Worth Fighting For...

It's late here, the kids are all in bed, the TV off and my I-Pod playing softly in the background and as I sit here thinking about my day I have come to realize how EVERYTHING about this adoption has been a trial and yet EVERYTHING has gone right. We are a great example of adoption struggles!!!! Let me explain.

The first struggle was the fact that I had to let God convince Craig that now was the time and not 5 years from now for us to start the process. He did just that in 2 short weeks.

Then there was the list, I know that I have not shared the list on the blog but before God changed Craig's heart he and I (mostly him) made a list of goals and objects that HAD to be obtained by us before we could start the paperwork. Let me just say that there was no way that even in 10 years we would have managed to fulfill this list. In the two weeks God worked on Craig, Craig let go of the list. Then the most AMAZING things began to happen, goals and objects from our list started to be completed. All BLESSINGS from God. We are one goal away from this 10+ year list being gone!

Moving down the time line we had the financial worry, how would we pay for an adoption??? Blessed again, this time by NO LONGER ORPHANS. They are a nonprofit that partners with one family at a time as they swim up stream threw the adoption process. They have financially supported the adoption, been there emotionally for the happy and sad moments and most important have followed a plan God has laid out for them. Because of that they have met not only the financial obligation our adoption but have made a HUGE dent in the adoption of their next family bringing home a son from Russia. I encourage you to go to www.nolongerorphans.blogspot.com and read about the passion and power that moves them and learn of ways you can help.

Next we come to our home study... allI I can say is we are on our third Official FInal Copy and what takes most families 6 weeks to 3 months to get all wrapped up ended up being an almost year long process due to circumstances beyond our control. Enough said but I give praise to God for giving me PEACE beyond UNDERSTANDING. My mother in-law calls me the terrier of the family and its NOT because I'm little and cute! I have a mean bite at times ;)

Lets move on now to the referral and God asking us to adopt special needs, that was another two week battle of the wills between Craig and God... God won of course! Praise again to him!!

With the acceptance of God's will came the official acceptance of our children. Yea, were adoption pregnant, but to keep the referral we had 4 SHORT weeks to raise $18,000 dollars. God opened up the hearts of family friends and strangers and with NLO we made the goal!

You would think at this point the struggles would be over but OH NO, to be honest they just keep getting harder..... So the adoption is paid for but during this LONG, LONG Process Ethiopia changed the laws and Craig and I would need to travel TWO times to Ethiopia and back. The first time to meet the kids and go to court, the second to pick up the kids Visas and bring them home. Two trips like this would be an estimated $12,000 dollars. NLO partnered with our church youth group who is planning a missions trip to Africa this summer to host and amazing Valentines dinner and auction. As four incredible women sat planning this event one afternoon the question came up.... How much money would each organization need to walk away with in order to make our time and effort worth while? The answer was $1,000 each. When the evening of our event came to an end the total raised was over $15,000! GOD IS SO GOOD. That was enough money that after expenses and then split with the youth group NLO had enough in the bank to pay for all the travel cost of our adoption!!!

And NOPE still not done. One of my personal struggles has been knowing that I would get to spend 10 days meeting and loving our kids and then HAVE to walk away till the embassy cleared us to travel. I'm not in a position to share the story of my kids past but let me just say this, it's NOT in the best interest of OUR kids to meet and then leave. This plagued my heart, many hours I have spent praying about how to overcome this and God's answer did come. It was for me to stay in Ethiopia with our kids the 6-12 weeks between court and embassy and have Craig and Maddie return home to the States. This plan only had on two road blocks the first was passing court. At the time this didn't worry me too much, 60% of families DID pass the first time and we have what I feel is a pretty straight forward case to be presented to the judge. No the BIG problem was going to be Craig and getting him to agree to lave me in a third world country by myself with two new kids for the 6-12 weeks. Straight away the prayers began and this time God only had to wrestle for two DAYS with Craig, I think Craig is getting better about listening and obeying.

Packing and planning was under way for our April 5th Court date and I was tearing off a post-it note a day as we were counting down to the moment we would depart. To be honest I thought the hard part was done. God had provided what I thought was going to be that hardest part, money, he saw us threw all the home study chaos and all paperwork, and we had a court date with plane tickets in hand. Then the rug was pulled out from beneath us... MOWA as mentioned in a previous post began re-evaluating how they processes cases and as of this very moment I would say that we have a 1% chance of passing court. Without passing court I wont be staying in Ethiopia with our kids, and it could be months before we do pass. Needless to say I was in a low, low place but now as I sit here tonight the kids in bed, the TV off and my I-pod still spilling tunes out in the background I DON'T CARE!!
And you know why I don't care...... Because if Satan would work this hard, for this long to try and put a stop to the creation of our family, to try and stop the adoption of the kids God has chosen to place in our family, and to try and beat us down to give up our faith and peace in our Lord, then we must have AMAZINGLY SPECIAL KIDS waiting for us and my God is stronger than anything Satan could throw at us. I alone can't change whats happening in Ethiopia and with our adoption but God can so I will rest my head and heart on that as my day comes to an end and the sun is rising on the day for my kids half a world away.




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