Christmas in the Congo

Adam was able to take TEN days off for Christmas this year!  This has never happened before in our house so the kids and I were very excited!  We were able to start his vacation by taking a trip to Jackson, Tenn. to attend Joshua and Carolyn Beard's wedding...ALONE!  Yep...that's right, Adam and I left the kiddos with Nana Lou and traveled nine hours away for three days!  Most people would probably dread a nine hour car trip but Adam and I were excited to have that time alone to talk and just catch up.  The wedding was one of the most beautiful weddings I have ever been to...I just love Christmas weddings and it was in a barn.  Picture an evening wedding with the entire barn lit by candle light and white Christmas lights, Christmas trees...oh I could go on and on!  The decorations were beautiful but the ceremony was amazing.  There are few things more exciting that seeing two young people who love God and love each other vow before their friends and family to love each other forever.  I cannot wait to see what the Lord has in store for these two!  Now having said all of that, it was also a wedding I will never forget for another reason.  The bride and groom had just danced their first dance and Joshua invited all the married couples to join them on the dance floor and then announced there had been a change of plans.  There was a tornado warning and we needed to evacuate the barn and head next door to the basement of a bed and breakfast.  Okay, so now picture, darkness, pelting rain, wind, and tornado sirens.  Most of the people there seemed completely calm but I am from Roanoke where we do not have tornadoes (Thank God) and I was a praying mess!  In the end, we were all safe and we were able to watch them cut the cake by cell phone light...it was a wonderful night I will not soon forget! 
 

 

 

The next morning we were able to go Englewood Baptist Church to praise Jesus the Sunday before Christmas with Travis Cottrell and a few of my dearest friends.  I could not have been more excited (ok...maybe if Beth Moore was there but other than that, I could not have been more excited)!

  

After a couple of days of excitement my mood was quickly changed when on the way home, Adam and I got the following message from the state department website,

 

"On December 19, the Congolese Minister of Justice, Minister of Interior and Security, and the General Direction of Migration (DGM) confirmed to members of the diplomatic corps, including the U.S. Ambassador, that the current suspension on the issuance of exit permits continues. This announcement confirmed information reported in the Department of State's October 23 adoption alert regarding the suspension of issuance of exit permits to adopted Congolese children seeking to depart the country with their adoptive parents.

(Continued) The DGM continues to estimate that the suspension will last a year. Adoptive families, prospective adoptive families, and adoption service providers are cautioned that the DGM has not committed to processing applications for exit permits within a given timeframe once the suspension ends." 

 

The difference that stuck out right away in this announcement from the one in September was "the suspension will last a year."  I started to immediately go through the things that could happen...

 

"If the suspension lasts a year, she probably wont be home for NEXT Christmas.  What if she doesn't get to come here at all?" 

 

I started to panic and then I remembered what the message was on at Englewood church that morning...

 

FEAR

 

"There is no reason to fear ANYTHING because God is in control of EVERYTHING."  God knew that was exactly what I needed to hear.  On a side note, the message at our church this past Sunday was on fear too...I think God is trying to tell me something.

 

Isaiah 41

“But you, Israel, my servant,
    Jacob, whom I have chosen,
    you descendants of Abraham my friend,
⁹ I took you from the ends of the earth,
    from its farthest corners I called you.
I said, ‘You are my servant’;
    I have chosen you and have not rejected you.
¹⁰ So do not fear, for I am with you;
    do not be dismayed, for I am your God.
I will strengthen you and help you;
    I will uphold you with my righteous right hand."

 

I have decided, yet again, that I cannot trust God and have fear in my heart about what may or may not happen at the same time.  Please pray with me that I would trust him more and fear the unknown less.  I need your prayers.

 

The Lord gave us some encouragement on the way home too that brightened our moods :-)  The children at the orphanage that I blogged about here got their Christmas presents!  The gentleman that delivered the gifts to the children said that it was the best day of his whole year!

 

I am so thankful to God for letting us be a small part in the work he is doing there. 

"Little E" had a Christmas celebration and received her gifts that we sent too!


When Adam and I got home on Sunday night, Eva was waiting up to make sure we got there!  Eva and Eli had a wonderful time with their Nana and we were very excited to get home and hug on them for a bit! 

The next day started our marathon of Christmas celebration!  We visited with lots of family and friends over the next four days!  We decided this year to do something we have never done in the past.  We purchased gifts for our family that benefited someone else in some way.  Each person received a card with "Little E's" picture on it that said, "In honor of E, we have given you a gift that gives back."  We purchased gifts from Serrv, Global Goods Partners, Just Love Coffee, Funky Fish Designs, Land of a Thousand Hills (a fair trade coffee shop in Daleville), Rafiki, and Ten Thousand Villages.  On the inside of each card, we printed information about where the gift was from, who made it and how it benefited them.  Eva helped to wrap each gift this year and Eli helped to unwrap them! 

All in all, it was a wonderful week celebrating the birth of our Savior.  The Lord has taught us many things over the last eighteen months one of which is to give him praise through everything!  I had a couple of rough moments celebrating Christmas without her but God is still God and he is still good...no matter what lies ahead. 

Please continue to pray that the Congo would lift the suspension, that God would give us the strength to endure this process and for complete healing and protection for our daughter. 

