Without Measure

There once was a man named Eddy. Kind, gentle, selfless, loving, and oh so thoughtful was he. Eddy lived in a village known as Morganton where he helped shepherd a flock, along with some other very wise shepherds known as David, Philip, and Brian. This flock wasn’t just any old flock, but one filled with hundreds of sheep filled with tender, teachable hearts that followed THE Shepherd wherever they heard his voice speak, whether through wind, fire, thunder, or a whisper. It happened one day that the Shepherd spoke to Eddy and told him of a great need three of his small sheep possessed. Obediently, with confidence only a true Shepherd can offer, Eddy spoke to the other shepherds and determined a way to meet the need. The way would not be easy, but would require many days of work from the shepherds and the other sheep in the flock. It would require sacrifice and selflessness on the part of everyone. It would require long nights, much sweat, dirty jobs, sore legs, and tired eyes. However, the reward was promised to be literally out of this world, in another kingdom, far from the pasture in which the flock grazed. So, with much determination the flock set out to meet the need and that they did!!! The three little sheep that received the help were astounded, amazed, and quite shocked!! They did not have the capability of thanking the flock to the degree they desired, but just ran with intensity to THE Shepherd and begged Him to bless the flock without measure for the sacrifice wrought to meet their need! THE Shepherd knew about sacrifice all too well and was overjoyed to bless the flock for sharing in the spirit of His life, His ways, & His plan!!

This little story is in no way fiction, but the real story of Burkemont Baptist Church reaching out to our family to meet the financial need linked to the adoption of Marek Joel Scott. The church hosted a BBQ fundraiser on April 17, 2010 during which countless people prepared, set-up, cooked, served, cleaned, and everything in between! So many precious church family members, thoughtful community residents, and others came out to eat and give above and beyond the cost of the BBQ!! AMAZING!!! Over $4400.00 was raised and to this day, the number is still rising! Thank you BBC for being our God-gift in COUNTLESS ways!!!!! We are so thankful God has given Marek a HUGE, God-centered family here in Morganton!

Why we are thankful for Steven Curtis Chapman...

For those of you who have no clue who this family is, please let us introduce you to Steven Curtis Chapman (SCC) and his family. SCC is the gentleman standing on the far right. SCC is an extremely successful Christian artist who has a HUGE heart for orphans. As you can see, the Chapman family have adopted 3 beautiful little girls from China.

Recognizing that adoption is a perfect picture of what God has done for each of us in making us His children through Christ, the Chapman family created an organization called ShowHOPE. The following quote was taken from their website:

"ShowHOPE was established to care for orphans by engaging the church and helping Christian families reduce the financial barriers to adoption. Psalm 68:5-6 tells us that as the Father to the fatherless, God delights in setting the lonely in families. It has been our experience that the scriptural mandate of caring for orphans, such as the one found in James 1:27, is really a wonderful invitation to experience God in a profound way by being a part of His sovereign plan for His precious children. Working from these foundational truths, ShowHOPE exists to enable children living without the love and hope of an earthly family to be adopted into 'covenant homes.' These families can provide not only the love and support needed for this life, but also provide a child with the knowledge of God's plan for his or her eternal life with a forever family called The Body of Christ."

So, why do I give you all of this information? ShowHOPE is one of the organizations we have applied for an adoption assistance grant to help offset some of the expense associated with bringing Marek home. Today, April received a phone call from ShowHOPE informing us that we were awarded a grant in the amount of $2000 to go towards any remaining adoption expenses.

As I sit here typing this note to you, I am standing speechless. How can we say 'thank you' enough to all of you who faithfully lay us and Marek before the throne of Christ? How can we say 'thank you' enough to a man we will probably never meet who has such a heart for orphans? How can we say 'thank you' enough to our Father, who continually leaves our mouths wide open in complete awe of His greatness? The answer...we simply can't. Our hearts are overflowing with thankfulness...a thankfulness that we will never be able to express. However, please know that you are loved more than you will ever know and as much as possible, we humbly say 'Thank you.'

