One More, One Less

 

"I will not leave you as orphans,

I will come to you."

- John 14:18

 

 

It's amazing to look back with 20/20 vision and see the work God does. He is amazing. The seeds he plants, the connections he makes, the stories he allows us to witness all become a part of the story, future and plan he has for us.

 

Two summers ago when we were praying over our own adoption, I kept feeling like God was laying it on my heart that this was bigger than us. He kept placing Charity (our church) on my heart.

Well, you want to freak people right out? You tell them that God is telling you that the church you (and they) attend needs to be more involved with orphan care and adoption. Seriously. Watch people go running for the (Killdeer) mountains.

 

As it turns out there was a lot of "sleeper" adoption interest. After I posted this post about God calling us to adoption, I had four (count them 1. 2. 3. 4.) people admit to me that they had felt a nudge to adopt. Yes, God. We are listening.

 

That same summer we were doing the research, the precious Kindel family was coming home from India with their daughter, Rupa. God was laying it on their hearts as well that there needs to be a place for people to go for support and financial assistance (the #1 reason people don't pursue adoption).

 

They approached me and two other wonderful women who have a big heart for the fatherless with their vision and One More, One Less (OMOL) was created.

 

More about OMOL next time, but for now follow on Facebook at www.facebook.com/onemoreonelessministry and on our website at www.onemoreonelessministry.com.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Now Don't Go Getting All Excited

I basically have nothing new to report, but wanted to give you a little update.  We are currently in month six of an up-to-24-month wait.

Most days are good days, but about once a month I get freaked out by the Internet (what do you mean files aren't moving? What?!? Your agency told you it's now a five year wait?!?) and then need assurance from our agency (they have never had a family wait longer than three years).

That is the roller-coaster that is adoption.

And yes, why we are thankful that we do not have the extra test of patience that comes with having their photos or knowing their names, we do know that they are living and the thought of them not being home with us, some days is too much.

Thank you for your prayers and for asking how we are doing. It means more than anything else. Until then, we'll continue to love on and chuckle at these two:

We'll also be working on a new project. We can talk about that more next time.

Bring our Children Home

Sweet, sweet video.

A Happy Move

Every Friday we get an update from our agency listing how many families they have in each stage. We've celebrated with each line we've moved to. This week we got to move down to the MOJ Registration line with all the other families who are waiting. 

Bulgaria 06/28/12 June Update PAPERWORK: 17 Families TRANSLATION - WAITING ON NBC APPROVAL: 8 Families MOJ REGISTRATION: 41 Families SPECIAL TREASURE (waiting on official match by MOJ): 1 Family WAITING ON 1ST TRIP: 1 Family ARTICLE 5 APPROVAL: 1 Family IN MOJ: 3 Families IN COURT: 3 Families WAITING ON 2ND TRIP: 2 Families

Bulgarian Registered

Wahoo! We got the email from our agency today that includes our official registration number for our adoption. This means that we are officially registered in the Bulgarian system and have now taken our place in "line". 

This is the largest adoption happening since we signed our agency application back in November. It feels great to have made it this far, but we know that our adoption gets progressively tougher from here on out. 

Our social worker said the wait right now is 24 months. This will require patience that I don't have. I'm hoping to grow some as the months go by.

We know that it is very likely that our daughter(s) has been born and as we watch Evan every day...watch him fall repeatedly, giggle, play, snuggle on our laps, scrape his knee, it's nearly impossible to imagine that somewhere our daughter is living a very different life. Not necessarily a life where no one cares, but a life where there are too many children and too little time. Too many butts, not enough laps and too much work to be done. 

We know that God's timing is perfect. So until he calls us forward again, we'll be waiting (probably some days better than others.)   

Please let the prayers and patience be plenty…

Rob Gets Riled

Don't mess with Rob. 

Have you ever been so upset, so frustrated, that you threatened to "march right down there."  Rob did that. I don't want to cause a scene, but I just want to point out that as obnoxious and passionate and feisty and all-out-annoying I can get when dealing with adoption stuff (just ask our home study agency, bismarck division), even I was uncomfortable by the events that were unfolding on Friday morning.

