Leukemia

Matthew 14:
And when the men of that place recognized Jesus, they sent word to all the surrounding country. People brought all their sick to him and begged him to let the sick just touch the edge of his cloak, and all who touched him were healed.

My friend's wife will spend this Christmas in the hospital. I have tried to imagine redeeming this moment a number of ways, and have even made a suggestion or two, but I guess the truth is that her immune system will be so broken that any kind of community blessing is out of the question.

As I consider it again and again, my heart winces at the mere idea of not being at home with my family to celebrate the birth of my Jesus. I pray that her bone marrow transplant is successful, that her body does not reject it, and that her family will continue to be broken before a mighty God and awesome Healer.

Lord Jesus, let this be the gift of not just life -- but Life.

Your Children

I can remember this moment vividly. A turning point in my life. Come with me into the recent past where Jennifer and I had been attending the 10 week course of foster-to-adopt training. Every Friday night was like a date-night where we’d race from our work life, quickly drop the children off to a babysitter, and with coffee and sandwich already in hand, we would eat AND drive to the class. This was necessary to get there on time. And attending class meant we’d be qualified foster parents. And man did we WANT more children! Our driving and eating and drinking reflected a certain enthusiasm – you can imagine.

So the tenth week of class: There’s some teaching, some cake and some celebration for making it to the finish line. We’d be certifiable tonight.

Let me describe for you one of the most awesome teachers you may ever meet. She was there that night, and when she spoke about children, foster children, you’d laugh with her. Big laughs and you’d cry with her. Big tears. You’d get angry with her as she described what people do with their children and to their children. She was GOOD and her stories of children were compelling and heart-breaking. The work she did and still does -- very good, by ANY definition.

Around this point, children in need, this is where she caught me off-guard. I can’t remember how we got to this point in the conversation, but I remember distinctly that she said “I don’t understand so much the needs of children in other countries because I think you should take care of your own children first.”

I think she meant well, but it bothered me. She was certain, maybe even smug. She was advocating foster care for children, which IS a great ministry. But that night…that night during her talk, I knew what I HAD to do. I HAD to bite my tongue. Either that, or bite HER. It was a tough choice. You see, Jennifer and I were already committed to adopting from Ethiopia -- not fostering to adopt through the state.

How do you tell someone living in the United States, that children in those other countries are dying? And that “yours” are living?

Scripture has a word to describe what we do, people. Pure. Faultless. Loving these children -- These are the greater works that Jesus speaks of when He goes to the Father. Greater works shall you do when I go to the Father.

That teacher DOES greater works, but when we screw them up, whether in our words or actions – Scripture has a word to describe that too. Grace. Perfect, everlasting, forgiving grace. I’m thrilled to have it, and excited to extend it. What a great lesson, Father, thank you. Thank you.

Long time, no see

Yes, I do know that it has been nearly a month since I have posted a blog. I have absolutely NO excuse and I never lack for something to say, so I'll work on stepping it up a bit. As for an update on the adoption front, our court date in Ethiopia was November 20th, but unfortunately, we did not pass on the first round. Apparently, there was a missing document, a recommendation letter from the Ministry of Women's Affairs in Ethiopia (MOWA). Our court date has now been rescheduled for December 18th. We are praying that we pass the next time. If we do, travel will likely be at the end of January, beginning of February timeframe. Please pray that MOWA gets our recommendation letter to the Powers That Be and that the judge doesn't find anything else that would stop our case from passing. We really want to get the kids home!

Since I posted last time, we had a book sale fundraiser. A wonderful family donated 10,000 books to us! That is still such an incredible number to me! Unfortunately, I missed the whole thing because I was in Texas for a conference. Thankfully, we made a little over $1400. We split the proceeds with some very good friends of ours who are also adopting two children from Ethiopia. God's blessings are so good!

