Congrats!!

It looks as if the Lord will be bringing little Evan home from Guat. next week! We rejoice with Mark and Michelle during this exciting time for their family! Their embassy appointment is Wednesday, June 6th, so keep them in your prayers that everything would go smoothly! God is so GREAT!

I admit it...I am a Guat-stalker!

Ever since I started the search for an agency, I have found myself watching families to determine if their child is from Guatemala. (Maybe all of those brochures and pictures did something to my brain...) I would say my accuracy is 75-80%. :) Recently, we were at a soccer game for one of the kids and I noticed a family with a little girl I was sure was from Guatemala. I watched them play (a couple of older boys and dad with the little girl) and I felt as if I was in a flash-forward moment. I know there will be days ahead, Lord willing, when I will watch Daniel and the older kids wrestle around and play with Ellie as I watch on. Then, I can remember back to when I was only just waiting and praying for an unknown baby girl. (We approached the parents and they had adopted from Guat....which, this will seem less weird to people when Ellie is actually home with us! :) )
Yesterday, at one of our several graduation parties we attended, we met another family that had adopted a sweet girl from Guat. We talked about our agencies and their experiences. I know that one day, I will be the one encouraging other moms that "all of the waiting will be worth it when she is home, just a distant memory!"
The referral seems close (a few days to a few weeks, the Lord knows), so please keep Ellie and her birth mom in your prayers!

A Blogger's Defense

I felt that I needed to defend this new-found past time...Daniel has only threatened to disconnect our internet once. :) The time to create and maintain a blog does not compare with the time it takes to search and read other blogs (which I do have to monitor, but it has been SO fun to find new friends in the same boat and see how God is using this time in their lives). To post, is basically the same as sending an email, minus the time it takes to decide who to send it to.
Daniel and I discussed an article in a news-type magazine several years ago that was on a study done on a group of nuns. The gist of the article was that the nuns who kept there minds active through writing (writing was the main factor) did not exhibit signs of alzheimers even if their autopsies showed that they had the disease. I believe that this blog is a gift to my family in that I am writing to keep this "Mommy brain" from deteriorating any sooner than necessary.
I am finding, too, that I am thinking of new posts to write and composing them in my head as I am going about my day. I have also become more diligent in my devotional time because, one, I have to have a quiet time before I let myself turn the computer on, and two, I desire to think and write more spiritually, and you can't think more spiritually without the Holy Spirit and the Word!
As I mentioned in my first post, I desire that this blog will be informative on the status of our adoption and also educational to those new to adoption and what all goes on. In some strange way, I also feel I am developing a connection to a daughter I do not know yet. Thanks for your prayers and encouragement!

Question #2: Why International and Why Guatemala?

How did we come to the decision to adopt from Guatemala, or internationally for that matter? I could sum up my answer in one word: HOPE. Just as God calls His servants to serve in different fields and locations, He calls His people to care for orphans in different ways. We felt called to bring one of the fatherless into our lives to care for as one of our own. For those He calls to adopt, He calls each family to meet a need in different ways. This gives me great HOPE for the staggering numbers of orphans in the world! If we were all called to adopt from one country, children elsewhere would be without HOPE. I so am thankful that there are families called to foster and risk opening their hearts to children, even if it is only for a short time. I see families that are called to adopt domestically as one of our greatest deterrents to abortion in this country!

As a family, we are confident in our calling to be serving the body of Christ locally. We have been asked about one day serving as missionaries abroad, and our response is that God has given us a passion for the people in the Midwest and until He changes that, this is where we will serve. With that said, He still gives us a desire to see other people groups come to know Him. We pray for and support others who are called to other countries. We saw our adoption as a way to spread the Gospel to another people group that we were not currently reaching out to.

