The Young Family Farm »

[Thoughts from an adopted mother-to-be early this morning]

How loved you are by God–so loved that He sent two mothers to care for you.
In a broken world, things are not as they should be–yet He does not leave things as they are–God looked down and as your Heavenly Father He provided.

He created you. Even in your mother’s womb, your days were numbered and He had a plan–by Him, you are fearfully and wonderfully made. He created you with joy and love–and in the very beginning He entrusted you to her.

She made a decision to give you life dispite the circumstances. For this, she is brave, courageous and strong.
Each mother with a different story, yet the same…
Too young to raise a baby, she felt in her heart God had prepared a family who had been set apart just for you. She was unselish and brave. Bless her.
Too sick to work and knowing her time was short, she carried you miles to a place she had heard would care for you–her heart was broken but she loved you more than a broken heart. Bless her.
Too tired to walk further, she placed you carefully in the chapel and prayed desperately that someone would hear your cry. It was not easy, but she could go no further–and faithfully He answered her prayer. They said you were abandoned, but God was always there–you were never alone. He was faithful and sent someone quickly. How loved you are!
Closing her eyes in weakness she whispered to your father what to do if he also got too weak to continue work and care, and then she prayed God would give him strength and bravery to follow through with her wishes if times became too hard. She gave her fear of the unknown to the Lord and trusted. In a broken world, she was brave. Bless her.

Her loss is my gain. Life is broken, yet beautiful.
It is written: Carry one another’s burdens and in this way you furfill the law of my Son. Even in my joy, I grieve.
Life isn’t always how we dream or plan, and for her–this was true.
Yet God was faithful and heard her prayer. Even in pain, He blessed her.
My loss will forever be her gain. I will never replace her. She is your birth mother. She carried you in her womb. She rejoiced in your kicks while you were still in her belly. She gave you life. She nursed you and you brought her joy. She made the decision to be selfless and protect you when the day turned to night. She is your birth mother, and she is brave. I will always wonder what it was like to hold you as newborn; what it was like to have you sleep on my chest; but this was her joy–and it is as it should be. You were her joy. You are are also mine. All part of a beautiful story.

Life is broken, yet He makes it beautiful–and every birthday I will be the mother who will hold you; I will rejoice in the day of your birth and in God’s faithful protection; In the days of the unknown, He fed you; He NEVER left you! He loved you so much that He brought you safely to this world and in it’s brokenness, He whispered to our hearts we had another child waiting for us. The whisper of the Lord is strong–and although quiet it could never be misunderstood by one of His. You are our child. You ARE our child. You ARE OUR child. I will rejoice; And I will love you forever! How I love you! How I long for you!

I am humbled to know I am the one she prayed for. Help me Lord to be as brave as she was and to mother unselfishly and with courage. Bless her.
With the strength of Jechebed–Moses mother–she grieved in the world’s brokenness yet she took the most incredible leap of faith and prayed someone would rescue you. She intrusted part of herself to me through You. I do not know her, but together we embrace you and one another. Our hands are lifted high.
And like Pharoah’s daughter, I have seen the miracle in the river and I have fallen in love.
My heart leaps for joy!
You are mine! You are mine! You are mine!
My heart longs to be your mother. To see you do the rest of your firsts. To watch you play and live. You are my child! You ARE my child! You ARE MY child!!!

How the Lord must love you to make us long for you so!
All because of a faithful loving God.
And on the other side of the world, one mother’s longing.
And because of another mother’s bravery.

Just got placed with our home study coordinator and our first home study is THIS Friday!!! I’m so glad we chose a company who is so fast! We’ll have 3 more interviews after today’s phone consultation—the 2nd being this Friday. Off to work on my “to do” list I posted earlier today. (And of course edit a gazillon sessions that are in waiting!) Wow…after this week we should have a lot of fun pictures to share…physicals, fingerprinting and our home study!