It all started at the beginning of last week.

After Rob and I received our NBC approval, all we needed...as in the ONLY piece of papers that were standing between our completed dossier and us, were the letters from our Drs stating that we were disease free (glamorous, i know).

I got my letter last Monday, which then started increasingly persistent calls to his Dr. After not even receiving a returned phone call, Rob called again on Thursday and learned that they were only in a half day the day before, but they would be in again on Friday.

Our whole goal in this week was to get our letters (which had to be notarized) and get them up to the Capitol to be authenticated by Thursday afternoon because we were leaving town on Friday morning and the Secretary of States office is closed on Mondays.

This was looking bleak.

Rob called at 8am on Friday morning and learned that the Dr WAS in, but there was not a notary in the building.

This is where it gets interesting.

So, I'm at work finishing some things up before we leave on vacation and Rob calls me and tells me that when he finally got someone on the phone he told them that I was going to come down there with a notary and the letter all typed out only needing their letterhead and a signature.

Um...what? Where am I going to find a notary at 8:30am who can just drop everything and come with me? I sat at my desk paralyzed...so desperately wanting to make this happen and yet not knowing how it was possible.

Well, as we learned in SKY vacation bible school last week, everything is possible with GOD. (Also, where I learned that "no matter what happens...trust god." I love it when I have more take-aways than the kids.)

I walked to the offices next door. stood at the office door of one of two people there I know reasonably well and said all nonchalantly, "so, do you guys happen to have a notary?" to which she replies, "Yes, me." To which I replied, "you're never going to believe my story..." to which she responded by driving with me down to the clinic and waiting for the Dr. to be free enough to provide us with his signature. Seriously selfless and amazing.

After that I drove up to the Secretary of State's office. Their authentication department is amazing. As I mentioned, they are so busy because of the oil boom that they are actually closed to the public on Mondays and have shortened hours the rest of the week. AND yet, they somehow authenticated the first set of our paperwork in under 24 hours. People!?! That is amazing. I know adoptive parents from states NOT dealing with oil, who wait weeks and weeks for their papers to be authenticated. I know they don't have to be as speedy as they are and I am so grateful.

So the day before, I had emailed up their and explained our situation and she said that if we brought our last two documents up, they would authenticate them on the spot. What a blessing.

So at 10:30am after safely tucking our remaining documents away with the the USPS, tracked package, of course, we were on the road...only 1 1/2 hours after we had planned to leave.

And...as icing on the cake of that great day...our social worker emailed us to let us know that we would be registered with Bulgaria within the next week.

Stand by for more celebrating.

NBC Approved

We were shocked to get our precious NBC approval letter in the mail yesterday, only one week after we had our fingerprints done in Fargo. Thank you U.S. government! This document gives us permission to bring our child back into the U.S.

So this is our final step that is in our control. Will this cause me to be out of control? Probably. Thank the good Lord I have a husband who is not a worrier and grounds me (like not in the grounds-me-and-sends-me-to-my-room sense). We'll send our paperwork to our agency and they'll send it on to meet up with the rest of our paperwork that is already in Bulgaria and translated.

Seems so final. And yet the tough part is still to come. So what will we do while we wait for our daughter(s)? We will, of course, continue to raise two hilarious and amazing boys. We will probably hold our breath every time our social worker calls.  We'll hopefully remember to blog.

We're also excited about an orphan advocacy ministry that we're helping start up at our church. I so desperately want God to take our one or two and turn it into 20...or 50 (but we'll start with 20)...
I want to talk to more people about adoption. I want to be transparent and share our story.

Several people in the last six months have shared with me that they may be feeling the nudge from God to step forward to adopt. I want to talk to you for a second.

I want you to know that this really can be for you. That money is undoubtedly an obstacle, but it is not a deal-breaker. That I know you may already have one child in each room available, but that there is room for more. I want you to know that God has your back in this. He will never leave you (even if you say no to what he asks of you). He has a plan for you. All he asks is that you step out in faith.

I want you to know that I want to help you. I want to walk with you in your process and I want to help you raise the money you need to make this happen. You are not alone. Let's chat or go to coffee.