Why Guatemala? I had first started thinking about adoption when I heard stories of families adopting from China. After some research, I learned that we would not qualify to adopt from China for another two years, putting our youngest children at least four years apart, probably more. We felt that an adopted child would feel closer to our family if there was not such a big age gap. So, the search was on again. Daniel and I went on a mission trip to Spain in October of last year and developed a love for the Spanish speaking culture. This helped us narrow the world down even further. After the Lord ordained a meeting between a family that had adopted from an orphanage in Guatemala and our family, the adoption committee at our church began pursuing a mission trip to this orphanage in Guatemala. We met with the family again and gained a vision for the serving opportunities at the orphanage. The mother told us stories of the dozen or so families that were currently adopting from there from their church. This one church is sending families almost every month to bring home or visit a child. Their family had even traveled together to work at the orphanage after their adoption was complete. As we first were considering starting an adoption ministry at our church, I heard stories mentioned about how churches were coming together to clear out entire orphanages. This church seems to have that same vision! The agency has even move the reunion to that city!

Daniel and I quickly saw that this would be a great way for our family to minister long-term to this people group, not just our daughter. We can reach this beautiful place by just driving three hours and then a quick four hour plane ride, followed by a couple hours commuting from Guatemala City to the orphanage in the mountains! A relatively short journey given the size of the world. We are already not alone in adopting from the orphanage. A family will be meeting the little girl they are in the process of adopting when they are on the mission trip with us!

Just as it seems strange to feel such strong feelings for a place I have never been, I am also puzzled about this strong love I have for a person I have never met! Praise God for His leading in our lives and the desires He places on our hearts!

Nice People Make Me Nervous

I can say that Daniel and I are one! I started this post on Monday, but didn't post it because we had adoption news. (And didn't talk to him about it.) Yesterday, he posts something similar linking to my blog(without telling me). Maybe we are on the path to looking alike too! :) I would recommend the following spots to visit on Daniel's blog:

The Orphanage
Adoption Video
Adoption & Conspiracy Theorists
MC Noah "Pway"
Guest Blogger
It all started out pretty innocently...


His other stuff is funny,interesting, and intelligent, but these are some of my favorite of his posts.

A Little News....

We are now number 2 on the waiting list!!! Just a few small steps on the marathon of adoption!!

¡Uno, Dos, Tres,...CUATRO!

There are a few standard questions I get relating to our adoption. This post is the first in a series that I will write to answer some of these questions.

When I was collecting documents for our adoption agency, I walked into the bank with our three children. I asked the receptionist for a bank statement for the year, and making conversation she asked if it was for a home loan. I paused and said, “No, we are in the process of adoption.” Utterly amazed that a women of THREE children already, two of which were chasing each other loudly around the bank line dividers and the third was squirming unhappily in my arms, replied without missing a beat, “You want ANOTHER one?!” She was quick to be embarrassed at her bluntness and attempted to work out of the hole she had dug. :) So, why do we want ANOTHER one? Simple. We love kids and how God has used each one as a blessing in our family. I know that God is to be praised for the great unity between Daniel and I on this issue. We have never experienced the "Dragger/Dragee" roles when it comes to the decision to add a child to our family. I don't know how the Lord will lead our family in the future and if there are to be anymore little ones. I do know that for now, we are missing one, a little girl that He is sovereignly working to bring into our family through the miracle of adoption.

A bonus for our family with the addition of Ellie, will be that our "collection" will be complete to act out the Narnia adventures. I am told that the kids will play the four Pevensie children, Daddy will be Aslan, and I get to be the White Witch! (Maybe I can just take that as a compliment that they like the sweet treats that I make!) Also, I am resigned the the fact that we might never get a good picture as a family or even of just the kids. I was thrilled when I had 66% my kidos looking at the camera and smiling when I took this picture yesterday.

Ahhh...the end of 12 long weeks!

Thank you for your faithful prayers for Emily! They got the 171 today and are off to get their dossier authenticated tomorrow! It is encouraging to see how the Lord answers prayers!