Lynsey

Bittersweet

The last couple of weeks have been bittersweet.  I love the change of the seasons and I especially LOVE the holidays that are coming up so quickly but it seems like each day that goes by, I think "why isn't she here yet, Lord?" 

This year, Eva and Eli were so excited to dress up for Halloween.  Eva wanted to be Rapunzel.  Her Nana made her a Rapunzel dress complete with long braided hair for Christmas last year and Eva wears it at least three times a week so that was the natural choice for her.  Much to Eva's dismay, Eli was a fireman this year.  She REALLY wanted him to be Rapunzel's lizard from the movie but he was not having it! 

As silly as it seems, I was getting both of the kids dressed that evening and I was overcome with sadness that little "E" wasn't here to dress up with us.  I started to think about all the things I was sure she would be here to celebrate this year that have come and gone.  I thought she would be here for our first day of preschool.  I thought she would be here for our annual family beach trip.  I thought she would be here to dress up on Halloween.  Each day that goes by, I don't understand why she has to be there without a family when we are here desperately waiting here for her arrival.

Earlier this week our adoption agency called and said that they would be sending a shipment of Christmas packages to the Congo and that they would be delivered to the transition home that little "E" is staying in on Christmas Day.  Adam was really excited to tell me this news because he knew that it would bring me great joy to pick her our a Christmas present and to know that she would receive our gift on Christmas.  I will have to admit my first reaction was not joy.  I think my response to Adam was something along the lines of, "I really wanted her to be here this Christmas."  You see, I was sure that she would be here for Thanksgiving and Christmas this year but now we know that she will not and this too has been really hard.  Anyways... as the day went on, I decided that I needed to "choose JOY" and be thankful that we could send her a present and I started to get really excited to go shopping with Adam, Eva and Eli to pick out her gift!  On Thursday of this week, I was up early praying and I always include the little boy that we received a referral for back in March along with his older sister in my prayers.  All of the sudden, it occurred to me that maybe we could send them a Christmas present too so I asked Adam that morning if it would be okay to contact our agency and see if we would be allowed to send them something and he of course said, "yes".  So I e-mailed our agency and asked if we could send those two children a Christmas present too.

 

About an hour later, I received an e-mail back saying that we could not.  She said that they would have to send fifty-five other presents for the other children in that orphanage if we did that. 

 

After reading her reply, I was so upset.  I just sat on the couch and cried.  I know that sounds silly but I just needed to send these kids something.  The thought of the two of them without a family just breaks my heart, the thought of any child without a family is just overwhelming to me.  Anyways, I cried and cried and then I had to pull it together and get on with our day.  A couple of hours later, I received a phone call from someone and it started out as most phone calls do, with the person asking, "How are you?"  Well, instead of giving the normal, "fine,"  I was truthful and told them I was having a rough morning.  I explained the e-mail that I sent asking if we could send those two children a present and that the agency said we could not because they would have to send fifty-five other presents and then the coolest thing happened!  The person on the phone said, "Go ahead and tell them we will send all the presents to the orphanage."  I went on to explain that it would be very expensive to send that many presents, that we would have to buy all the presents which I guessed would be around $1,200 and then we would have to ship them which I would guess would be another $300 or more and I certainly did not have that kind of money and the person on the phone just said, "I have the money.  Just tell them we will send the presents."  Well, you can imagine what I did, I am crying so hard at that point that I can barely tell Adam what happened so he called the lady we had been speaking with at our agency and she could not believe it! She actually asked Adam if he was serious!  She was astonished and overjoyed that a person would do that!  She told Adam how appreciative she was and that this would be a huge blessing to these children. 

 

A couple hours later, it occurred to me that if our agency had said "yes," that we could send those two children a present, there would have been fifty-five other children there without one.  I feel like the Lord reminded me that He is sovereign.  That even when it looks like he is saying "no," sometimes the "no" is because he sees the big picture and he knows what will happen if we are just patient.  Sometimes the "no" is because he has something much better planned!  This was a message I need to hear right now.  I don't know why little "E" is not here yet but I know our God is sovereign and He is STILL working all of this for our good and His glory!

 

So in 24 hours, I have gone to five stores (some of them, twice!)  and we have enough to fill sixty gallon zip lock bags to send to the Congo!  Praise God! 

 

Keep Praying!!!

I want to thank everyone who took the time to read the post last night and pray for us.  I read about the closure on the state departments website last night, wrote the information on the blog and then cried for a couple of hours.   I cried while Adam bathed our kids, I cried while we put them to bed and then I cried some more in the kitchen while my sweet husband gave me lots of hugs. 

We were devastated. 

I told Adam that I was upset and mad that God brought us to this place and then shut the door.  I was mostly mad because I KNOW that God is in control and that he allowed this to happen.  Just this past Monday I was reminded at Bible study that everything in my life is either God arranged or God allowed.

EVERYTHING

Whether He arranged this or allowed this, He will use this. I believe that.

I was really mad last night and I told God.  He can handle that. 

At 10:30pm last night we got a phone call from our agency and they talked to us about what the closure means and what they hope will happen.  She also told us some really great news about little E and we got some more pictures....bittersweet.  I have no idea what is going to happen.  I don't know if we will ever get to bring her home or if the country will re-open and things will go along as planned but right in the middle of my pity party, God reminded me of something. 

