Children are the best at asking those honest questions, especially when you least expect it. One of those questions that I frequently get asked by our 2 year old is "where's Lu Lu?" The first time she asked it was about a month ago. She came down the stairs early in the morning and after I said good morning to her she responded with, "where Lu Lu?" The next question was "where's Lu Lu's mommy?" This is the question that took me off guard. How do I answer this for a 2 year old to understand? As I was pondering this question I showed Isabelle a picture of Lucy. In the background of the picture there is a nanny feeding another child. She pointed to the nanny and said, "here her mommy." As this conversation was going on, I noticed that my oldest child was watching and listening to how I responded to these questions. So I started explaining to my kids that I am Lucy's mommy but for now someone else needs to take care of her until I can get to her. This answer seemed to satisfy their curiosity, at least for now. It seems that almost daily Isabelle asks, "where's Lu Lu?" Now when she has two of something she says, "one is for Lu Lu". It melts my heart to hear her talk about her sister and it amazes me how much she thinks and talks about her. I think she is pretty excited.
Where are we in the process? We had our homestudy visits nearly a month ago. Our case worker said she has one month to type up our homestudy, so we are patiently waiting. I asked if there is anything I can do while I wait to make things move a little quicker and I was advised not to get ahead of the process because of time lines. The items I may go ahead and get may expire and I would end up re-doing certain processes. So we wait. The good news is that once our homestudy is typed up and accepted, we can start applying for grants and adoption financial aid from organizations like Show Hope. I have started reading a new book, The Autobiography of George Mueller. That man's faith and prayer life are inspiring and it most certainly is helping me wait this out. I will have to share some quotes from that book in a later post.
Our family just returned from the 2nd tri-annual Wiebe (Jason's mom's side of the family) family reunion in Missouri. It was a fabulous time with this amazing family. One tradition that this family started was taking a big group picture with each family having a certain color shirt on for the picture. The Penner family had orange shirts and Grandma Penner decided that Lucy needed a 2011Wiebe family reunion shirt. So I have it waiting for her in her room. I thought about sending it to her in the orphanage, but I am afraid I will not see it again. For now it will just wait until she gets home. So thank you Bernice! Also, what makes this family so amazing is the heritage and faith it shares. Jason and I were asked to share about our adoption at a campfire one night. We were both hesitant at first, but did agree to speak. After our little talk and answering a few questions this amazing family surrounded Jason and myself and prayed for and over us and Lucy. It was so........I don't know what word best describes it. It was just awesome! Knowing that this entire family is praying for us and Lucy is so meaningful and beautiful to me. I will treasure those moments by the campfire forever. While we were at this family reunion, I saw a little Asian girl running around with little pony tails in her hair. ADORABLE! I noticed her sitting with some American adults. I thought surely she must have been adopted. I built up enough courage to find her parents and ask about her adoption. I found out that she was from South Korea. We talked for a little while. The mom gave me some advice and things she has learned since bringing home this little girl. It was such an encouraging conversation. As we said our good-byes and our "see you at the next reunion", I realized that at the next reunion, Lucy will be with us and she will get to meet this amazing family in person.
And someday when Isabelle asks me, "where Lu Lu?" I will be able to say, "check outside or maybe she is in your room or perhaps she is playing hide-n-seek with you." : ) We wait for that day!
Glory
Jul 25, 2011
Jun 16, 2011
To My Lucy
Dearest sweet Lucy-
Today is your 1st birthday. Happy Birthday! We celebrated your special day in our home. Your Grandma Penner came over for supper. (Grandpa Penner flew to North Carolina to spend some time with your cousins, Grant and Wesley, and your Uncle Aaron and Aunt Karen.) We sang Happy Birthday to you and your brothers blew out your candle. It was a special day here and I hope and pray that it was a special day for you in China.
Lucy, I have not known you for very long and I have yet to hold you and hug you, but already you have a very special place in my heart. My desire to be with you in person grows each day. I imagine what the day will be like when I do finally get to hold you and learn about your personality. I dream about what the future holds for you. I imagine the day when I find you and your sister giggling in your room and me having to go upstairs and tell you it is time to go to sleep. I look forward to Ian and Aiden showing you around your new home and around all the places to explore on our yard. They are excited to tell their friends about you.