Orphan Summit - Lessons Learned

So I already rambled incessantly about the feeling of being at the Orphan Summit. 

Here is the meat of it. Well...at least part of the meat...I took 16 pages of notes, people! If you want to hear the rest, take me to coffee. 

Frances Chan

• If 1 out of every 4 churches found ONE family to adopt domestically, there would be no orphan crisis in the U.S.
• Your faith means little if it's not demonstrated. 
• Don't only pray about something - DO something. 
• The U.S. spends more on Black Friday than the gross domestic product (GDP) of both Haiti and Liberia combined for the entire year. 
• Does your life make sense in LIGHT of scripture? If you believe the Gospel, you should do what it says. Plain and simple. 
• We don't have to cram our passion, ideas, cause down people's throat...let the spirit move people. PRAY that he moves people. 
• The largest predictor or incarceration is growing up without a family. 80% of mid-20 males who age out of the foster care program will go to jail.  
• We need to rally around foster and adoptive families. 
• Success is not measured by the $ given, but by family involvement.
• There are 2.4 BILLION Christians and 168 MILLION orphans. The goal is to END the orphan crisis and the only way to end it is through adoption. 
• Saddleback's goal for their church is 500 domestic adoptions and 500 international adoptions. What is Charity's number? 
• If we are anti-abortion we need to be pro-adoption. It's estimated that 93% of couples who find out their child has down syndrome abort. We must prepare for a whole new level of adoption and involvement when Roe vs. Wade is overturned. 
• The churches finest hour is yet to come! 

Rick Warren gave a great talk the second day on eight reasons while global problems can't be solved without the church. I think it's worth sharing.

THE CHURCH HAS...

Rick Warren

1) The largest participation - 1/3 of the world's population attend church. More people attend church in one weekend, than all sporting events for the entire year. 

2) The widest distribution - Africa tribes might not have anything, but they do have a church. Churches in rural and remote areas are used for social gatherings. The church IS the volunteer base of the world. 

3) The longest track record - For 2000 years the church has done global missions. 2,000 years from now Google, Apple and the U.S. won't exist, but the church will. 

4) The fastest growth - 6,000 people come to know Jesus every day.

5) The highest motivation - and that is LOVE. The gospel tells us to love. Love outlasts, love never fails. 

6)The strongest authorization - We are authorized by Jesus himself. When God sponsors something, he doesn't sponsor flops. 

7) The most simple administration - It's the "your it" principle...you see a need and you fill it. 

8) And finally...We know how it ends - WE WIN. 

Orphan Summit

Geoff Moore: Christian music artist &Summit MC

A couple weeks ago, I had the opportunity to attend the Orphan Summit on behalf of our church. The Orphan Summit is sponsored by the Christian Alliance for Orphans and has sessions for church ministries, pastors, social workers, adoptive parents, etc. There's a small-but-mighty group of five at Charity that's working to put together an orphan advocacy group that will not only raise funds to help families overcome the financial obstacles of adopting, but also to help people understand what a beast the issue is. We're looking for people who want and believe they can make a difference. At the Summit, we were gathering information and tools so we can do it up right. 

The conference was blow-your-socks-off good. The kind that leaves you excited to return to the family you miss so much, but also sad because you know that what waits for you at home is life and everyday life is a giant time-suck. Every day life can also lead a person to forget (or ignore) the direction God has laid out.

Kay & Rick Warren

We heard so many great speakers. The conference was hosted by Saddleback so, of course, we got to hear Rick Warren speak. If you remember, Rick is the author of the best-selling book, Purpose Driven Life. Charity went through the series as a church several years back and I'm disappointed to report to you that Rick did not even wear one Hawaiian shirt the whole time we were there. Those Hawaiian shirts were a staple on the videos we watched as part of the series.

Kay Warren, Elizabeth Styffe & Mary Beth Chapman

In addition, we also got to hear best-selling author, Francis Chan,  Kay Warren (Rick's wife) and see Steven Curtis Chapman in concert. It's no secret, that we feel the seed for adoption was first planted at a concert we attended before we were even married. (You can read about it HERE) Although I love his music, I love his humor and his mission...it is really his wife I relate to. If you haven't, check out her book "Choosing to See."

