we are adopting!

We began praying about growing our family about a year ago and adoption came to our hearts but honestly, it seemed so impossible where we are right now.  We have always thought about adoption and hoped that one day God would call us to it.  This summer I was having moments of weakness and doubt… about myself as a mother and my ability to invest in the people that God has called us to.  While I was praying adoption came to mind again.  I felt like God said that though this road of mothering young kids and engaging/ministering in a different language and culture is difficult, by the grace of God I am able.  I felt like God said that now is the time to grow our family through adoption, despite my fears and feelings of inadequacy.  Danny and I prayed about this and felt right about it…  we were in!  After some further discussions with those wiser than us, we thought “are we sure this is the right time for our family!?!”  We again dedicated 30 days of prayer  and again we felt like God was calling us to adopt…. And we’re going for it!  

having a fun time making our sign... and i did intend to have a "G" on the end of "adoptin" but ran out of room and didn't want to do it over.  my capacity for crafts has limits.  :)

WHY ADOPT?

First, we are adopting because we believe that God is specifically directing our family in that direction.  We believe that God’s heart is for adoption and there are many ways for people to be involved in that…  we feel led to be involved by becoming parents.  We were once fatherless children in this world, without hope.  And our heavenly Father sacrificed His Son so that we too may become His sons and daughters (Eph 1:4-6).  We are adopted and this adoption is the means to our salvation and the eternity that we will spend with our Heavenly Father.  Though our decision to adopt will not “save” this child, we believe it is God’s heart to bring the fatherless and forgotten into a family (Ps 68:5-6), to be loved and cherished, just as God loves and cherishes that child.  We pray that our child will know his/her immense value in our eyes, but most importantly in the eyes of the Heavenly Father (Matt 10:30-31). 

this is ruthie, our sudanese doll from auntie kim.  ruthie is the beginning of our conversation of race.  :)
 

WHY ETHIOPIA (and not Indonesia)?

Well, Indonesia would have made sense, but the adoption process is very uncertain here.  There are no American agencies, no set process for families to follow, and the finalization of the adoption is very uncertain.  And, there is a law stating you can't adopt if you already have 2 kids (though we've known people to get around it).  Because of this we decided against Indonesia.  We chose Ethiopia for very practical reasons.  We want to stay rooted in Indonesian culture and language and months out of the country does not help that.  Ethiopia requires two short trips, which allows us to stay “planted” in Indonesia through our adoption journey. 

TIMELINE?

We wish we knew.  We started the process in November and it’s slow going.  This week we had our home study visit here in Indonesia... we hope to have our home study written and completed in the next month or two.   This is a long journey ahead of us and potentially even longer because we live overseas.  We are going through an agency that is experienced helping expats adopt internationally and have been so pleased with them thus far!    

I’m learning (already) that I have go through this journey with open hands.  I wanted our home study to be done months ago but we just keep running into things that are prolonging it.  With each obstacle I feel my grip letting go a bit more.  I have more peace about the timing now than I did when we started…. and I pray that continues to grow.  I know that God will bring our child home in His timing and I can trust that.  I may need to be reminded of this truth countless times throughout the next year, but I know that God is working a deeper trust into my heart… and for that I’m thankful.

So, welcome to our journey.  Please pray for our child, for our family and for this process.  This is another step of faith for us… there are so many unknowns.  But, we know that our heavenly Father cares more for our child than we ever will… and we trust that He will be faithful to lead this journey for His glory.     

family basketball time

our most frequent family activity.  basketball at the outdoor gym.

sometimes mary gets over playing basketball and does things like feed her babies.  do you see her bowl and yellow spoon at the bottom of the picture?  she was feeding a baby.  :)  she also frequently makes pretend food, sweeps and stares out the window.  but, i must say, her dribbling skills are improving... she is even dribbling without looking at the ball (sometimes).  

and since we're capturing real life on this blog... here is luke being very luke.  not sure what he was upset about but he can melt into full tears in a matter of moments... and be laughing just as quickly (usually).  tonight mary caught danny and i hiding our laughter as luke came sobbing to me after danny kindly asked him not to push mary.  it was funny.  :)

all of this basketball playing pays off though.  i think it's safe to say that luke is possibly the only 2 year old with actual perfect shooting form.  he has a one handed shot and flicks his wrist to get the back spin.  it doesn't go very far yet... but it will.  :)  his dribbling skills are still pretty astonishing for a two year old also.  every time someone sees him they try to convince me to post it on youtube.  i'll start with the blog.... video coming sometime soon.  (done bragging now... it just makes me so proud as a basketball playing mama).  :)

he is risen!

