Congratulations!

Our friends received PA last week are were able to share pictures of their precious Emily! Congratulations, David and April. She's beautiful!!!!

Referral (Make it Plural) Part IV

Plural Referral – Part IV
During our long weekend of waiting and praying, we were faced with the very real possibility that our daughter might not be on the next shared list. This would mean that our son’s file would still be ‘out there’ for at least another 30 days. Needless to say, we had already fallen head over heels in love with him and couldn’t bear the thought of losing him.

Every time my human self would begin to worry, I would turn to the Scriptures and be reminded that God has empowered me with the Holy Spirit who allows me to pray with confidence and expectation. I would also dwell on the mountains He had already moved and His numerous promises fulfilled.

During this battle, we had enlisted an army of prayer warriors, and at 7:30 a.m., Monday, May 4th our prayers were answered! Karla called with the referral of our daughter! We quickly viewed her file and completed our Nurture and Care Plan for both children. To our delight, Karla called again that evening to tell us that our Letters of Intent were being electronically sent to C*AA and that we should stop and pray because both children were being locked in for us at that moment. God is so good! But there’s more …

Stepping into the realm of special needs adoption can be a process, at least it was for us. We started out accepting a very short list of minor needs, and over time God opened our hearts to more severe needs, giving us peace that if we are obedient, He will supply what we need, including the stamina, funds and education to nurture and care for our children. After all, their most significant special need is a family.

We were expecting to adopt a toddler with a need that would require multiple trips to a specialist some 8 to 12 hours away over a period of 6 to 8 weeks. I could already envision the trips. I would take our newest 13 year old son along so we could improve our communication, and there would be tons of laughter, pointing and even the possibility that I might learn a few new words.

So now I get to tell you about my children! Our daughter’s Chinese name is **** and she has resided in **** since the day after her birth in **** of ***. When she was 8 months old she had surgery to repair her cleft lip under C*AA’s Tomorrow Plan. We have named her Kinley Grace, and she is essentially completely healthy with a postoperative cleft lip!

Our son, ***, was very ill and left on the roadside at 3 months of age, and has spent the last 13 years in foster care and the ***. He will turn 14 in ***, 2010, at which time he would no longer be eligible for international adoption and would be left to support himself. While this makes my heart ache, I know that I serve a God who turns ashes to beauty, and He has beautiful plans for our precious son, Kooper Joe. God is always on time. He is never late!

We have been told that in the rare instance C*AA grants a request for a family to adopt two children at the same time, the children must be from the same orphanage. This was waived in our case, but we were warned that we would have two provincial stays, about five days each, and extended travel and obviously increased fee.
We were once again blown away by the fact that our children are in neighboring provinces! Of course travel details will be worked out later, but there is a possibility we will be able to receive both children at the same time, drive to each Civil Affairs office for the adoption proceedings, and not have an extended stay! We expect to travel in ***, unless C*AA decides to expedite our paperwork :)

Once our Letters of Intent to adopt were submitted to C*AA, we were told to expect our PA (pre-approval to adopt) within 7 to 10 business days. I had care packages ready to ship the minute we got our PA, and on Monday, May 11 I began praising God in advance for sending our PA the next day, which would be Day 7. Karla called at 9:45 p.m. May 12 to let us know we had PA on 2 children! Needless to say, both care packages were shipped the following day.

I am not prophetic, and I am no one special (apart from Christ). But God has shown me the power in faithful, confident prayer. If I pray for something and don’t really believe it’s going to happen, I am faithless. I know my God is able to answer my prayers, and I know He is willing. I praise Him for giving me an abundant life in Jesus!
“If you believe, you will receive whatever you ask for in prayer.” Matthew 21:22

Plural Referral - Part III

Referral (Make it Plural)
Part III
On Friday, April 24, we were disappointed the new shared list wasn’t released. But we received a priceless treasure, an update on our son. It included eight new photos and answers to the questions we’d posed on Tuesday. Finally, three days after receiving the referral we looked at his photos – what a doll! Seriously, can you believe we’d had his file for three days and not looked at his beautiful face? But we had already made our decision and were just waiting for further affirmation that this was really going to happen. The minute we saw his face we knew he was our son. He appears ornery, silly, intelligent and all boy!

