Seeing all the activity in the Rwanda program has made me just so thankful to be a part of such a neat thing that God is doing. He is on the move. He is "setting the lonely in families" just like His Word promises. I love watching the blogs of friends who are in Rwanda right now. I am thankful that there are women and men in Kigali working so hard to make our dream a reality.
Thank you!
Wednesday, December 2, 2009
Monday, November 30, 2009
Flurry of Activity and Adoption 101
What an amazing few days in the Rwanda adoption program!
As of today, there are 9 families that I know of that have received their approvals! In case you don't know what that means, it means their families have been approved to adopt from Rwanda. About two months after you receive your approval, you receive your referral, which is when you see your child's beautiful face and their name! More on that in a minute...
So the adoption process goes like this:
I. Paperwork phase, including home study. This is when you gather all kinds of paper and get it notarized, certified, and authenticated. You meet with a social worker on several occasions and they find out all sorts of things about you. :)
II. Submit all of this paperwork, called a dossier, to your agency, who then makes sure everything is in order. The Rwandan Embassy in DC then looks everything over, translates all pertinent information, and sends a letter of non-objection!
III. Dossier is sent to Rwanda. You follow the tracking number like a mad woman. Once it arrives, you are officially DTR, which means Dossier To Rwanda.
IV. Now, you wait. You wait for Approval. The ballpark for this wait is 3-6 months. During this time, the people in Rwanda are working hard to read all that paperwork!
V. Once you receive your approval, you wait for your referral. In your approval letter, it is explained that it will be around two months until your referral comes through. During this two months, the people in Rwanda are trying hard to match your family to a child. They are praying over each one! What a gift! Your referral is when you receive a picture of your beautiful child and their name! The day you have been waiting for!
VI. You are assigned a court date, about four weeks after your referral. The court decides if this referred child will actually become a part of your family! This is a huge day.
VII. Travel! From what I hear, this happens around two weeks after court.
Now, the amazing thing about these nine families is that many of them have been waiting since June for their approvals. They were the families who had waited the longest of anyone--over five months!
Things pretty much go in chronological order so things had really come to a stand still with no one hearing anything. This saddened us all, and made me take a step back and not expect ANYTHING any time soon.
But, when the families received their approvals over the Thanksgiving weekend, many of the letters were dated in September! Which means that had been approved in the time frame that they were expecting, but just hadn't been notified! So lots of emails had been sent to inform everyone about the approvals. What great news!
But this morning brought even better news, as many of these families received their referrals this morning! The two months between the approval and the referral had already passed, since the letters had actually been written in September, they just didn't know it!
How great is that? That's like finding out you are pregnant when you go into labor. I've always been jealous of those women. Approvals and referrals within two days of each other! WOW!
As of today, there are 9 families that I know of that have received their approvals! In case you don't know what that means, it means their families have been approved to adopt from Rwanda. About two months after you receive your approval, you receive your referral, which is when you see your child's beautiful face and their name! More on that in a minute...
So the adoption process goes like this:
I. Paperwork phase, including home study. This is when you gather all kinds of paper and get it notarized, certified, and authenticated. You meet with a social worker on several occasions and they find out all sorts of things about you. :)
II. Submit all of this paperwork, called a dossier, to your agency, who then makes sure everything is in order. The Rwandan Embassy in DC then looks everything over, translates all pertinent information, and sends a letter of non-objection!
III. Dossier is sent to Rwanda. You follow the tracking number like a mad woman. Once it arrives, you are officially DTR, which means Dossier To Rwanda.
IV. Now, you wait. You wait for Approval. The ballpark for this wait is 3-6 months. During this time, the people in Rwanda are working hard to read all that paperwork!
V. Once you receive your approval, you wait for your referral. In your approval letter, it is explained that it will be around two months until your referral comes through. During this two months, the people in Rwanda are trying hard to match your family to a child. They are praying over each one! What a gift! Your referral is when you receive a picture of your beautiful child and their name! The day you have been waiting for!
VI. You are assigned a court date, about four weeks after your referral. The court decides if this referred child will actually become a part of your family! This is a huge day.
