Praising God for the mountains He has moved

Many, O LORD my God, are the wonders you have done. The things you planned for us no one can recount to you; were I to speak and tell of them, they would be too many to declare. Psalm 40:5

God has been working this week on behalf of some families who have been waiting since early this summer to meet their children. In their hearts they have been the parents of these children from the day of their referrals, but Monday Michelle and Jana legally became the proud parents to some beautiful gifts from God and will be leaving in two weeks to wrap their arms around them for the first time. What a miraculous gift God has given them. What a gift for us to witness their journey. Glory to God!

A mother of three

Today I became a mother of three. In a sense I got to meet my daughter. The fuzzy images that came to mind when I used to try and imagine her have been replaced with a clear picture. I know what she looks like. I know how old she is. I am a mother of three.

(Warning this is a little long, but it is my place to remember this day.)

Monday is story time at the library so we headed there as we do every other Monday morning. I slipped my phone in my pocket (yes, I wore jeans and they had pockets!) but I turned the ringer down in case anyone called. Now NO ONE ever calls my cell phone (remember I have a real aversion to phone conversations) but I didn't want to be the mom that interrupted story time because my phone rang for the first time in 100 years (yes, I do have friends.) Now I shouldn't have worried about interrupting story time because with over 30 kids 5 and under it isn't too quiet. Anyway, I digress. I saw Traci there and she was asking me how it was going. She really didn't have to deal with the wait list because last year there were only like 10 families adopting at a time. After story time, we stayed and played for a while.

At almost 11:30, I dragged my children from the library (they love it there) and loaded them up in the van. As I was about to get in, I pulled my phone from my pocket and noticed I had a message that had been left at 11:06 a.m. I figured it was my dashing husband, because he is the only one that calls me. Much to my surprise when I listened to the message it was Christy. She said, "Hi this is Christy. I have something I want to talk to you about. Give me a call when you can." I KNEW what that meant. I absolutely started shaking with excitement. I ran to Traci as she was loading her boys up and she was like CALL HER BACK! I misdialed the AGCI Washington number and my favorite social worker in the world answered and I was slightly confused. After explaining that I was trying to return THE CALL, I hung up and redialed the correct number. It went straight to Christy's voicemail! How dare she be away from her phone when she had such news for me! I left her a message and said I would be home in about 35 minutes and to call me after noon.

We arrived home at 11:50 and I got the kids playing, advised them to please play quietly for a few minutes and called Christy back. As soon as I knew positively that this was THE CALL, all I heard was blah, blah, blah, your daughter's name is.., she was born...., blah,blah,blah. I heard all the good stuff and just kind of tried to listen to the rest, without much success. Luckily they know you are only focused on the child and e-mail you everything they are telling you!

I didn't respond how I thought I would. I figured I would be blubbering, but no tears I feel like I am in a state of shock, that I am sure will wear off soon. I can't believe God has finally let us meet our little girl.

I immediately called J and told him me was a father of three! He told me I was crazy if I waited for him to get home to see the pictures, so I of course opened them! I rechecked my e-mail and realized that Christy had sent 5 more e-mails all with pictures. We were blessed to receive over 70 pictures of our daughter! I told him how adorable she is, but of course I may be a little biased!

We called everyone we needed to and now am so pleased to share the news with everyone else. Unfortunately, we aren't able to share any information about her until we pass through courts and she legally becomes our daughter. So no names or photos until we bring her home which looks like it will be January or February.

I went to my small group tonight (two of my closest friends are in it) and shared my news. They have really been instrumental in helping me through this journey, as have so many others. When one of them closed in prayer and thanked God for the gift of my daughter I was brought to tears. All the emotions that I have felt for the past 10 months were finally all let out and the fact that I am now a mother of three started to sink in. Praise be to God!

Reflections

Some of you may remember this picture. I posted it exactly 24 weeks ago. (No I am not a huge Keifer Sutherland fan, but he is on the show 24 and it is a pretty important number in our adoption.) Tomorrow marks 24 weeks that we have been on the waiting list and our first number on the waiting list was...24.

During my quiet time tonight, I was reflecting on this journey of adoption. Journey is defined as a process or course likened to traveling. I can't think of a better way to describe adoption. It has been like a loooonnnngggg trip. At times, the weather has been beautiful and we are all singing with the windows rolled down and the wind blowing in our hair and at other times it has been like driving through a thunderstorm with screaming kids in the back seat. The thing is, that whether this trip has gone through a rough patch or an easy one God has been with us the ENTIRE way.

No matter how much I prepared for this trip, I could not foresee how difficult it was going to be. I shored myself up for a long time by not letting myself get too excited and by reminding myself how far we still had to go. That worked for about 4 1/2 months. But while I wouldn't let myself get excited, the adoption almost seemed unreal to me. I felt no real connection to it and I think I lost out a bit.

I prayed to God to help me feel connected and He made me realize I was the one hindering the connection. So I let myself feel. I slowly took down the wall around my heart that I had placed to protect myself from the wait. It felt good to have it down, because I found I had feelings for this little girl already. I have posted before how I knew I would never have problems loving or attaching to a child that was not born of me, but I truly never thought that that love would come before I met her.

There have been times since I started feeling this love that I wanted to put the wall back up because it hurt so much to love her and not even know her. But then I realized that this love was actually a gift. A gift that God had given me to help me prepare for our daughter.