So, you can imagine my thought when I opened the conference book and saw that Mary Beth Chapman was going to participate in a panel discussion before the concert. Up until this point she had been in none of the pre-conference materials. So, Here I am, 20 feet away from a woman I have respected and looked up to for a long time. I was ecstatic.

Steven Curtis Chapman in concert. 

Dawn and I made plans to go up afterward and talk to her, but as we were walking she got whisked away...but before she did...she turned and looked right at us and waved and said "I'm so sorry." That was plenty for me. I have a bad track record for meeting people I view as celebrities anyway. None of my words come out right and I usually can't stop crying. Yes, sometimes it is embarrassing being me. I was so grateful to get to see her.

The first day we were there, I stumbled upon our agency, All God's Children International and had the opportunity to meet with our inquiries coordinator (the person we worked with first question through country selection), Tiffany. She took one look at my name tag and instantly remembered me from our talks eight months ago. I was impressed. She invited Dawn and I to dinner with other adoptive families from AGCI. We had a great time and enjoyed meeting other people who are in the process and who had their adopted children with them. It is good for my heart to see people with their completed families...at this point I see no light at the end of our long tunnel.

The Warrens were presented with this beautiful painting.

 I don't know if I can explain how beautiful it was to be in the presence of people who care so much about adoption. Everywhere, people were whipping out their phones and showing each other cell photos of the children they had just brought home or children they were waiting on travel orders to go and get. People so passionate about giving voice to the smallest who have none. People who believe that every small step will make a huge difference.

That was a mishmash of info, proving my original thought that it would be hard to put the Orphan Summit into words. I had several take-aways from the conference, but I think I'll list them out for you in the next post.

Adoption update: We got our fingerprint appts from the USCIS so we'll be heading to Fargo on May 29. After that, it should be 3-4 more weeks to be approved. 

THANK YOU!

Thank you for what you have done and what you are doing. We feel in the last week like a giant weight has been lifted of our shoulders and we have so many people to thank for it. Your financial support and prayer make us feel like we can take on the world. Honestly, truly and sincerely...thank you for being a blessing.

My thank you list!
Disclaimer: While said party (Nicole) has made every effort to remember and document all the parties her family owes a huge amount of gratitude to, she reserves the right to grovel at the feet of anyone she has inadvertently missed due to missed organization, simple oversight or lack of sleep.

OK...moving on...

FOOD:
"Everything you see I owe to spaghetti." - Sophia Loren 
A HUGE thank you to the Olive Garden for providing the pasta, sauce, bread sticks, salad & dressing.
We also bow to:
Karen Karls and Gin Torkelson for the fabulous cakes.
Charity Lutheran for providing the facility, lemonade & coffee.

Our hospitable HOSTS:
"There is no hospitality like understanding." - Vanna Bonta  
Dawn and Kevin Kindel

Our beautiful WORKERS:
"God bless the good-natured, for they bless everybody else." - Henry Ward Beecher 
Danay Engbrecht
Hilary Hovdenes
Jan Jordan
Karen Karls
Mike Lehmann
Kris Magstadt
Tiffany Milligan
Jen Severson
Donna Thronson
Tara Ullrich
Beth Peske
Pam Peske

The hip MUSICIANS: 