The application to AGCI (adoption agency)and AAA Partners (home study agency) are in. Just got off the phone with AAA and our paperwork menu is before us. I eat paperwork for breakfast—the wait for our child is going to be what gets me! OK…so our homestudy paperwork is just the appetizer. Here’s what we’ll be doing this week (on top of ballet, soccer, preschool, editing portraits and of course working with Frank’s new skills of clapping and waving ‘bye-bye’…video of that to follow;):

1. Date with Roswell City to get fingerprints (too bad they just want mine and Richard’s b/c Laney and Parker would love to do this one…I think I’ll take them with us and let them join in the fun too…wonder if our home study agency will think that’s as cute as we do!)

2. Mail fingerprints to FBI and contact FBI for background checks.

3. Bake cookies for the people I’m asking to write reference letters for us;). Just kidding…but maybe I’m not;). I will beg these lucky four to mail those in asap:). Come on people–I’m going for a record breaking home study time completion here;)

4. Fill out retention letter, child safety agreement, more agreements, more agreements and more agreements.

5. Make doctor appointments for a family date to the doctor…PHYSICALS for EVERYONE! Richard will be so excited;)! Frank even has to have one!

6. Fill out financial statements and ask Richard’s boss for a raise. Just kidding. This momma will be quitting her photography business when #4 arrives:)

7. Complete 10 page parent personal profile. Everything from how the hubby and I handle disagreements, what our wedding was like, what were our favorite things to do as children, and of course the answer to my question I answered last post ‘why ethiopia’…I’m guessing they want more than ‘why not?’

OK…so that’s it for this week:). Off to make doc appointments and start this weeks paperwork! I’ll try to take a few pictures of our physical and fingerprinting fun!!!

XOXO,

Andrea

This “Why Ethiopia”question is one we have already gotten a lot of–and one we fully expect and anticipate answering many times during our lives. My answer is really a question right back: Why not? The simplicity of it all is that we love children, our biological children desire this as much as we do, and we feel it is our responsibility as Christians to love these children deeply as they were our own…so much so, even bringing one (or two eventually) to live with us forever.

In just a month’s time, I have gotten much encouragement in our step of faith to follow God in our choosing to adopt. How thankful I am for those who stand with us and behind us! I have also already gotten some resistance–and surprisingly some comments from other believers who I look up to…but even for these I am thankful. I am reminded that I must keep my eyes on the cross–on what God is calling us to–and to not look to man or worry about what man thinks.

Our love to orphans should show no boundaries. I feel we should love them whole heartedly as we love our own. We should not only give our money and time–but also our hearts. To love them as Jesus calls us to requires sacrifice–maybe some of us will feel led to sacrifice to the point of lifestyle change by giving sacrificially so they may live until they are grafted in a forever family; some may be called to family change through adoption or others may change to the point of moving across the world to serve the orphan (www.kissesfromkate.blogspot.com) But one thing we must remember, is that when we follow Jesus wholeheartedly we will no longer be living as the world lives and our lives will look different–and thus, not everyone will agree with us…even some who call themselves Christians.

I overheard a recent opinion about our adoption that truthfully caught me off guard but how thankful I was to hear it so early in the process. It was said that we should take care of our own children first before we adopt. This was puzzling to hear from a believer–but I have to say that we truly already believe the children in Ethiopia that God has set apart for us are OURS…and we are actually trying to take care of our “own” children first by persuing them now whole-heartedly…to rescue them from the dying and to graft them forevermore into THEIR/OUR family! We also feel we are taking care of our biological children by persuing this with them and not allowing ourselves to get too comfortable in our world. They are getting to see firsthand the gospel of Christ–a tranformation from orphan to son/daughter forever. How thankful I am that God didn’t take care of His own flesh “first” or wait until life seemed perfect and peaceful to persue us. How thankful I am that He made sacrifices and chose to rescue the dying…even at the very expense of his own flesh, His Son. How thankful I am that I am no longer an orphan because He was willing to fight for me at any cost. These children are our OWN. We love them already, and we are willing to fight for them because they are OURS.

