Update

Not a lot of news on the adoption front. We went to the health department the other day and got our first series of vaccinations. One more trip and that's over! I know the kids will be relieved! And on Thursday, we received a letter from USCIS stating they are processing our orphan petition. We aren't sure excactly what that means except we are on our way. To us, it was just another confirmation that God is in control.

Isaiah 52:12 says, "For you will not leave in a hurry, and you will not have to take flight; because the LORD is going before you and the GOD OF ISRAEL is your rear guard."

All along we have known God is in control. He is the one who led us to adoption. He is the one calling us to care for the orphans. He is guiding us each step as long as we are obedient. Completely obedient. Even when it doesn't make sense or it brings fear, we are still called to be
obedient. We are called to be Jesus' hands and feet. When we see someone suffering, are we to turn our heads to ignore or have compassion and meet their needs? It is so much easier to ignore. Serving Jesus and others is not easy. It takes time, effort and a lot of love. But it is so rewarding! There is no greater joy than serving God. In it, a lot of times we feel like we are helping the ones we are serving. However, our family has found we are usually the ones receiving the blessing.

Our hearts have been so burdened lately for children. They are our passion (as most of you already know). We love kids, but even more so we love kids that other people find hard to love. God draws us to them! He knows what He is doing. He has a plan. God has an ultimate plan for us and we are excited to see what it will be. On the way to the end, though, He has so much more for us. Everything is a building block for something else. Proverbs 16:9 says, "The heart of man plans his way, but the Lord establishes his steps." How true we are seeing that really is!

Orphans of God by Sydney

There are 147 million orphans in the world!! It's kind of like the starfish, you can't throw all the starfish back in the water, but why not save just one? Make a boy or girl your family.

I prayed for a sister for 3 years now I'm getting one and another brother!!!!

Go to YouTube.com and watch Sam and Esther.

Pray for the orphans of the world!!! They need it, trust me. Save one of the 147 million orphans!

Tell your friends about our blog.

Also please pray.

Thanks!!!!!!!!!!

What made you decide to adopt? And why did you choose Ghana?

These are two questions we hear almost daily. So what made us decide to adopt? GOD. I'll start at the beginning. Our daughter (who is now 10) started watching countless adoption videos when she was 7. She would sit in front of the computer and cry for hours. I just knew one day God would use her to save orphans. I wanted to adopt because I wanted our house to be FULL of kids and Righ didn't want to adopt at all. So, that's how it played out for the next 3 years. Back and forth, back and forth. Over that time period, though, my heart changed from wanting more children to saving them. God was breaking my heart for the orphans. We all knew Sydney was praying for a sister. So, last summer God really started working on me. I was so convinced of His calling on us to adopt that I started trying to persuade Righ. Wrong tactic! Righ needed to hear God, not me! In September, I reached a breaking point. Instead of continuing to ask God to change Righ's heart, I prayed He would take the desire from my heart if it was not His will. Guess what? It stayed. So, I waited and waited. I became patient and let God work on Righ. Remember all this time, Sydney has been praying for a sister. One night in November, we tucked Sydney in and she was crying for her "sister". God used our precious 10 year old daughter to change Righ's heart. He had been hearing God's calling, but ignoring it for months. This time he heeded. So, we started our paperwork at the end of November and here we are waiting for our little ones to come home.

Another God moment happened on a Thursday in January. I felt God stirring siblings in my heart. I talked with Righ and he said "NO!" Even though he said no, he agreed to pray because he only wanted to do what God wanted us to do. After much prayer, we both felt strongly it was God's desire for us to adopt siblings. The awesome thing, though, was our two children were relinquished a few days after the stirring in my heart. God is so incredible! He chose our children for us and He had a plan for us all along! While waiting for photos and medicals on this sibling set that had been given up, we prayed God would undoubtedly show us whether they were our children upon sight. Amazingly, we knew immediately! This overwhelming feeling came over both of us! There were no doubts!

