He has such a sweet smile :) I love it!
3 years ago
Tuesday, May 24, 2011
Waited For This Day For 3 1/2 Years!
The God we serve is faithful and will deliver. I know I haven't posted on here in a long time, and that's because I've been waiting for this day to come but not knowing when it would be but knew it would be soon :).
In November (2010) we got a call that things were moving in Onah and Marie's cases. We couldn't believe our ears. I had been praying for a miracle for our babies to come home and God made a way where there was no way. He truly moved mountains for us...literally!
With all this said, that meant we needed to get our paperwork updated since our move, change of job, new baby, and everything else. Which meant we had to start all over with our homestudy. That was discouraging, but we were ready to roll on it. We knew in Indiana it took us only 4 weeks to finish our homestudy. We knew a lady in our church who was a social worker for an adoption agency so we called her immediately. 3 or 4 months later!!!!! Our paper work was finished. In the meantime, we knew of friechildren re traveling in and bringing home their children who had cases processed before the moratorium as well. In my mind I kept thinking..."this should be us!...What's taking so long." I kept assurring myself that if I could wait 3 years I can wait a few more months. I just wanted to get there and bring my babies home before Onah's birthday in April. The day was approaching quickly and we were told to start looking at tickets and such. Then another bomb shell was dropped. Apparently, they started a new regulation (starting with our cases...of course right?)...DNA testing to make sure relatives are who they say they are and are truly related to the children. Which meant it had to be shipped from the US to Liberia, then from Liberia back to the US! Ugh! Worst of all...Marie's relative could not be found. You have to remember this was 2 1/2 years ago since they signed over their rights! They had to search for her in the bush. 10 days went by which seemed like a century and we got word that they found her but she would be tested 2 weeks after Onah because of having to search for her. Onah's test had already been processed. (It seemed like it was one thing after another and it was so close yet out of our reach.) It really tried me but I knew I could have the strength to continue to wait and God would get me through if He carried me this far! Onah's birthday came and went and I was heartbroken. I began to pray for May :) "God allow us to travel in May"...and that's where the exciting new comes (if you're still reading, ha).
May 28th, 2011 we will be traveling to bring home our 2 precious babies!!! Tears come to my eyes every time I say that reality! God has carried us through this part of our journey and now a new journey begins. One that will be filled with lots of laughter, hugs, kisses, and love. I can't wait to hold them again in my arms! They are going to seem so big! Onah made the comment to a family who recently came back, he said, "My daddy come, and I go" as he made an airplane motion. We are on our way sweetie!
Thank you, thank you so much for all your love and support! All your prayers on our behalf were such a blessing. We could not have done this without the love and frienship from all of you! I read along this journey in the book, "Just Enough Light For The Step I'm On", "every time a prayer is spoken, God puts something in motion." I believe that is so true! Even though we can't see, every prayer that was spoken on our behalf set something in motion and God was fighting for us!
Thank you for your faith and never giving up with us. This was not an easy road and we were told many times, by many people, that we were foolish and we should give up. But I never let satan's words of discouragement overshadow God's promises. I knew He had a plan to prosper us and give us a hope and future. He carried me through some dark times, but I'm excited about the celebration I get to have with Him in this journey as He travels with us to reunite our family forever. I am reminded daily of the butterflies I feel when I imagine landing and walking off that plane with my kids is the same butterflies God must feel when he imagines the day when He makes the journey to return and bring us, His children, home to our forever family with Him!
Pray for us as we travel that we would be protected and have safe flights and that God would bring us back to celebrate with Colten and Izzy! Pray for the kiddos too that God would prepare them for travel and for their lives to be changed. God is so Good and I can't wait to see what He does with our story!
Thank you ABBA!
In November (2010) we got a call that things were moving in Onah and Marie's cases. We couldn't believe our ears. I had been praying for a miracle for our babies to come home and God made a way where there was no way. He truly moved mountains for us...literally!
With all this said, that meant we needed to get our paperwork updated since our move, change of job, new baby, and everything else. Which meant we had to start all over with our homestudy. That was discouraging, but we were ready to roll on it. We knew in Indiana it took us only 4 weeks to finish our homestudy. We knew a lady in our church who was a social worker for an adoption agency so we called her immediately. 3 or 4 months later!!!!! Our paper work was finished. In the meantime, we knew of friechildren re traveling in and bringing home their children who had cases processed before the moratorium as well. In my mind I kept thinking..."this should be us!...What's taking so long." I kept assurring myself that if I could wait 3 years I can wait a few more months. I just wanted to get there and bring my babies home before Onah's birthday in April. The day was approaching quickly and we were told to start looking at tickets and such. Then another bomb shell was dropped. Apparently, they started a new regulation (starting with our cases...of course right?)...DNA testing to make sure relatives are who they say they are and are truly related to the children. Which meant it had to be shipped from the US to Liberia, then from Liberia back to the US! Ugh! Worst of all...Marie's relative could not be found. You have to remember this was 2 1/2 years ago since they signed over their rights! They had to search for her in the bush. 10 days went by which seemed like a century and we got word that they found her but she would be tested 2 weeks after Onah because of having to search for her. Onah's test had already been processed. (It seemed like it was one thing after another and it was so close yet out of our reach.) It really tried me but I knew I could have the strength to continue to wait and God would get me through if He carried me this far! Onah's birthday came and went and I was heartbroken. I began to pray for May :) "God allow us to travel in May"...and that's where the exciting new comes (if you're still reading, ha).
May 28th, 2011 we will be traveling to bring home our 2 precious babies!!! Tears come to my eyes every time I say that reality! God has carried us through this part of our journey and now a new journey begins. One that will be filled with lots of laughter, hugs, kisses, and love. I can't wait to hold them again in my arms! They are going to seem so big! Onah made the comment to a family who recently came back, he said, "My daddy come, and I go" as he made an airplane motion. We are on our way sweetie!
Thank you, thank you so much for all your love and support! All your prayers on our behalf were such a blessing. We could not have done this without the love and frienship from all of you! I read along this journey in the book, "Just Enough Light For The Step I'm On", "every time a prayer is spoken, God puts something in motion." I believe that is so true! Even though we can't see, every prayer that was spoken on our behalf set something in motion and God was fighting for us!
Thank you for your faith and never giving up with us. This was not an easy road and we were told many times, by many people, that we were foolish and we should give up. But I never let satan's words of discouragement overshadow God's promises. I knew He had a plan to prosper us and give us a hope and future. He carried me through some dark times, but I'm excited about the celebration I get to have with Him in this journey as He travels with us to reunite our family forever. I am reminded daily of the butterflies I feel when I imagine landing and walking off that plane with my kids is the same butterflies God must feel when he imagines the day when He makes the journey to return and bring us, His children, home to our forever family with Him!
Pray for us as we travel that we would be protected and have safe flights and that God would bring us back to celebrate with Colten and Izzy! Pray for the kiddos too that God would prepare them for travel and for their lives to be changed. God is so Good and I can't wait to see what He does with our story!
Thank you ABBA!
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