I pray for you daily, if not more. I pray that you are safe, healthy, and growing. I pray that God is preparing me to be the mother I am called to be to you. I pray that you receive Jesus as your Savior and Lord at an early age and that you live in the confidence that only He can give you. A good friend of mine made your sister a memories box after she was born. On one side of the box there is a verse that I just love and pray for you and Isabelle:
Love,
Mommy
Here are some pictures and video from today's party:
O.k. so I was a little rushed to finish your cake and it kind of fell apart! It was a butter cake with a whipped topping/pudding filling and chocolate chip/chocolate frosting. (I'm pretty sure you would have liked it.)
And the cake just kept falling apart as we cut it, but hey, it kind of looks like a cake after a 1 year old is done with it. : )
Ahem! We do wear clothes in our house. We just had lasagna and I didn't want Izzy's WHITE shirt to get sauce on it. Lucy, your sister is already excited to share a room with you.
We all love you and cannot wait to share your next birthday and many birthdays to come with you blowing out your own candles.
Today is your 1st birthday. Happy Birthday! We celebrated your special day in our home. Your Grandma Penner came over for supper. (Grandpa Penner flew to North Carolina to spend some time with your cousins, Grant and Wesley, and your Uncle Aaron and Aunt Karen.) We sang Happy Birthday to you and your brothers blew out your candle. It was a special day here and I hope and pray that it was a special day for you in China.
Lucy, I have not known you for very long and I have yet to hold you and hug you, but already you have a very special place in my heart. My desire to be with you in person grows each day. I imagine what the day will be like when I do finally get to hold you and learn about your personality. I dream about what the future holds for you. I imagine the day when I find you and your sister giggling in your room and me having to go upstairs and tell you it is time to go to sleep. I look forward to Ian and Aiden showing you around your new home and around all the places to explore on our yard. They are excited to tell their friends about you.
I pray for you daily, if not more. I pray that you are safe, healthy, and growing. I pray that God is preparing me to be the mother I am called to be to you. I pray that you receive Jesus as your Savior and Lord at an early age and that you live in the confidence that only He can give you. A good friend of mine made your sister a memories box after she was born. On one side of the box there is a verse that I just love and pray for you and Isabelle:
"She is clothed with strength and dignity, and she laughs without fear of the future." Proverbs 31:25Oh Lucy, you are so precious to me and I love you! Happy 1st birthday dear one!
Love,
Mommy
Here are some pictures and video from today's party:
Ahem! We do wear clothes in our house. We just had lasagna and I didn't want Izzy's WHITE shirt to get sauce on it. Lucy, your sister is already excited to share a room with you.
We all love you and cannot wait to share your next birthday and many birthdays to come with you blowing out your own candles.
Jun 13, 2011
Presenting Lucy Fei......
June 13 - I recieved an email today and I would like to share the first line of the email:
So without further delay, I would like to present to you Lu Fei Hu (Chinese name), Lucy Fei Penner (American name), Lu Lu (nickname : ))
Believe me, one of the first care packages I send will include some hair bows! : )
So, what are our next steps? We are meeting with our home study agency for the first of 2 meetings on Wednesday. We will also be working on all the dossier paperwork. We now have a deadline to get our dossier completed within 6 months. On Aiden's birthday, Decemeber 13th, we need to have our dossier completed in order to meet that deadline. Game On!!! : ) However, first we need to plan a birthday party for Lucy. She turns 1 on Thursday, June 16th. It will be a bittersweet day in our family! I so wish that she could be here to celebrate this great birthday with her family. I hope the caregivers take time to celebrate her birthday in our place.
On another note, last night Jason and I were doing a search on the orphanage where Lucy lives right now. We discovered that almost one year ago, Show Hope (Steven Curtis Chapman's organization), opened a special care unit in the same building as Lucy's temporary home. http://blog.showhope.org/2010/07/09/jiaozuo/ This orphanage is only a 1 1/2 hour drive away from Maria's Big House of Hope (for those that have read Choosing to SEE by Mary Beth Chapman you know what I am talking about). We are going to see if we can visit these places while we are there. We are wondering if Show Hope had anything to do with getting Lucy's cleft lip repaired. Hmmm? Something we will have to ask.
As always, Soli Deo Gloria!
