Easter

Happy Easter! My heart breaks for my babies over in Eth. They are not learning about Jesus today. I cannot wait to wrap my arms around them and teach them the truth.
Our prayer request continues to be for their safety and their health to continue to be good. Also be with the mother. She has to be an amazing woman. I cannot imagine giving up my chldren because I could not feed them. AH! Bless her, dear Lord. Bring someone around her to teach her about Jesus. GIve her hope.

Still waiting on the homestudy. Pray for all paperwork we are waiting on to come in.

What a day!

Yesterday was quite the day of emotions. We were called by our home study social worker because she had a few questions. First and foremost she wanted to know if our fingerprints thru BCIS were in. They are not. Then she proceeded to tell me that her superior, after review of our homestudy, did not feel comfortable with us adopting 4 children. She had lots of questions that she wanted our social worker to answer. Her concerns were of the emotional toll that it would play on our existing children, the negative issues that will arise, if we realized what we would face, etc. Anyway, my basic response was, "We do not know all the ways we are going to care for "issues" when or IF they arise. But, we know that the Lord wants us to adopt these children. We will do all we can to help them if there are any problems, just like we would do for our own. There is not a book out there that will prepare us for what is ahead outside the Bible. The Lord will get us thru as He has called us to this." What else should we have said? Our social worker was satisfied and said she would be an advocate for us. We were a bit nervous!
A friend of our called, Terry Boesing. She called to ask for prayer and then I shared what had happened with the agency. She prayed and after a 30 minute + conversation, she said the Lord told her about "fingerprints" and said it must be the fingerprints of God that is ..... I did not even hear the rest. I stopped her to say that the first thing the social worker called for was our FINGERPRINTS. What she heard from the Lord about fingerprints was for us. It was confirming that the Lord is in control and our fingerprints that we have been WAITING for are not in our control but HIS. It is all in his timing.
The social worker called back and said after speaking with our agency and me, they will approve us to take in 4 children. Praise the Lord! WE know they are ours. Please Lord get them here quickly.

Falling in Love

We are finding ourselves falling head over heals in love with these precious children. We also find ourselves saying, "Lord, are you sure you have the right Dan and Cyndee?" It is so exciting to be adding 4 children to our family. Continued prayers that the time will quickly pass and they will be home with us.

This last 2 weeks has been challenging. Things are breaking left and right around here. The toaster, the ceiling fan, the stove???, the vanity in the bathroom,..... Then we got the vanity fixed and a pipe came unglued. There was water on the basement floor, celing and walls, ruining our drywall. AHH!! In all things, we are giving the Lord all the glory and finding joy in the craziest of situations.

Keep praying for our kiddos!

Time for Prayer

We are now at the beginning of our journey to Africa to get our 4 children. The Lord is, has been, and will be so faithful thru it all. The Bible says we need to come to Him; Ask and it will be given. So, we come before Him to ask for many things.

* Prayers for the safety of N, A, N and K. Lord, you know their immediate needs and their future ones. Protect them, please.
* Prayers for their health. All medical reports have come back and all children seem ok- to us. Keep them healthy Lord. Give us peace that the medical reports are true.
* Finances- We need wisdom as to how to get the money we need for this adoption. So much for planning ahead! We need $23,750 to go with the Dossier (hopefully mid April), and another $20-27,000 (about) before we travel to get the kids (praying for July). That is a lot of cash on hand for us but not for our Lord. He will provide the exact amount at the exact time from the exact location. Please Lord give us wisdom!
We also need a 15 passenger van. . If anyone knows someone selling one please tell us.
* Prayer for the adjustment of 4 children to our family. Prepare the hearts of J, K, and J for their siblings. THey are so excited!
* Prayers for the chlildren to learn some English and /or know our voice when we see them (Can't wait for that day!).
* Prayers for Dan and I to be at peace and continue to seek the Lord's direction daily when making decisions for the whole process.
* Prayers for the dossier to get completed in His timing.
* Prayers for their hearts to hear about our Lord Jesus. They are in a muslim orphanage. AHH!

Acceptance

The form was faxed this evening. We have officially accepted 4 siblings. We are SO excited! I cannot leave their names or pix on here at this time. I do not want anything to jeopardize us getting them. Their ages are Ka (2/3), Na (3/4), A (5/6) and Ne (6/7). We are planning on changing their names a bit so that they have more American and prouncable (is that a word?) name. Can't wait to see their precious faces.

What a week!

This week has been a crazy one. We planned a vacation to the mountains of New York to get a final skiing and snow trip in. Well, Wednesday morning changed it all. K was sick in the middle of the night and came to sleep with us. At 5 AM he woke and started to throw up, C grabbed him and tried to fly out of bed with him. He continued to puke and C's foot got wrapped in the sheet. She landed on the floor and broke her foot. A trip to the ER was a nightmare and homebound we came. Stopping in PA for a look at the foot again, resulted in finding a break and putting on a proper splint. We were home Thursday and Friday, C went to the DR and a cast was put on her foot. She remains in a non weight bearing cast for 6 weeks then a walking cast for 4. AHHH! Life changes a little- well alot with that. K is feeling better; praises to God.

This week also brought prayers about a sibling group of 4 children. We do not know if these are our children or not and need continued prayer. We are a bit frightened but want to be obedient if that is what the Lord has called us to do.

We got all our Haugue requirements met this weekend. YEH!!! What a ton of work to do and most was useless. Oh, well. No complaints; it is what is required. Now we move on to the next thing.

Ethiopia Webinar Introduction

Today we had another "webinar" to introduce the Ethiopia adoption program to us. Some of the info was repetitive because we have been down this road before. But, there were some interesting tid bits that were country specific. The wait time looks like 3- 6 months for an 18 month to 5 year old girl. The wait time is shorter for a sibling group typically. And, the waiting time is even shorter if we find a match on the "ready to go" list. We will see what the Lord has in store. We are praying, praying, and praying some more.