Good Morning friends!
I am pausing theology thursday today to give an update on the adoption my wife and I are pursuing and to ask for prayer. As I’ve written about here, Amy and I are in a long and painful process to adopt a girl from Ethiopia. We have now been at this for five years through many downs, and a few ups. A few years ago the first agency we were with suddenly went bankrupt and closed its doors. We lost everything. All the money gained from fundraisers, the sale of a car, 401k cashed out. Gone.
We prayed. We asked God why. We picked ourselves up and started over, convinced that this is what we were supposed to do. The desire to adopt had not departed from our hearts. Fastforward to August of 2015 when we received “the call.” We got a call from our agency, Lifeline Children’s Services, that we had been referred an 18 month old little girl. “Do you want to take some time and think about it before deciding to accept or turn down the referral?”
Uh. No. We’re all in. To be clear, there are valid reasons to turn down a referral. We didn’t have one.
We will take that little girl and give her a home, and parents, and a brother. We will come and get her. We will not leave her as an orphan.
We are NOT her savior. Her savior, I pray, is Jesus Christ. We are not her savior and we are not saving her. We are a family who want a child, she is a child who needs a family.
Now What?
So what happened these last 6 or 7 months? The Embassy in Addis Ababa took an inordinate amount of time to complete their investigation for the Pre-Adoption Immigration Review. A necessary step to ensure that these children really are orphans and not being separated from family under accidental or nefarious pretenses. God is sovereign over the process. I can only assume the time was needed but it sure hurt our hearts to wait so long while others sailed through Embassy.
On Monday we finally got that email from the Embassy staff that the PAIR process would be approved to proceed. My wife woke me at 1:32AM when she had read the email. She had been waking up every night to check for that email for the last 6 months. Not by an alarm. She has some magical Mommy timer that woke her. She finally got what her heart woke her for so many months.
Many tears were shed. Prayers of praise were raised up to our Lord.
The next step begins. Now we wait for the Ethiopian Ministry of Women’s and Children’s Affairs to complete their investigation. Hopefully that is soon and we can proceed with court dates, travel, and…. God willing… a gotcha day.
Would you pray for us? If so, here is how you can:
Pray that the remainder of the process would go smoothly and efficiently.
Pray for our hearts that we would continue to trust God’s sovereign direction and goodness.
Pray that we raise the remaining money we need for travel and added expenses the Orphanage needs because of the delays in processing.
Pray for the 4.6 million orphans in Ethiopia. 5% of Ethiopia’s population.
How can I pray for you? Leave a comment and let me know.
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Image sourced from: African Dreamland Etsy Shop
Hi Nick … will indeed pray for you! You offered to pray for us, various readers of Mike’s blog, so I will take advantage of your gracious offer. I suffer from a variant or type of “pure-O” obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD); I don’t have compulsive behaviors like excessive hand-washing but rather 24/7 obsessive fears or “scrupulosities” that compel me to focus on performance or works. I’m excessively focusing on various acts of obedience, fearing that if I don’t do them or do them without a proper heart that either I’m not really saved or that God is mightily displeased with me. I’ve heard about resting in Christ but have not experienced that; I’ve read about His easy yoke but to me His yoke usually seems burdensome. I have little assurance of salvation. Please pray that I can be assured, that I can hop off the performance treadmill, and that I can get to a point where I can trust my conscience which, right now, condemns me a lot. Sorry for the verbose and long post. I’m looking forward to your next, follow-up blog.
Barry, thanks for taking me up on the offer and for being transparent. I can empathize with the struggle of doubting assurance. I still doubt some days, and I constantly preach the gospel to myself and remind myself of God’s grace. Richard Sibbes’ “The Bruised Reed” has been sweet balm for my soul.
I am, and will continue, to pray for you.
Nick, thank you ever so much for replying and praying for me! I have “The Bruised Reed” on either my computer or Kindle, but have not read it yet. Will tackle it right away. Will be praying for you as per the requests you posted today. Looking forward to a future blog where you tell us all how our prayers for you have been answered in the affirmative. Barry
Thank you Barry. We are longing for that day and I can’t wait to one day share her picture as my daughter. God willing!
We have a beautiful 5 year old from Ethiopia. I’m so sorry for your wait. Took us three years. And I will tell you the truth that sustained us then, though I know you’ve heard it a thousand times: she will be worth the wait.
Oh we sure know that. She’s beautiful and I can’t wait for the day I can share her picture. When I can, she will be my daughter legally.