"Hi there and congratulations! Today we received your pre-approval from the CCCWA!"So what does this mean? I cannot word it better than the way it was explained in the email, so I should just quote directly from the email:
"A pre-approval is essentially the CCCWA’s acknowledgement or confirmation that your Letter of Intent has been received, along with the basic family information and photos you provided, and it represents the CCCWA’s agreement to review and process your file through the expedited Waiting Child Program, once your dossier arrives.You are now welcome to send a care package to your child and can share with others at your own discretion."Did you read that last part ?!!!! We can send a care package to our little girl in China! We can share pictures and details with you all! This is a good day! Recently Jason and I were at a wedding talking with a couple whose daughter just brought home their China doll. We discussed the ups and downs of this whole adoption process. I think back to over a week ago; how down and dreary this whole process looked. Now I am receiving the good news that we are another step closer to bringing Lu Lu home. We ended the conversation at the wedding by saying, almost simultaneously, that this whole process is out of our control. We realize there will continue to be ups and downs during this process. We will celebrate the ups, like today, and we will grow and trust fully in the One who is in control during the downs.
So without further delay, I would like to present to you Lu Fei Hu (Chinese name), Lucy Fei Penner (American name), Lu Lu (nickname : ))
So, what are our next steps? We are meeting with our home study agency for the first of 2 meetings on Wednesday. We will also be working on all the dossier paperwork. We now have a deadline to get our dossier completed within 6 months. On Aiden's birthday, Decemeber 13th, we need to have our dossier completed in order to meet that deadline. Game On!!! : ) However, first we need to plan a birthday party for Lucy. She turns 1 on Thursday, June 16th. It will be a bittersweet day in our family! I so wish that she could be here to celebrate this great birthday with her family. I hope the caregivers take time to celebrate her birthday in our place.
On another note, last night Jason and I were doing a search on the orphanage where Lucy lives right now. We discovered that almost one year ago, Show Hope (Steven Curtis Chapman's organization), opened a special care unit in the same building as Lucy's temporary home. http://blog.showhope.org/2010/07/09/jiaozuo/ This orphanage is only a 1 1/2 hour drive away from Maria's Big House of Hope (for those that have read Choosing to SEE by Mary Beth Chapman you know what I am talking about). We are going to see if we can visit these places while we are there. We are wondering if Show Hope had anything to do with getting Lucy's cleft lip repaired. Hmmm? Something we will have to ask.
As always, Soli Deo Gloria!
Jun 5, 2011
Be Careful What You Pray For......
June 5 - The past two months have been a waiting game for Jason and myself. We are not only waiting on our little girl in China to pick up and bring home to be a part of our family, but waiting on calls and emails from a company that Jason has been interviewing with. After months of uncertainty and changes with Jason's software consulting job, we started thinking it was time for Jason to pursue other job options. However, the bad part is that while we are in the middle of the adoption process, we have been advised to not make any MAJOR changes to our lives. A major change being defined as a job change or address change looks bad on our dossier paperwork and will just cause problems and delays. Since we were not far enough in our adoption process, i.e. our homestudy and dossier is not completed yet, we felt we needed to look into this option. We put a halt on our adoption for Jason to pursue a different job. That was a little over 2 months ago. During this 2 months I have had CCAI asking me for paperwork that I could not fill out until we knew where Jason would be working. I have had our homestudy agency emailing me asking where were in the job pursuit so that we could schedule our homestudy meetings. So after almost 4 interviews and 2 months of time a proposal was given to Jason on a job and it was not what we were expecting. It was disappointing. The entire 2 months I just ached in my heart thinking our little girl is waiting for us and we are holding up this process. O.k. God, what are you doing? Why? Are we doing something wrong?