VII. Travel! From what I hear, this happens around two weeks after court.
Now, the amazing thing about these nine families is that many of them have been waiting since June for their approvals. They were the families who had waited the longest of anyone--over five months!
Things pretty much go in chronological order so things had really come to a stand still with no one hearing anything. This saddened us all, and made me take a step back and not expect ANYTHING any time soon.
But, when the families received their approvals over the Thanksgiving weekend, many of the letters were dated in September! Which means that had been approved in the time frame that they were expecting, but just hadn't been notified! So lots of emails had been sent to inform everyone about the approvals. What great news!
But this morning brought even better news, as many of these families received their referrals this morning! The two months between the approval and the referral had already passed, since the letters had actually been written in September, they just didn't know it!
How great is that? That's like finding out you are pregnant when you go into labor. I've always been jealous of those women. Approvals and referrals within two days of each other! WOW!
Saturday, November 21, 2009
Before
One of my very favorite things to do in the world is look at before and after photographs. You know, where somebody takes a picture of somebody else's desk BEFORE they work really hard on it, and then they show you the AFTER picture and you stand amazed.
You get to see the before picture, and hear a story about how the desk got to this state, such as bad habits, poor time management, and general busy-ness.
Then you get to read about how the person decided to make a change, get to work, learn some new skills, and get rid of some serious stuff. A weekend or 7 later, the person emerges from the piles, and their desk is now the perfect example of organization and beauty.
Shows like Mission Organization and Clean Sweep just are my favorites. What seems to be such a hopeless mess is really just a few work sessions away from being a "great space".
As I write this post, I am surrounded by piles. Piles of paper. Piles of notebooks. Piles of things that need to be given away. Piles of CDs. I am definitely in the "before" picture.
I have read many, many good books on subjects such as organization, decluttering, cleaning. It's just implementing the great ideas that is difficult.
So, I am actually going to post before pictures of our office. Yikes.
Two things that would be good for you to know:
1. I am doing this to motivate myself to show you the "after" picture at SOME point in the future, but I can't say when for sure.
2. This before picture in no way reflects my husband's things, he really is organized and gracious and just all around neat.
Tomorrow is the Sabbath, the Day of Rest (I know, I know, it looks like I've had a few too many of those!) so I won't be touching it then. But, maybe on Monday I'll have the courage to start!
You get to see the before picture, and hear a story about how the desk got to this state, such as bad habits, poor time management, and general busy-ness.
Then you get to read about how the person decided to make a change, get to work, learn some new skills, and get rid of some serious stuff. A weekend or 7 later, the person emerges from the piles, and their desk is now the perfect example of organization and beauty.
Shows like Mission Organization and Clean Sweep just are my favorites. What seems to be such a hopeless mess is really just a few work sessions away from being a "great space".
As I write this post, I am surrounded by piles. Piles of paper. Piles of notebooks. Piles of things that need to be given away. Piles of CDs. I am definitely in the "before" picture.
I have read many, many good books on subjects such as organization, decluttering, cleaning. It's just implementing the great ideas that is difficult.
So, I am actually going to post before pictures of our office. Yikes.
Two things that would be good for you to know:
1. I am doing this to motivate myself to show you the "after" picture at SOME point in the future, but I can't say when for sure.
2. This before picture in no way reflects my husband's things, he really is organized and gracious and just all around neat.
Tomorrow is the Sabbath, the Day of Rest (I know, I know, it looks like I've had a few too many of those!) so I won't be touching it then. But, maybe on Monday I'll have the courage to start!
Monday, November 9, 2009
Is it November already?
Does time fly or does time fly?
I really didn't mean to be a once every 3 weeks kind of blogger, but man, before you know it, the day is just gone.
What have I been up to?
**reading the Clutter Diet book, and trying to learn new tricks about being organized
It seems hopeless.
**Christmas shopping, as December really seems to do me in. Out of my family of 6, we have 3 December birthdays. Yikes. Can you smell the stress? I just know that our precious ones from Rwanda will have December birthdays! God likes to stretch me like that.
