love these kids…

Thanks to Gladney for allowing us share a little bit of our story & experience about bringing Sosi home from Ethiopia!

“Both Sides of Home” in latest Africa Program Newsletter

Rest of the story can be found on our blog at Our Adoption Journey

the beautiful women in my life…

Sosi’s eyes…

I’m pretty much at a loss for words right now as 24 hours from now our plane will be lifting off to carry Corrie and I to bring Elle home

For so very long, I knew this moment would come, but I never really let it enter into my day to day life, thoughts or prayers. Why? Well, partly because emotionally I’m not sure I could, and partly because I knew God has been walking both in front and behind me and my family.

It’s been a conflicting week as we have great joy for what is ahead, but we also weep with the families who are adopting children from Haiti that will not know this moment for a very long time, if ever.

For us, like so many before us, life will change forever once that plane lifts off the ground, and for that I am excited beyond measure. However, there is still that small voice inside me say “you really think you’re ready for this?” and “you realize this is the easy part, right?”

Thoughts that cause me do one thing alone…

…turn and trust that the God who has brought us this far has already written the story that we are about to explore.

…turn and trust that the people surrounding us would do anything should we only let the words slip from our mouths.

…turn and trust that the purpose of my life is to be the foreshadowing of a coming kingdom where every right is made wrong, every heart is filled and peace reigns. A kingdom where Elle will someday be in the arms of her birth mother again.

…turn and trust that regardless of any difficultly that is ahead, my God will be there.

…turn and trust that there is healing for a child, my child, who needs the arms of her father and mother.

…and that’s pretty much all I can do.

…next stop, Ethiopia

…169 hours and 13 mins from this moment, Corrie & I will be sitting at the airport gate, boarding passes in hard and mentally tired as we try to remember if the 15 bags we just checked in have all we need.

“do you think the big orange bag have enough formula & diapers?”

“do you remember if I packed the extra battery for the camera in case the power converter doesn’t work?”

“where’s the copy of your passport and shot record?”

“did we remember to give your parents the blue folder for Will’s homework?”

…169 hours and 13 mins doesn’t seem like that far way, but it is when your mind is full. And a full mind is what leads to the search for that the one thing we may have left out of those 15 bags.

169 hours from this moment I pray that I will have the presence to reach over and take Corrie’s hand to say, we are ready for the life ahead of us that is waiting.

I know we may not do everything right and there are greater challenges ahead that we may think. However, we can have peace because this journey is no longer about the doctors orders that another pregnancy is too high of a risk or the words that we read in the book of James or the overwhelming scale of the orphan crisis. This journey is simply about our family and our little girl who is coming home.

So, those 15 bags may have something missing, and that is okay. It is okay, because our children are all safe and their mom and dad are waiting at a gate waiting to board so that we can all be together.

“We had to pay extra for the orange bag because all the formula put us over the weight limit.”

“The two extra batteries are fully charged.”

“I have a digital image of my passport & shot record that I can access from anywhere in the world.”

and “Will’s blue folder was in his backpack that I put into my mom’s hands.”

so, 169 hours and 31 mins from now, I wonder what we will be thinking about next?

…just 8 more days & we will be with her

even had enough snow to do a little (very little) sledding

…sitting at the counter being present

Christmas tradition of Fayetteville Square & Tim’s Pizza (Whrrl story)