Dear Beth

Dear Beth,

With the confidence in our all-sufficient Father as provider, I am excited about this new “journey of hope” that we are on to adopt our son – Levi! I want to thank you that during these years, when your heart longed for another child, that you never badgered or coerced me. You have been prayerfully patient, and been a model of a supportive wife. You have truly shown me through these years… the sufficiency of prayer. You have always supported me and my ministry even if we would never adopt. You even honored my misgivings for years… even if my worries were rooted in my own selfishness, as God later revealed to me they were. You have been a rock!

I truly believe that what we are doing by pursuing this means of adding to our family will glorify God and show His love for all peoples… because of this, I have confidence that God is pleased and will honor our efforts!

I believe we enter this with our eyes wide open, because of some of our life experiences. We have been through a lot together, and have come out stronger because of the love and grace of the Lord. He has been merciful to us and will continue to show his mercies as new everyday along this ride that he has us on.

I thank God for you. I am excited to be doing this together. Even at my age I believe that God has given me something else to share with another child, and I know that you will be a great mom again… as you have already been with our other 3 children. Life is very short, whether minutes like Logan, or 44 years like me, 69 years like my dad, or even 90 years like my grandpa. What matters is not living those years for us and our dreams, but that, while we live, we live by faith in future grace and walk according to Christ. Our lives are His… not our own!

With this common goal we will, by God’s grace, hold our son, and lead him to be a follower of the Christ who gave His life for us all at Calvary. May the Lord see this journey of hope through, and bring Levi home and into a deep lasting relationship with us… and Christ. May he be the ebony garland of honor around your neck, and may he one day call you truly blessed!

Thank you for the honor of being your husband, and being on this journey together… I love you!

Sean

His Name Is.....

As our paperwork pregnancy is nearing an end, we've been so encouraged and blessed to encounter some wonderful people through our agency. One of those has been our home study worker, Chuck. He first visited our home last Wednesday, and we met with him again last Friday as parts 2 and 3 of our 4-step Home Study process. He's an older, kind, and godly man with a great amount of wisdom and grace. Very much a "grandfatherly" type. He came into our home and made us feel at ease almost instantly through this uncertain step. We felt as if we were sitting with a dear family member. One of his first questions was, "Does he have a name?" It wasn't a question I considered to be of huge importance, and certainly not one that I imagined would be asked as part of our home study process. He began to share that it was important that if we had a name picked out, that we started calling our son by his name so we could relate to him on a more personal level. After all, he was our son since before the beginning of time. If God is Sovereign and the all-knowing God we believe He is, then long before any of us were created, God ordained him to be our child. "Before I formed you in the womb, I knew you, and before you were born, I consecrated you..." Jer. 1:5

Sean and I had to each write an autobiography that covered in detail various parts of our lives from birth, and this included the call to adopt, i.e. when did we first know and believe and respond to this calling. For me, it was childhood when I first remember the desire. I recalled seeing and hearing about children without homes, and how heartbroken and burdened it was for me to hear and see, and desire to do SOMEthing about this. God planted this desire long ago in my heart. For Sean, it wasn't until later in adulthood, and it was a process that God was working in his heart at a completely different time than in mine, until it came together at just the right time. Recounting this has encouraged us often through this process that God's timing is so very perfect! Chuck then reminded us that even back in those times in my childhood, God had our son in mind. He was planting that desire to lead me towards him. He was planting the desire in Sean years later....to lead Sean to him. Even moreso, before Sean and I were born, God knew we would adopt this precious boy. God knew the details long before He revealed them to us.

In Ethiopian adoptions, the trend is that many of their Ethiopian names will become their middle name, and they are given an American first name. Therefore, a couple of months ago, Sean and I had begun looking through baby name books as we looked for just the right name. I have to say I never imagined we'd be doing this in our forties. :) The perfect name came to the forefront of our minds at just about the same time. We then decided that would be his name. We just hadn't shared it with everyone. I'm not sure why. Perhaps, the excitement of wanting to reveal it when he came to us. Maybe a fear that this might even cause an attachment and make this process of waiting all the more difficult. We also are open to siblings, so since we weren't sure if we would have one or more, it seemed strange to name one and not the others. It might have even been that our faith was weak in the initial process with the thought that, "What if it doesn't happen?" However, the longer we have walked through this journey, the more stronger and certain we know without a doubt that we have a son awaiting us in Ethiopia. He may have siblings, and he may not, but this we know: he is there awaiting a home here with us.