**checking emails in case of referrals from Rwanda. Not my own referral (it will be several months before we will receive that) but the referrals of friends in our program.
**emptying closets of "summer" clothes and trying to fill them with "winter" clothes. The upstairs of our home is a current disaster. I do pack clothes away for our next blessings, but some aren't worth keeping. But instead of just giving them away (or throwing them away!) like a normal person, I have to give them to the "right" person, which means they stick around here in a nice pile for months.
**trying to spend less time on the computer reading blogs. It is improving somewhat, with a long way to go.
**trusting God in new ways with our future, leaving it in His hands. Then I snatch it back, and then I trust again. What a process! My own plans exhaust me, yet God promises His yoke is light. Why I would exchange the two confounds me, yet I do it again and again.
Thank You, God, for planning for me, for thinking for me, for loving me.
I really didn't mean to be a once every 3 weeks kind of blogger, but man, before you know it, the day is just gone.
What have I been up to?
**reading the Clutter Diet book, and trying to learn new tricks about being organized
It seems hopeless.
**Christmas shopping, as December really seems to do me in. Out of my family of 6, we have 3 December birthdays. Yikes. Can you smell the stress? I just know that our precious ones from Rwanda will have December birthdays! God likes to stretch me like that.
**checking emails in case of referrals from Rwanda. Not my own referral (it will be several months before we will receive that) but the referrals of friends in our program.
**emptying closets of "summer" clothes and trying to fill them with "winter" clothes. The upstairs of our home is a current disaster. I do pack clothes away for our next blessings, but some aren't worth keeping. But instead of just giving them away (or throwing them away!) like a normal person, I have to give them to the "right" person, which means they stick around here in a nice pile for months.
**trying to spend less time on the computer reading blogs. It is improving somewhat, with a long way to go.
**trusting God in new ways with our future, leaving it in His hands. Then I snatch it back, and then I trust again. What a process! My own plans exhaust me, yet God promises His yoke is light. Why I would exchange the two confounds me, yet I do it again and again.
Thank You, God, for planning for me, for thinking for me, for loving me.
Wednesday, October 21, 2009
Loving October
This has got to be one of the best months of the year. I love when the weather changes, and you wake up actually cold in the mornings. I love wrapping my hands around my hot cup of coffee each morning and making hot chocolate for the kids. I love football and watching my kids' soccer games and eating apples.
On one lame note: my kids still do not have pumpkins. I know! Lame.
Here is a glimpse of our week so far:
Caleb lost his first tooth! On Monday, October 19, we were at a birthday party, rock climbing at an indoor climbing wall. Caleb accidentally hit his mouth against his rope, and POP! Out came the tooth. He was so excited, so thrilled that it didn't hurt, and then he saw the blood. That didn't go so well, but a quick call to Daddy at work made him feel much better.
Ezra is sick today. I kinda like it. He just lays there with me, and puts his head on my shoulder.
Marie LOVES to take care of her little brother!
And one just for fun!
On one lame note: my kids still do not have pumpkins. I know! Lame.
Here is a glimpse of our week so far:
Caleb lost his first tooth! On Monday, October 19, we were at a birthday party, rock climbing at an indoor climbing wall. Caleb accidentally hit his mouth against his rope, and POP! Out came the tooth. He was so excited, so thrilled that it didn't hurt, and then he saw the blood. That didn't go so well, but a quick call to Daddy at work made him feel much better.
Ezra is sick today. I kinda like it. He just lays there with me, and puts his head on my shoulder.
Marie LOVES to take care of her little brother!
And one just for fun!
Monday, October 19, 2009
Voice of Truth
This weekend was a time of rest for me, and I thank God for it. Joel took the two oldest blessings on a retreat with our church, and I headed west with the younger two to visit a dear friend and her two beautiful blessings. We got there and it was cold, wet, and windy.
