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Sandra Bullock thanks adoptive moms at Academy Awards

We were excited that Sandra Bullock won the best actress award at the Academy Awards tonight–both because she is my favorite actress and because it was for her role in The Blind Side. Michael and I got a little teary during her acceptance speech:

I would like to thank what this film was about for me, which are the moms who take care of the babies and the children no matter where they come from. Those moms and parents never get thanked.

Then she went on to thank her own mom and all she did to encourage her while she was growing up. Sandra, you could have thanked a lot of people up there during your first Academy Award, but you chose to draw attention to all those important moms who love like Jesus does. Thank YOU.

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Save the Date!

We are officially hosting our Mother/Son fundraiser event on Mar. 20 at Lincoln Christian Church, 6:00. It will include dinner and various games, including playing Wii with your son!! More details to come…..

BTW, we finally got our USCIS appointment to get our fingerprints scanned in St. Louis in March! Immigration needs these so they can send us an I-171 document–the last thing we need for our dossier (international papers) to send to Ethiopia! Baby steps…. 🙂

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Sent papers to USCIS, bittersweet

Don’t get me wrong, I’m SO excited that we have taken the next step! I wanted to shout it to the lady at the post office desk and wondered why she didn’t ask me about the huge smile I had on my face when I mailed our papers to immigration!

But today is a sad day–the day after the huge earthquake in Haiti, the country that could least afford the devastation and loss that occurred last night. Michael and I have both been to Haiti twice, once before we met and once soon after we were married, and it is near to our hearts. Haiti makes Ethiopia’s economy look middle class. They barely have hospitals and medical personnel, barely even roads and reliable transportation, and now there is no way for the help to even get to the hurting. Please pray. I’m sure you are. Please give. Find an agency you trust and give so that they can help in whatever way possible. We are all in this together and we need to help each other out.

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Story about Jane

When I visited Ethiopia last April, I was especially moved by the babies. I spent a lot of my time holding, feeding, and praying for them. I wanted to lay my hand on them and pray over them out loud, but most of the time I could only get Jesus’ Name out of my mouth amidst the tears. Several of them were so tiny and some even had tubes out of their nose and taped to their faces so they could get medicine or formula straight to their tummies. I think it hit me so hard because my oldest Erin was 2# 14oz. at birth and had those same tubes. I thought about how fortunate she was to have born into a family that loved her and had the best medical care possible for her. These babies at the orphanage have the best care and love they could have in Ethiopia by the nannies, but they don’t have a mom and dad and they aren’t in a hospital. Here is a picture of me and one baby (I don’t recall the name) and then another picture of Erin in her incubator–the scenes of her emergency birth flashed through my mind each time I held those babies.

Of all the babies, there was one face that I will never forget. Her skin and her eyes were yellowed from obvious liver problems, but her smile was infectious. Later I read about a family from AWAA adopting a little girl with liver problems, and through some email and picture exchanges, I realized that she was the same little girl I had held and prayed over! I have been able to be in touch with the family and am so excited to report that they are in Ethiopia right now as I type, picking up their Jane! I am so blessed to have been able to play a small part in their story and even more blessed to be able to witness her adoption! You can see their blog here. God is so gracious and faithful!! Thank God every day for His blessings!

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IL approved!

We received an email today that the state of IL has approved our home study! This time it only took a couple weeks, including the holidays! We will be out of town this week, and our copy of the home study will arrive in the mail while we are gone. But when we return, we will send our paperwork on to USCIS in TX (immigration). That may take a couple months, and after that our dossier (all of our recent paperwork plus some more we have already collected) goes to DC for about a week and then off to Ethiopia! We are on our way and so excited!! Also excited to see how God is going to provide the funds for all this…… 🙂 He has a plan!

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Some Christmas Perspective

I don’t know how likely it is that I can get anyone to watch a couple videos during this busy season, but I would like to challenge you to take 12 minutes to watch some of my favorite YouTube videos. They help remind me of what is most important in life and all we have to be grateful for, as well as a challenge to myself to try to make a difference. It is especially relevant during the Christmas season. I now challenge you–it will be worth your time, or your money back!  Please comment if any of them moved you so you can, in turn, encourage others.