Mark 4:40

This past Wednesday, I was listening to a sermon online and the guy was talking about the story where Jesus calms the storm...

That day when evening came, he said to his disciples, “Let us go over to the other side.” ³⁶ Leaving the crowd behind, they took him along, just as he was, in the boat. There were also other boats with him. ³⁷ A furious squall came up, and the waves broke over the boat, so that it was nearly swamped. ³⁸ Jesus was in the stern, sleeping on a cushion. The disciples woke him and said to him, “Teacher, don’t you care if we drown?”
³⁹ He got up, rebuked the wind and said to the waves, “Quiet! Be still!” Then the wind died down and it was completely calm.

⁴⁰ He said to his disciples, “Why are you so afraid? Do you still have no faith?”

When I was listening to this, the word STILL really stuck out to me and last night I felt the Lord say to me, "Why are you so afraid?  Do you STILL have no faith? 

I looked over at Adam on the couch and I told him about Mark 4:40 and that I had listened to a sermon on that verse just this week and Adam started laughing....he said, "that is really funny because I just did a Sunday school lesson on that exact verse." 

God was not surprised by the closure. 

He knew so far in advance about it that he prepared Adam and I both for what was coming.

We serve a God who is completely sovereign and who loves us more than we can imagine.  God never promised that we would have an easy, happy life with no problems.  He did promise that WHEN we face problems, He would be with us. 

I STILL believe God is with us and that He will use this for our good and His glory.  I STILL believe that God is with little E and all of the other orphans in the world.  I STILL believe that He hears our prayers so keep praying! Pray for the families who are are there and cannot bring their children home. I know he is working on our behalf. 


Love,
Lynsey 

Here we go again...

Well...we got some really great news this week and then I saw this on the state departments website tonight...

On September 27, the Congolese Ministry of Interior and Security, General Direction of Migration (Direction Generale d'Immigration, DGM) informed the U.S. Embassy in Kinshasa that effective September 25, 2013, the DGM suspended issuance of exit permits to adopted Congolese children seeking to depart the country with their adoptive parents. The DGM reports the suspension will last up to 12 months. This suspension is due to concerns over reports that children adopted from the Democratic Republic of the Congo may be either abused by adoptive families or adopted by a second set of parents once in their receiving countries.

This is devastating...

Please start praying that God would perform a miracle.

Lynsey

WOW!

Sorry it's been so long! Summer began at our house and our days have been filled with swimming, swinging and softball games! The summer is flying by and although I am excited that it means we are a little closer to bringing our newest addition home, I am also trying to slow down and savor the moments I have with my two little guys already here!

So on the adoption front, this is where we are...

The DR of Congo began issuing exit visa's again on June 27th...PRAISE GOD! That was a great day in our house! Adam called me around 10 pm to let me know that our adoption agency had just sent an e-mail letting us know...thank you so much for praying for this!

Our paperwork has been submitted to the DR of Congo government and we are waiting, again :-) I am not allowed to give any more details about little "E" on the blog until she officially becomes ours so I will let you know more when I am allowed. Stay tuned....

This is a funny little thing that happened recently...

So we went to see our financial advisor for our "yearly checkup" last week. He always sends us a list of things we need to bring with us, bank statements, retirement account statements, mortgage statement, any other debt statements, last year's tax return, etc. We gave him the information as soon as we sat down in his office and he said, "Let me take a look for a minute..." The first sheet of paper was our checking and savings account statement and he said, "Ok, this is your checking and your emergency fund, I guess?" We said, "It’s our checking and savings account, we have another money market account that we use as our emergency fund and we also have our adoption money in there." He said, "Oh" and he flipped to the next page which was the money market statement and his eyes got really big and he looked up at us and then looked back down at the statement and then looked back up at us and said, "How on earth did YOU GUYS save up that much money?!?!" This struck me as really funny! We laughed and then said, "People gave it to us! Then we quickly corrected that to, God gave it to us!" He really just kept staring at us...he actually put his hand on top of his head at one point and shook his head! He said, "People just gave it to you?" We responded with a couple of examples..."God gave us an extra $8,000 this year in various ways, we made over $5,000 in yard sales with stuff people donated to us, people from high school and college sent us money and donated things for the yard sale, friends, family, acquaintances, people we barely knew sent us money...it has been AMAZING to see God work it all out!" He sat there for a few seconds and then just said, "Wow!"

Wow is right! I have decided that although this past year has been difficult with all of the ups and downs and stress of the adoption, I would not ask for anything to have happened any differently. I have been able to see miracle after miracle after miracle performed by God and this process has increased my faith tremendously. There are things that I do not understand but I trust that God is in control and he knows how all of this will work out. I pray this same thing will happen for every person that reads this. If you feel like God is asking you to do something much bigger than you are capable of doing, DO IT ANYWAYS!!! And then stand back and watch how He works it out :-)

We have GREAT news!

Last Wednesday I was heading out of our last day of Bible Study Fellowship with both kids.  We were on our way to eat lunch with my mom and then Adam was meeting us at the house to go camping for the rest of the week.  I noticed when I got in the car that I had a missed call from Adam and I thought it was kind of weird but just assumed that meant that he wanted to meet us for lunch so I waited until I got the kids all buckled in and then called him back. He answered the phone immediately and said,

"Robin just called with a referral of a two year old little girl!" 