HE IS RISEN!  HE IS RISEN INDEED!  

this is mary yelling "He is risen!" 

we had a nice and quiet Easter this year.  we attended our early morning church service, had a time of refreshments afterwards, a little easter egg hunt and then headed home for the day.   mary knows the real reason we celebrate Easter from us (and her Jesus videos) so we did a lot of role playing Jesus in the tomb and rising from the dead in weeks leading up to Easter.  it made for an interesting Easter service because she recognized so many of the words/phrases being sung or preached... and she asked a question about every single one of them!  we eventually had to pull her out because she was so loud about her questions.  she was really excited to celebrate "He is risen!"  our kids aren't really exposed to easter eggs, bunnies and lots of chocolate because it just isn't really celebrated here.  but, she has seen a veggie tales video that mentioned eggs and bunnies so she was excited about the Easter egg hunt.  luke, not so much.  he wasn't really into the eggs this year.  

here are the kids after the hunt.  notice their Easter baskets?  yeah, being the awesome, prepared mom that i am an Easter basket never even crossed my mind.  luckily our friend just happened to have to extra is his car.  so, there is mary with her cute dress (thanks, mimi!) and a camouflage easter basket.  she didn't care.  luke of course loved his soccer basket and did more kicking than collecting.

when it started i immediately picked up an egg and showed luke the candy inside, thinking it would motivate him to pick them up.  i put the egg in his basket and encouraged him to look for more.  he grunted at me, took it out of his basket and threw it back in the bushes.  i laughed.  sometimes that kid's mood can really kill a situation. :)  luckily i had a little brother that was just like that, and he's wonderful now so i'm not afraid of luke's cranky moods.  and, luckily luke has a big sister that is beyond sweet to him (sometimes), just like my little brother had.  ;)

we are so thankful for this time to remember the death and resurrection of our Lord... and that He is victory of sin and death and that we have the promise of life with Him forever.  

an unplanned reunion!

another fun surprise in bali was that we got to see our good friends from boston!  bethany emailed a few weeks ago and asked if we could make it to bali in march because they were planning a trip (they moved to australia a few months before we left for indonesia).  i was thrilled when i realized that our conference that was already planned were the same dates they would be there.  then, the day they arrived we realized we were staying in the same hotel and didn't plan it.  so fun!  

it was so fun for me to be with a friend from my boston life!  our kids are about the same ages and really connected and loved playing together.  it was especially fun for us mamas to see our kids becoming friends again.... they had already forgotten one another (tear), but picked right back up!  

mary and izzy contemplating life as they look out to the beach.  :)

the kids were really into these duck floaties that this man was selling on the beach.  we did not buy one but they entertained the kids for a bit.  

and then the woman selling meals from the box she carried on her head walked by... and you remembered that though bali is full of modern things and many, many white people, we are still in indonesia.  :)  

this is a terrible picture but i just had to document luke and myla.  luke got so excited to see myla each time we were with them.  it was so sweet.  she is a doll!  and, another thing in this photo is evidence of the constant cheek grabbing.  do you see that random blue and pink sleeve above his head?  you can hardly see it, but her hand was behind his ear and she was about to go in for the cheek grab, without luke even knowing she was near him.  i'm sure what followed was a protest from luke.  he's not to into random people grabbing him these days.  :)  

i was so surprised and thankful that we got to spend so much time with our friends!  we thought we'd just grab dinner one night but since they were in the same hotel we had a few breakfasts together and late afternoon swims.  it was so refreshing to be with their family.  definitely a little gift from God.