If you think about it…

We would appreciate your prayers for tomorrow. We’ll be making a call to the US Embassy to find out why there is a delay in approval of our I-600.  (The I-600 is a Petition to Classify an Orphan as an Immediate Relative and is filed with the USCIS.)

The USCIS at the Embassy in Haiti has had our file since November 14. In August of last year, they told me that all they were waiting for was our court documents for it to be approved, so I expected that we would have approval long before the end of November.  Instead, it’s January 1 and we’re still waiting.

Thanks for praying with us!

Inside the embassy somewhere…

Well, we sort of know where our file is.  We know it’s inside this building:

We know it’s in the Customs and Immigration Unit of the US Embassy in Port au Prince, but we know nothing further than that. We’re awaiting the adjudication of our Form I-600 “Petition to classify Orphan as Immediate Relative”. We’ve submitted all requested paperwork and at this time are just waiting to hear the outcome.

To bring our boys home, we need to move from USCIS to the Consular section for the issuance of their visas to come to the US.

Once the visas are issued, we get an exit letter from the IBESR (Social Welfare office) and then we can get on the plane and bring them home.

Please be praying for these things:

• A swift conclusion to the adjudication process.
• A quick process through the Consular Section (We’re pretty sure this will take at least 8 days, but we’re hoping for not much longer than 2 weeks).
• Once these are done, a quick issuance of the exit letter.

Thank you for partnering with us in prayer to bring our children home.

Latest Prayer Request

Ok, so you may have read on twitter/facebook that birth certificates had been issued with our last names on them in late August.  From there, there are just a few more steps.

1. File needs to be finished being legalized (every signature checked and verified as legal)

2. File enters MOI – another verification step and then recommendation for passport issuance with our last names.

3. Passport issuance

4. Entire dossier heads to the US Embassy for final approval of our I-600 (already have in writing, they are just waiting for paperwork to be in their hands).

5. File moves to the US Consular section at the Embassy for the Visa issuance (entails a visa interview and then the visa will be issued a few days later).

6. Visas issued

7. We go and get the boys.

Seven small steps, but each one seems to take forever.  Would you please pray with us that we would move into MOI this week?

The truth…

Someone recently said to me, “I so admire what you and your husband are doing by adopting all these boys.”

Please do not admire me. It is neither me, nor my husband, who has any reason to be admired. Five years ago, we both had far different plans for the rest of our lives. Our son was in the middle of his senior year and the day we had been waiting for for 22 years was fast approaching. We were going to retire in Florida and spend the rest of our years doing exactly what we had not done in our early twenties.  We had our children early and so we were not out doing what we wanted to do, we were raising and supporting children and broke most of the time. We ached for the day they were out of the house and our lives would finally be about us. We’d buy whatever we wanted, go wherever we wanted, do whatever we wanted.

I promised you the truth… some days I still ache for that day, especially when the parenting road gets difficult.

But God wooed us and we fell in love with Him and we changed.

“I have been crucified with Christ, and it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and delivered Himself up for me.” Galatians 2:20

Our adoptions (both of them) have been about obedience to the Lord’s call and hoping to bring glory to His name, not our own.

Admire God, for it is to Him that we direct all the glory!

Adoption Update

We finally got the phone call!!!

Tuesday morning, Brian and I will be on a flight to Haiti to finalize our adoption in a Haitian courtroom.  We are so excited!! Thank you for partnering with us in prayer for this day to happen!

Interestingly, our call came exactly 2 days before our file had been in IBESR for exactly a year. 363 days of learning patience…

We don’t expect to be bringing them home with us on this trip, but God could certainly surprise us with that blessing.

We would appreciate your prayers in the following areas:

• That we would be able to fit in all of the appointments we need to take care of between Tues and Fri.  Two court appearances and then passports to be issued.
• That we would be able to get all documents translated back into English quickly so that we can deliver the entire dossier to the US Embassy on Monday morning or even earlier 😉 .
• Pray that once the dossier is in the hand of the Embassy that they will review everything quickly and approve our I-600 Petition to Classify Orphan as an Immediate Relative. We previously had a roadblock at the embassy and we need it to fall down.  The boys cannot get visas to come to the USA if our I-600 is not approved.  Please pray that God will remove all the barriers and to direct us to the right people in our government to facilitate that removal.
• Pray that our boys will be home on or before 8/8/12.  It’s my birthday and that would be a very cool birthday present!