I just kind of sat there for a minute...in shock. 

"WOW!"  "Do you have any other information on her?" 

"Yes!  I just sent you pictures, medical information and the referral report." 

So there I sat, in the car with both kids listening to every detail Adam could remember about his conversation with our agency representative.  I got off the phone and sat there looking at pictures of our little girl sitting in an orphanage half way around the world giving God praise for answering my prayers yet again.  And then, the coolest thing happened!  I looked at the referral report and I saw her name...."E".  People asked us after we named Eli if we were going to keep the "E" theme going.  I laughed and said, we just really liked the names, Eva and Eli, we didn't really think about both of them starting with an "E" but I guess we probably should....we wouldn't want the next one to feel left out.  And God gave us a little girl with an "E" name. 

We headed out of town on our camping trip so excited about all that lay ahead...in the next few days and the next few months.  We decided to tell Eva and Eli over breakfast the next morning and their reactions were so funny!  Eva just kind of looked at her picture and said, "oh good," kind of indifferent at first but then I said, "Eva, aren't you excited you are getting a sister?"  And she said, "Yes, but now Eli will need a little brother."  She cracks me up!  Keep on praying, Eva!

Eli looked at her picture and said, "Sissy!" and Adam and I both just smiled at each other. 

God is good, all the time....ALL the time.  I have repeated this to myself a lot lately.  I am not sure why everything happened the way that it did.  I may never know, but I am trusting God and believing that he has a better plan for us than I could every imagine, Ephesians 3:20.   I have been thinking lately about all that God has done for me.  He saved me in every way.  He has blessed me with a godly husband, two healthy precious children, a home, cars, food in the refrigerator, wonderful family and friends, the promise of eternal life with Him...who am I that he would allow me to have all of this and then selfishly ask him for more?  But for whatever reason, he has blessed us with more... one more little girl. 

In awe,

Lynsey

A Quick Update...

I have so much to write and not much time to do it!!  

We had our yard sale on Saturday and it went great!  I want to thank my mom, Bruce, Roxanne Staufer, Jessica Crumpacker, Elaine & Jim Wymer, Richard Beard, Cindy Jones, Kathy Walker and her daughter's, Emily, Carly and Audry for helping to set everything up, selling it, and cleaning it up when it was all over and my mother in law, Susan for watching the kiddos!  The generosity of our friends and family never ceases to amaze me and I want to thank everyone who donated stuff for us to sell!  We had a ton of stuff again and ended up making $1,906!!!  So we exceeded our goal which I think means that God knows something is going to cost more than estimated :-) 

We are still waiting for a referral and in the meantime we received this e-mail from our adoption agency,

"Dear EAC Congo Families,

As many of you are aware, the Democratic Republic of the Congo Ministry of Interior and Security, General Direction of Migration (Direction Generale d’Immigration, DGM) (DRC) has "temporarily suspended issuance of exit permits to adopted Congolese children seeking to depart the country with their adoptive parents."

We believe, after consultation with our Congolese attorney and other U.S. based adoption agencies which provide services in the DRC, this temporary suspension relates to the investigation of one case and should be resolved shortly.  This current temporary suspension should not affect any current EAC families."

I would really appreciate prayer for this matter to be resolved quickly.  I have seen God work miracles throughout this process and I am praying for him to do this again!

I went to the Christian Alliance for Orphans conference called Summit 9 a week and a half ago and hope to write about that experience very soon.  I learned so much and I need to take a minute to write it all down to share....it was a wonderful experience.  Stay tuned...


Lynsey

Update

Adam and I got a call on Friday to let us know that the young girl who recently came to the orphanage where "W" is staying, is his ten year old sister. After A LOT of prayer and talking to our adoption agency and our local social worker, we have decided not to accept these two children. We have been instructed that these two children would be better in a home with parents who have prior experience with adopting older children and/or older children in their home already. Please pray for our family as this decision was very difficult. We have been placed back on the waiting list and will hopefully receive a new referral within the next few months.

Thanks for all of your prayers.

Lynsey

Thank you for your prayers!

We received word that "W's" medical information came back and it looks great!  We have not seen it yet but we were told that he is fine.  So THANK YOU to everyone who prayed! 

Along with "W's" medical information we found out that he "might have a sister."  A young girl around the age of nine or ten was brought to the orphanage and "W" and she were both very excited to see each other.  Our agency was sending someone who speaks Swahili to communicate with this little girl to see if they are in fact siblings or if they just know each other.  We do not have an answer yet so please pray that we would receive this information soon.  We also ask that you would pray for wisdom for Adam and I and that God would tell both of us what he wants us to do.  Thanks so much for all of your prayers and support!

Lynsey

His timing is perfect...

The weekend was not off to a great start. 