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Early Christmas present!

Thanks so much for your prayers! We finally got the call today (after 11 weeks!) that our background clearance papers had come through! Now we will have our home study completed and be able to pass it on to the next place. There will possibly be another long wait, so please keep praying!

I would like to share a couple things that God is teaching me through all this. One is that while I was reading Revelation last night, I was reminded of how much Satan is not wanting adoptions to happen. In my understanding of Scripture, orphans and others who are often forgotten are who God wants as our top priorities. And just like the red dragon in Rev. 12 is waiting to snatch that baby away from Mary, and then he goes on “to make war against the rest of her offspring–those who obey God’s commandments and and hold to the testimony of Jesus” (v. 17), he is still doing his best to ruin the plans of God and so many families obeying Him through adoption. But Satan doesn’t win. God snatches the baby to Himself before the dragon can even blink an eye (v. 5)! And if God cares so much for orphans, then He is watching over them wherever they are, whether they are “home” with us or not. They belong to Him first and foremost! It is not about us or our wait–it is about those children, and we can rest assured that He is taking care of them! I have to trust Him with ALL my children–they are HIS first.

Secondly, I wanted to share another special gift God gave me today. Almost a month ago, I decided that I needed to be praying and fasting about this paperwork that was taking so long. So I chose Tuesdays to do so with today being the last day (before all the Christmas traveling). I also invited a good friend to participate with me. Today she asked to come over so we could pray together. When she got here I checked my email once more to see if there was any word, but there was none. So we talked about our emotions, about Scripture, and about what God was doing in us through this. Just before we were about to pray, I got the phone call with news that our paperwork had finally come! Not only was this a gift of good news, but also a gift of timing. He didn’t have to do things that way. So to me He was showing us that he was honoring our small sacrifice of food and heard our earnest prayers, and that He is right “here with us” in all of our struggles and our service to Him. Thank you Immanuel, for all of your gifts, great and small, during this Christmas season!

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Have you heard of the KissesfromKatie blog?

I’m a “blogger” today. What does that mean? At our house it means that part of my morning is spent on the computer, taking care of emails, paying bills, ordering Christmas gifts, and usually getting distracted by some African/adoption blogs…… 🙂 All while still in my pj’s!! But I found this blog and it is worth sharing: http://kissesfromkatie.blogspot.com/. Katie is a beautiful 21-year-old American lady living in Uganda, caring for the poor. She has 14 children living with her. She is a modern day Mother Theresa, though she seems too humble to want to be compared to her. She is raw and honest about her feelings, and yet is always brought back to the fact that God is full of grace and mercy and has called EVERYONE to care for the poor and lonely, wherever they are. Please check out her blog–you won’t be disappointed, but bring your tissues.

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Paper Pregnant

We are still waiting on that little piece of paper. I think this is comparable to the 2nd month of pregnancy when you don’t feel good and you think that 9 months will be FOREVER!! But as I was praying about it and reading Revelation (where I happen to be in my reading plan), I was reminded that God is on His THRONE, and that nothing happens–good or bad–without His approval. Maybe there is a good reason for the wait that I will understand later, maybe not. But I know that no matter what, I can trust the One Who Sits on the Throne.

Day and night they never stop saying: “Holy, holy, holy is the Lord God Almighty, who was, and is, and is to come.” (Rev 4:8b)

“You are worthy, our Lord and God,
to receive glory and honor and power,
for you created all things,
and by your will they were created
and have their being.” (Rev 4:11)

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Prayer for home study

We have been finished with our home study (the state part of our adoption) for two months now, but we are waiting for our background clearances to be verified by DCFS. It typically does not take this long which means it is possibly sitting on an empty desk somewhere. PLEASE pray for us and others (including our friends Ryan and Deanne Mott) who are waiting to continue on with our adoption paper-chasing process. Thanks for joining us on this journey!