Mid October, here we are!

well, what is new in our world....

Well we are excited for friends who are currently in Ethiopia having just met their son who they are adopting. They are just waiting for a visa to come so they can bring him home,they have waited over 15 weeks for this thing, they decided to go and be with him until it came(been there a couple weeks so far). So cool!(them going), NOT cool, the paper delay!

We have other friends who are planning to adopt from Kenya, and just waiting for a few more pieces of the puzzle to fall in place before they uproot and head there.

We await our match and expect travel either in mid December or Early January, depending on when the matches come.

Myself, Cara and some friends are working on a whole Sunday devoted to Orphan care. www.orphansunday.org, is the inspiration for it, we are so excited. Going have the elementary kids walk thru a day as an orphan, we will share and challenge our church in areas of adoption, orphan care and foster care. We will have ways for them to interact and help, then have an evening time of watching a videocast about the "cry of the orphan" with Steven Curtis Chapman and Francis Chan. That is Nov 7. We will hopefully have our referral before then :)!

Lately I have been struck by the loss and pain the birthparents must feel in this process, thinking that my girls birth mothers, for example, will spend their life wondering," I wonder what kind of child they are like, how they look, what they like to do, are they thriving? Do they hate me for having to choose to have an adoption plan?..."

It saddens me that my girls will have parts of their past they will never know, because we don't know it, praying that absence of past won't cripple them emotionally or spiritually for their future, feeling so helpless that as their dad, I can't fix it, solve it, protect them from that...I CAN be there for them through it, love them with all I have, and then ask God to give me more, so that my girls will see God is more than enough for them and can help them not be trapped by these losses.

It is such a weird dynamic, adoption is such a gift in so many ways, yet it comes from loss...but the redeeming thing I cling to in this is God, the ultimate Father, His heart beats for the orphan,He cares so much for them, so I try to rest in that because I KNOW God makes beauty come from ashes and redeems past losses and hurt!

We are currently tossing around options for sleeping arrangements for Julia. We want to try cosleeping with her(meaning she sleeps in the room with us, in her bed/crib attached to ours) so she knows we are there for her. After months of being in a crib all alone, with no one to hear her cries, to comfort her,we need to teach her the world, no HER world, is not ever going to be like that again, that her needs will be cared for, that she is loved, and will be nurtured, loved, and cared for and that she has parents who will do that for her. I bought a used crib that we may try modifying to make it smaller(it would be an adventure as my carpenter skills are not great, but who knows it may surprise all of us), so it will fit in our room, or we found out there are mini cribs we may purchase that we can then attach to our bed, to make it secure and work with that. Be making that decision this week.

Last week we sat down and worked through a packing list from the research I have done over the years, a bit overwhelming to try to pack with so many unknowns, such as what size will Julia be(who knows!), what will we be able to purchase there(depends on where we end up going!)...fun!!!

Early November we are going on a Banff retreat for pastors and spouses(with Katie), as we don't want to leave her as she will be left with family during the China trip. Mid November I do some Magic for a Youth Conference in Edmonton, still working on some new magic for that. Birthday shows have been good to me, and I am loving having this creative outlet!

Enjoyed having my mom up for Thanksgiving and hoping my dad can make a trip up sometime in November also.

Love being in a church where we have found some people with a similar heart for adoption and orphans, and that as a bonus they are great friends for Cara and I.

Hopefully you folks reading the blog will see some more posts this month as we know WE ARE NEXT(love saying that after so many years of..."it is getting closer..."!!!)