Adam picked up our Roanoke County background check letters and they were not done correctly so we had to start all over.  Then I opened the mailbox on Saturday to find our State background check requests had been returned to us because we filled out the wrong form when submitting them...this was the correct form 6 months ago but not now....so we had to start all over again.  It was a frustrating weekend for us...the never ending paperwork... then I woke up on Monday morning and I prayed.  I was determined to be joyful no matter what came.  I also prayed for a little bit of encouragement in the adoption arena.  A lady in my Bible study group said that she prayed last week for a little encouragement in a matter than she had been praying about for years and the Lord gave her some.  She suggested I do the same so that Monday morning, that is exactly what I did at 4:45 am before I began working...it was tax season after all :-)  The rest of the day played out like it usually does, taxes, breakfast, play, lunch, play, taxes, play, dinner, taxes...  and then I finished all of the tax prep I was going to do for the day around 7:30 pm and I closed down my computer and walked inside.  Adam was standing in the living room, kids at his feet, laptop in one arm and phone in the other.  He looked up at me with the biggest smile I had seen in awhile and said..."hold on, let me put you on speaker phone, she just walked in..."  And the conversation went something like this.

"Hi Lynsey, its Debra from EAC."
"Hi Debra!"
"We have a little boy that came to the orphanage and we want to know if you are interested in him."
Adam opened up the computer and I saw his picture...and the tears started.  This is the moment I have been waiting for, for over a year.   This is the encouragement I asked for :-)

"His name is "W", he is 3 years old.  That is all we know.  We are going to have his medical testing done and should have that back for you in about a week.  He looks pretty healthy but we wont know for sure until we get his tests back.  I want to know if you are interested in him?"

"I don't understand.  How can we get a referral if we aren't even on the list?  We don't even have our dossier submitted."

"You are almost there and you have been waiting in the Ghana program for awhile already and he meets your criteria.  He needs a home."

"Of course we are interested!!!  We will pray about him tonight and let you know for sure in the morning."

The next morning, I got up, asked God to speak to me directly about "W" and whether or not he is the child God has picked out for us and this is what happened.  I opened my Bible study questions for the day and that days questions were on Genesis 35 so I started reading.  I got to verse 11 and this is what it says...

"I am God Almighty, be fruitful and increase in number."

So I stopped and I prayed that if this is the Lord speaking to me about "W" that he would confirm that to me.  I finished reading chapter 35 so I started answering my Bible study questions for the day.  One of the questions asked me to go to Isaiah 1:16 and this is what it said...

¹⁶ Wash and make yourselves clean.  Take your evil deeds out of my sight; stop doing wrong.
¹⁷ Learn to do right; seek justice.  Defend the oppressed.^[a]Defend the cause of the fatherless; plead the case of the widow.

I had written a note next to this verse over a year ago..."I know God is calling me to do this - how???"  And now God was answering my question.  I felt him tell me in my heart, this is how I want you to do this, this adoption, this little boy, this specific time. 

We started this journey long ago. 

I couldn't get pregnant and we prayed. 

We finally got pregnant and we still prayed. 

We knew he told us to adopt. 

We worked on paperwork for a very long time. 

We sent it all to the wrong country. 

We prayed and he told us to change directions. 

We started all over again. 

WHY is this taking so long???? 

I have asked this question over and over.  And now I know..."W" just got to the orphanage. 

God is sovereign and his plan is perfect.  His timing is perfect.

So we began the waiting again, this time for his medical information.  Debra told us this would not be an official referral that we could accept until they had his medical information back so we waited, and waited and waited.  We waited to share the news because it wasn't an official referral and we wanted to be sure but we are sharing this information now because we need your prayers.  One of the main things God has taught us through this process is that prayer works!  Ask him to move mountains to get "W's" medical information back to us.  Debra said it would be a week so at the end of the third week, Adam asked her if we should be concerned that it was taking so long and she said, "No, not at all, this is Africa." 

On Thursday, I started my day out like I have so many times lately, praying to God to please bring our FBI clearances in the mail today.  This was the last piece of information we were waiting on to send in our completed dossier.  Right after the mailman dropped off our mail, I prayed and walked to the mailbox and I was so excited to finally see a letter from the FBI but it was only my clearance letter.  Adam's was not there.  So I called Adam upset that the letter was not there.  "They should have been together, how could they get separated?"  Adam assured me it was no big deal and it would probably be in the mailbox tomorrow.  So I got off the phone upset.  I went to pick up Eva from preschool and on the drive home, I talked to God.  I asked him why he let the letters get separated?  He knew how bad we needed them and he just let one of them get lost.  And then I heard the perfect song on the radio for my situation, it goes like this... 

"I don't know what you are doing, but I know who you are." 

...and I told him that I trusted him even though I didn't understand.  So Eva, Eli and I walked into the house and I started making lunch and someone knocked on our door.  When I walked over, it was our next door neighbor, Mr. Scott standing there with a letter in his hand...he said, "this got put in my box today."  I jumped up and down when I saw the letters FBI on the front!  I told Mr. Scott how I had been waiting and praying for this letter and thanked him profusely for bringing it over!!!  How cool is that! 

So we have everything completed and mailed.  It will be translated and then sent to the Congo.  What we need prayer for right now is "W's" medical information to come back.  We cannot officially accept him without his medical information so please pray that it will come back quickly and pray for wisdom for Adam and I.  Since "W" is not officially ours yet, we have not told Eva and Eli so please do not mention this to them. 