This brought us to a place of pleading and prayer, asking God what we were to do. Should Jason stay with the company he has been working for not knowing when the next paycheck will come, (One of the changes that has taken place with his job is that he gets paid when clients pay so we went nearly 3 months before seeing a check.) or cut a huge chunk of our budget, perhaps sending our kids to a different school, and take this new job, also knowing it is going to take more time from our adoption to get information sent off about this job change. Pleading and prayer, I tell ya! Finally, on Friday I came to my breaking point. I literally wept for our daughter in China. I was ready to tell CCAI that they should find other parents for her because we cannot give them answers and paperwork they need right now. I was weeping nearly the entire night ready to give up the little girl I feel God has called us to bring into our family. Just a side note: I started teaching summer Sunday School and a verse we talked about today was Psalm 30:5b "weeping may remain for a night, but rejoicing comes in the morning." I lived the verse out. That night I wept and wept. What are we to do? How can this be part of Your plan, Lord? Then it came to me, and this thought has come to me before, but it was very clear now. You see it takes a few times for something to occur before I REALLY GET IT! From the beginning of this adoption journey Jason and I had prayed and asked others to pray that we would remain humble throughout this process. Adoption, being such an open and visual process, can become a very prideful and boastful thing to the parents. People come up to us and say, "oh what a wonderful thing you are doing. Good job." We never wanted this to become anything we have done but what Christ is doing through us. We want His name to become famous through this, not ours. I think of the verses in Philippians where Paul talks about putting confidence in Christ and not our own flesh. "But whatever was to my profit I now consider loss for the sake of Christ." Philippians 3:7. I think the Lord was putting us through this entire holding process to keep us humble. There is absolutely no way we are doing this ourselves, but He who works all things to His glory. He is keeping us humble. On Saturday morning Jason and I sat down, prayed, and talked about what we needed to do. We both came to a unified decision that Jason will continue to work for the consulting group he has been working with and we are completely trusting that God will provide what we need. Jason will do this until this adoption is complete and we have our little girl home. In the midst of all this possible job change there were more opportunities that had come up. Keeping this current job gives Jason some flexibility to possibly pursue those opportunities once our little girl is home. After we discussed this decision and went on with our day, I felt peace. I cannot speak for Jason but I think he felt the same. Jason went out to get the mail and came in with a check from his consulting work. HELLO!!!
This brought us to a place of pleading and prayer, asking God what we were to do. Should Jason stay with the company he has been working for not knowing when the next paycheck will come, (One of the changes that has taken place with his job is that he gets paid when clients pay so we went nearly 3 months before seeing a check.) or cut a huge chunk of our budget, perhaps sending our kids to a different school, and take this new job, also knowing it is going to take more time from our adoption to get information sent off about this job change. Pleading and prayer, I tell ya! Finally, on Friday I came to my breaking point. I literally wept for our daughter in China. I was ready to tell CCAI that they should find other parents for her because we cannot give them answers and paperwork they need right now. I was weeping nearly the entire night ready to give up the little girl I feel God has called us to bring into our family. Just a side note: I started teaching summer Sunday School and a verse we talked about today was Psalm 30:5b "weeping may remain for a night, but rejoicing comes in the morning." I lived the verse out. That night I wept and wept. What are we to do? How can this be part of Your plan, Lord? Then it came to me, and this thought has come to me before, but it was very clear now. You see it takes a few times for something to occur before I REALLY GET IT! From the beginning of this adoption journey Jason and I had prayed and asked others to pray that we would remain humble throughout this process. Adoption, being such an open and visual process, can become a very prideful and boastful thing to the parents. People come up to us and say, "oh what a wonderful thing you are doing. Good job." We never wanted this to become anything we have done but what Christ is doing through us. We want His name to become famous through this, not ours. I think of the verses in Philippians where Paul talks about putting confidence in Christ and not our own flesh. "But whatever was to my profit I now consider loss for the sake of Christ." Philippians 3:7. I think the Lord was putting us through this entire holding process to keep us humble. There is absolutely no way we are doing this ourselves, but He who works all things to His glory. He is keeping us humble. On Saturday morning Jason and I sat down, prayed, and talked about what we needed to do. We both came to a unified decision that Jason will continue to work for the consulting group he has been working with and we are completely trusting that God will provide what we need. Jason will do this until this adoption is complete and we have our little girl home. In the midst of all this possible job change there were more opportunities that had come up. Keeping this current job gives Jason some flexibility to possibly pursue those opportunities once our little girl is home. After we discussed this decision and went on with our day, I felt peace. I cannot speak for Jason but I think he felt the same. Jason went out to get the mail and came in with a check from his consulting work. HELLO!!!
