and find out through amazing organizations like Show Hope and World Vision what your family, friends, and church can do for these precious souls.

Praise God, there is one less orphan in the world today.....

Rest

This is how we do naps these days.

If I try to rock him or put him in his crib, he throws a fit for an hour like I am implementing inhumane torture. So everyday at 2:00, I tell him we are going somewhere in the car, he is absolutely delighted at the prospect of an adventure, and he falls asleep in just a few minutes.

Basically, I am paying for nap time in gas money. And it is worth every penny.

It occurred to me yesterday that this is probably how God sees us. We are working frantically, wanting to go and be and do everything and all things, at church, at home, at work, in the community.....and all He wants to do is put us in the car, circle the block a few times, and give us some divine rest. How often we forget, that in his sovereignty, even God Himself took a day of rest after Creation. How much more do we need a God-given nap time!

"Come to Me, all who are weary and burdened (and over-worked and over-driven), and I will give you rest." Matthew 11:28

Too Cute to Pass Up

Really, this was just too cute not to share. Thank you, Grandmama and Granddad, for the handsome outfit! The 3 is especially meaningful because we learned to count to 3 this week, and this is our 3rd week in the states together!

Adjustments

I ate breakfast in the bathroom yesterday.

I am sure there must be someone out there who can relate. Really, it only lasted about 30 seconds before E realized where I was and came to find me and the bowl of cereal that was mine (and therefore, his).

But let me back up.....

I had a stomach virus for the last 48 hours of travel. And I decided to try not to sleep much during the 26 hours of airports and planes as we travelled home because I wanted to be tired when we arrived home at 8:30 pm and my body still thought it was 8:30 am. Little did I know that E would wake up terrified about 30 minutes after we went to bed, and the only way he would sleep was if Mom rocked him. So I rocked him ALL NIGHT LONG. (Insert dramatic sigh.)

So by Friday morning, I had had about 4 hours of sleep in 48 hours. With a stomach virus. Not a pretty picture. And my sweet child has attached. As in, he won't let me out of his sight. Perhaps you will better understand when I tell you that today was an improvement. Russ only had to stand outside the shower curtain twice and have me stick my head around and wave. DURING my shower.

Ethan is my shadow.

According to books, this phase could last months or years. Hence the reason I snuck out of the room while Russ was playing with him and took my bowl of cereal to the bathroom for a few short moments of eating alone. Drastic, maybe. But totally necessary.

The good news is that Ethan is doing really well. We have our moments, but each day is better than the last. We have a park close by that he loves, so we have gone there everyday. The terror over being restrained in the carseat seems to have subsided. And he seems to feel more secure with both of us. Being home is wonderful.

Please continue to pray for us. Even though our trip is over, our journey is just beginning!

A Happy Place

E's room is my favorite place in the house. It is such a happy, light-filled room. I pray that he will feel that way about it, too.

Here is just a glimpse.....

And another look at my awesome Ikea bookshelf and rug!

Pictures will go up this week, and a cushion for the "window seat" is on the way. :)

a little glimpse of the future....

A friend sent me the link to this blog today, and it was such an encouragement that I wanted to share with my blog world. (Have tissues ready!)

 

I love seeing the little girl's first moments of laughter with her daddy. What a precious sight. God's love and mercy is so sweet. The next to last photo is my favorite - her father is holding her and the light coming through the window reflects the tears coming down his face. It reminds me how often God  our Father cradles us in His arms and cries sweet tears of mercy over us.

http://ashleyannphotography.com/blog/2012/08/27/beauty-full-day/

Signs

I felt the Lord tugging at my heart and asking me to feel more free to share a bit of my testimony as we get closer to our adoption.

I remember sitting in my social studies class at the age of 12 and hearing the teacher talk about China and how full their orphanages were. At that moment, I knew that I either wanted to teach in orphanages when I grew up, or I wanted to adopt at least a dozen orphans of my own.

