If this is your first time visiting our blog, you may want to began by reading why we are choosing to adopt. We ask for your prayers, encouragement, and support as we go where the Lord is calling.
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.
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!
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!
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!
Submit application to CAS Receive approval of application from CAS Submit application/packet to Harmony for home study Submit contracts and initial program fees to CAS Complete home study interviews Begin working on dossier Submit completed home study to CAS for review Receive approval on home study and pay 2nd of program fees File I-800A to USCIS Submit dossier to Moldova Complete USCIS fingerprinting and receive approval Wait for referral of 0-3 year old girl (1-9 month wait) ß We are here Accept referral and pay international fees upon acceptance Travel to Moldova for first meeting with daughter and court date Pay Moldova taxes Return home for 6-8 weeks without daughter Travel to Moldova to bring our daughter home
Time in Moldova
Isaiah 1:17
Learn to do right! Seek justice, encourage the oppressed. Defend the cause of the orphan.
Ephesians 1:4-6
For he chose us in him before the creation of the world to be holy and blameless in his sight. In love he predestined us to be adopted as his sons through Jesus Christ, in accordance with his pleasure and will— to the praise of his glorious grace, which he has freely given us in the One he loves.
James 1:27
Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself from being polluted by the world.
Romans 8:22-25
We know that the whole creation has been groaning as in the pains of childbirth right up to the present time. Not only so, but we ourselves, who have the firstfruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly as we wait eagerly for our adoption as sons, the redemption of our bodies. For in this hope we were saved. But hope that is seen is no hope at all. Who hopes for what he already has? But if we hope for what we do not yet have, we wait for it patiently.
10 WAYS EVERY PERSON CAN CARE FOR ORPHANS
1. PRAY for them 2. SPEAK UP for them 3. PROVIDEfor their needs 4. SUPPORT those who support them 5. PROTECT them from harm 6. VISIT them where they are 7. GIVE sacrificially to them 8. ENCOURAGE them to press on 9. ADOPT them into your family 10. MOBILIZE your church or community for them