So, I sent off an email to our homestudy agency to set up a meeting and get our homestudy done and I was able to send in all the information CCAI needed to lock us in as parents of little Lu Lu (our nickname for our China doll). As I like to say, GAME ON! We will now be busy doing whatever needs to be done to get Lu Lu home. So be careful what you pray for......you may just find yourself in unchartered waters. : ) The second part of Psalm 30: "rejoicing comes in the morning" came as I drove to the Butterfield trail later on Saturday morning. The song "I Lift My Hands" by Chris Tomlin came on the radio. I was by myself and cried tears of joy. Listen to the lyrics and be blessed.
Soli Deo Gloria!
May 25, 2011
While I'm Waiting.....
May 25th - While Jason was drving me to Sioux Falls for a procedure on my varicose veins this song came on the radio. I immediately took notice and listened to the words closely as I have so many times when I have heard it before. This time it truly spoke to me as we continue to wait on God's timing. His ways are much higher than my ways. I cannot dwell on what I think needs to happen now. I can continue to serve and walk in obedience with my Father.
Thank you for your prayers and words of encouragement. To God alone be the Glory!
Thank you for your prayers and words of encouragement. To God alone be the Glory!
May 17, 2011
Attachments
Today CCAI had sent me another email. Attached to the email were pictures and a document. I knew this was going to be yet another important email, however, the email and attachments had to wait. I had just come home from work and my son was begging me to make a chicken recipe (which takes some time to make when your chickens are still whole). Supper was done and eaten in a matter of minutes. (Funny how much time you take to make a meal for a family only to see it disappear in minutes.) Anyway, I digress. There were still garden seeds to plant that had come in the mail today. So off to Mom Penner's we went to get the seed planter. We planted the garden, played and enjoyed the beautiful evening, then up to the bathroom for baths and showers. Once the kids were in bed it was time to clean up from supper and make a snack for some kindergartners. (Puppy Chow was the request of the week. : )) After cleaning up the kitchen, I could finally sit down to look at the all important email. I clicked on the "download attachment" button and I noticed that the computer decided to run extra slow tonight. Ugh! My wonderful husband tried to get it going faster, but nothing seemed to work. So, after about an hour we finally were able to see the attachments. Recent pictures of our little girl with some major changes. MAJOR!
The first set of pictures we were sent was when she was only 5 months old. She will be one on June 16th. She has a cleft lip and palate and neither had been fixed yet. It was quite breath taking to look at such an open lip and palate, even for the nurse in me. Over the last week and a half, I have been on the phone and emailing with doctors and clinics for someone to look at pictures and give me their take on her lip and palate. What does a repair all involve? How many surgeries? One doctor was concerned about her ear being what is called a "simple ear". This doctor said it could be a sign of hearing problems and requested more updated information. So, I took her advice and requested updated information, specifically about her hearing, and updated pictures, not thinking I would really get any updates. That is when this whole attachment to an email became so important to me. I was hoping it was updated information. Now why did the computer have to be so slow tonight! Why? Well, the pictures show a little girl who no longer has a cleft lip and there are plans to have her palate repaired in the next 6 months, and they have reported that she hears very well. Praise the Lord!!! I had mixed emotions about having her lip and palate repaired "over there", but I know and completely submit to God's control in this. He knows what we can handle and what we cannot. Is this a way He is providing for one of our and her needs? This just once again proves it is SO not about me or Jason or what we want or what we think is supposed to happen. This is all for His glory and all praise needs and can only go to Him!
I would love to share pictures with you all, but I have strict orders to not share pictures until we have been pre-approved by those that need to approve us. : ) I will say she is just adorable! : )
A few people have asked what our time line is for going to China to get our China doll. My answer is I have no idea. Well, I have ideas, but at this rate I am just not sure. Right now we are in waiting mode. We are waiting on a few things before we can go any further with our adoption process and waiting is not my cup of tea! I am getting very impatient. I feel so helpless and unable to do anything to keep this process moving. So if you think of me or our family, will you please pray for patience for me. Yes, I know His timing is perfect, but right now I am just not sure what the purpose of waiting is, but then again, I never would have imagined any of this going the way it has so far. Why do I question or get impatient then? Once we can move forward, there is a homestudy to complete and a lot more paper work, certification of the paperwork, authentication of the paperwork, notorizing the paperwork (not necessarily in that order). So I don't want to put a time frame on it. Right now I just have to take it one day at a time and for now WAIT.
Soli Deo Gloria!!!!!