Why Ghana? Back long ago when Sydney started watching those videos, she signed us up on Rainbowkids.com. So last August, we received an email of a child up for adoption from Ghana. Well, all summer I had felt my heart being pulled toward Africa. Whenever I would pray about adoption and where it would be, God's answer was always Africa. When I received the email about Ghana, I was intrigued. I did my research and liked what I saw. Our eyes had been opened to Ghana, but we wanted to let God do the leading. After praying in November, Righ and I both felt our child was in Ghana. We are so thankful we followed His leading. We are so thankful we obeyed His call. We are so thankful for children who live a continent away from us, but are our own. We love them so much already and cannot wait to see their sweet, little faces.

God Leads the Way

Isaiah 52:12 says, "For you shall not go out in haste, and you shall not go in flight, for the Lord will go before you, and the God of Israel will be your rear guard."

This speaks so loudly to me. There is no way to know what will happen next on an adoption journey. There are so many unknown variables. The one constant is God. We know He is paving the way for us and protecting us through every step. This is so true in all of life, too. We just need to be willing to listen, obey and He will make a way before us.

Please continue to pray for our I600A to be processed quickly. It will get us to our children much quicker. Pray for our friends, the Bennetts. He is leaving for Ukraine on a mission for orphans for 10 days next week. Pray for him as he travels and for his family staying behind. Also, the Moros are awaiting the arrival of their baby girl from South Korea. Pray for them during this time. Check out their website, faithfullyadopting.com. They have an inspirational story!

Love

No one ever said adoption is easy. These last few days have been difficult. I think of our children and cannot wait for them to be here. It seems there is a void in our house, which seems so odd to me. It's like we miss their presence and they have never even been here. I think of our little girl. She is so tiny, malnourished and I cannot wait to bring her home to give her all the food she could ever possibly want! Then, I think of her sadness. She is only 2 years old and yet her medical profile listed her as unhappy and apathetic. She should be full of joy, just like Aiden who is only a couple of months older than her. She should talk incessantly like Aiden, but wouldn't communicate at all for her physical. I have faith in my God that one day she will be so joy filled that people will be amazed! And yet as I think of these two children that belong to us and our family, I cannot help but think of all the other orphans in the world who do not have a waiting family. They need a family! God calls us to protect the innocent and weak! These children need an advocate. They need someone fighting for them. Please pray for them, pray that people will have their hearts and minds opened to them. I am so thankful God called us to these two children. I'm thankful He chose us for them. I cannot wait to hold their sweet faces and tell them how much Jesus loves them!

Siblings!

We have accepted the referral of a sweet 5 yo boy and 2 yo girl. Actually, our little girl will be 3 in April so she and Aiden are the same age. He is very healthy and doing fine. She is underweight, malnourished and has a speech delay. The report says she is unhappy and apathetic. However, we have faith that she just needs some food and love! Our next step is to wait for USCIS. We should be traveling to Africa soon!

Changes!

A lot has happened in the last two months. We submitted our agency fees at the beginning of January and began our homestudy. Those are the two things that truly get the adoption process moving. We received our completed homestudy this week and mailed our I600A form to USCIS. Basically, Homeland Security approves us to bring orphans into the US. And yes, you read it right! Orphans! We are adopting siblings!

Our journey has been God led and it has been awesome so far. I cannot even begin to imagine how incredible it will be to get our little ones home! We are waiting on medical profiles of a sweet sibling set and will keep you updated.

These children have changed our lives and they aren't even home yet. I have always read that happens in adoption stories. It is a totally different thing to experience it, though. It has been so sweet!! God has truly blessed us and I am so amazed at His love every day!

Another change: our whole family will travel to Ghana! We prayed diligently and decided to once again step out in faith. This is the "trip of a lifetime" and we want our three children to be able to experience it. We have seen them change so much over the last few months. All three of them are ecstatic and even begged for us to adopt siblings. (Obviously, God did the leading, not our precious children!) Three weeks ago, we applied for our passports and TODAY we received 2 of them. Obviously, that was very fast. Typical wait time is at least 4-6 weeks.

Lastly, we have an unspoken prayer request. This is very important to us and we are unable to share the details, but God already knows. So, please join us in prayer!

We are having a fundraising garage sale March 26 and 27 with another family that is adopting from Ghana (so excited about that). If you have anything you would like to donate, please let me know. We will pick it up! Thanks!