"It don't mean a thing if it ain't got that swing" - Duke Ellington

Mark Herold

Kim Kaul
Bob Peske
Tim Peske

The amazing SILENT AUCTION donors:
"You make a living by what you get. You make a life by what you give." - Winston Churchill
Kevin & Dawn Kindel
HuHot
Midway Lanes
Kemmesets
Beth Peske
Lauri Desir
Kathy Kinnischtzke
Kathy & Laif Olson
Jamie Schaeffer
Ron & Gin Torkelson
Dakota Zoo
Denny's
Tires Plus
Walrus
Bob & Pam Peske
Papa Murphys
Box Office Video
Jan Jordan
Ramkota
Perkins
Sam & Sarah Coleman
Kristin Barth
Bernie Belzer
Jana & Dave Wisthoff
Wes & Danay Engbrecht
Chelly Bosch
Justin & Tanna Torkelson
Scheels
Tesoro
Sleep Inn, Minot
BHS Multi-media
Cumulus
Vintners
Radisson
Amber Hill
Sarah Herold
Eckroth Music
Brook Spotts, Image Makers
Jen & Jeremy Severson
Michelle Zajac
Hilary Hovdenes
Janet James
Clark & MariJo Van Horne
Heather Austin
Michelle Farnsworth
Paul Noot
Grand Theatres
Carino's
Paula Seeberg
Emily McKay & Ted Cash
Jim & Aleycia Gerlach

A huge THANK YOU to Sarah Herold for calling and collecting and to Dawn Kindel for connecting winners with their new treasurers.

Do you see what we mean?!? BLESSED, I tell ya. Ridiculous. We love each an every one of you and are so grateful you are on this journey with us. Please continue to pray for our little girl(s) and we will continue to pray for you.

Unbelievable!

Oh my! Oh my! I have so few words that convey the gratitude Rob and I are feeling over the benefit on Sunday.

375 of you showed up to eat Olive Garden spaghetti, listen to some great live music and bid on a great selection of silent auction items. We feel so loved, so supported, totally filled with hope and extremely grateful. Everyone should have the opportunity to be part of an event where only their champions show up. No negative people, no people who "just don't get it." Those people just weren't present.

We pray that God will bless your family with more blessings than you know what to do with.


So we completely ran out of sauce. The extra salad and noodles? Well, this is how God is present even in the small details...last night just happened to be pasta night at the church so all the leftovers could be used all quick-like and nothing went to waste. We didn't even make the connection until Sunday night and the timing was perfect.

So, I have a mountain of people to thank, but I think I'll do that in the next post.




ADOPTION UPDATE:
In the beautiful hecticness of Sunday, we had a pretty amazing week in our adoption as well. On Friday we sent off our I800 to the US to get approval to bring our daughter(s) back into the US and this week we were also able to send all our notarized dossier documents to the Secretary of State's office to be authenticated. After that, we send our dossier to our agency to be translated to Bulgarian. The translation and US approval will hopefully take no more than six weeks and then all our paperwork will be heading to Bulgaria.  I hope the Bulgarians like us.

Thank you!

Thank you! I seem to be saying that a lot lately.

A HUGE thank you to Olive Garden for donating all the pasta, sauce and bread sticks for the fundraiser on April 15. You read it...if you come to the fundraiser you will, in essence, be eating Olive Garden. Thank you to Sarah Herold who marched her cute little self straight into Olive Garden and must have gave an amazing sales pitch on our behalf. We love you.

Thank you to Chelly with Elegant Designs for doing the flyer and to Sam and Sarah Coleman for taking this updated photo of our family.


(sigh) My heart is seriously bursting as a result of the love and support we are feeling over our adoption. We have so many people who are excited and willing to do what it takes to help us complete our family.

Accepting donations is so tough for us. You have no idea. It's a nervousness in the bottom of my stomach. We are smart and independent and find it like torture to admit that we need help. After swirling feelings about the fundraiser around and around - caring too much about what people will think of us, thinking too much about how judgmental people can be, a wise friend gave me some advice. She looked me in the face and said, "people want to help you and you should let them." A simple statement that cut right to my heart.

We cannot do this on our own, at least not without going into a lot of debt. Friends, I just want you to know that through the prayers, money, silent auction items,  etc., you are caring for the orphan. Even if you can't adopt, helping someone who is able to is certainly living God's order to care for the fatherless.

We are jumping the hoops to make this child a Peske little child, but trust me...this child is also being adopted into a variety of other extended families. She is adopted into our family of God, adopted into our precious church family, adopted into our crazy circle of friends, adopted by our immediate families who already love her more than she can possibly realize. We are blessed by our surroundings, so thank you.