I am SO tired of waiting but I am not tired of watching God perform miracle after miracle on our child's behalf.  I am not tired of asking him to speak to me and hearing his voice.  I am not tired of seeing his plan unfold and I am not tired of him showing me time and time again that he is sovereign and his plan is perfect.  Thank you God for not getting tired of me.

Lynsey

A Roller Coaster

This past week has been a roller coaster!  Friday before last, I was on a mountain top high because God had confirmed to Adam and I that we were supposed to change countries and so we mailed in our registration documents and were officially in the Congo program.  Whew....what a relief!  I had prayed and prayed, and lets face it, whined and whined to God "please tell Adam that we are supposed to adopt from the Congo!"  and he finally did and I was thrilled!  Then came the bad news...this would mean that we would have to wait some more.  This would mean that we needed more money, a lot more money.  This would mean that we would need new fingerprints done, an updated home study, amended immigration approval, a new dossier and all of that would have to be sent to the Congo and then we would go on a waiting list...again.  It truthfully was more than I could handle.  I became overwhelmed with sadness and cried and cried to God.  Then twice last week, in two completely different settings, this verse came up..

Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles. And let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us, ² fixing our eyes on Jesus, the pioneer and perfecter of faith. For the joy set before him he endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God. ³ Consider him who endured such opposition from sinners, so that you will not grow weary and lose heart.  Hebrews 12:1-3

I have memorized this verse.  TRUST. TRUST. TRUST.  Jesus, for the JOY set before him, endured the CROSS.  I can endure a little more waiting, more paperwork, more money.  He has reminded me over and over this week...

While you are waiting, I AM WORKING ALL THINGS OUT FOR YOUR GOOD AND FOR MY GLORY!!!!  Be patient, my timing is perfect.

I do not know why this is taking so long but I cannot be fearful and trust him at the same time, so I choose to trust. 

On Thursday of last week, Adam and I went to get our finger prints done again and we mailed off our request for local, state and FBI clearance again.  We also received our updated home study and mailed that to USCIS for an amendment to our immigration approval.  As soon as we dropped off all of the information at the post office, I prayed out loud "Now it's in your hands, God."  And this statement made me laugh out loud at myself...it was never in my hands to begin with!  We serve a God who is sovereign over ALL and I praise him that it is ALL in his hands ALL the time.  I am praying daily that God would move mountains to get all of this paperwork back here and then to the Congo so that we can go and get our baby, please pray with us. 

In the meantime, God has laid something on my heart that I want to share with you.  Over the last couple of months, two people have asked me if I had heard of "Forget the Frock?"  This is a tradition that the Fox Family started and I checked out their blog and it really spoke to my heart...Here is the info they have on their blog...

“It’s simple really.
We commit to give up our Frocks (you know those fancy little dresses we love to slap on for Easter). Yep, we kiss ‘em goodbye and spend our money on something to wear on Easter Sunday that serves a PURPOSE… T-shirts that feed hungry babies, precious orphans actually.

People, who for Easter do something as simple as wearing a t-shirt that helps care for the orphan. Because GOD says “pure and faultless religion is to look after the orphan and the widow and not allow the world to corrupt you.” James 1:27

So here it is… The Easter Challenge… let’s toss aside our Fancy Frocks and let’s join forces to care for the orphan… let’s…

Forget the Frock, Feed an Orphan!!!

“God is for people who are for his people and orphans are HIS people. So if you are for the Orphan… God is for you. ” -Jen Hatmaker

Are you on board? Or maybe still on the fence… Just aren’t sure where to snag your new Easter Shirt… Check out FeedingTheOrphans.org… every last drop of the money you spend on your “Easter” shirt goes to feed hungry babies in Ghana!

So I looked at FeedingTheOrphans.org and you have got to check out this website!  http://feedingtheorphans.org/from-sydney  this is an AMAZING story about 7 year old girl you have got to read!  It's short so take a minute and listen to what God is doing through this little girl and her family. If they are out of your size or the shirt you want, you can also purchase shirts through http://www.147millionorphans.com/ .

Join our family on Easter in Forgetting the Frocks and Feeding an Orphan! 

It's working!!!

This morning started off a little rough...Adam called our social worker and explained that we switched countries last Friday(she only works part time and is off on Friday's so this was our first time talking to her since the switch).  Adam explained that we needed an updated homestudy as soon as possible so that we could send it to immigration and she immediately said that she was really busy this week and then she was taking vacation next week for ten days.  Adam called to let me know and I was so upset.  I am just not good at waiting...so I immediately felt anxious and started trying to figure out what to do so that we could get her to update this before she left on vacation and in the middle of all of this I just stopped and prayed.  I prayed scripture back to God, I asked him to move mountains and people to get this done quickly and then I taped cards of scripture around our kitchen so that I could read them all day and I immediately began to relax :-)  Adam called me back at lunch to let me know she had updated the homestudy and already sent it to EAC for their review and approval!  Yay!  Keep praying...it's working :-) 

A new command...

And this is how it happened...