Those thoughts contined with me through adolescence, and when God pointed me in very specific directions in college, He confirmed that I was to be a teacher. However, His call and direction kept me in the United States. One of my best friends recently reminded me, though, that when we would all sit around and talk about what our families might one day be, my answer was always, "I'm going to adopt a little girl named Lily from an orphanage in China."

Interestingly enough, in an effort to fulfill that childhood desire to serve at an orphanage, I did eventually get to go on a mission trip to an orphanage in the Ukraine. And that was when I started realizing that my call was more region-specific. For as much as I enjoyed the trip and felt that I was doing good work, I left feeling a little empty....like I hadn't quite gotten it right. When I envisioned myself serving orphans, I still thought of that little girl with the dark pigtails.

I met R when I was 25, and on our second date he looked me right in the eyes and said, "So how do you feel about adoption? It's something that I've always felt God wanted me to do." Praise God for the ways that He brings two people together and gives them a vision for their future. In 2007 we married, and on September 20, 2010, we sent in our first application. For those of you who are counting, that is a little over 18 months ago. What a journey it has been! There have been so many delays and mistakes that were beyond our control, that our social worker finally said, "God must have some kind of huge plan for you guys because this is just ridiculous."

And that's where we are now. Somewhere in the middle of the journey, hopefully closer to the end than the beginning. Learning that when God calls, there might be some things He needs you to learn before He fulfills that calling. Learning that it can take years to fulfill a calling. And learning that faith is more about following Him during the "middle" times - those times when you're hoping that you got the call right and you are waiting for Him to see you through to the fulfillment.

One Step Forward, Two Steps Back

So....

We opened our finalized, notarized copy of our home study last night to put it in the packet I intended to mail to Immigration today, only to discover that there are misspelled words (including my name!), typos, and incorrect information about the age and special needs of the children we are adopting. Three weeks ago, we were assured this information would be corrected in the finalized copy.

Oy.

So, we are actually not finished with the home study....11 months after starting it in March 2011. It will have to go back for more corrections. And our social worker is out of the office for 8 weeks with shoulder surgery.

Somewhere out there are two precious babies waiting for their forever family....and they are going to have to wait longer. Two thousand babies are on that waiting list, hoping that they will be chosen. Quite honestly, it just makes me sick.

Again, though, we are thanking God for the delays. His Hand is in this situation. His Power is over this situation. And we will be able to say with absolute certainty that He brought our family together. Thank You, Lord!

One step closer!

After 10 months of waiting lists and delays......our homestudy is FINALIZED!! We got the official notarized copy in the mail on Saturday!!

Next step: Dossier Preparation

(Translation: More Paperwork)

One step closer!

Delays

Our adoption process has been interesting, to say the least. Delays have come and gone to the point of total ridiculousness. (I was actually found to have 42 counts of criminal activity in a state I've never actually lived in. Believe it or not, when they finally checked the social security numbers, they realized it wasn't actually me. Shocker.) Our home study alone has stretched a 3 month process to a 10+ month process. (I put the + there because it's actually not finished yet.)

As I was praying (aka complaining) to God one night, these words resounded over and over in my heart:

"Thank Me for the delays. Because of these delays, you know that I am in control. Because of these delays, you know that there is no coincidence in the world that could cause this many speedbumps and that what has happened so far is completely divine. Because of these delays, you know that I have hand-chosen your child for you."

Thank Him for the delays you encounter today. They are His handiwork in your life.

Hurry Up and Wait

We received an email from our social worker yesterday! The good news is that there are a huge number of people adopting in the Charlotte area. The bad news is that she is the agency's only social worker for this third of the state, so we won't be able to START the home study until the end of August because her schedule is so packed.

Three long months away.

Hang on, Baby Robbins, mama's coming. And she will be extremely well-read by the time you get here because reading is keeping her mind off of the fact that you're NOT HERE YET!

Another Step Forward

70 pages of paperwork mailed yesterday!! And the one that we forgot to put in the packet mailed today....

Progress is being made!