And he has a name.

David Platt says it well: “Orphans are easier to ignore before you know their names. They are easier to ignore before you see their faces. It is easier to pretend they're not real before you hold them in your arms. But once you do, everything changes.”

Our hearts have been in the process of being changed and shaped in so many ways. I can't even describe the longing of my mama heart for a child that is mine, made known to us. Yet, he is not ignored, but has a name. His name is "Levi." It is Hebrew and means "join or be joined" and refers to "the joining of a person to someone." We eagerly await the day when Levi is joined to our family, affectionately referred to as "Gotcha Day" for adopted families. We don't know if he has siblings or not, but we know he is there. We now pray for him by name, and ask you to do the same, as Levi awaits a home that he doesn't yet know exists. We can hardly wait for the day we will see his sweet face that we can finally put to the name and the calling God has now revealed to us.

Every part of this earthly adoption points us to our heavenly one. The promise of adoption given through salvation, and the fulfillment of it when we leave this earth for a Heavenly Father who has planned and orchestrated in His perfect timing our "Gotcha Day." Our prayer is that Levi not only knows he has an earthly home and family that awaits, but that he will also know he has a heavenly "Abba"...a Daddy, Who has prepared a place for him that is greater than anything he has ever imagined. Only then, will he understand his full rights as an adopted child.

"And we believers also groan, even though we have the Holy Spirit within us as a foretaste of future glory, for we long for our bodies to be released from sin and suffering. We, too, wait with eager hope for the day when God will give us our full rights as his adopted children." Romans 8:23

Ethiopia Update/Prayer Request

Some changes are occurring in Ethiopia that COULD affect the timing of our adoption. We want to inform you of these so you can be praying along with us. The US Department of State posted a notice regarding Ethiopian adoption. The full content of the notice can be found here and speculates possible delays for cases presented to MOWCYA, also known as the Ministry of Women, Children, and Youth Affairs (formerly called MOWA) after March 8^th. The US Department of State hosted a meeting on April 5th regarding Ethiopian adoptions and findings from a joint trip of USCIS & Department of State officials to Ethiopia at the end of January 2011. A hand out from this meeting can be found through the following link: Handout Notes.

In light of this, our adoption agency is hosting a conference call this afternoon for all of us in the process of adopting from Ethiopia to explain more details, answer our questions, and bring assurance to our fears. They are not at this point alarmed that this will remain this way. Often, new leadership comes in with new ideas and the desire to change things to "make a name", but with the opposition that this is encountering, they feel positive that it won't stay long. Since the reports of MOWCYA changes in early March, America World, our adoption agency, has continued to see many families pass court in March and April. The recent staff turnover at MOWCYA has even led to many families successfully passing court at their first scheduled appointment. Additionally, we know the court is committed to continuing to process adoption cases in a timely manner.

It's hard to not be concerned through these changes, but God is sovereign and we trust Him, including His timing. We know our son is kept in God's capable hands. As I've been praying for several friends lately in difficult situations of waiting and trusting, I was reminded of our Big God. There is no need that is ever too big for Him! If it doesn't come as we desire or when we want it, we can trust His gracious hands of love are at work for the benefit of all and the glory of His Name. He holds things in His time for GOOD, not harm. I am convinced that once we get to the other side of this (or any trial), that looking back, whether it's on this side of heaven or the other, we will be able to see and exclaim, "What an AMAZING, PERFECT plan! What an amazing, all knowing, all powerful God!"

"...I know whom I have believed, and am convinced that he is able to guard what I have entrusted to him until that day." 2 Timothy 1:12