She fed us lunch, and we sat in front of her roaring fireplace and talked, laughed, poured out our hearts about all that God is doing in our lives. Most of it unexpected and hard, but we both see God's hand at work, drawing us closer to Himself. And while her set of circumstances is different than mine, they are still circumstances that she would not have chosen for herself. And somehow, over our hot chocolate, in sharing our broken dreams with each other, we found rest and healing, even though nothing really changed.
Friends are a gift. Thank You, God, that we do not walk alone. Thank You that through others, we can hear Your voice of truth.
Wednesday, October 14, 2009
Umbrella of God
It has been two full weeks since my last post, indicating that things have w-a-y slowed down in terms of our adoption process. Our dossier, our beloved load of paperwork, is where it needs to be for now, and we wait. It is a restful place to be. There is nothing I can do now to hurry the process along, nothing depends on me. I feel like I am under the umbrella of God's protection.
As far as other things go, Joel and I are in a place we didn't expect to be. Has God ever done that to you? We had so many things planned out, so many ideas. And God just says, no! We have been confused, saddened, disappointed, asking where do we go from here. We are asking God "What now?", and sense He is saying, "Rest. Wait. Pray. Be."
Here we are God, under Your umbrella of protection again. It is a safe place to be.
As only God can do, He has encouraged me through other blogs, books, believers. One of my greatest fears is that God would leave this situation unredeemed, unrestored, in its current state. That would seem like such a waste. But that is not Who God is. He is THE Redeemer. I found these lyrics on another blog I love and read (teamalexander.blogspot.com). They are sung by the group Selah, and I thought if they meet me where I am, maybe they will meet you, too.
UNREDEEMED
The cruelest world
The coldest heart
The deepest wound
The endless dark
The lonely ache
The burning tears
The bitter nights
The wasted years
Life breaks and falls apart
But we know these are
Places where grace is
Soon to be so amazing
It may be unfulfilled
It may be unrestored
But when anything that's shattered
Is laid before the Lord
Just watch and see
It will not be
Unredeemed
For every choice that led to shame
And all the love that never came
For every vow that someone broke
And every lie that gave up hope
We live in the shadow of the fall
But the cross says these are all
Places where grace is
Soon to be so amazing
It may be unfulfilled
It may be unrestored
But when anything that's shattered
Is laid before the Lord
Just watch and see
It will not be
Unredeemed
Places where grace is
Soon to be so amazing
It may be unfulfilled
It may be unrestored
But you never know the miracle
The Father has in store
Just watch and see
It will not be
Just watch and see
It will not be
Unredeemed
As far as other things go, Joel and I are in a place we didn't expect to be. Has God ever done that to you? We had so many things planned out, so many ideas. And God just says, no! We have been confused, saddened, disappointed, asking where do we go from here. We are asking God "What now?", and sense He is saying, "Rest. Wait. Pray. Be."
Here we are God, under Your umbrella of protection again. It is a safe place to be.
As only God can do, He has encouraged me through other blogs, books, believers. One of my greatest fears is that God would leave this situation unredeemed, unrestored, in its current state. That would seem like such a waste. But that is not Who God is. He is THE Redeemer. I found these lyrics on another blog I love and read (teamalexander.blogspot.com). They are sung by the group Selah, and I thought if they meet me where I am, maybe they will meet you, too.
UNREDEEMED
The cruelest world
The coldest heart
The deepest wound
The endless dark
The lonely ache
The burning tears
The bitter nights
The wasted years
Life breaks and falls apart
But we know these are
Places where grace is
Soon to be so amazing
It may be unfulfilled
It may be unrestored
But when anything that's shattered
Is laid before the Lord
Just watch and see
It will not be
Unredeemed
For every choice that led to shame
And all the love that never came
For every vow that someone broke
And every lie that gave up hope
We live in the shadow of the fall
But the cross says these are all
Places where grace is
Soon to be so amazing
It may be unfulfilled
It may be unrestored
But when anything that's shattered
Is laid before the Lord
Just watch and see
It will not be
Unredeemed
Places where grace is
Soon to be so amazing
It may be unfulfilled
It may be unrestored
But you never know the miracle
The Father has in store
Just watch and see
It will not be
Just watch and see
It will not be
Unredeemed
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