Enter My World

It's such a strange thing to invite people to enter into this crazy, expensive, long, and kinda-makes-you-nutty world of orphan care/ foster care / adoption... especially when we haven't yet seen the light at the end of the tunnel for ourselves. But I feel this "calling", if you will, to be a voice for these kids. These precious, innocent kids that need families and are DEEPLY loved by God.

I've shared this before, but it just sums up all that swirls around in my head...

"Orphans are easier to ignore before you know their names. They are easier to ignore before you see their faces. It is easier to pretend they’re not real before you hold them in your arms. But once you do, everything changes” -David Platt

It's hard to put your passion out there for the world and just trust God that He will move in the hearts of those who he has called.  I just want to snap my fingers and see everyone have this same passion. But I'm learning a lot about letting go, and just trusting.

And I'm seeing such cool glimmers of hope in our church. One (pretty awesome) family in our church, in particular, was moved by this past week during our Orphan Sunday. So much in fact that they have been working like crazy since then to complete an application (that included arranging and completing a visit from a social worker!) in THREE days... so that their family can GIVE UP THEIR CHRISTMAS... to host two orphan girls from Latvia this winter.

Oh. my. goodness.

I am SO in awe of how he's moved in this family... to such a dramatic action for the sake of two little girls on the other side of the world that they have never met. Two girls who will get to experience His love within the sphere of this (did I mention they are amazing) family. Without hosting, these girls have almost 0% chance of being adopted, but with hosting, their chances of finding a permanant family (by the host family or another family in our community) jumps to 65-70%! 

Isn't that just so AWESOME?!! :)

Quote Book

I was just reading though our book of quotes and special memories from the boys, and found this one from a few months ago:

"While driving doing adoption errands, Canaan asked me what we were doing. I told him that we were taking care of paperwork... so China will say yes and let us adopt his baby sister. He asked, 'What if China says no?'.

I told him we have to pray that they say yes. 

He immediately bowed his head and whispered, 'Dear God, please let dem (them) say yes so I can have my baby sister. Amen."

I just love how much he already loves her. :)

Logged in ONE month!

We've been working on our adoption since December of 2012, so in total we've been in the process for 10 months.

We have been told to expect a wait of 4-6 months since our log-in date until we get THE call (and finally learn who our daughter is!). Yesterday marked 1 month into that wait.

Outtakes

It'll be a little while before we have the interview to post (Kate), so here's a little to hold you over. Outtakes! :)  A big thanks to Kyle for recording these two crazy people. :)

Busy Bees

The last month has been SO full of work and all that, but also a lot of fun with the boys and excitement about some projects we're working on. One of the biggest is that I am helping to plan our church's Orphan Sunday for October 27th. Our church staff has been so awesome and encouraging! I can't wait to see what God does through this day, as well as the informational night we are planning for our community to come and learn about foster care and adoption.

Tonight BJ and I are being filmed for a little interview about our adoption that will be shared on Orphan Sunday. I pray that our story might encourage someone to take the first step towards adoption or foster care! :)

Last night after BJ got home I took off with Canaan to meet two other adoptive families (they both also do foster care). I also got to meet two foreign exchange students from China who were so sweet. They helped me translate a few of the things that we'll be sending in our care package to China. It was just so great to be around people who understand this whole adoption world and know what a blessing it is to be able to adopt a sweet little one!

I don't have any relavant pictures to share, so here's Ezra from this week in Indy. I find him to be cute. ;)

It's Sally's birthday!

This little girl has capture my heart. :)

http://newdayfosterhome.blogspot.com/2013/10/happy-birthday-sally.html

Love you Sally and are praying that this time next year you can celebrate with your forever family! :)

Logged IN

As of September 18th, we have been LOGGED IN to China's system!!!

That means that we are eligible to be matched with our child from the "shared" list. All we do now (aside from purchase a new passport because the one I have doesn't include my middle name... the adoption process is ridiculous sometimes)... is wait for the call!! We will likely have to wait about 6 months for our referral, but now we're 2 weeks into that wait! :)

One big step closer!