We are now about to embark on our 3rd fundraiser - t-shirts!! My nephew is a very talented and well-respected graphic designer in Baltimore. He created a very cool design for us. I ordered a bunch of shirts and now we're just waiting for them to printed. We will be "hocking our wares" anywhere we can over the next few weeks, trying to raise some travel money. I will upload images of the t-shirts, and possibly add a utility allowing readers to order one if they would like - as soon as I figure out how to do that. :)

I would just like to leave you with a scripture (on Korbet's suggestion): So you have not received a spirit that makes you fearful slaves. Instead, you received God’s Spirit when he adopted you as his own children. Now we call him, “Abba, Father.” For his Spirit joins with our spirit to affirm that we are God’s children. Romans 8:15-16

Hope everyone has a wonderful, joyful Thanksgiving.

Welcome to my blog!

Well, here I am. First blog post. Monumental, right? Actually, it is pretty monumental. We are in the process of adopting two siblings from Ethiopia. A 6-ish year old girl and a 2-ish year old boy. We found out yesterday that the court date for our case will take place on November 20th. That's a little over 3 weeks from now! If all goes well and our case "passes" court, we will be traveling to get the new Finleys about 5-6 weeks after that. My mind is racing, my heart is all aflutter, my tummy feels a little sick! I'm absolutely THRILLED to meet the children; they consume my thoughts much of the day to be honest. I am constantly wondering what they are like, if they will like us, if they are missing their birthmother, if they're being treated well in the orphanage, if they're getting enough to eat, and sometimes even if we must be CRAZY for adopting two more children?! I mean, we have two absolutely beautiful, wonderful children now. Grace is 5 and Jack is 3. They're a handful! But they're the best thing going. I cherish every moment that I get to spend with them and love being their Mommy. Why do we want to go and "mess that up?"

Well, basically it all started with a little stirring way down deep in the pit of my stomach. I started feeling an ache to expand our family. Every once in awhile I'd mention it to my husband and he would nervously laugh it off. Our family was perfect just as it was. We're filled up to the top! And I thought he could be right, but the stirring just kept getting bigger. Since God decided for us that adoption was the way that we were going to build our family instead of the "homegrown" way, I tried to stay involved in the adoption community. I read Adoptive Families Magazine, perused Rainbow Kids regularly and prowled adoption agency websites. This spring, I started reading blogs, mostly of adoptive families, or those who were about to become adoptive families. Some of those blogs crushed me to the pit of my soul. These families were doing God's work, not only adopting children, but adopting A LOT of children, or adopting children who other families might not even consider, like children who are HIV+. I LOVED what I read, but kept thinking, "Man, Jesus is really demanding, isn't he?" And the longing to add another child to our family just kept getting stronger and stronger for me.

In the early summer, I coerced my husband into attending foster-to-adopt training classes. And we were hopeful. We thought we might be able to add to our family through foster-adoption. But, every week we attended those classes, it became more and more apparent to us that it was not the right path for our family. I found it very unlikely that I could welcome a child into my home, get to know them, invest my heart in them, and then release them to return to their birthfamily - even if I knew that it was absolutely the right thing to do. I think those who can do that are incredible, noble people. I have the utmost respect for them - but know in my heart that it would be an impossibility for me.

After much soul-searching, we decided that we probably also didn't want to parent an infant again. I adore children, I truly do, but bottles and diapers and sleepless nights are not my favorite things, so domestic infant adoption was probably out. We also both felt that there was a much bigger need for older child adoption. We decided to turn to international adoption again and landed on Ethiopia. We decided on this country for a number of reasons. First, this country seemed to offer smooth, affordable and fairly quick adoption timelines. Second, the need seemed to be great. We knew that we wanted a toddler girl, not a baby, and so imagined that would be entirely possible for us. Third, we currently have a biracial daughter and a Korean son, so throwing an African child into the mix seemed just fine. I have "researched" agencies for about 6 years, so I had a huge pool of agencies to consider. We decided to use Celebrate Children based upon a recommendation from our homestudy agency. They have been absolutely the best, most supportive and approachable agency that we've ever used. I can't say enough good things about them.

So with all that decided, I thought another little girl to add to our family would be a no-brainer! But somehow, that demanding Jesus of mine got in the way. Instead of a girl, we were led to a sister and brother. And we couldn't be more thrilled about them!!! I know I have gone on WAY to long. Always a problem of mine! But I would just like to ask for prayer for our November 20th court date. Pray that it goes smoothly, that we pass the first time and that we can bring the children home as quickly as possible.

More to come. . .