I wrote this e-mail on January 28th to a couple of friends:

I know this is probably going to sound really "out of the blue" but could you guys pray that we are going in the right direction with the adoption? Last week for some reason I looked on our international agency's website and I looked at the "waiting children" list and in the past this has always been older children and usually from China (which we do not qualify to adopt from) but this past week there were a lot of young children from the DR of Congo and so I started to look at this country and I am just overcome with the feeling that we are supposed to adopt from there. The more research I do into this country the more my heart is pulled toward there...this is one of the absolute poorest countries on the planet right now and the wars that have been going on there are horrible...everywhere I look it talks about "mass killings and mass raping of women." There is a little girl named Mireielle who is 3 and I need you guys to pray that if we are supposed to adopt her that God would confirm this to me but more importantly, speak to Adam about changing countries. And if this is not God's will, that he would take this desire from my heart. The thought of these children growing up there just takes my breath away....the thought that some of the little guys would become child soldiers or the little girls would be raped and killed just does me in. I am guessing the reason there are so many children there waiting is that the DR of Congo is a place that you are warned not to visit unless you are humanitarian aid... I know that if this is what God has for us, that He will protect us but that is a little scary too...so just pray :-) I have mentioned this to Adam and haven't gotten much of a response so I am just praying and waiting :-)Pray for my patience too :-)

Life kept on going and I kept on praying...

Then a week and a half later, I was praying the same prayer to God, "please confirm that we are supposed to change countries or please take this desire from my heart." And then I opened my Bible study homework and that day's study was on Genesis 22:10-12,

¹⁰ Then he reached out his hand and took the knife to slay his son. ¹¹ But the angel of the Lord called out to him from heaven, “Abraham! Abraham!”

“Here I am,” he replied.

¹² “Do not lay a hand on the boy,” he said. “Do not do anything to him. Now I know that you fear God, because you have not withheld from me your son, your only son.”

And the first question I read after reading this passage was, "Describe how you might follow Abraham's example of faith and obedience when he received a new command from God?"

And I knew...without a doubt....that God was telling me we were supposed to be changing directions. I know that may seem really weird but everything in me knew that God was telling me we needed to change countries, that he was giving us a new command too.

And that same day I read in my Bible study notes...

"The instant God's voice called for a change of direction, Abraham gladly obeyed. What a necessary lesson for all who follow God! Are your eyes fixed upon God... as the eyes of slaves look to the hand of their master, as the eyes of a maid look to the hand of her mistress? Psalm 123:2  It is wrong to imagine that God will never change the direction in which He leads you. When God requires a new step, are you ready to follow Him?

So I kept on praying, and praying, and praying. I prayed a lot for patience and that God would help me to not go ahead of him...I did not want to bug Adam about this and I knew that was going to take the restraint of the Holy Spirit!

This past Wednesday I woke up just overwhelmed with frustration that God has not told Adam yet...anyone who knows me, knows that patience is not my strong point. So I prayed to God that morning asking him to help me to be patient but I also told him I didn't understand why he wasn't telling Adam! Why would he tell me and then wait so long to tell Adam?  And that same day, the coolest thing happened. 

That afternoon I noticed there was a message on my cell phone (for those of you who know me, this is a miracle in itself that I noticed there was a message one the same day it was left! he he!) and when I checked it, it was Debra from our international agency calling to discuss the differences between adopting from Ghana vs. the DR of Congo. I was so excited! Adam must have called her and asked what we would need to do to switch countries so I immediately called him and said that Debra had called him back and left a message for him to call her. Adam sat there silent on the phone and said, "I didn't call Debra.... she said she wanted to talk about adopting from the DR of Congo?  Talk about divine intervention!" Adam called her back and she explained the differences in the two programs.  She had just returned from a trip to Africa where she had spent time at the orphanage in the Congo and she said, "If God has not specifically called you to Ghana, we need you to go to the DR of Congo." She went on to explain to him what a great need there was to adopt these children. And that night Adam and I talked it over and we both agreed, this is where God was calling us to.  These are pictures taken of the orphanage where our child will come from. 

We mailed our paperwork to EAC to switch countries on Friday and now we need your prayers! EAC has contacted the representatives in Ghana to try to get our dossier back which is filled with lots of original information that we need to send to the DR of Congo now. Please pray that we will be able to get this information back quickly! Please pray that we would be able to get our home study updated quickly and that the immigration paperwork would come back quickly and most of all for patience with the process and that we would learn to trust God more everyday through this process. 

There are three really cool things God has opened my eyes to in the last couple of weeks that I wanted to share with you too...

The first is that I say all the time that I trust God but this is really where that trust is being tested.  It occurred to me that in the past my children have been with me since conception.  As soon as I knew of them, I was able to keep them safe.  I protected them and I fed them and I have done this from the beginning…before I even knew what they looked like.  But this is different.  I know that I have a child but I don’t know what they look like or where exactly they are or if they are sick or hungry…and I cannot protect them and I cannot feed them but God can.  He has reminded me over and over that his timing is perfect and he loves them more than I ever can and I need to trust that he is with them even while I am not.  I was feeling very overwhelmed with anxiety about this on Friday morning and I was praying and asking God to help me to give all of this to him.  And a scripture had come to my mind and I couldn’t remember it word for word but I knew that the gist of it was, worry about nothing pray about everything.  And I decided that after I finished my Bible study homework, I would need to look that verse up so that I could write it down and memorize it this week.  And when I opened up my Bible study for that day, guess what the verse was? 

⁶ Do not be anxious about anything, but in every situation, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. ⁷ And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus. Philippians 4:6-7

I just love God and how he has reassured me throughout this process that this is his will and that he is right here with us. 