We had no idea we’d wait another nine days for our second referral. Though in hindsight it seems a short wait, it was very difficult. A bit of our son’s ‘red thread’ was being revealed to us and it both affirmed God’s plan and concerned us.

Some call it a red thread, but looking back we see it as God’s providence! Little did we know that our son’s file had been held for over two years and had only been returned to C*AA on April 13. April 14 is the day that God instantly and unmistakably bent my heart toward older child adoption!

There are a lot of unanswered questions concerning this matter, but we realize we may never know the reason, except that if his file had been available two years … one year … or even one month earlier, we were not open to this call. However, during the two weeks we waited for a second referral so we could lock in both files our son was being heavily advocated for. I struggled so much with this because on the one hand this precious child deserved advocating – he had been waiting his whole life for a family! On the other hand, I wanted to shout from the rooftop that he is our son, but since we hadn’t locked his file I really couldn’t make that claim!

Again, I turned to the Lord in earnest prayer. We had asked a few friends to join us, and I included this statement in our prayer request: “This is where complete trust comes in. I know deep in my heart that if this precious boy is our son that a thousand emails can go out, a thousand families can view his file, even for a thousand days – and God will still bring him home. I also know that if God does not intend for him to be our son that He has already set him into another Christian family and will soon reveal the two children He has forever planned for our family, having used this precious young man to affirm His plans for us. We are truly in a season of waiting. I admit that my heart accepts that concept differently at any given point in the day. We know we have to continue to arm ourselves with Truth or we will fall prey to the lies of the enemy.”

These are some of the Truths I prayed back to my Father: Psalm 33:11 – But the plans of the Lord stand firm forever, the purposes of his heart through all generations. Isaiah 14:24 – The Lord almighty has sworn, “Surely as I have planned, so it will be, and as I have purposed, so it will stand.” Job 42:2 – “I know that you can do all things; no plan of yours can be thwarted.” Psalm 40:5 – 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.

On April 29 I wrote this prayer in my journal: Father, I surrender my plans to you. I give them back to you. Father, I am afraid now. I admit I fear C*AA will change their mind. But your Word says your plans cannot be thwarted! I praise you!”

The Lord gave me these Truths: Hebrews 3:6 – But Christ is faithful as a son over God’s house, and we are his house, if we hold on to our courage and the hope of which we boast. Mark 5:36 - …Don’t be afraid; just believe. John 14:27 – Peace I leave with you; my peace I give you. I do not give to you as the world gives. Do not let your hearts be troubled and do not be afraid …

On Thursday, April 30 we learned that C*AA would be closed for a long holiday weekend and the shared list would not be released until sometime after that. So we wait, trust and pray …

Part IV still ahead …

Plural Referral - Part II

Thank you for your sweet comments and emails! We are saving every one of them. Yesterday was a whirlwind with packing and shipping the two care packages and preparing for our youth graduation banquet ... but it all got done, and today - well, today is just as crazy. Our "Cupcakes & Candles" fundraiser is tonight! Here is part II of our testimony. May He be glorified.

Referral (Make it Plural)
Part II
Tuesday, April 21, my day began as usual at 5. I felt tired, sort of confused and at peace all at the same time, if that’s even possible. Clayton told me he felt the same way. Before he left to drive the school bus at 6:30 he prayed from his heart. He asked God to very clearly reveal His plan to us. He stated our desire to be obedient and that if God would orchestrate the path, we would follow.

Little did we know our world would be rocked today! At 8 the phone rang, and it was Karla. We had been praying for an answer … and she told me we had a referral! What?!? Less than a day earlier we had asked if we could adopt two children and today we have a referral. Then again, we had asked God to make His plans very clear to us.

Clayton came home as soon as he got off the bus and we reviewed the file but avoided looking at the picture. It’s truly amazing, the transformation God made on our hearts. Clayton was not at all ready for this – until God presented it. And then we both knew this was clearly His plan for us. We weren’t really afraid of his age, his special need or even the fact his paperwork was over four years old. We prayed, talked, prayed, cried and prayed some more. In the end we knew we were where God wanted us.
We called Karla back and told her we definitely wanted to adopt this beautiful boy but did not want to jeopardize our referral of a toddler. We were still waiting on a clear “Yes” from C*AA to the question of adopting two children.