God has been the gas on this journey, by constantly nurturing me along the way. My relationship with Him has only been strengthened. I have learned that no matter how much control I think I have over situations, I truly have none. God is the great author of this story, not me.

My prayer life has also been enriched. I felt God calling me to look beyond my adoption and focus on this AGCI community and the needs that everyone else has. I am a doer and I wanted to be able to go help someone with their garage sale or comfort Sharon and Karen during the hold-up, but distance prevented me from helping. But God has given us the gift of prayer. Maybe I could not go get poor Michelle's FDL (yes, I remember the sleeping in the snow pictures waiting for the mailman), but I could help pray it into her mailbox! To pray for dear little Abby, to pray for the families waiting to travel, to pray for each family wherever they are on their journey.

After the difficulties I had dealing with the last two weeks of waiting at #1, God has really given me peace. I am no less excited, but I am utterly aware and assured that His timing is perfect, that I focus on my situation while only God can see the whole picture, and that I love a little girl who lives on another continent that I have never met with all of my heart.

On this day of fasting and prayer

we can also celebrate the referral of a sweet baby to Michelle and a little girl for Karey. Take a second and congratulate each of them on their new additions.

One of the things I love the best about our AGCI family is that even as some families are having difficulty with the adoption process and we are uplifting them in prayer, we can also celebrate the good news of referrals and travel calls. God is in each of these situations, with each of his children throughout this process. We praise Him for His never ending love. He will not forsake us.

For the LORD your God is a compassionate God; He will not fail you nor destroy you...Deut 4:31

The LORD is the one who goes ahead of you; He will be with you. He will not fail you or forsake you. Do not fear or be dismayed." Deut 31:8

A day of prayer and fasting

Several of my friends (especially Karen, Sharon, and Robin) have recently had complications to their adoptions. They are desperately longing to bring their children home. Some people in our agency have decided to pray together, and fast together, and ask God for a miracle to deliver these children. Of course it is in the best interest of these children to be united with their families, and also, for the parents who long to meet and hold the children they have prayed for for years. Specifically, for a few of my friends adopting from Ethiopia, there is a possibility THIS WEEK they might squeeze through a loophole. Would you join me in prayer and fasting for these families?

Here is our plan:

FAST from 8pm Wednesday(PST) to 8 pm Thursday(PST), which would be 6am Thursday (Addis Abba) to 6am Friday (Addis Abba)
PRAYER at 5am Thursday(PST) or 8 am Thursday(EST) or 3pm Thursday (AddisAbba)

Please join us however God may be calling you.

Again, I tell you that if two of you on earth agree about anything you ask for, it will be done for you by my Father in heaven. For where two or three come together in my name, there am I with them. Matthew 18:19-20

Jumping for Joy!!!

That is what I was doing when I came home from getting my haircut this afternoon. My mom was watching the kiddos for me and I thought I would check my e-mail real quick to see if there was anything important. What a surprise when I saw I had 8 new e-mails. I read the first one from Michelle and it said something like "I am freaking out for you!!!!! You will be a number this week!!!!! Are you so happy?" I had no idea what she was talking about. The next said something similar and so on until I got to the one from our agency stating the change in procedure and then I understood what everyone was so excited about. It just warms my heart to have other families to go through this experience with and share the ups and downs.

So what am I rambling on about you ask. I think God works in funny ways sometimes. We have had lots of prayers in the last few weeks (thank you everyone for supporting us) that we would receive our FDL, so that we could finally be a number on the list and be waiting for the referral of our daughter. Well our FDL has not come, but we get to be a number and begin the real wait for our little girl!!!

I have been frustrated with the process, because we will wait up to 4 months for our FDL and then have to wait another 6 months for our referral. I never understood why we couldn't be waiting for both at the same time. I guess since the referral time has increased AGCI realized that we could wait for both our referral and our FDL at the same time.

What this means for us is that we will be put on the list in the order that dossiers were received at AGCI. I have no idea where that will put us on the list. I know there are at least 16 families before us on the girl's list and expect that there will be another half dozen or so put on before us due to the recent changes. I am guessing we will be in the 20-25 range, but again that is just a wild guess. Hopefully I will hear from our case worker tomorrow with some sort of news and will post it as soon as I know! I am just so excited to be officially waiting!!!!

Thank you everyone for your support along the way and I am glad to be able to share our joy today with you.

A big CONGRATULATIONS to ...

Brian and Autumn who received their FDL today!!! They made it on the list and will probably get a referral this summer!! It is so exciting to see God at work moving the adoption processes along.

God's plan is slowly, steadily being accomplished...

Our home study was accepted yesterday, so the most fabulous social worker in the world is getting it notarized and then in the mail!!! We will head to Yakima next week to file our I-600a with US Citizenship & Immigration Services. Once we get our FDL from them, we will be a number on a list. The number means we are just waiting for God to match us with our daughter. How amazing is it to think that God has a child for us on another continent. A child he has picked out especially for us and we are the family he has picked out especially for her. This little girl is already loved and supported by our wonderful friends and family.

I can't wait to be on the list and then I can stalk the blogs & the AGCI listserv trying to figure out movement over the month between update phone calls! These months of paperwork are finally going to be worth it!! It seems like the process has been longer than it actually has, because we were accepted by AGCI right before Christmas and then the most fabulous social worker in the world was on vacation enjoying herself in Hawaii (imagine that!), so we lost about 5 weeks when not much was happening. Although frustrating, the things not in my control are in God's and I have faith knowing he has a plan for us and our daughter.

Praise be to God!