A Prayer for Ellie's Birth Mom

Those of you who are family or have been in a Bible study with me know that my heart has been greatly burdened for Ellie's birth mom. (Daniel has to go into overtime when he finds me crying over a sink of dishes as I am thinking about this dear, possibly even, very young lady!) For several months, we have thought that it is most likely that Ellie is alive now and growing in the womb. I have prayed a lot for her birth family and especially her birth mom. I wanted to include those thoughts and prayers in our adoption account (it only took me a few tissues to get through this one):

Our Most Gracious Heavenly Father,

I love you, God and thank you for the opportunity we have to care for a child that you have created. I pray that you will be protecting Ellie as she is growing and developing now. Help her birth mom to be safe and healthy. Father, I pray for a quick and easy delivery of Ellie. Put the right doctors and nurses in her path to care for her and her birth mother.

Please surround her birth mom with people that are followers of Christ to love her and encourage her through this difficult time. Help her to feel peace about the decision to place Ellie up for adoption. Comfort her and allow her heart to heal if she went through hard, even violent circumstances.

I pray, mostly, that Your Holy Spirit would be working in her life and bring her to a saving knowledge of You through Your Son! Cause Ellie's birth father, grandparents, aunts and uncles to be drawn to Your Son. Lord, if there is to be no reunion one day on earth, please graciously allow for one in heaven.

In Your Most Precious Name I pray.....Amen.



To You, Ellie's Birth Mother,

I love you and care so much for you, yet, do not even know you. God has sovereignly allowed you to carry this child and I praise Him for the miracle He created. Please know that we love Ellie so much and will speak of your love and great sacrifice for her. We will teach her about our Savior and His love demonstrated in dying on the cross for our sin. I long to know you as my sister in Christ one day!

In His Grace,

Whitney

He is Worthy to be Praised!!!

Dear friends of ours, Mark and Michelle, who are adopting little Evan from Guat., got the call that they are out of PGN today! The Lord just blew them through in about a week's time, with no previos (errors that would require the paper work to be corrected and then resubmitted, putting them at the bottom of the pile again). They were even able to cancel their visit trip coming up without penalty and look to travel to bring him HOME in early June. For those of us who have been involved in starting the adoption ministry at our church, this is extra special. They will be the first family to go through the entire process under the umbrella of the ministry. We have been praying with them through every step and I rejoice in how the Lord has answered prayers for them! I can only imagine that the passion and excitement for the what God is doing through the adoption ministry will increase as we celebrate this first child brought into our church family since the formal ministry began! The Lord our God is worthy to be praised!!

Please continue to pray for Emily and Evan as you go to pick up your mail this week. The Lord is sovereign over immigration documents as well!

Please Pray!

We have some friends that are in the process of adopting from Vietnam. They are entering week 12 of waiting for their 171-H (Immigration document) and they cannot move forward until they have it. Since the first of the year, it has been taking an average of 6 weeks to receive this document, so they are getting a little discouraged that the wait has been so much longer for them. Please PRAY that this will be the week that good news comes in the mail. Her name is Emily and she needs some encouragement. If you would, please leave a comment for her here and I will make sure she gets them. I desire for our God to be glorified in the arrival of this piece of paper. As you pick up your own mail, remember to pray for this sweet family.
Have a blessed weekend!

T.G.I. J. (Jueves).!!!

We love Thursdays (Jueves in Spanish) at our house. Wednesdays are great because it is the day before Thursday! The reason for the excitement is because Daniel takes Thursdays off and we all quite love spending the day together. The kids love to have Daddy home for the whole day! We let the kids wake us up, we usually both get to go for a run, and we do special "Thursday things". We play games, go outside and all work to get the yard done and maybe play futbol (soccer in English). Sometimes we let the kids pick a movie and we all snuggle together on the couch.

Today, we started the Spanish program that was delivered yesterday. We have done a little Spanish learning in the past with the kids, but soon realized we needed better materials. Hopefully, this will help us to learn the language as a family and be an element of our soon-to-be multicultural family. I watched a video of a little girl in Guatemala light up and squeal every time her parents said "Hola". With a little Spanish under our belt, maybe we can bond a little more quickly with Ellie. I pray that she will grow up knowing how much we love her and what a tremendous impact she has on our family. Maybe, if we are diligent to bring some Guatemalan culture and language into our home, she will have a more vivid picture of that everyday.