The stroke of a pen

Lydie & Samson are Proberts. I have finally let myself accept the fact that this is for real. With that acceptance comes a range of strong emotions. Mostly, I just miss them. A-LOT.  During this year I've been steadily reading about attachment and studying Creole, but it was all to keep me occupied and do something worthwhile while waiting. Now I just don't want to wait any more. It's time to come home.

This week we received copies of the adoption decrees. I stared at them for days. Lydie Probert. Samson Probert. Wow. I'm the mommy, Stephen's the daddy. Wow. 

I know I have many prayer warriors out there and if you would pray specifically that we would get out of the next office, Ministry of the Interior (MOI) quickly, we would be so grateful. This office tends to be very unpredictable. Time spent here has ranged from 22 days to 8 weeks or more. We know Who can move mountains!

Samson Probert

Lydie Probert

                     

Twelve Stones

I opened my email this morning and saw a message from our adoption agency with the subject line: Dossier Update--BIG News!  I nearly fell over. Before even reading the email I forwarded it to Stephen and rang his office. We read the email together explaining that our adoptions of Lydie and Samson have been finalized and the adoption decree/acts have been issued! 

image courtesy of http://btweenblinks.wordpress.com/

Today I started a 5-day Bible reading plan titled "Remembering All God Has Done." The scripture came from Joshua 4:1-24 which chronicles how God completed the mighty task of brining the Israelites into the Promised Land. The Israelites set up twelve stones as a reminder of how God had delivered them. 

Today was a twelve stone day for us. Lydie and Samson are Proberts now! You may be asking if we can bring them home now. Not yet. We need passports and Visas to get them into the United States. This process can take a few weeks up to a few months, but we are definitely nearing the end of this process! 

Our stones are listed on the right side of this blog...steps along the way where God has shown Himself faithful. We are so thankful tonight. 

The Reason

My sister-in-law's recent post got me thinking. Does "everything happen for a reason?" (implying a positive outcome to all circumstances).

EVERY thing doesn't happen for a reason. It just doesn't. This world is broken. We were given a free will and we've messed up pretty bad. We have documented proof that our Creator was grieved that He even made man (Gen 6:6).

Our decisions, our will to go against the One who gave us life, has affected the planet. Two years ago today that evidence of brokenness was felt in a small Caribbean nation. The statistics are mind-blowing. The stories heart-wrenching. Why didn't God prevent this natural disaster? We see in scripture that God causes natural disasters like a flood as a judgement against sin.  Is every natural disaster a judgement against sin? Romans 8:19-21 tells us this: For the creation waits in eager expectation for the children of God to be revealed.  For the creation was subjected to frustration, not by its own choice, but by the will of the one who subjected it, in hope that the creation itself will be liberated from its bondage to decay and brought into the freedom and glory of the children of God. We know that the whole creation has been groaning as in the pains of childbirth right up to the present time. NLT

...But God. It has been said that this is the most important phrase in the Bible. This phrase is used throughout scripture as a turning point--a line of demarcation between peril and rescue, chaos and control, fall and redemption. Somehow, some way God causes everything to work together for good for those who love Him and are called according to His purpose. He looked beyond our fault and saw our need. We have a redeemer. Hallelujah! It's by God's grace that this planet hasn't completely spun out of control. He still has the world in His hands. He's still in control. He knows our hurts and He knows our needs. (Psalm 24)

He saw the need of two small children, who didn't have a home, who didn't have a daddy to hold them and moved two hearts in the Midwest. All we had to do was listen and take a step of faith. What step of faith is He asking you to take?

Stephen & Lydie sitting with our friends the Hubers

Adoption Update

I was trying to come up with a snazzy title for this blog post, but my brain is fried. We received word yesterday that our adoption decree (making Lydie & Samson legally ours in Haiti's eyes) is in the National Archives. It goes there to get signatures verified. Then, it will be going to another government office (Minister of Justice) to get verified, and yet again another office (Minister of Foreign Affairs) for further verification of signatures.

...no one told us this would be easy.

Labor isn't easy either, is it?

I was chatting with my mom last night describing our "due date" as being a moving target lasting much longer than 9 months. I laugh because Stephen was due on Christmas Day 1974 and he didn't arrive till Groundhog's Day 1975. His poor mother. The kid was over 10 pounds. I digress...

We are also working on our paperwork to update our fingerprints for USCIS (immigration). Our fingerprints expire on February 28th. We get one free extension--it downright shocks me that this is free!  We will have to travel down to Des Moines again to get them re-done. They had trouble reading mine the last time. I'm sure one more year of lots of typing hasn't improved them.

Moving right along....

Resolutions with eyes wide open

Please read this post as you consider the upcoming year.

May we acknowledge our need for Christ every day and live to glorify Him.

Naomi

Waiting

A little over 2,000 years ago the Jewish people were waiting. Waiting for their king to arrive. The king that the prophets of old proclaimed would come. He came, many of them did not recognize Him and denied that He was who He said He is. They thought He would be born of human royalty. A prince. He came instead humbly without a place to lay His head. He came to save the world.

For 33 years He walked this earth sinless. Serving the lowly, the sick, the widow, the orphan. Only to die a terrible death. But the story doesn't end there. Three days later, He was raised from the dead just as the prophets foretold. For 40 days after his resurrection He walked this earth once again, seen by a number of witnesses who would later retell the story of Jesus. He left this earth on a hillside, but before He left, He told his disciples that one day, soon He was coming back.

His church is now waiting for His second return. Are you ready? Have you accepted the Gift God so freely gave? The gift of His Son, born in a manger, born to die...for you.  Are you living a life pleasing to the Lord? What have you done with the story of Jesus? Is it just a fable to you? If you haven't accepted Jesus as your Savior, you can do it right now, before it's too late. Choose to follow Him, believe on Him, allow Him to be the Lord of your life and allow Him to change you completely. I promise that He will take you places you never thought possible, if you let Him.

O come, o come Emmanuel.

Adoption Update

Well..........there isn't an update to report...yet. For those of you just joining us on this journey, I thought I would take a moment to fill you in. We were moving along quite quickly on our adoption journey, especially for Haiti, when we had the unexpected and tragic death of our adoption processor. We knew at the time that his loss would probably halt the process for a while. We realize now how devastating the loss of Kiki was to Maison. It's taken some time for everybody to readjust. We are hopeful though that it won't be long until we have some good news to report. The good news that we are waiting to hear is that we have an adoption decree. That is a huge step and once it's completed, the U.S. side of things starts to kick in. I know many of you are praying and please know that we feel your prayers and are thankful that we have so many family and friends fighting this battle with us.

Waiting is hard, but knowing that Lydie and Samson are in a place where they are loved and well-cared for makes the waiting a little bit easier. This is all out of our control. There is comfort in that. God knows our hurts, He knows our needs. Despite the loss of Kiki, we have been so blessed in this process. From making countless lifelong friends, to having our eyes opened to the needs of this world, to having a relatively smooth adoption so far, we are grateful. Every adoption is a miracle. Before the earthquake it was taking Haitian children sometimes 3+ years to come home to their families. The official clock began ticking for us a little over one year ago and we are nearing the end. It hasn't been an easy road for everybody we know. These things I don't understand. Any news we may receive about our process will feel bittersweet because we have dear friends who are waiting too.

We were overwhelmed and overjoyed by unexpected pictures received tonight by Elisabeth who we met at the Port Au Prince airport in March (total God meeting!)

I found this picture of Samson (it's kind of like a scavenger hunt sometimes!) from this blog.

Isn't he cute?