Mother's Day Thoughts

(I know this is a few days late but it took a little while to put my thoughts into words.)

As I celebrate the blessing of a godly mother in my own life I can't help but thank the Lord for the blessing of the sweet son he has granted to me and my husband. I love the craziness of our life. I love that my son runs to me when he needs a kiss or a hug to make everything better. I wouldn't trade the stress and lack of sleep for anything.

However, as I am reminded of God's great goodness through the blessing of my little boy I can't help but feel an ache in my heart on a day like Mother's Day. Our sweet family is separated from our daughter who is somewhere halfway across the world. My heart aches for her birth mother and whatever decisions and life experiences led her to surrender her daughter. Why must this world be so broken that families are torn apart? Why are there hundreds of thousands of orphans around the world? When my head begins to swirl with questions I remember that this isn't how things were intended. Although my desire for years has been to bring our daughter home from India the circumstances that led up to this point were not what God originally designed for his creation.

When He spoke this world into being there was no separation. There were no empty arms or aching hearts. But now everything is a mess. Sickness and death, prejudice and hate, loneliness and separation invade the cracks and crevices of this entire world and we all feel it. Aside from the fact that my children are already broken by sin they will also have to endure the brokenness of this world. One of my children already knows this reality too well. All I can think to do today is pray that the Lord can use our family to be a part of the healing process. May we in some small way live out the life giving, sin crushing, hope restoring, joy inducing, powerful reality of the Gospel.

There will be a day when the hugs and kisses won't just make the boo-boos go away so with that in mind I need to point my children to the One who brings complete healing and comfort. May this adoption journey be a reminder to those looking on that Christ came to restore a broken world. He came to undo all that sin had ravaged. Let us live lives that continually point to the One who has given everything so that we might become sons and daughters of God. Let us address the brokenness of the world head on and display the grace and love that we have been given. Let us love not with words or tongue but with actions and in truth.

Interviews Complete

Yesterday we met with our social worker for the second time. We handed over a stack of completed paperwork (woohoo!) and then sat down for a two hour interview process. Shew. I didn't really know what to expect with the interviews but they weren't bad at all. Jon and I recently turned in our autobiographies and our social worker just spent time clarifying a few things and asked a handful of other questions. Our next meeting will take place the second week of June, which feels painfully far away. However we have a few things we need to get in order prior to that visit.

The meeting in June will be our actual home-study. During that visit our social worker will complete a home safety inspection. He told me that visit should only take about 45 minutes. According to our social worker that meeting will be our last required meeting. How crazy is that?!? I'm assuming we may need to sit down with him one more time to discuss in detail our plans concerning special needs. We still need to talk with him and share what research we have completed and what needs we feel able to take on. Researching needs, praying and talking through what we feel God's calling for our family may be has been difficult to say the least. It's heartbreaking to know that there are needs we feel unable to meet. However we know that as we pray and seek the Lord he will lead us to the exact child he has for us. That day seems so far away!

So, as you can see we are slowly checking off our long to-do list. Honestly it feels unending. As soon as we accomplish one thing there are ten more papers we need to compile. We need continued prayers dear friends. Here are some requests you can lift up in the coming days and weeks.

Prayer Requests:

#1- Prayer for continued perseverance with trainings (we have 10 hours of Hague training to complete), paperwork and document collecting. This process is long and it is easy to feel overwhelmed. We need to continue to stay on top of this paperwork.

#2- Continued prayer for financial contributions. There are some fairly costly items we need to take care of in order to complete our home-study. Once our home-study is complete we can begin to apply for grants but until then we are on our own. Praise God that has been so faithful thus far. Pray that He will continue to provide and that we would rest in His perfect timing.

#3- Please pray that we would have discernment as we make decisions concerning special needs. We are open to quite a few things right now however there are some we still need to research and pray over. 

#4- Pray for our daughter. Pray for her safety. Pray for her heart, that deep down she would know she has a family coming to get her.

Thank you all for the continued prayers. God is moving mountains and bringing us step by step closer to our daughter. We could not be more grateful!