Why Are You Doing This?

Throughout this journey, we have already addressed a variety of questions. Some understandable, some silly, some offensive, and some just sad. Here are a few: If you can have "your own" children, why are you adopting? Why would you adopt a black child? Why would you ask people to donate money?; people don't ask for money when they have "their own" kids. Why does it take so long? Why is it so expensive? ... and on and on.

Besides these questions, we have had a handful of people expressly disapproving and even encouraging us not to adopt. Sadly enough, most of those that disapprove the most are Christians. I don't get it, and I don't think I ever will, but out of love and obedience, I want to address some of these issues.

First, the bible does not mix punches when it talks about our mandate to care for orphans. All Christians are not called to adopt, but all Christians are called to care for orphans. James 1:27 says, "Religion that is pure and undefiled before God, the Father, is this: to visit orphans and widows in their affliction, and to keep oneself unstained from the world." Psalm 10 says, "O Lord...,you will incline your ear to do justice to the fatherless and the oppressed, so that man who is of the earth may strike terror no more." Psalm 82:3 says, "Give justice to the weak and the fatherless; maintain the right of the afflicted and the destitute." Isaiah 1:17: "learn to do good; seek justice, correct oppression; bring justice to the fatherless, plead the widow’s cause."

So, as a Christian, are you called to adopt? Maybe, maybe not. Are you called to care for orphans? YES.

I am also constantly reminded that I wasn't always a child of God's.....and you weren't either. In Romans, Paul tells us that we were once "slaves of sin." Romans 6:17 In 1 John 3, John says that, "No one who is born of God will continue to sin," and that "[t]his is how we know who the children of God are and who the children of the devil are: Anyone who does not do what is right is not a child of God; nor is anyone who does not love his brother." 1 John 3: 9,10 Jesus even said that, "If God were your Father, you would love me," but as a slave to sin, "you are of your father the devil, and your will is to do your father’s desires." John 8:42, 44 Paul says that "by nature [we were] children of wrath." Eph 2:3

So, as a slave to sin, the bible says that I was also a child of the devil. As crazy as this may sound, the devil was once my father. That's pretty hardcore stuff. I hope this sounds awful and crazy and scary.....because it is.

Okay, so what about the adoption part? Well, we have to know where we were before we can rejoice at the magnitude of where we are. And I think it's pretty clear, that apart from the family of Christ, we were in a horrible place. Here's the good news:

"But when the fullness of time had come, God sent forth his Son, born of woman, born under the law, to redeem those who were under the law, so that we might receive adoption as sons. And because you are sons, God has sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts, crying, 'Abba! Father!' So you are no longer a slave, but a son, and if a son, then an heir through God." Gal. 4:4-7

Through faith in Christ, I am no longer a slave to sin and the devil is no longer my father. Through faith in Christ, I have been adopted into the family of God, and God is my father, and I am his son. I was once lost, but Jesus did not leave me as on orphan, he came to me. John 14:18 I was an outsider with only an identity of the flesh to call my own, but now I am a "member of the household of God." Eph 2:19

That's the Gospel. Adoption is the Gospel. John Piper says that "the very heart of the gospel is God's passion to not only redeem sinners but to adopt them as his very own sons and daughters (Ephesians 1:4-5)."

Adoption is and has always been at the core of God's plan to redeem us. Lindsey and I feel personally convicted and called to honor and celebrate our own adoption and to care for orphans by adopting children into our own family.

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Moving along

It's been awhile since we've written. We just wanted to update on our adoption.
Since most of our paperwork can only be 15-18 months old, we are having to do some of that over, but it should'nt affect us much. Last week, we had to go to the city courthouse and get fingerprints taken. I had no idea that the crazy ink wouldn't come off for about 4 days! That was fun. Then, we had to send those fingerprints along with some other documents to the FBI. Our Homestudy also has to be updated, which will be happening in 2 weeks. Our social worker will come and check our home out and interview us once again. We are still on the wait list though, and everything is still moving along. In fact, we get updates each Friday from our agency and we try to keep a tab of where we are in the line. I think we are currently in the 40's, which is exciting. It doesn't seem that long ago that we started at like #107 or something. So, we are hopeful to meet our child sooner than later. We continue to pray that he/she is safe and knows that we already love them. They are already a part of our family. We just can't wait to physically show this little girl or guy that.