As I was driving that evening I heard a song I’d listened to a hundred times, only this time it resonated in my heart. Don’t Get Comfortable by Brandon Heath. “I’m gonna move this mountain, then I’m gonna move you in. This is not yesterday. You were standing on my shoulder, now you’re standing on the edge .. you are gonna live like you used to dream.” Our God was already moving some seemingly unmovable mountains … and He was allowing us to be a part of His plan.

By 10 a.m. Wednesday, April 22, it seemed we weren’t going to get an answer. We had already fallen hopelessly in love with this boy, and hadn’t even looked at the one photo we had received. We continued to pray and guard our hearts as we waited. At 10:45 as I was sitting at the school waiting for Kayden my phone rang and Karla was calling with the most amazing God-sized news – C*AA had granted our request to adopt two children! We are completely aware that this doesn’t happen every day. We also know there is nothing special about us apart from our Lord, and only His intervention gleaned the response we had been praying for.

We were now faced with another wait – the wait for our daughter to appear on the shared list. C*AA did not want us to lock our son’s file until we had received the second referral, and we were required to submit both Letters of Intent at the same time.

A God-sized adventure like this doesn’t come without attempted intervention from the Enemy. He has tried to rear his ugly head in many ways, but our prayer has been that God would help us to keep our gaze upon Him, draw from His strength, affirm ourselves in His ways and stay armed with the Truth.

We are not taking His blessings for granted, and we don’t want to grow complacent and comfortable. We remain in earnest prayer as He continues to ‘landscape’ as one of my friends said!
Part III still ahead …

REFERRAL (make it plural!)

PA ~ we got the call at 9:48 tonight!
I know y'all are wanting pictures first so here you go ... and then I'll start a series of posts sharing the goodness of our mountain-moving, awe-inspiring, miraculous God!

Announcing Ms. Kinley Grace! Isn't she beautiful!

But wait, there's more:

Announcing Mr. Kooper Joe! Isn't he gorgeous (and slightly ornery)!

No, they are not siblings ... yet, and no, they are not in the same orphanage or even province. But they are forever our daughter and son!

Plural Referral, Part I
On April 14 I responded to a burden the Lord had only recently placed on my heart by sharing it with my husband and asking a handful of friends to pray. Through a series of circumstances, conversations and events, unbeknownst to us, God was perfectly orchestrating a journey that would change our hearts and the direction of our steps. He had broken my heart for older waiting children, the ones near aging out of the system.
Once I shared my heart with Clayton we began to pray together, struggling with the seeming impossibility and impracticality of this notion. God continued to remind us that He is not practical – He is miraculous.
We prayed for a week, and on Monday, April 20, Clayton told me I could call our adoption agency and ask if there was even a possibility we could adopt two children at the same time, a waiting older child and a waiting SN toddler. I was so frightened to ask the question because it seemed like such a crazy notion, but my heart wouldn’t let it go.

Karla and I talked about it, and she made no promises except to ask C*AA if they would grant special permission for us to do this. The following entry is from my prayer journal:
… We asked ‘the question’ to Karla today. Our request will go before C*AA soon, if not tonight. I am boldly praying for “Yes.” God has to orchestrate every step here and move a lot of mountains, but if this is His plan for us, He will make it happen. I want to boldly pray His Word back to Him. Psalm 5:3 … in the morning I lay my requests before you and wait in expectation. v7 - But I, by your great mercy, will come into your house … v8 – Lead me, O Lord, in your righteousness … Psalm 16:2 – You are my Lord; apart from you I have no good thing. V7 – I will praise the Lord, who counsels me; even at night my heart instructs me. Psalm 25:14 – The Lord confides in those who fear him; he makes his covenant known to them.
Wow! God is my best friend! The more I seek Him, the more He will reveal to me. The same God who created the Universe wants to reveal Himself to me!
Psalm 27:4 – One thing I ask of the Lord; this is what I seek: that I may dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life, to gaze upon the beauty of the Lord and to seek Him in his temple. Psalm 37:4 – Delight yourself in the Lord and He will give you the desires of your heart.
It is midnight and finally I am exhausted and have to sleep. It’s in His hands.

Part II to follow ...

Did I tell you God is good! Praise Him!

Referral!!!!!!!!!!!!

Just trust me when I say that God is so very good, and His plans far exceed our wildest imagination! We will share as we can. We have been matched with our child from the new shared waiting child list. Right now we are praising Him!

I know that you can do all things; no plan of yours can be thwarted. Job 42:2