Run Josh Run

Joshua competed in the 5K District Cross Country meet yesterday. He placed 36th in District (one step away from the State meet), and this is only his first year of running. Yea Josh!

After starting his long distance running "career" in August, he competed a few weeks ago in a 1/2 marathon (13 miles), and placed 64th out of 1217 runners. We've nicknamed him the Energizer Bunny ... he keeps running, and running, and running, and running .....

A Day at Stoney Ridge

Big sister Cassie came home from Oregon last weekend, and took the 3 younger kids to a friend's farm.

The Beach

New pictures ... and new hairdos for the girls ... the kids went to the beach recently.

Poetic Prayer

One of our dear friends, Linda, has the most amazing gift. Not only is she a prayer warrior, but she writes poetry as prayer. Many times I have sent off an email, asking for prayer, and Linda has responded with a written prayer. No chit-chat, just a prayer.

A few minutes ago, I checked our blog messages, and found a short poetic prayer that I knew I needed to share with all of you. First, however, I printed it off and took it to read to Jim. I couldn't make it through two stanzas before my eyes watered up. Jim's tears were soon to follow. We cried with pain, from the waiting and wondering. We cried with joy, for the blessings that the Lord is giving us. And, we cried with hope, for all that the Lord is doing, and is going to do, in and through these precious children.

I hope that you, too, will be blessed by Linda's prayer:

God has a plan. Lives will be changed.
Trust that His timing is all Pre-arranged.

Lift them up daily, and love them unending.
Prepare in your hearts, that they might need some mending.

Your love will expand, and the house will be full.
It's God's grace abounding, as you answer His call.

Jacob, Sarah, Rachel, and dear Rebekah too,
God's love is so great, for each one of you!!

May you know His deep grace, as you learn of His love.
May you treasure your family and the gift of their love.

Every day is precious and your family's the best!!
I'm praying that all of your lives will be Blessed!!



Thank you, Linda, for blessing our day with your gift. I will send this message right off to the children, so that they, too, may be blessed by your words.

Papa ... and the children.

Yesterday, my dear husband sent an email to the orphanage director, asking her to pass the following message along to our children. He told me I could share his note, with all of you.


Hello Jacob, Sarah, and Rachel,

I just want you three to know that I long for the day when I can hold you in my arms. I dream of that day often. I pray that God will continue to bless you, hold you, provide for you. May the Holy Spirit fill you, each and every day.

I know it's been a long time, waiting for mama and myself to come to Africa. I'm sorry! I wish I could hold you, talk with you, pray with you. Oh how I long for those days.

Please know that God is working. The paperwork seems to take a long time to process, but God knows best. Mom and I will soon be there, at Beacon House. Pray that this all happens in His time, so that He can be glorified.

Be blessed today.

Love you,

Papa



Since I believe the children do get the opportunity to see our blog, on occasion, I thought I would post a few pictures of Papa. He loves to "play" and can hardly wait to play with Jacob, Sarah, Rachel, and Rebekah.

Papa playing with Gregg, Cassie, Jeremiah, Carissa, and Lindsey ... over 10 years ago.



Papa playing with the children in New Orleans ... December 2006.



Papa playing with our eldest son, Gregg ... March 2007.



Papa palying with Josiah and Elijah ... August 2007.



Papa playing with mama ... August 2007.



Papa ... anxiously waiting for Jacob, Sarah, Rachel, and Rebekah to come home and play with him.

Why, Lord???

We just received the most frustrating news, yet, in the adoption process. All I can do is cry out to the Lord, "Why, Lord?"

After a 2 week delay in September, because it took our doctor 2 weeks to sign 4 pieces of paper, and another 3 week delay because our medical paperwork was lost in the mail, we have now been told that the judge that was to hear our court case, has taken a 5 week vacation. What? Are there no other judges?

Yes, there are other judges. However, not all judges are known to be favorable towards adoption. And, even amongst the ones that do favor adoption, there are few that understand why a large family would want to adopt more children. Therefore, our Ghanaian attorney believes it is best to wait for this judge to return from his vacation.

The 5 week vacation, however, is not the only problem. Friday is the only day of the week that the Ghanaian courts hear adoption cases. And, the Friday after the judge returns, happens to be a holiday in Ghana, which then will delay it another week. At this time, it looks as if our adoption case will not make it to court until Friday, December 14th. With the initial court date being mid-December, our coming home date may not be until the middle of February.

Oh how our hearts ache to bring these children home.

I received this news early this morning and, as you can imagine, sat in disbelief for quite sometime. Jim wasn't home, so I had to process it by myself.