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Song

One of our friends sent us this song last night.
Good stuff.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bb7TSGptd3Y

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Waiting is hard

So, I was very naive to believe that getting the paperwork done was the hardest part of this journey. No, I didn't enjoy doing all of that, but it didn't pull on my emotions constantly either. It honestly feels like I've been pregnant for almost 2 years. Now, mind you, the best phsyical pregnancy of all time, but the worst emotionally. It's hard to even imagine what he/she will look like, how old, the time frame of when we'll see a picture, etc... I'm just not very good at this. If you read this and would say a prayer for us, we would greatly appreciate it.

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Officially Waiting

Good News! We got the word on Friday of last week that all of our paperwork had been signed and returned safely back to our agency. We are now officially on the waiting list!!!! So exciting.
So, I guess we'll just wait now. yep...still waiting. We'll be here waiting if you need us. Yay!

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Out of Our Hands

Good News! John mailed our dossier (paperwork) this morning. It will travel to St. Louis where it will be carefully looked over by our agency, and then it will be sent to Washington, D.C. In Washington the courier for Ethiopia will hand deliver the documents into the Department of State to be authenticated. The courier will then walk the documents into the Ethiopia Embassy for a second authentication. Once this is done (1-2 weeks), our paperwork will be off to the great country of Ethiopia!

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Home Study is Back With USCIS

Our home study agency informed us last week that all the necessary changes/updates had been made to our home study, and that they mailed our home study to USCIS early last week. I just received on email from USCIS this morning informing me that they had received our homestudy, and that it is in "a pile to be reviewed in the next 2-3 weeks." So, yet another waiting period begins.

USCIS seemed much more willing to expediate the process when they received our home study the first time. I don't know if they're frustrated with our agency or what, but they are not going to review our home study immediately this time around. One of the things I've learned is that it's hard to update this blog on a regular basis when there is so rarely new information to talk about.

So, please pray that the USCIS peeps will review their materials in a timely manner, and that they will be diligent. Also pray that we will be patient and confident that our God who has begun a work in us will faithfully see us through.

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Bumps in the Road

If you ever start the adoption process, one of the first things that you'll be told is to never expect a smooth road. Always be prepared for detours and difficult times. Well, we experienced a pretty large pot-hole last week.

As we informed you in the previous post, we have completed all of our dossier paperwork. However, before our dossier paperwork can be submitted to Ethiopia, our home study must first be processed and approved by the United States Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS). Our homestudy was completed in November 2008, and home studies must be submitted to USCIS before they are 6 months old. For some reason, our home study agency did not submit our home study to USCIS before this month, so USCIS sent our home study back to our agency to be updated.

This is not a huge deal, and our home study agency is in the process of making the necessary updates, but it has been a very frustrating time. We have always been under the impression that our home study agency sent our home study to USCIS in early February, but they just failed to do so. All this to say, the process goes on, and God will be faithful.

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I Retract Any Negative Statements Toward Missouri

After ripping on Missouri through most of our dating and marital relationship, the Missouri Secretary of State came through with a bang. As previously mentioned, we mailed Lins' birth certificate to Missouri to be state certified. We mailed her birth certificate to Missouri on Saturday, April 18th and received it back in the mail on Wednesday, April 22nd. That's a 3 business-day turn around, folks!

We also mailed the reference letter to Indiana SOS on Saturday, April 18th to be certified, but we still have not received it back yet. So, Missouri wins.

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Wham Bam Dossier Man

Our dossier paperwork is now 100% completed. The dossier is all of the paperwork that will be sent to the Ethiopian government for review and confirmation. These papers include financial information, reference letters, family photos, employment info., passports, medical records, criminal records, etc. All of the papers had to be notarized, and they are now in the process of being "state-sealed." Basically, the state sealing means that the state's Secretary of State's office has to affirm that the notaries that were used on the documents were actually state certified notaries and not just jag-mos with a fancy stamp.

This has been a pretty smooth process so far. One of our reference letters was from Indiana, so we had to mail the letter to Indiana's Secretary of State to get it state certified. They told us this would only take a week, but we've learned to be a little more realistic than that. Also, for some reason, Lindsey was born in Missouri, so we had to send her birth certificate to be state certified in Missouri. Yep, you would never know now, but Lindsey was born in Missouri. Missouri.

The next step will be for the paperwork to be sent to Washington D.C. for review. It will then be translated and sent to Ethiopia. Oh yeah, we also have to pay a nice chunk of cha ching when we send in the Dossier paperwork.

Please be praying that the process continues to be smooth and that we will be diligent and wise in raising and saving money for this adventure.

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