Drum Roll Please!!!!

We are super duper exited to share with you our amazing news.... Mika is soon to be the only daughter in our home and the older sister of four brothers.  We have received a referral for 2 boys from the Congo.  They are 5 and 2 and super cute!   Please start praying for these wonderful boys.  My prayer has been that they would experience the spirit of God, that they would be safe,and that I would remember that God knew them before I knew of them.

This doesn't change our timeline, we are still waiting on the government.  But it does change the timeline of our payments and we will need to be making some pretty hefty payments in the next few weeks and months.  The nitty-gritty is that we will need $19,000 in the next few months.  We will be sharing more details on where all that money goes, but I really wanted to share with you tonight our JOY!!!! Donations can be given to us by check or through those two links on the margin.  We will also be launching some fundraising events this summer.  Stay tuned!!!

What does it mean to be an orphan?

There has been so much joy in my heart thinking about bringing children into our home.  This joy has overflowed and given birth to a passion, a passion for families, churches and communities to care for orphans.  But what does it mean to be an orphan.  When I started really pondering what it means to be an orphan my heart broke with grief. To become an orphan, there must be a wound... I know this is obvious, but sometimes I forget this.  These children are orphans because an unfathomable hurt occurred in their lives.  

This is the definition of orphan given by the USCIS website

The Immigration and Nationality Act provides a definition of an orphan for the purposes of immigration to the United States. A child may be considered an orphan because of the death or disappearance of, abandonment or desertion by, or separation or loss from, both parents. The child of an unwed mother or surviving parent may be considered an orphan if that parent is unable to care for the child properly and has, in writing, irrevocably released the child for emigration and adoption. The child of an unwed mother may be considered an orphan, as long as the mother does not marry (which would result in the child’s having a stepfather) and as long as the child’s biological father has not legitimated the child. If the father legitimates the child or the mother marries, the mother is no longer considered a sole parent. The child of a surviving parent may also be an orphan if the surviving parent has not married since the death of the other parent (which would result in the child’s having a stepfather or stepmother).

Just this week we learned the story of two boys, two boys who are orphans, two boys whose father is unknown, whose mother is deceased and whose grandmother is a widow and can no longer care for their needs.  They are orphans, they need a home, and they need the care of parents.  But what hit home for me is that in the midst of my joy, there is sadness and grief and the carrying of burdens of children that were born into tough places.  It is this strange mixture of emotions that is fueling my energies as we continue to work through the process.  Most importantly, this is what keeps me on my knees, begging the God of the universe to care for these children, to enlarge my heart, to allow me to do my part in caring for the many orphans that walk this planet.

... the Lord upholds his hand

Its time for an update, but I think you might be bored to hear of all the paperwork we have done and continue to do.  The exciting part of this journey is what is coming.  There will be children who need forever families and they will be matched with us and they will come live in our home and call us mom and dad and we will call them son or daughter. This is the moment we live for, the reason we do this.  Along the way we also have exciting moments, we have benchmarks in our mind that are moments for celebration.  One of those happened last night, it was a simple phone call, but it was a phone call that said it was time to move to the next step.... more paperwork and.... we can also now get a referral for children.  We had said we would take a sibling group and it is looking more and more likely that we will receive one. When I asked Paul what we should share with you, he said, what we've done so far.  Its super exciting, watch out.... 2 applications, 4 sets of fingerprints for Paul, 6 for Cristine (I have funky prints, I was told that, again, today), awkward doctors appointments, more forms than I ever could have imagined, passport for Cristine, ordered certified birth certificates, marriage certificates, many forms notarized, lots of time on the phone, multiple emails, hopes up, hopes down, questioning (what are we thinking) and clinging to God and reminding each other of this....

The Lord directs the steps of the godly, 

He delights in every detail of their lives. 

Though they stumble, 

they will never fall,

for the Lord holds them by the hand.

Psalm 37:23-24

Paul also wanted me to tell you what are next steps are (check out the top right of the freezer door)

Okay so you have to enlarge it to actually know what it says, but it all boils down to more paperwork and planning a fundraiser.  If you are going to enlarge that you should check out the quote and the proverb... good stuff :)

Here is the updated financial graphic.  Notice a few more filled in (each section representing $500) and the dots represent the pledges we've received.  Also, you can now give online through PayPal (which does charge a fee) or tax exempt through Maranatha Ministries using the big purple DONATE link in the margin.  

Thank you so much for your interest in our journey.  It is a joy to share it with you!!!!