We are so happy to say that our ICPC = Interstate Contract, has been sent to Georgia!!!
Now this doesn't mean that James Graves, the ICPC person in Ga, has read it or is even in town but the good news is that we have done everything to get it done and here. Our prayers are that it satisfies GA and that we are approved. If it goes through then we are off to Washington!!!! yippeeeeee.
Wednesday, December 26, 2007
God's Love
Below is a blog from a family who has adopted 5 children from Liberia and has 5 bios. I wanted to share what she has written.....
Solomon wrote Brad and I a note that read, "Dear Dad and Mom, God never showed me this before, but I see that I am a new creation in Christ and the old things are passed away. So from now on I have a new name. I am calling myself Jedidiah and you can call me that now. Love, Jedidiah. (I took the liberty of correcting the spelling errors here, otherwise it may be indecipherable to those not familiar with children's phonetic spelling)I then thought about the new name we have been given in Christ when we were adopted in love. That name is "accepted and chosen." I was doing the Beth Moore bible study on the fruit of the Spirit and learned that in Isaiah 53:3 when it describes Christ as "rejected by men" part of that word "rejected" means "vacant." I remember when we first brought Adriana home from Liberia that is the word that described the look in her eyes: vacant. Abandonded, leaving an empty space that longed to be filled. Even as a baby that spirit of rejection was on her, and she was badly in need of the spirit of adoption. She is now a laughing, smiling, much less fearful little toddler who makes eye contact glory to GOD! Does that mean she (or any of us) is 100% free of rejection and totally embraces what it means to be chosen in love and adopted into the family of God? Doubtful. There is something of our old nature that tilts toward the negative and finds it easier to dwell on the rejection of others rather than embrace our new status as "chosen and accepted" in our Beloved Jesus. But my prayer for all my children is that whatever rejection they experience from others will only drive them closer to the unfailing love of the Father, who sent His Son for them. Jesus Christ knows what it is to be rejected by His own, but He was chosen by God to reconcile us to Himself, to make us a chosen people where before we were orphans and foreigners but now we are members of God's household with full rights as sons and daughters of the most High God.There is a book out in the adoption world called "When Love is Not Enough" about parenting children with what is called "Reactive Attachment Disorder." And it's true, as any parent of any prodigal child whether adopted or not will tell you, that our love for our children is not enough to change their hearts and heal all their hurts. But we don't love because we are trying to fix people, we love because God commands us to. Even if we don't see the results of our love in the natural, God promises that love never fails, He won't waste our love and there are eternal realities going on that are more real than what we can see with our eyes. It's like how I used to get disillusioned with homeschooling because it wasn't producing the perfect children I had hoped. Why go through all this trouble and hard work I thought, if there were no guarantees? Sweet Brad was the one who reminded me, "We are doing this because God told us to Jenny, it's an obedience issue." Just like we love because it is Who God is, and we want to be like our Father. We risk our hearts every time we choose to love, because others might reject it. It tends to be missionary-like zeal that propels many to adopt and those "fire and earthquake" moments at the beginning are all about the initial rescue. But once the dust settles you realize in the still small gentle Voice that there is a lot more to this rescue than "saving a life." It's a long and hard process of breaking off rejection and receiving the spirit of adoption. Some days I feel like Hosea when God told him to go marry a prostitute because it was going to be a picture of God's burning love to have a relationship with His unfaithful people. I've seen in my family and many others how parenting abandoned children is a picture of God's Father-love as He parents His hurt and rejected children. The levels of broken trust we have experienced along life's journey tends to dictate how much we struggle with false illusions of control, lack of trust in our Provider and Protector, and our struggle with really letting down our carefully constructed defense mechanisms to receive the outpour of love that is available to us at any moment. Father, teach us to all embrace the name "Jedidiah" which means loved by the LORD. Your Son knew full well what it was to be rejected by men, but He knew Who He was, Your beloved Son in whom You were well pleased. Thank you for the spirit of adoption and the truth that we are never alone and You will never, ever leave us. Make us secure, firmly attached to our Abba Father, able to trust and to love because You are trustworthy and have first loved us with an unfailing love. Love, Jenny
