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I really wish you could just read my mind because I've written so many blogs in my head! I'm sorry I haven't updated since before Christmas...but let me tell you, these past 7 months have been quite a journey! God has been up to so much in our lives, and we haven't been allowed to share the details publicly. But here's the big news. WE KNOW WHO OUR DAUGHTER IS! I so wish I could share details and pictures, but I can't until she is legally ours. Here's what you can know: Caleb is going to be a big brother! 

We actually met our sweet princess, who we are calling Abby, one year to date from our agency receiving our application to adopt. How great is our God?!? Meeting our daughter for the first time was beyond amazing. Words cannot describe the feelings and emotions we experienced. And it was just like she knew us. Like she knew we are her Mommy and Daddy. It was unbelievable. To know that God took us halfway across the world to meet our daughter and is working all things out so we can bring her home...WOW.

As Mary Beth Chapman has said, "Adoption is even more of a miracle than birth. I tell Shaoey [my daughter], 'God has brought you from the other side of the world. I had nothing in common with you, didn't know you. They just handed you to me, and you are every bit a Chapman...God picked you to be a Chapman'."

Leaving our daughter was the most difficult thing I have ever done. It is amazing how quickly we fell in love with her and how she is ours...even though she's not home yet. I have tried to keep myself as busy as possible but this momma wants her baby home SO bad! We've been waiting since our first trip to find out when we can return. Everything is almost in order, and we hope to bring her home very soon! And yes, I will post pictures when she's home! So don't worry! There will be lots and lots of pictures!

You know, I've been reflecting a lot lately, and I stand amazed at our adoption process. It has been long and at times felt unending. But God and His plans are so much bigger and greater than my tiny mind can fathom. If you remember, our story started in October 2009 (well, for me anyway). For Austin, it began in January 2010. And for our family, we filed the first piece of paperwork in April 2010. When we felt God calling us to adopt, our son was only 8 months old. We felt God leading us to adopt from Moldova, and only 2 agencies at the time handled Moldovan adoptions. We were told we should wait another 6+ months for our son to be older so that we could be certain we would not disrupt the natural birth order. We asked that they make an exception because we knew God was in control of our daughter's age - whether she was younger or older than our son - and our agency spent a day to review everything and came back and agreed for us to proceed. People around us thought we were crazy (and honestly, more days than not we thought the same about ourselves). However, God saw the bigger picture because...get this because it's good...had we waited the 6+ months as suggested so that our son would be older, we would have missed our daughter. We. Would. Have. Missed. Her. God knew that we had to move when we did so that we would be prepared for the email about her to come through. She is in a different country than Moldova (and wouldn't you know that only a handful of agencies...including ours...work within this country...God is so good!), so we completed a whole new dossier and began to wait for the news that we could travel to meet her. Three days after receiving the travel phone call, we were on the plane headed to meet her! My husband and I stand in awe of how God works...how He knew we needed to be with this one specific agency so that when our daughter's information came through, we would receive it...and how He also knew that His timing for calling us to adopt was perfect! Oh, and if this doesn't show you just how God is in all the details, Moldova changed their laws in the fall (as we were waiting to be matched with a referral), and now the youngest child available for adoption is 2 years old (yep, that's our son's age). His ways don't always make sense to us, and if I'm learning anything in this process, it is that I must trust Him to work out all the details in the calling He's given us.

Please continue to pray for our family and especially for our Abby. We are coming to get you, Sweet Girl! We love you so much and can't wait to bring you home!

Merry Christmas

Please take a few minutes to listen to this beautiful song by Third Day. During this Christmas season, pray for the families who are waiting on their children to come home, and especially pray for all of the children who are without a family this Christmas. 

An ornament just for you...

To our sweet little girl:

It just doesn't even feel right that you're not home with us for Christmas. Oh, how we want you home with your family! Even though you're half a world away, you are not forgotten.  Daddy and I think about you all the time, and we pray for you daily. We can't wait until we see your precious face! We had hoped that the song, "I'll Be Home for Christmas" would be our special song this year...but next year, next year it will be!

It's a tradition in our home to buy a Christmas ornament for each family member every year to represent their year. We wanted so badly to have a Christmas ornament with your picture this year, but it's not the Lord's timing yet. But soon...very soon we pray! So instead, we found a very special ornament to hang on our tree in honor of you. Even though you're not home with us physically, we're celebrating Christmas with you in our hearts. 

We love you already and can't wait to bring you home to us!

Love,

Mommy and Daddy

We're Still Here...

Wow, it's been awhile since I last posted an update. No worries though...we're still here. And we're still waiting on our precious little girl's referral. So many times I've wanted to post something....but I just wasn't sure what to write. So many thoughts have gone through my head, but I just wasn't sure how to articulate them. What I do know is that there is not a day that goes by that we aren't thinking about our daughter. Not a day goes by that we're not praying to God, asking Him to take care of her and bring her home to us soon.

I read this quote earlier in the week by one of my favorites, Beth Moore, who simply stated "God purposes to use every second of divinely-ordained waiting to build us into the individuals our futures demand we be." How powerful is that?! And what a different perspective it gave me! This time that we are waiting for our daughter to come home is not wasted! God is using this specific time to prepare us for the journey to which He's called us. When I stop and think about the impact of this, it makes me so thankful that my Savior loves me enough to not let me have my way and that His desire is for me to be ready for what He is going to do! Many times throughout this process I have become discouraged, and the Lord always gently reminds me that He is still at work, even when I can't see it. Very recently I saw the His hand at work in something that I had been praying about for quite some time...I mean, months and months and months. And even though I had been praying about it, I didn't know when I would see an answer. And in God's perfect timing (and I mean PERFECT), He moved. And I was awe-struck over what He did! I felt Him softly whisper, "See, I'm still here. And I always move in just the right time. Your adoption is no different." What a refreshing thought to know that He IS faithful and He hasn't forgotten about us or our daughter...that He is bringing her home to us in His timing!