Again thanks to all of you who have supported our family in prayer throughout this process.  We’re not there yet, but we are into the final sprint!!

Answered Prayer

I was doing a study this morning as part of facilitator training for our church’s women’s ministry called Friend 2 Friend.  We’re going through a book called “Growing in Christ” by the Navpress. I’ll be willing to confess that I wasn’t all that thrilled to be asked to go through it.  I mean, I’ve been a Christian since I was 19 (wow, is it really almost 30 years). This is pretty basic stuff, I thought. I was reminded that even the most basic stuff is what we need sometimes.

We’re still anxiously awaiting news from Haiti. We know that four or five dossiers from our orphanage have received presidential dispensation in the last two weeks.  We still do not know which dossiers. Why? Because as soon as this news was received, Haiti began to erupt in political violence. A prominent police officer was killed prompting riots throughout Port au Prince. In addition, seven kidnappings took place. A group of 50 ex-military men stormed parliament demanding back pay. A prominent governmental official was accused of killing a store owner. The list just goes on and on…..

As I went through this study this morning, I was reminded again of the battle that is taking place in the spiritual realm in Haiti.  There is active opposition to children coming home both spiritually and in the natural world. As much as I have written about this spiritual battle, you would think that I would have been girded and praying and engaging in that battle. Instead, I heard these were signed and have been fretting and pestering the director of the orphanage trying to get any information at all, to no avail.

Lessons from today:

1. Don’t stop asking in Jesus’s name

John 16:24 Until now you have not asked for anything in my name. Ask and you will receive, and your joy will be complete.”

2. Ask according to His will – I John 5:14-15

3. Abide in Jesus, trusting in Him, reading and applying His words. – John 15:7

4. God’s answers to my prayers will be great and mighty, beyond what I ask – Jeremiah 33:3 and Ephesians 3:20

5. The wrong reaction to this uncertainty is for me to become anxious; the right reaction is to keep asking God with thanksgiving. – Philippians 4:7

6. When I do, He will give me peace and guard my heart and mind. Philippians 4:7

I’m thanking God today for the reminder.

Prayer Requests for the adoption this week:

• Those with dispensation will be told this week.
• Dispensations will be published in Le Moniteur even this week.
• Files will exit IBESR by Friday next week.

Hope

One of my favorite daily devotionals is Jesus Calling written by Sarah Young. Every day that I remember to open it (I wish it were every day), it seems as if the daily entry had been written directly for me. Today’s (March 26) entry begins with three small words that I have come to know so well over the last year, “Waiting on Me…”

Would that we would all learn how to patiently wait on Him.

In yesterday’s blog, I posted the verses from Isaiah 40:30-31. But there are some other great verses about learning to wait on Him. Like this one from Lamentations 3:24-26, “I say to myself, “The LORD is my portion; therefore I will wait for him.” The LORD is good to those whose hope is in him, to the one who seeks him; it is good to wait quietly for the salvation of the LORD.

As I looked for more verses today on waiting, I was blessed when I looked again at Isaiah 40.  Starting at verse 21:

“Do you not know? Have you not heard? Has it not been told you from the beginning? Have you not understood since the earth was founded?

He (our God) sits enthroned above the circle of the earth, and its people are like grasshoppers. He stretches out the heavens like a canopy, and spreads them out like a tent to live in.

He brings princes to naught and reduces the rulers of this world to nothing. No sooner are they planted, no sooner are they sown, no sooner do they take root in the ground, than he blows on them and they wither, and a whirlwind sweeps them away like chaff.

“To whom will you compare me? Or who is my equal?” says the Holy One.

Lift up your eyes and look to the heavens: Who created all these? He who brings out the starry host one by one and calls forth each of them by name. Because of His great power and mighty strength, not one of them is missing.

Why do you complain, Jacob? Why do you say, Israel, “My way is hidden from the LORD; my cause is disregarded by my God”?