The second one is that over six months ago, an old friend contacted me from a firm that I used to work for and asked if I might be interested in working from home during tax season for them?  This was really out of the blue because I had not worked there in over seven years but what a timely offer seeing as though we needed A LOT of money for the adoption!  So Adam and I prayed about it and we decided this was one of the ways God was going to provide some of that money!  Well, by the time tax season started, we already had all of the money we needed for the adoption which really made me wonder why God provided this job for me, and now I know.  We will need at least another $2,000 and God knew that! 

The third is that I went on a mission trip to the Dominican Republic a few years ago and I was really bummed that I did not take Spanish in high school!   Adam and I even had a conversation where we talked about how Spanish would have been so much more useful.  Adam took German and I took French…when I say I took French, I mean that I started my first year of French in 8th grade and continued to take it all the way through high school, and then college.  By the time I finished college, I was fluent in French.  Well, a couple of years ago, our parents took us to France and I was so excited that I was going to finally use all of that French I had learned.   I quickly learned that I had forgotten most of what I had known and so I tried to brush up a little on it and when we got to Paris I was so excited!  The first time I tried to talk to someone, they just looked back at me and responded in English!  I was kind of bummed.  But guess who will speak French?  Our new child!!!  Isn’t that cool!  God knew that 17 years ago I would need to take French because 17 years from then, I was going to need to communicate with a little person God was creating specifically for us.

I am so thankful for God's love and constant guidance through this process.  People have asked us along the way, "What made you choose Ghana?" and our answer has always been, "We felt very led to help a child from Africa and really it was just a process of elimination.  There were not many countries that we could adopt from, Ghana and Ethiopia were the only two and we decided to go with Ghana because Ghana had the shortest waiting period."  We now know that God had a different plan and I am so thankful that he has led us where we needed to be all along.  I just wish he had told us before I named our blog, "following him to Ghana." he he!

 

Lynsey

 

About your blogger…

I think I’m technically an author on this blog, so it’s about time I posted something.  This post isn’t as much directly related to our adoption as it is a profile about the better half of this set of soon to be adoptive parents.  So without further ado, let’s get down to it…

Lynsey Stultz is an amazing woman, who I am extremely blessed to have as my wife.  I thank God for our 7+ years of marriage, they have been the best years of my life.  I am thankful for all the time we spend together, for all the laughter, all the smiles and the occasional tears.  I am looking forward to many more years of seeing your eyes twinkle and your little mischievous grin!

One of the reasons that I love Lynsey is her kindness and generosity.  Lynsey has a big heart that breaks when she sees people hurting.  I’m sure some of you have experienced this through cards or plates of cookies and/or brownies, and if you haven’t, please know that you are being diligently covered by her prayers.  Lynsey puts the needs of others before her own needs, and will work tirelessly to see that those needs are met.

I love Lynsey because of her love for God.  Lynsey is dedicated to Bible study and prayer.  She provides an excellent example for both me and our children.  She inspires me to be more disciplined in my own study and prayer life.

Lynsey is an awesome mother and home-maker.  Eva and Eli are blessed to have the greatest mother in the world!  Our new child has no idea how wonderful his or her new mom will be!  Lynsey is so patient and caring with our children.  She works hard to be sure that they are learning new things daily, and she is responsible for shaping them into the wonderful little people that they are.  Somehow, after she does that, Lynsey still manages to cook us hot, delicious, healthy meals, and keeps our house as clean as possible (especially considering that she has a 1, 3, and 32 year old working against her!).

Lynsey, these are only a few of the reasons that I love you!  I hope that you know I appreciate all of your hard work for me and our children, and I look forward to whatever God has in store for us in the future.

HAPPY VALENTINE’S DAY LYNSEY – I LOVE YOU,

Adam

Not Much to Tell...

Sorry I haven't written much lately, but nothing much is going on...  Adam spoke with our international adoption consultant, Robin, last week and she informed us that the wait time has increased a little, from 4 to 6 months to 6 to 8 months.  We are now looking to receive a referral somewhere between March and May.  That was a little hard to hear.  I am so looking forward to seeing who we are praying for and it is especially hard not knowing what that little person is going through while waiting!  On a brighter note, Robin sent us an e-mail this week to let us know that European Adoption Consultants very first adoptions from Ghana went through this week!  The Ghana program is a pilot program through EACI so while they have completed many adoptions through other countries, they just completed their first through Ghana.  This is very exciting news!!!  They now have a more definite time frame for us and there are two less orphans in Ghana!  Yay! 

Just for laughs... Our daughter, Eva has told us all along that she really only wants a sister.  We have explained many times over that God will choose whether she gets a sister or a brother and that brothers can be just as much fun!  She always replies with the same answer, "I already have a brother, I want a sister!"  This week Eva has changed her nightly prayers from "God, please bring me a sister." to "God, thank you for bringing me a sister!"  She is already thanking God in advance for answering her prayer....I wish I had a little more of her faith :-)  I have so much to learn from these little guys! 

FYI...Adam told me last night that he has started to pray for a sister so that he doesn't have to tell Eva it's a boy!  ha ha!  Brother or Sister, it will still be a blessing from God! 

Lynsey