Update:

We are thrilled to be nearing the end of our home study. Our home study agency and our placement agency are working out the verbiage and should have a final by next week. Once we get our letter of home study approval, we will be able to apply with the United States. Simotaniously, our dossier items will be translated into Bulgarian so that when we get our US approval, our stuff can be sent over to Bulgaria in short order.  I'm still hopeful we will be able to get our paper work over to Bulgaria before the hot part of the summer really begins. Thank you again for your prayers.

Approved!

We got the first draft of our home study yesterday and we were approved for two children. We're so excited to be moving on to the next step.

So now our home study agency will send the draft to our placement agency and they will comb through it making sure all the pieces are there and nothing is missing or worded incorrectly. There will likely be several exchanges between our agencies and each exchange can take two weeks. After our home study is approved, we will be able to apply to the US to adopt.

PRAYER REQUESTS:
* Pray that everything gets checked and corrected quickly in as few transfers as possible.

Fundraiser - April 15

The fundraiser is scheduled for the evening of April 15 at Charity Lutheran Church so SAVE THE DATE! 

The plan is to do a dinner and silent auction. Now what to serve? My mom is deciding between the always-popular spaghetti OR what she really wants to do is German pigs in the blanket.  What do you think? Comment below please. 

Thank you to Sam and Sarah Coleman for offering to take our family photos for publicity. We also will have to send current photos to Bulgaria.  The last photo we had taken as a family, Evan was tiny.  It's this photo. An update is necessary. 

Also, thank you to Chelly from Elegant Designs for offering to do our posters for the fundraiser. People! She is very talented and very reasonable. She does the League's magazine, but also does smaller projects for individuals like business cards and wedding invitations. I'm just sayin'...

And thank you to high school classmate, Michelle Zajac, for sending us our first item for the silent auction...one of these super cool spinners. We grew up together and have found ourselves together on this path to adopt. I'm so thankful we reconnected. 

We feel so blessed to have so many people support us through this process. So many people have asked us how they can help that I've lost count and I've lost track of who.  

If you are interested in helping with the food, silent auction or publicity, please let me know. We have team leaders who have offered to help, but they would love team members. You can email me at nicole@ndlc.org.   

Thank you for your prayers and thank you for your help. We feel the love. 

Home Study - Part I

Thank you for your prayers. Our home study was uneventful.  I suppose that's good news, really. We met with our social worker and did the first half of our interview together, Rob did his individual interview and then we broke for lunch. Afterward, she talked with Ben a little, but didn't ask too many questions. She mostly observed the two boys together. They were quite cute though. I'm a little bias. Ben had spent the night with the Gerlachs the night before so he and Evan hadn't seen each other all night. Ben kept laying down on the floor and wanting Evan to sit on him. They were giggling and giggling. See...that IS cute.

Afterward, I did my interview and we made arrangements for her to come back in two weeks to finish our interview together. That's the fun one...where we get to talk about our parenting styles, our marriage and how Rob is the disciplinarian and I never pick up after myself.

After that we should be done. Until then, we have a few things on our list. We need to finish our will and have our children checked out so the Dr. can sign a form saying they don't have any communicable diseases. Sounds pleasant enough.

Speaking of the Gerlachs...as part of our home study, Bulgaria requires that we have an evacuation route posted in our little girl's room. Don't even get me started about how ridiculous this is. About how it would be impossible for a 3 year old to even read an evacuation route or about how we sleep on the same level. Alas, we add it to the growing list of hoops we jump to bring her home.

We are blessed with great friends. Our friends the Gerlachs moved to SD a couple months ago, but we in town for work. They spent the night at our house last Sunday so they got in on some of the cleaning on Monday. (Thanks guys!) As part of their payment for staying with us, Aleycia was charged with the task of doing our evacuation map. After spending way, way, WAY too much time thinking about how a 3 year old Bulgarian would exit our house in an emergency, she came up with the plan to color code the rooms. Like Aleycia said, "if a child can understand anything, it's color."

Here is the result of her work. Isn't it pretty AND functional?

Our social worker is coming back the first week in March to do the last interview, but she says that within the next month the first draft will be ready to go to our agency. Then there is a game of back and forth until the home study is written exactly how the Bulgarian government will want it. We hear our agency is one of the most picky, but if that means that the process will be easier later when our paperwork is in Bulgaria, we are all for it.