A few hours later, I received a 2nd email from the orphange director. Whereas, 2 days ago we had been told that they did not want us to pursue adoption of the 4th child (Rebekah) until 6 months after adopting the other 3 ... today they came up with a new plan. The concern is the number of biological children that we already have. The Ghanaian culture does not understand why anyone would choose to have 14 children. (The American culture doesn't understand either ... but we continue to follow the Lord's leading in this area.)

Now, rather than waiting 6 months to proceed with Rebekah, we are going to proceed with her paperwork first. She is living in another orphanage in a different part of the country. Therefore, we are going to see if we can get an attorney in that part of Ghana to find a judge there that would not have a problem adopting 1 little girl into this large American family. At the same time, our original attorney will be working to convince the judge in Accra that this sibling group of 3 children needs a home, and that our large family would be a great place for them. Two attorneys ... two judges ... one crazy American family doing whatever needs to be done to bring these children home.

So, we may actually be able to process Rebekah's paperwork much quicker, and bring her home first. Jim and I would both go over to bring Rebekah home, and would, then, spend time with the other 3. Later, when they are ready to come home, I could go by myself (or take a daugther or two or three), and Jim wouldn't have to take time off of work, again.

We don't like to be in the position of asking, "Why, Lord?" ... we know that we must continue to pray, and to trust for His timing in the whole process. If Rebekah needs to come home first, for some extra special time of loving, than we will bring her home.

But ... we also know that God is a God of miracles and that He can do amazing things, when He so chooses. Therefore, we will continue to pray that all 4 children could, somehow, be home before Christmas. :)

Beautiful Children

Here are the beautiful children from Beacon House. At this time, 3 of the boys and 4 of the girls will be coming home to our rural farming community in the next few months. All of our families couldn't be more excited to raise these children up together. We will not only be attending church together, but we are also involved in a homeschool partnership together. Every week, I hear from another family or two, in our community, that are praying about bringing children home from Ghana. God is at work in a mighty way, and it is more than amazing to be sitting right in the middle of His plan.





The girls are all growing their hair out ... in preparation for Coming Home. This is the first picture we have seen with Rachel (bright blue shirt) and Sarah (pink headband) with ponytails.





Jacob (red plaid shirt) certainly looks like he takes his role as the eldest boy seriously. He looks like such a great "big brother" to all of the boys. I am certain that he will enjoy being a big brother to the 6 younger children in our family.


We finally have "official" birthdates for the children. Here is how they "fit" right in with our youngest 4 children:

Our Elijah (5), Rachel (6), our Josiah (7), Sarah (8), our Hosanna (11), Jacob (11), and our Ben (14). We so look forward to raising up these 3 girls and 4 boys together. In addition to these 7, we also have 6 older children (3 girls and 3 boys ... ages 17-23), who couldn't be more excited to meet their new younger siblings.

Laurel

mama of 10 + 3 = Fun & Faith-Filled Family

Praising the Lord

Just a quick note to share our joy ... the medical forms that were lost in the mail for a month, have been found. Whew! Here is the schedule that we are praying for ...

October 19th * Court Date in Ghana

November 9th - 16th * Adoption Order Signed

November 16th - 23rd * Adoption order to U.S. INS for processing

November 23rd - December 7th * I600 from INS to Nat'l Visa Center to Ghana

December 7th - 14th * Visa Interview appt.

December 14th * Bring the children home.


Please pray with us, that the paperwork would go quickly and smoothly. It would be great if things could even go quicker than this timeline, but we also realize that delays are always possible. Our biggest hope and prayer is that we would have the children home before Christmas break, so that we could all have 2 weeks at home together, before jumping back into school.

The Adoption Rollercoaster

The past 5 weeks have been a rollercoaster in the adoption process.

Uuuuuuuuuupppppppppp ......

We received our I-600A approval from INS. This means that the U.S. government has determined that, even though we already have 10 children, we are capable of parenting 4 more.

Dooooooowwwwwwwnnnnnn .....

Our doctor's office took a full 2 weeks to get our doctor's signature on 4 pieces of paper. Jim and I had had our physicals in July, and we both "passed", but now just needed signatures on forms from Ghana. Each day that the papers sat on our doctor's desk, was a one day delay in bringing the children home. This got very frustrating, to say the least.