The first set of pictures we were sent was when she was only 5 months old. She will be one on June 16th. She has a cleft lip and palate and neither had been fixed yet. It was quite breath taking to look at such an open lip and palate, even for the nurse in me. Over the last week and a half, I have been on the phone and emailing with doctors and clinics for someone to look at pictures and give me their take on her lip and palate. What does a repair all involve? How many surgeries? One doctor was concerned about her ear being what is called a "simple ear". This doctor said it could be a sign of hearing problems and requested more updated information. So, I took her advice and requested updated information, specifically about her hearing, and updated pictures, not thinking I would really get any updates. That is when this whole attachment to an email became so important to me. I was hoping it was updated information. Now why did the computer have to be so slow tonight! Why? Well, the pictures show a little girl who no longer has a cleft lip and there are plans to have her palate repaired in the next 6 months, and they have reported that she hears very well. Praise the Lord!!! I had mixed emotions about having her lip and palate repaired "over there", but I know and completely submit to God's control in this. He knows what we can handle and what we cannot. Is this a way He is providing for one of our and her needs? This just once again proves it is SO not about me or Jason or what we want or what we think is supposed to happen. This is all for His glory and all praise needs and can only go to Him!
I would love to share pictures with you all, but I have strict orders to not share pictures until we have been pre-approved by those that need to approve us. : ) I will say she is just adorable! : )
A few people have asked what our time line is for going to China to get our China doll. My answer is I have no idea. Well, I have ideas, but at this rate I am just not sure. Right now we are in waiting mode. We are waiting on a few things before we can go any further with our adoption process and waiting is not my cup of tea! I am getting very impatient. I feel so helpless and unable to do anything to keep this process moving. So if you think of me or our family, will you please pray for patience for me. Yes, I know His timing is perfect, but right now I am just not sure what the purpose of waiting is, but then again, I never would have imagined any of this going the way it has so far. Why do I question or get impatient then? Once we can move forward, there is a homestudy to complete and a lot more paper work, certification of the paperwork, authentication of the paperwork, notorizing the paperwork (not necessarily in that order). So I don't want to put a time frame on it. Right now I just have to take it one day at a time and for now WAIT.
Soli Deo Gloria!!!!!
May 10, 2011
The Referral....
May 4, 2011 - I was just about ready to sit down to read a new book, Bonhoeffer by Eric Metaxas, when the phone rang. Ugh! I thought. I have just 30 minutes all to myself while dear Izzy was still naps and before the boys get off the bus and the after school activities begin. Really!!! Who was calling? Do they not know these precious times of silence are few and far between in this house? As I looked down and saw the number and name that appeared on my phone I knew this must be important. I better pick up this call. "Hello?" I said ever so inquisitively. " Hi Laura, this is Pam from CCAI's waiting child program. I have a referral......."
Let me back up from here as some of you may be asking yourself, who is CCAI? What is a referral? Has Laura lost her mind? She is talking crazy. Go back with me nearly 9 years ago to a Steven Curtis Chapman concert in Muncie, IN. Steven had his Declaration of Dependence tour and his entire show was more than a concert. It was an inspiration. He had Steve Saint on stage with the man who killed Steve's father while being a missionary to the Auca Indians in Equador. You can read about Nate Saint (Steve Saint's father) in a book called Through Gates of Splendor by Elizabeth Elliott. Anyway, Steven Curtis Chapman also had a slide show while singing the song, When Love Takes You In. His slide show consisted of pictures and video of the first time meeting their adopted daughter Shaohannah. I was a balling mess. What a divine picture of the love Christ has for us in adopting us into his family. Adoption was in the back of my mind ever since seeing those pictures and hearing Steven's story.
Well, life went on for this young married couple. Ian was born in June 2003 then God blessed us with another boy, Aiden, just 18 months after Ian. Having two boys at such a young age was all that I thought I could handle for a while. As time went on, Jason and I started talking about adding to our family. Isabelle was born in October of 2008. Life was strolling right along. We had our 2 boys and our little girl. What could be better?