Solomon wrote Brad and I a note that read, "Dear Dad and Mom, God never showed me this before, but I see that I am a new creation in Christ and the old things are passed away. So from now on I have a new name. I am calling myself Jedidiah and you can call me that now. Love, Jedidiah. (I took the liberty of correcting the spelling errors here, otherwise it may be indecipherable to those not familiar with children's phonetic spelling)I then thought about the new name we have been given in Christ when we were adopted in love. That name is "accepted and chosen." I was doing the Beth Moore bible study on the fruit of the Spirit and learned that in Isaiah 53:3 when it describes Christ as "rejected by men" part of that word "rejected" means "vacant." I remember when we first brought Adriana home from Liberia that is the word that described the look in her eyes: vacant. Abandonded, leaving an empty space that longed to be filled. Even as a baby that spirit of rejection was on her, and she was badly in need of the spirit of adoption. She is now a laughing, smiling, much less fearful little toddler who makes eye contact glory to GOD! Does that mean she (or any of us) is 100% free of rejection and totally embraces what it means to be chosen in love and adopted into the family of God? Doubtful. There is something of our old nature that tilts toward the negative and finds it easier to dwell on the rejection of others rather than embrace our new status as "chosen and accepted" in our Beloved Jesus. But my prayer for all my children is that whatever rejection they experience from others will only drive them closer to the unfailing love of the Father, who sent His Son for them. Jesus Christ knows what it is to be rejected by His own, but He was chosen by God to reconcile us to Himself, to make us a chosen people where before we were orphans and foreigners but now we are members of God's household with full rights as sons and daughters of the most High God.There is a book out in the adoption world called "When Love is Not Enough" about parenting children with what is called "Reactive Attachment Disorder." And it's true, as any parent of any prodigal child whether adopted or not will tell you, that our love for our children is not enough to change their hearts and heal all their hurts. But we don't love because we are trying to fix people, we love because God commands us to. Even if we don't see the results of our love in the natural, God promises that love never fails, He won't waste our love and there are eternal realities going on that are more real than what we can see with our eyes. It's like how I used to get disillusioned with homeschooling because it wasn't producing the perfect children I had hoped. Why go through all this trouble and hard work I thought, if there were no guarantees? Sweet Brad was the one who reminded me, "We are doing this because God told us to Jenny, it's an obedience issue." Just like we love because it is Who God is, and we want to be like our Father. We risk our hearts every time we choose to love, because others might reject it. It tends to be missionary-like zeal that propels many to adopt and those "fire and earthquake" moments at the beginning are all about the initial rescue. But once the dust settles you realize in the still small gentle Voice that there is a lot more to this rescue than "saving a life." It's a long and hard process of breaking off rejection and receiving the spirit of adoption. Some days I feel like Hosea when God told him to go marry a prostitute because it was going to be a picture of God's burning love to have a relationship with His unfaithful people. I've seen in my family and many others how parenting abandoned children is a picture of God's Father-love as He parents His hurt and rejected children. The levels of broken trust we have experienced along life's journey tends to dictate how much we struggle with false illusions of control, lack of trust in our Provider and Protector, and our struggle with really letting down our carefully constructed defense mechanisms to receive the outpour of love that is available to us at any moment. Father, teach us to all embrace the name "Jedidiah" which means loved by the LORD. Your Son knew full well what it was to be rejected by men, but He knew Who He was, Your beloved Son in whom You were well pleased. Thank you for the spirit of adoption and the truth that we are never alone and You will never, ever leave us. Make us secure, firmly attached to our Abba Father, able to trust and to love because You are trustworthy and have first loved us with an unfailing love. Love, Jenny
Wednesday, December 12, 2007
Photo Shoot of the Girls
I also wanted to add these photos of the girls who are doing wonderfully with their music.
Great News
We have news in the sense that our papers have FINALLY been sent to the ICPC office in Washington. That is great progress and means that all the papers have been gathered and there is no more waiting on that. We expect that it should take a day or so for WA's ICPC office to send our papers on to Ga's ICPC office and then wait to see what they say. Please pray that they see everything favorably. Also continue praying for the childrens hearts.
Friday, December 7, 2007
Still Waiting
Just an update to let you all know that we are still waiting for paper work to get to who it needs to get to. You have no idea what goes on with adoption through the foster system, or lack there of. Let me just say that if they were a private company there would be many law suits and companies going out of business. Pray that those involved would be touched by the Holy Spirit to "focus" and know what needs to be done and DO IT! Pray for the beginning of January for us to travel to go get our children. Also thanks to all who have posted messages, it means so much to us. Please pray for the childrens' stress levels. This is all very hard on them.
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