The UN now estimates 6 million orphans in Ethiopia alone and approxiamately 132 million worldwide. So while we can’t rescue them all–we can rescue one. And now is as good of a time as any. We are not promised tomorrow, so today is really the best time for us to begin. Mother Theresa said it well–if you can’t feed 100, then feed 1. And it is our prayer that God will use this one to one day make a difference in the lives of many. When looking at those numbers the question to ask is not “why” but more obviously “why not”. And to that question we were left with no answers…and joyfully the paperwork has begun. Help us all Lord to love beyond borders, to show no boundaries and to love orphans as they are our own. Call us Lord deeply into your heart…and help us to love sacrificially as you do.

When I became a believer, I began praying for a life of adventure. I prayed that He would help me live a life of no regrets, no retreats and no reserves. My husband didn’t quite know what he was getting into when he married me that’s for sure–but I do want to live this life differently…and that is one area that Richard and I both whole heartedly are passionate about. Oh that God would spare us of living “the American Dream”…and instead let us live His dream—His will—for our lives. We know that will look different. It may look radical. And it won’t be easy. But we are His…children of the Heavenly Father and we want to live this short life for Him.

When I was in college, I led a weekly middle school ministry. Every Wednesday night I’d meet with about 10 middle schoolers, and one I especially connected with–Amber. Amber was in the Foster Care system, and being cared for in the home of a single dad, I quickly became the motherly figure in her life. College life became less of a highlight to me, and I spent many days with these girls–specifically Amber. It was then I was knew in my faith and I would pray desperately for a heart like His. Funny how He was already answering that prayer and immediately brought an orphan my way.

Years later, now a mommy of three–my husband and I continued to grow in our love of children and especially the orphan. Almost three years ago, we encountered a new ministry in Africa and little did we know what God had in store. Before we knew it, we were helping start an organization supported from Roswell by a handful of friends in Zambia/Africa called Wiphan Care Ministries. God used Wiphan to take us deeper into the heart of the orphan as Wiphan today supports 450 orphans and 150 widows. On a trip to Zambia in 2007, Richard and I found ourselves sitting in an orphanage asking a million questions and trying to figure out if Zambia could ever be an open country for adopting. How we got to that orphanage/adoption center I don’t know…well, I think I remember crying the night before and begging my husband to just go and check it out with me…which was NOT on our original Wiphan agenda. God had begun to call our hearts to adopting from Africa but 2 years (and another baby) would come before he would bring the first steps of our actual adoption to begin.

Now with a 5 year old, almost 4 year old and a soon-to-be 1 year old it seems from the world’s standards probably crazy for us to think about adoption. I guess even if we decided to have a 4th biological child some people would think we were crazy. And if you asked me 6 months ago I would have told you that we were going to have a fourth…but the more we thought about it—with 143 million orphans in mind—trying to have another just didn’t make sense. When we dreamed about adoption in our minds we would always “wait” until our three kiddos were older so we could “devote our time to our adopted child”. Our hearts were still being prepared. They were not ready as we were still seperating the two. If we tried for a fourth biologically then we wanted to have one right away–be done with diapers all at once and let the kids grow up together. Why should it be any different if our fourth is born in our hearts through adoption instead?

After reading “Adopted for Life”, I began to really grasp the beauty of adoption and the Gospel. Before accepting Jesus as my Savior, I was an orphan. I lived my own way and truly–I was lost…and lonesome. When I prayed to receive Christ and He adopted me as His daughter, I not only became His–but I also became a heir of His throne. I am really, really His! He is my Father, and no longer can I live like an orphan. How beautiful the gospel is and there is no more beautiful picture of God’s love for us than the miracle of adoption here on Earth. There is a fourth child of mine our there. He will be ours. He will be a part of our family.We want him now, so he can grow up with his brothers and sister. And so he can experience our love, our home and a life with our family. This is the same thing God offers to us. He longs to rescue those who have not yet been adopted. He wants each of us quickly…so we can experience life with Him and with our other brothers and sisters. This is the miracle of adoption.

We know that some will support our journey. We know others will not agree with our adopting from Africa. We know that there is need all over the world and even our own country–and we also have held our hands open and asked the Lord to lead us wherever He desires. Time and time again, He has led us to Africa and now specifically to Ethiopia. We also know we have to keep our eyes focused on God and follow where He leads our hearts…and leave the rest to Him.