At the end of 2 weeks, I got a phone message that the office had called. Rather than returning the call, I went right over to the office and asked if the papers were ready. Much to my shock, the receptionist told me that, before signing the paperwork, the doctor wanted me to have my blood pressure taken again (it was a bit elevated in July). When I said, "Okay. Can Someone take it?" I was told that in order to have my blood pressure taken at the doctor's office, I would need to make an appt. and, therefore, pay for it. I was then instructed to go to the fire dept., the senior center, or Safeway to get my blood pressure taken. By that time, I told the receptionist that it was probably good that a nurse couldn't take it for me because I was sure that it was quite high at the moment.

The next day, I returned to the doctor's office with my blood pressure reading and waited "patiently" for the doctor to sign each of the forms.

Uuuuuuuuppppppppp ....

We have been waiting so patiently for a 3rd girl to add to our sibling group. We have believed from the start that we were to adopt 4 children (3 girls and 1 boy). The orphanage director has been specifically looking for a young girl for us (5 or 6 years old), to bring home with Rachel, Sarah, and Jacob. (ages 6, 8, 11). So, we were excited when we heard that there was a possible 5 year old girl that the orphanage pastor was going to meet.

Dooooooowwwwwwnnnnnnn .....

When the pastor arrived in the village, he did find this precious 5 year old girl. However, she also has a 3 year old sister. Since we have been approved for 4 children, we cannot suddenly make it 5. They must keep those 2 girls together, for another Forever Family.

Uuuuuuupppppppp ......

We were told that "all paperwork is ready" to proceed with the adoption of the 3 siblings.

Dooooowwwwwnnnnn .....

The adoption has been "on hold" as we continue to pray for our 4th child, whom we have already named, Rebekah.

Uuuuuppppp ....

Yesterday, we asked the director to proceed with the adoption of the 3 children and that we would adopt a 4th child separately, if one is found for us.

Dooooowwwwwnnnnn .....

The director told us today that she does not, in fact, have all of our paperwork. Our doctor's signatures have, somehow, been lost in the mail.

Uuuuuuppppppp ......

We received a picture today, of a beautiful 4 year old girl .... another "possible" Rebekah. It will be several weeks before we know if she has all of the necessary paperwork in order to be available for adoption. Maybe, by this time, our doctor's signatures will have been found.

* * * * *

While the ups and downs of the rollercoaster do get frustrating, we press on, in faith, looking forward to the day that we will bring our children home. While we had been told to look towards October/November as a possible homecoming, we have now been told to hope for Christmas. Disappointing ... yes. Yet, exciting ... yes.

Not only is God working in our family, as he prepares us for these new children, but he is also working in our community in a mighty way. There are now 5 families from our church (4 of which also are involved in our school) planning to bring 11 children home from the same orphanage. Wow! And, there are 2 other families in our church that are in the process of adopting from Ethiopia. In addition, there are 2 families from another church in town who are also in the process of adopting from Ethiopia. Therefore, in the next 6 months there will be at least 15 children arriving from Africa, to live in our small, rural community (11,000 population). We are all very excited to raise these children together, and to have more families bring children home from Africa, also.

While we would love to bring the children home tomorrow, we are trusting God for His timing, and learning and growing together, as we ride the rollercoaster.

Our AMAZING Kids

A few days ago, Jeremiah called a Family Meeting, with Jim and I and the older kids, after the young ones were asleep. Jeremiah had mentioned the need for a meeting, a few days earlier, to Jim; but neither of us had any idea what they would need to talk to us about.

Jim and I sat around the table with Carissa, Lindsey, and Joshua, while Jeremiah stood for his presentation. He explained that they hadn't quite given us all of our anniversary present yet. We were surprsed, as we had so enjoyed our family time in Idaho, and the basket of fun presents. But ... no ... they were not quite finished with their gift giving.

Jeremiah presented us with a Composition Book in which the children had written "The Best Things I've Learned from Dad & Mom". We were touched! They had each taken time to share with us some of the things that they have learned from us. As we opened the book to read some of the entries, Jeremiah explained that the reading could wait until later. They had another gift for us.

We were then presented with a DVD, which we quickly popped into a computer to watch. The DVD was a dramatization of the 10 day get-away that the children have purchased for us. We were stunned! Our hard-working college-student children have made some sacrifices, pooled their money, and purchased us a dream vacation that we can take any time in the next 18 months. We will spend 4 days in Orlando, FL, followed by a 3 day cruise to Nassau, Bahamas, ending up with 3 days in Ft. Lauderdale, FL. WOW! We were speechless. "Thanks" just didn't seem to express how touched we were.

If you are going through tough stuff with your little ones or teens, let me tell you, "This too shall pass." Things were crazy when we had 6 children under 7 years old. But, now that those children are young adults, the work we put into our relationships with them has paid off ... they truly are our best of friends.

THANKS KIDS!!!