Do you not know? Have you not heard? The LORD is the everlasting God, the Creator of the ends of the earth. He will not grow tired or weary, and his understanding no one can fathom.

He gives strength to the weary and increases the power of the weak. Even youths grow tired and wear, and young men stumble and fall; but those who hope in the LORD will renew their strength. They will soar on wings like eagles; they will run and not grow weary, they will walk and not be faint. (Isaiah 40:21-31 NIV)

What a great picture of who it is I am waiting on!  Our God calls out the stars by name every night and because of His great power and mighty strength each one of them lights the sky!  How can I say that my cause (or in my case my dossier in Haiti) is disregarded by God?

For all my friends who are in the process of adopting from any country, who are growing weary and weak as the process drags on, I say this:

Do you not know? Have you not heard? Our God sits enthroned above the circle of the earth and our ways are not hidden from Him! He will not grow tired or weary and He will renew our strength. Lift up your heads and sing His praise!

Honestly…

I have truly felt at peace the latter half of this week. When it became clear that March 25 was not the day we were bringing them home, I have truly left the boys in God’s hands. However, honestly I quit asking for God to move as well.

Oh, I’ve prayed for protection at the orphanage, the workers at the orphanage, peace for adoptive families and  I’ve prayed for all my kids here and in the states, but what I wasn’t praying for was for God to continue to breakdown the stronghold that is keeping adoptions from Haiti from moving forward.

I have to ask myself why I have not. Do I have faith that He can break that stronghold? Absolutely! I believe Him to be all powerful and capable of all things! Do I believe that He wants orphans cared for in forever families? Yes, absolutely! His word commands that we do so and He cared enough about us to adopt us into His. Do I believe that He specifically cares about our adoption of Lowenski and Daveson? Absolutely! He numbers the hairs on their heads and has written down all the days of their lives before even one came to pass.

I guess it’s really that I resigned myself to the fact that it wasn’t going to happen and for a bit of time kind of gave up hope. It’s silly and shameful now that I’ve spent time pondering it. How easily I have forgotten the same chapter of Daniel which I posted earlier this week.

Please pray for me, that when I begin to grow weary and faint and begin to lose heart, that I will be reminded of this truth:

Isaiah 40:30-31

New International Version (NIV)

³⁰ Even youths grow tired and weary,
and young men stumble and fall;
³¹ but those who hope in the LORD
will renew their strength.
They will soar on wings like eagles;
they will run and not grow weary,
they will walk and not be faint.

My hope is in you, Lord!!!

Thank you once again for faithfully praying for our family! Please continue to do so as this stronghold must come down!

A Good Friend Comes to Stay

We’re blessed to have one of my close friends and her daughter join us here at OLTCH. TJ and Anna came this afternoon, just in time for a tour and then dinner. I have been anxious to share this place with her because of her love for fatherless children.

After dinner, I asked her what her impressions of this place were so far. She responded, I’m overwhelmed.

It’s a great thing to be able to share a place that has stolen your heart…. and OLTCH stole mine the minute I walked through the gate.

I invite you to learn more about their ministry here. Like them on Facebook at OLTCH for a ton of pictures. You can also visit their website to catch their vision for the new property called “Isaiah’s Grove”, 13 acres of property right on the beach. We are blessed to have the aid of Samaritan’s Purse and EFCA and numerous donors to build a wall, grade a road and the land and build a well.

Our hope is that Isaiah’s Grove will be a light to Leogane and the surrounding area.

Please add the orphanage to your prayer list. There is always a lot of opposition in Haiti and we need to raise up the canopy of prayer of this place and the new property.

Thank you to all of you who have faithfully praying for us.

It’s a Great Day at OLTCH

Multiple games of foursquare and PIG, coloring, and chatting.  What a great day!

God brought four gentlemen from Arkansas to the door wanting to learn about what is being done here. They left impressed. Thanks to Mandi and Shawn for telling them about OLTCH.

Having a wonderful time!! The kids are happy and it is great to see them.

While we aren’t bringing them home on this trip, Brian and I are so grateful for the time to spend with our boys.  Thank you for praying us through!

And thank you to those of you who have donated towards the battery pack. As of noon today, we were 1/3 of the way there!