I'm thankful...

I'm thankful...
That my wife wife is more beautiful today than the day we married.
That my brother Clint is with us for Thanksgiving.
That this is the last Thanksgiving we will spend apart from our kids.
That we've been blessed to adopt.
That we are spending Thanksgiving in a warm home with wonderful friends.
That my sweet wife just came in and told me that I have to finish the pie, the cake, and the yams. Did I mention I'm already doing the turkey? So I gotta stop now.
For such great friends, I am especially thankful. And as always...


Thanks for reading.

grace our blog!

So, as many of you know THE SHIRTS ARE IN!!! We are asking for a minimum of $15 (cash, check, or PayPal). We have S, M, L, XL, and XXL. We are seeing about getting kids sizes. Please leave us a message if you would order a child's shirt. All of the proceeds will go to help fund other adoptions. More to come on that...

Here is my beautiful bride sporting her stylish new N. shirt. She's so cute!

Please send us pictures of you and your loved ones wearing their shirts; we would love to have your presence grace our blog!

Thanks for reading!

Adoption is not...

A few of you have told me that we should post more often. The problem is we don't have any new news. All of our paperwork is in N. waiting for January to come so it can be processed. Then approximately 3 months later we will recieve a referral. This will include pictures and whatever information they have on our children. So that will be around March, give or take. About 3 months after that will have clearance to travel to N. to pick up our kiddos! We will spend about 2 weeks there. The first week we will visit them in the orphanage and the second week they will come stay with us at the hotel and be with us from then on.

We're really excited.

We interupt this irregularly scheduled blog with a confession from its sponsor: I'm really only writing this repetitive update because I wanted to try out this new Blogger iPhone app. Now back to the program.

We are extremely grateful to Brother Waymond Warren for allowing us the opportunity to speak to our Fair Park family this past Sunday about adoption. For those of you that don't know, November is Adoption Awareness month (or something like that). Since we have yet to complete the entire process we decided to talk briefly about what adoption is not. Jessica gave me the majority of mic time because she knows I love talking into a mic and in front of people. Well, really I just like talking. Anyway, I want to breifly recap what adoption is not.

1. It is not natural. It is the result of the fallen world in which we live. It is however our call as Christians to love and care for orphans and widows.

2. It is not a back up plan. It is the great commission. God has called us to make disciples of all nations. Is there a better way than to bring a child into a loving home?

3. It is not for individual couples. It's for the mission-minded church. If we believe that God has adopted (grafted) us into His family why would the church not be excited about doing that for others? Dr. Russell Moore says, "If we believe God in heavenly things, we will follow Him in earthly things."

4. It is not shameful. I grew up hearing very little about adoption. It was only talked about in hushed tones, the same way one speaks of cousin Frank's meth problem or the rumor that daddy took a mistress. Adoption should not be whispered about; it should be celebrated! It is a beautiful picture of the Gospel, maybe the clearest of all.

I'm done rambling.


Thanks for reading.

Oh the anticipation...

Well, hello folks,

Ryan here. Just wanted say a few things. Pick up a copy of Adopted For Life. Be it from the library, bookstore, or friendly neighborhood superhero. Read it. Pass it on. This book by Russell Moore is eye-opening.

As he does in his book, I've tried to compare what the process is like to what I think the process might be like for...gosh I'm at a loss for words...a couple doing this biologically, or naturally. I, at first, hesitated to say "naturally", but it's true adoption is not natural in the sense that God created it that way. It is the result of the fallen world in which we dwell. It may not be God's original intention, but it is God's call for our lives now. Not just mine and Jessica's life, but ours in a collective sense. Anyway, I think the comparison is like we're pregnant. We are anticipating the arrival of our children. We wonder what there names might be and imagine their little faces, and what games they might enjoy. So, it's like we're pregnant.

We just had our immigration approval notarized and dropped in the mail. Hurry up and wait. That seems to be the theme for the adoption process. Hurry up and get everything done so that you can sit on your hands in anticipation of receiving the referral. I guess the referral will be like the ultrasouund only our ultrasound will show more than a fuzzy shape on black backdrop. Anticipation.

I got an idea from some friends of ours. They adopted two beautful children from Haiti. They had t-shirts designed and printed. I didn't ask about what they used the proceeds for, but I know their hearts and I'm sure it went to the cause of adoption in general, probably Haiti specifically. We just recieved our shipment of shirts! We will have a picture up very soon so you can see what you're buying. Ha! You like the way I slid that in there? I'm only half serious. We do have N. shirts for a minimum of $15, but we don't expect that everyone will buy one. We are not keeping records of who does and doesn't. The proceeds will be used for adoption in general, but probably donated to another adoptive family that needs financial support. We love you all and know that you support us in a multitude of ways.

Thank you for your kind words of encouragement, prayers, love, and friendship throughout this exciting time in our life.


Thanks for reading.

Approved by Immigration/Random thoughts

Hey everybody,

We received our approval letter from Immigration just a week after we had our fingerprints done! So God did answer prayers there. Now just waiting for January to get here so our paperwork can be reviewed and we can be matched with our sweet children. I have been thinking about them alot lately and all the things we have to look forward to. It's just little things that make me think of them...Ryan and I were talking about this being the first winter in our home and I said I just wished the kids were home with us.

I'm doing a bible study by Jennifer Rothschild called the Fingerprints of God and by no coincidence she talks about God adopting us as his children. She says we were orphans needing to be "gotten" and God chose us. In John 15:16, it says "You did not choose Me but I chose you". This gives me a new perspective on how God must yearn for his children to come to Him when they have not surrendered their life to Him or are living in sin and out of His will. I know how badly I want to see and hold my children so I cannot even imagine how it is for God! I am not the best at putting my thoughts on paper so I hope that makes sense.

I believe God has brought some special people into my life to encourage us on our journey. I have met 2 women at church that have adopted multiple times. Thank you Lord for bringing these new friends into my life. I know this is no accident either. God is so good even though I do not deserve it.

Until next time,
Jessica

Hey everybody,

Just wanted to update y'all on what I found out this week! There's good news and not so good news. Good news is our dossier doesn't have to be translated; bad news is our dossier most likely will not be reviewed until January. The cap of 10 families per agency per year rule that you've probably heard us talk about includes us...at first they said we would not be included in this bc we were not adopting an infant but apparently N. changed the rules recently! Actually I wasn't as upset as I was when I found out we had to wait on Immigration approval a few weeks ago. I'm sure God had a hand in that!

I'm pretty excited that 2 of the waiting families from our agency will be traveling to N. in the next few weeks to meet their children. I can't wait to hear updates on how the trip goes!

Also, we have friends from back home that are in China now meeting their twin girls and will come home with them soon! How exciting! God is good!

Thank you to all those who are praying for us.

Jessica

Quick update on Immigration approval

I know many of you have been fervently praying since I sent out the request this week...thank you! Our fingerprinting appointment is September 30th. Not sure how long it will take for them to process things after that. Hopefully not too long. Thanks again for all the continued prayers!

Jessica