Now go back about 2 years. Jason had read a book called "A Hole in Our Gospel" by Richard Stearns. He recommended that I read it too. Some of you know that I was not a big fan of reading, but this book really captured my attention. I read it in just a few days and was moved by it. Was God trying to tell me something? A few months later another book was brought to my attention: "Crazy Love" by Francis Chan. This time I read the entire book on the12- hour drive home from Indiana. Convicted again with the same message, care for the orphans and the poor. O.k. God, what is next? Jason and I were invited to attend a small group viewing and discussing "The Truth Project" by Focus on the Family. BAM! convicted again. At this point it was obvious God was about to rock my world with what He wanted me to do with all this conviction and knowledge I was getting. That is when the conversations started to begin between Jason and myself on what God was asking us to do. As Del Tackett frequently says in "The Truth Project", we were thrown into a cocoon with God, wrestling and asking questions. Care for the orphans and the needy, what does that mean? What does that look like in this world? What does it mean to live in this world but not be of this world? What does it look like to live in true obedience to my Lord? Thrown into a cocoon I tell ya!!! Once we were able to emerge from this cocoon, the end result is this (among many, many other things).......we are in the process of adopting a little girl from China. The referral, as noted above, is a little girl that fits our medical checklist and age request that we have made to our adoption agency. We still need to do our home study and get a pre-approval from the Chinese government to adopt this little girl. If all goes well, the pictures that were sent to me this day are pictures of our daughter.
I will attempt to blog our process, setting up a stone of rememberance, so that those that read this will see the glory of God alone (Soli Deo Gloria) and His amazing transforming grace that only He can offer.
By the way, I have not been able to get back into my book I started, Bonhoeffer. Too many other things on my mind and things to research online. : )
Let me back up from here as some of you may be asking yourself, who is CCAI? What is a referral? Has Laura lost her mind? She is talking crazy. Go back with me nearly 9 years ago to a Steven Curtis Chapman concert in Muncie, IN. Steven had his Declaration of Dependence tour and his entire show was more than a concert. It was an inspiration. He had Steve Saint on stage with the man who killed Steve's father while being a missionary to the Auca Indians in Equador. You can read about Nate Saint (Steve Saint's father) in a book called Through Gates of Splendor by Elizabeth Elliott. Anyway, Steven Curtis Chapman also had a slide show while singing the song, When Love Takes You In. His slide show consisted of pictures and video of the first time meeting their adopted daughter Shaohannah. I was a balling mess. What a divine picture of the love Christ has for us in adopting us into his family. Adoption was in the back of my mind ever since seeing those pictures and hearing Steven's story.
Well, life went on for this young married couple. Ian was born in June 2003 then God blessed us with another boy, Aiden, just 18 months after Ian. Having two boys at such a young age was all that I thought I could handle for a while. As time went on, Jason and I started talking about adding to our family. Isabelle was born in October of 2008. Life was strolling right along. We had our 2 boys and our little girl. What could be better?
Now go back about 2 years. Jason had read a book called "A Hole in Our Gospel" by Richard Stearns. He recommended that I read it too. Some of you know that I was not a big fan of reading, but this book really captured my attention. I read it in just a few days and was moved by it. Was God trying to tell me something? A few months later another book was brought to my attention: "Crazy Love" by Francis Chan. This time I read the entire book on the12- hour drive home from Indiana. Convicted again with the same message, care for the orphans and the poor. O.k. God, what is next? Jason and I were invited to attend a small group viewing and discussing "The Truth Project" by Focus on the Family. BAM! convicted again. At this point it was obvious God was about to rock my world with what He wanted me to do with all this conviction and knowledge I was getting. That is when the conversations started to begin between Jason and myself on what God was asking us to do. As Del Tackett frequently says in "The Truth Project", we were thrown into a cocoon with God, wrestling and asking questions. Care for the orphans and the needy, what does that mean? What does that look like in this world? What does it mean to live in this world but not be of this world? What does it look like to live in true obedience to my Lord? Thrown into a cocoon I tell ya!!! Once we were able to emerge from this cocoon, the end result is this (among many, many other things).......we are in the process of adopting a little girl from China. The referral, as noted above, is a little girl that fits our medical checklist and age request that we have made to our adoption agency. We still need to do our home study and get a pre-approval from the Chinese government to adopt this little girl. If all goes well, the pictures that were sent to me this day are pictures of our daughter.
I will attempt to blog our process, setting up a stone of rememberance, so that those that read this will see the glory of God alone (Soli Deo Gloria) and His amazing transforming grace that only He can offer.
By the way, I have not been able to get back into my book I started, Bonhoeffer. Too many other things on my mind and things to research online. : )
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