Thank you for your prayers. Seriously. You are moving mountains and we can feel it every step of the way.

One GREAT week

It's been a great week!

We finally got our home study scheduled for this Tuesday. Please pray for us. Not only do I have to clean the house (that's a rarity) for the home inspection, but we will be doing all 5 hours of our interviews on that day as well. It is sure to be a long, but productive day. I can't wait. We're looking forward to getting to know our new social worker. She seems very sweet.

Please pray that I can find the words to express my thoughts and that Rob can keep the sarcasm to a minimum. Huh...makes me wonder how American sarcasm translates into Bulgarian...anyway...

We also got our FBI checks back last week. Four weeks early. THANK YOU Jesus and the U.S. government! Good news, they did not find any arrest records. Not that we were worried.

Also, on a beautiful note...we got our first item for our daughter's room. Patti, Harvey, Landen & Trish Schmeichel are our beautiful friends from McLaughlin, SD. They are so dear to our hearts. Rob has taught Landen since before Rob and I met so I feel like Landen has grown up before my eyes. For that reason, I will cry uncontrollably when he graduates. I digress...

Last week they brought us this gorgeous tie blanket so we would have something girly in her room (currently Evan's) when we take photos to send to Bulgaria. But what made it extra, extra special was that tall, rough, manly Landen went online and researched Bulgaria for a bit and picked out this pattern resembling Bulgarian culture. See...now I'm crying again...

Thank you Schmeichels. You are an amazing family with huge hearts and we are blessed to know you.

All Consuming

The update: Still waiting to schedule our home study interviews for next week.

I was telling someone the other day that this adoption is turning into more than just doing the paper work, traveling over a large body of water and bringing our daughter home. It's impossible to read the blogs, hear people's personal stories of what they are seeing in the orphanages, read about world hunger, look around at our current living situation and not be changed by that. This is what I've learned: 

• There are over 150 MILLION - that's 150,000,000 orphans. 
• 35% of Christians think about adoption, 1% actually do it 
• 15 million children die of hunger related causes each year

Those are the statistics, but there's something about hearing someone's story about it . All of a sudden those are more than just numbers, they are people. I am guilty of hearing about poverty, feeling bad, but mostly letting those numbers wash over me like it doesn't matter. It's not that I didn't care, but little about how I lived said any different. 

It says in Matthew 19:23, "Then Jesus said to his disciples, "I tell you the truth, it is hard for a rich man to enter the kingdom of heaven." 

As Americans, our view of wealth is so mislead and inaccurate. We think that because we don't live in a mansion, don't take expensive vacations, don't drive fancy cars that, of course, Jesus is not talking about us. Well here's a NEWS FLASH...he is absolutely, without a doubt, 100% talking about us. We are rich. 

America says we are not, but Jesus says we are. 

Look at the "we are the 99%" campaign. They say that you have to make 150K a year to be in the top 1% of America's wealthiest. BUT (and it's a really, really BIG BUT) you only have to make 35K to be the worlds wealthiest 2% and make 50K to be in the top 1%. 

He most definitely was talking about us. If you have a roof over your head, heat in your house and shoes for your children, you are wealthy. 

So what are we going to do about it?

This question consumes me all day long. I feel so convicted. I feel overwhelmed at the crisis of children who are hurting and I don't know what can be done. I think about how easily two of those children going to bed starving at night could have been Ben and Evan and I find myself knowing that I can live with less and I can do more.

Logic tells me that the little things we do make a huge difference. We can bring children into loving homes one child at a time. It doesn't have to be 10, every one matters. We can donate unused baby items to a local mission. We can sponsor a child through organizations like Compassion and World Vision so that children can stay in their homes with families who love them.

Four faithful readers, I feel the Spirit moving like I have never felt before and THAT is something to be excited about. Lord, we are ready.

Progress

As you know from the previous post, we had all our reference letters in on Tuesday, January 17. I decided I would sit on my hands and give our social worker one week to contact us to schedule our interviews. Well...I almost made it. I emailed her on Monday of this week. I didn't get an email, but I got one better...a phone call!