I've been listening to the song below almost daily. It's a song I remembered hearing back in late middle school, and one day recently, out of the blue, I just had this intense urge to listen to it. I love the message of encouragement during the waiting period. How gracious the Lord is to us! Many of you reading this may be in a period of some kind of waiting, and I hope this song encourages you as well.




Isaiah 40:28-31 says, "Do you not know? Have you not heard? The LORD is the everlasting God, the Creator of the ends of the earth. He will not grow tired or weary, and his understanding no one can fathom. He gives strength to the weary and increases the power of the weak. Even youths grow tired and weary, and young men stumble and fall; but those who hope in the LORD will renew their strength. They will soar on wings like eagles; they will run and not grow weary, they will walk and not faint."

Praise be to our God who sustains us even in the waiting!

Are You WILLING?

This is a must-see video.

Simply Love T-Shirt Sale!

We have a limited number of Simply Love Moldova t-shirts left and are offering them at a discounted rate in order to move them out. Shirts are now $15 each (plus $2.50 for shipping if applicable)! There are still several women's small and medium shirts left (and remember, they all fit like unisex shirts). And there are literally a total of 8 men's shirts left. We do not plan on reordering shirts any time soon, so if you've been wanting a t-shirt, now is the time to buy!

Size

Small - Brown $15.00                 Small - Black $15.00                 Medium - Brown $15.00                 Medium - Black $15.00

Size

Medium - Army Green $15.00                 Large - Army Green $15.00                 Large - Brown $15.00

Waiting....still...

On October 9th we hit the mark of our second month of waiting. Now I realize in terms of adoption processes, our wait hasn't been that long yet. But every day that passes seems so long to us. Especially since the paperwork part of our process went so quickly! We honestly expected to have a referral by now, but it hasn't happened like we thought. We don't have a timeline of when things will happen. We do know the process has slowed down but referrals are still being made. There are two families in front of us using our same agency that are wanting to adopt a girl around the same age as us. They have to receive their referrals before we will receive ours. They have been waiting over 2 months.

So here's me being vulnerable. I'm having a really hard time waiting. REALLY HARD. I just grapple with the timeline and that fact that this isn't going like I want it to. I just don't understand. I don't get why we moved along so fast just to be at a stand still. Just to wait. I don't get why we were called to adopt when we were only to find ourselves waiting for our referral. I just feel this intense sense of urgency not only to get our daughter home, but to have a referral before the end of the year. And I'm just tired of being patient!

As we were driving to Gatlinburg this past weekend for our annual college retreat, I stared in awe at the magnificent beauty around me. To think that the God of the universe created all of the mountains and the beautiful views I saw, a thought struck me. If our God can create the entire universe with all of its amazing features in just 6 days, why do I have such a hard time BELIEVING that He can move our process as quickly as He desires! He is choosing not to act right now. And while we sit and wait, He wants us to trust Him. Trust that His timing is perfect. Trust that our daughter is not yet ready for us. Trust that He is working in our hearts so that we will be the parents to her that He's called us to be. Trust that He's working all things out for our good. But it's so hard to trust when you cannot see. FAITH. He is growing our faith in Him. Every painful step of the way.

I must remember that God is sovereign, and that I am not. He chooses to do things in ways that don't always make sense. Look at Abraham waiting until he was over 100 years old to have a son! Look at Noah building the ark, waiting for a flood when rain had never even occurred. Look at Joseph, who had to become a slave and who was imprisoned for something he didn't do...only to later be in charge of Egypt! Look at Joshua and the battle of Jericho...marching around the walled city and finally blowing trumpets and shouting, all which destroyed the city. Look at David, who at age 15 was anointed by God to be king over Israel...and yet it wasn't until 22 years later that he actually took the throne promised to him. Time after time in the Bible we see evidence of the Lord at work in strange ways. And let's not forget how He chose to save the world...through a virgin who bore Jesus in a manger who ultimately died a horrific death on a cross when He never sinned and was raised from the dead three days later, giving us a WAY to know Him! Yes, indeed, God's ways don't make sense and are often strange. But that's how God works.

So I have a choice: I can choose to allow worry and fear to grip me and then try to take control and do things my way, or I can choose to trust Him and take Him at His Word even when things don't make sense. It is a daily decision that I must choose to make. And God promises that as I choose to trust Him, He will direct me each step of the way.

Please pray for these specifics:

1. Pray that all of the officials looking over our dossier will feel compelled to move our family forward in the adoption process before the end of the year. Pray that God moves in their hearts and places a sense of urgency especially with placing the child who will become our daughter.

2. Don't stop praying for our daughter. Specifically that the Lord will hasten her arrival home. Pray that as it continues to get colder that she will have enough warm clothing and heat to keep her warm. Pray also that the Lord begins to prepare her for the huge change coming. Pray even that she might see us and hear our voices in her dreams so that when we do meet, she will already know about us.

3. Pray for Caleb. He will also be affected by the huge change coming. Pray that his heart will be tender and that he will love his sister. Pray that the Lord prepares him to become a brother (and whether he is a big or little brother, that the Lord gives him everything he needs for that role).

4. Pray for Austin and me. Pray that the Lord will continue to comfort us and give us peace while we wait. Pray that we will trust Him and His timing. Pray that when the enemy strikes and fear grips us because of all of the unknowns that we will stand strong in the TRUTH and will be able to withstand his attacks. Pray that this adoption process will bring glory to Him.

“Wait for the LORD; be strong and take heart and wait for the LORD.”  Psalm 27:14