What to dwell on

Well, we’re coming off a fabulous Memorial Day weekend. We were able to rent a cabin at Timber Bay Camp north of the Twin Cities and enjoy a lot of good time together as a family of five. We enjoyed identifying the beautiful wildflowers, noticing the many fun creatures around us, feeding the horses,  impromptu hanging out by the lake, hiking to the frog bog, kayaking with the kids for the first time, cooking hotdogs and marsh mellows over the fire and even witnessing a mama eagle teaching her young one to fly. I didn't have my camera with me most of the time, but did capture a few moments....

 

Now that I’ve painted a picture perfect weekend and you’re all going “aww…that sounds so amazing and wonderful!” Let me continue.

We enjoyed gathering bouquets of wildflowers until we realized some were protected species and we probably should leave them alone. Every once in a while we’d hear Annie shriek in pure terror at seeing mosquitos land on her arm,  run to her and try to calm her and convince her it was OK not go home yet. You can also imagine the parental mood while monitoring three young children excitedly surrounding a raging campfire while randomly tripping over rocks and holding long, sharp, wooden, and metal objects.  All this while trying to actually get some dinner prepared. Then watching the boys get their hopes up to go fishing with some new friends, only to have them dashed and in tears because the line they were given was all tangled and unusable. We were constantly checking each other for ticks, peeling off leeches from various body parts and to top it off having a frog get lost in our fully packed van while and attempting to find it while swatting at zillions of mosquitos who had decided to swarm us at that exact moment in time.

 

So, when asked to describe our weekend, we have the option to describe it either as the first paragraph or the second. Or of some combination of them both. It seems life is usually some crazy and unpredictable blend of both. However, I do think we have to make a choice as to which description we choose to dwell on.

As I write this, our agency Director and another staff are probably preparing to head back to the States from their two weeks in China. We have heard no news personally from them, just a general update that the relationship and partnership with the orphanage is official and so very soon, we will be hearing about specific children who need families.

On that note, our agency has asked us to make it known their China program is growing and as of now they have more children assigned to them than they have homes for. I know adoption is not for everyone. I know it’s a call not on everyone's heart. I also think it IS a call on some of our hearts.  I also believe God gives us stepping stones in our path towards the answering of the call. In a spirit of respect for every one’s individual journey, today I’m praying for a stepping stone in the journey towards adoption in at least one of your paths.  As you’ve followed our story so far, or others you know, if there is a stirring within you at all, please do not ignore it. Just stop reading this blog, pray and ask the Creator and Savior of the universe…. “How do you want to use me/us to be a blessing? Is it to take in one of your orphans as our own?” Then listen to His heart. I would love to hear from you and pray for you.

Adoption is not going to be a walk in the park. I’ve read the books. I’ve heard the stories from families gone before us.  There will be shrieks of terror, lost frogs in the van, sharp objects around the fire and making mistakes of picking the wrong flowers. Sometimes when I think about these things, all the potential challenges and heartaches of the future, I can get a bit worried.  Even a little scared.  Can we handle this emotionally? Do we have enough support? But, we do feel led this far, so I have to trust God will provide for our needs as a family.  Why would He bring us this far and abandon us? And while I cognitively know hard times are likely coming, I want to choose to dwell on the other side of adoption. The side where I get to see another child take her first kayak ride by herself when she’s always been too afraid to leave my side for fear I will not be there when she comes back. The side where our daughter takes a minute to notice a beautiful wildflower because she has spent her entire life within a very small radius of God’s beautiful world. And the part where I get to point up high, showing her the mama eagle as she takes her baby eagle out for a glide over the water and talk about how I will always be her mom and take care of her just like that mama eagle is taking care of her baby in the sky.

We hope your Memorial Day weekend was filled with many moments to dwell on!

 

 

Psalm 146 

Praise the Lord! Yes, really praise him! 

I will praise him as long as I live, yes, even with my dying breath.
Don’t look to men for help; their greatest leaders fail;  for every man must die.

His breathing stops, life ends, and in a moment all he planned for himself is ended. 

But happy is the man who has the God of Jacob as his helper, whose hope is in the Lord his God— the God who made both earth and heaven, the seas and everything in them.

He is the God who keeps every promise,  who gives justice to the poor and oppressed and food to the hungry.

He frees the prisoners  and opens the eyes of the blind; he lifts the burdens from those bent down beneath their loads.

For the Lord loves good men. 

He protects the immigrants and cares for the orphans and widows.

But he turns topsy-turvy the plans of the wicked.

The Lord will reign forever. O Jerusalem^, your God is King in every generation! Hallelujah!

Praise the Lord!

A thought or two from Kevin

Logistics update…

Homestudy…check.

US Immigration…check.

Next up…China Dossier. 

I find a certain amount of satisfaction from a daily dose of the US mail.  Enough satisfaction that it is not uncommon for me to ask Courtney on my commute home, “was there any good mail today?”  So when Courtney beat me to the topic, I knew there was news.  Just four days after being fingerprinted as part of our submission to US Immigration (USCIS), we received a letter in the mail stating that we were approved to bring a child into this country!

In case all the logistics are fuzzy, this is the approval that we were told could take up to 90 days and things went through for us in a little over 30 days.  Our social worker told us that after fingerprinting, it often only takes a few weeks to get approval.  We thought that was pretty good.  So, when the approval came 4 days later, we were impressed.

Our next step in the process is for our Social Worker to submit our dossier to China in the next week or so.  We’ve been told that this portion of the process is fairly efficient, so it may only takes a few weeks for them to approve us.  While there is still more paperwork that will need to change hands in the months ahead of us, it certainly feels like there is a fair amount of positive momentum. 

If that news is not big enough, just wait, there’s more.  The director of the agency we are working with will be travelling to China from May 13^th to 26^th.  There are two orphanages that she will be visiting.  She will be interacting with the kids and learning a bit of their stories, taking videos to be able to share, and reviewing files with available background on the children.  There is a very real possibility that she will find a little one for us to welcome into our family.  Please join us in praying for her journey.

On the eve of Mother’s Day, there is a mix of bitter and sweet.  The sweetness is me cherishing the season of life that our kids are enjoying with their mom.  It is a blessing for me to watch them soak up all that Courtney pours into them.  Just the other day, Jude was wearing a shirt that said ‘my mom rocks’, and I smiled when he made sure to remind her that he thinks she rocks.  Courtney is preparing herself to be a mom for a little one that we have not met yet, but we will…and it will before we know it!  On the bitter side of things, that same little one is experiencing the early season of life without a mom guiding her through it.  That is disheartening.  I grieve the loss of my mom too.  Her imprint on me is still real.  It has been nearly 21 years since she died, but I do imagine how she would integrate into this little life of mine…and that makes me sad and happy all at the same time.  Moms are truly an amazing gift.          

So we continue to wait patiently…at least most days.  We continually release the elements of this journey that we cannot control into the hands of a God that is known for making beautiful things.  There is a story He is piecing together, and we thank you for encouraging us and praying for us as we experience the highs and lows of the story as it is written.