Our social worker informed us that she is too busy to do our home study and one of her co-workers from Fargo will be doing it instead. This is the short answer...we are totally fine with this. Actually, we're more than that...we are ecstatic about this.

Because our new social worker will be coming from Fargo, we'll have to do all our interviews and our home visit in one day. This will be one overwhelming day, but we figure it should get our paperwork over to Bulgaria about 8 weeks sooner.

For the love of Martha...I was so excited after I got off the phone that I was shaking. We had asked earlier about doing all the interviews at once to get everything done faster and save ourselves some scheduling issues and were told it just wasn't a possibility.

We are trying to balance the need for speed with the realization that God is working His perfect plan. One step at a time...

“Wait on the Lord; be of good courage, and He shall strengthen your heart; Wait, I say, on the Lord!” (Psalm 27:14)

How fun was THAT?!?

I had the best time with the children of Charity last night. I wish I would have remembered my camera. They were so well behaved and asked really thoughtful questions. Those children are thinkers!

We talked about how God's plan is the best plan and how families are made a variety of ways. The younger kids were especially kind as I got to the end of my presentation and started to cry. I'm not much of a public crier, but there's just something that gets me in talking about our adoption.

I was holding up a prayer card I made for each of them to take home and was trying to ask them to pray for us, but mostly to pray for my daughter. I just couldn't....spit...it...out. After frantically looking to Lauri to help me finish my sentence and seeing that she was no better off than I was, I ended up doing a series of awkward motions and getting out about every fourth word of my sentence.

...you (motioned to them)...pray...I (motioned to me)....you (motioned to them) ...big hug (circle with my arms in front of me).

You should have seen their huge eyes and silent mouths. It wasn't the kind of look you give to someone when you're sympathetic to what they're saying or you feel bad for them. It was totally a look of, "what's wrong with this lady?!?"

Oh how I love them.

Moving on

I don't throw the phrase "praise the Lord" around loosely,  but I'm hear to shout: 

PRAISE THE LORD!

All our reference letters are in and we're ready to move on. I'm filled with relief. I know that given the wait we're about to start in a couple months...a wait that's out of our control and will be really, really long (up to two years), that this wait for our reference letters to come back (only a little over a month) may seem to some like comparing a mountain in MT to the foothills of ND. But seriously, it was testing my patience. After all, we had been told to enjoy this part because THESE are the steps we have control over. 

Well throw that out the window. 

Tonight I'm speaking to the children of our church about our adoption process. Thank you to Lauri Desir for the idea and the support. Lauri is a beautiful advocate of adoption. 

So please pray for me tonight because it is really, REALLY hard to explain the concept of adoption to children. I'd much rather spout my soul to adults and talk about the things I've read in blogs and how God's heart is aching for the children who are dying because no one wants them. 

I love the children of Charity though and look forward to telling them about our process and talking about how God's plan is always the best plan. Please pray that God would speak through me and that he might plant a seed deep in their hearts that families are built all kinds of ways. 

I'm sure I'll have some great stories for you later this week. :)

 

Next Step

Not much new is happening. 

We're currently stalled until all, as in

Every. Single. One.

of our nine references turns in their letters. After talking with each of our references, I think we're only waiting on two. Seriously, could there have been a worse time of the year to ask someone to do this?!? Doubt it.

After all nine are in, we can schedule our interviews with our social worker. During our last routine call with our agency, they ran down how the interviews will work:

We each have to do a two hour interview alone, we'll do another two hour interview together in our home and the fourth interview will be with our son. She then went on talking about time frames and I had to stop her and clarify with some shock that she meant Ben. "As in our four year old Ben?!? Really?" She laughed and said that they want to talk to any children who are able to carry on a conversation. She said they would ask him general questions about getting a new sister and how he feels about adoption.

Boy, wouldn't you just love to be a fly on the wall? I can't wait to hear what he says. This is a kid who, when asked if he was excited about getting sisters, said with a bit of a frown, "yea. But they're girls."