One of our first glimpses of Isaiah, last April, 2009
I know it seems like forever since we started down the adoption road again, but for many of you, the news only came out in the last couple months. We did not intend to be sneaky, or hide anything, we just simply decided to wait for more concrete news before we alerted everyone to our family's expansion plans.
Last spring, Gladney Adoption Agency in NY sent out a photo of a sibling group of 4 little girls-We were all totally smitten with them, and the idea of pursuing another adoption.
A quick email to the agency revealed MANY families had already requested more info on the set of 4 sisters, but, were we interested in any other children?
We began to earnestly seek council and direction for our next adoption. Chuck was feeling very led towards Ethiopia, I had my eyes on Russia again. But, we both felt sure of one thing, this adoption would include a little girl-
After contacting 4 different agencies, and receiving green lights from all of them, we began to peruse these agencies' waiting children photo lists. We talked with people from several agencies for hours on the phone-we were going to do this very systematically, and methodically, and in the back of our mind was the horrid milk price of 2009-surely this would be taking place somewhere DOWN the road, not right away.
I just love it when God's plan collides with our best-laid plans. In my prayer time one Sunday morning while milking the cows, and seeking the Lord's advice on a ministry for our family-thinking something we could do in our local church-I heard very clearly, "Your ministry is adopting children."
I was delighted, awed, and humbled by God's word to my heart. And with Chuck's approval, we earnestly began looking through photo-listings, as we were very sure now that God was leading us to another international adoption.
We found a little face on day on Gladney's site, and my initial reaction was, "Honey, he needs a mommy and daddy" Chuck was in total agreement with me from the beginning-this little BOY, and his sibling baby brother, became our focus for several weeks as we began to seek more info, council, and direction as to, "Is this the one, Lord?"
All doors flew open-we always pray for God to shut doors we aren't supposed to walk through.
The first open door was the fact that we received 3 separate emails from different people about these brothers. The 2nd was orphanage approval- instantly -upon our "tentative" request.
The largest hurdle we needed to climb over was inside us. These boys had some issues-could we handle this? Could we afford this? Were we going to be able to parent a child with cognitive issues, for the Long Haul-like a lifetime?
We had been in a close working relationship with TWO families on our farm who had adult children with cognitive issues-these children were very much a part of the family-they worked side-by-side with their parents, they were a part of the family and their businesses. We knew God had been preparing our hearts for this over the last couple years, as we had come to love these children of our friends, and to look forward to their being on the farm with us.
It seemed that God was in-deed leading us to these 2 special little boys.
The last obstacle, or mountain, was perhaps the incredibly LOW milk price of 2009. A very huge fear was, how would we finance this adoption, when our cash flow was so sorely depleted, we had used up all cash reserves trying to keep the farm afloat, and we really had no clue where the money was going to come from!
But, we took a leap of faith, and signed an adoption agreement on July 23, committing to these lovely little boys.
Then, we proceeded to Wait, and Wait, and Wait some more.
18 weeks later, the Dossier papers arrived from Taiwan, and guess what happened to the milk price by November? It had come up drastically that month, and we were able to make the Orphanage fee payment in one lump sum, followed by the Agency fee a couple months later-and to date the only expense we haven't accounted for will be our travel costs.
Isn't God GOOD!!!
Now we have updates on both boys, and they seem to be progressing very well. Their health issues seem to be leveled out.
Isaiah will be 4 in Sept, Isaac turned 1 in Feb.
Our court date is March 25.
We will probably be traveling during the HOTTEST time possible in Taiwan, but
WE DON"T CARE!!
We just can't wait to get our boys home.
Isaiah, Feb, 2010.
Isn't he just the cutest little guy? We can't wait to wrap our arms around him and bring him home to Wisconsin.
Blessings
Chris