Love you so...

UPDATE: Prayers Needed...

We just received the following update regarding the new policies set in place by the Ethiopian federal courts:

Dear Gladney Ethiopia Program Families:

We received some additional information from our in-country staff today. The federal courts in Ethiopia an­nounced today that they have decided to postpone the effective date of the new policy requiring adoptive parents to travel to Addis Ababa, Ethiopia to meet their child/ren and appear for their federal court dates. The effective date for the new policy is now set for April 9, 2010.

This means that an adoptive family who receives their federal court date before April 9, 2010 will not be required to travel to Ethiopia for the federal court date and will only be required to travel to Ethiopia for one trip to pick up their child/ren and have their U.S. Embassy interview appointment. Therefore, an adoptive family may receive a court date on April 8, 2010 that is scheduled for after April 9, 2010, but they would not be required to travel and be present for their court date because they received their court date before April 9, 2010. An adoptive family who receives their federal court date after April 9, 2010 will be expected to travel once to Ethiopia to meet their child/ ren and appear for their scheduled federal court date, and then they will be required to travel for a second trip to Ethiopia to pick up their child/ren and have their U.S. Embassy interview appointment.

Obviously, this is better news than we received on Wednesday. We are asking that you pray specifically that we receive a referal for a child and get a court date BEFORE April 9th. Thank you for being our prayer warriors during this time. It is such a breath of fresh air to know that so many are praying on our families behalf. We will keep you updated as we are updated.

Prayers Needed...

I know it has been months since last updating the blog, but as mentioned below, nothing much has been going on during this "waiting period." Well, as of this afternoon, our "nothing going on" has turned into some pretty discouraging news. Instead of trying to explain what is going on, I am just going to copy the following email that we received this afternoon: (Note: if you don't want to read the entire email, the important parts are in bold)

Ethiopia Program Families:

Our in-country staff were notified today by the federal courts in Ethiopia that a new policy has been implemented, effective today, requiring all adoptive parents to travel to Addis Ababa, Ethiopia for their court dates before their adoptions can be finalized in court. This policy does not affect any families who already have court dates scheduled. This policy is effective immediately for any families who receive future court dates. This policy will now require families to travel to Ethiopia twice during their adoption process (once for adoptive parent/s to appear in court and once for adoptive parent/s to pick up their child/ren to come home to the United States).

We anticipate that the first trip will be an approximately 5 day stay in Addis Ababa for adoptive parents to meet their referred child/ren and appear in court. For two parent families, both adoptive parents will be required to travel and be present in court. For single parent families, the adoptive parent is required to travel for both trips. It is our understanding that if there are delays in a family’s court process, the adoptive family will be able to complete their court appearance on the first court date and will not be required to stay in-country or return again for subsequent court date(s).

The adoptive family’s second trip to Ethiopia will occur after the adoption is finalized in court and when the family is scheduled for a U.S. Embassy interview to process your child’s immigrant visa. At least one of the adoptive parents is required to travel to Ethiopia for the second trip. Based on current time frames, the second trip would occur approximately 3-6 weeks after the court date when a family’s adoption is finalized, and the sec ond trip would be an approximately 7 day stay in Addis Ababa. The timing of the second trip depends upon the day of the week that families’ adoptions are finalized; the number of families who are approved in court at any given time; the number of children that the Embassy can process at a time; the time required to obtain children’s court decrees, passports, and birth certificates; and the Embassy’s schedule with appointments every other week. Adoptive families will be given their finalized travel dates for the second trip after their adoptions have been approved and finalized by the courts in Ethiopia.

In order to provide you with this information as quickly as possible, we are notifying all families immediately of this change, but we are still working to coordinate the logistics of how this will impact each of you. We ask that you please be patient with us as we are talking with our in-country staff and anticipating questions that you might have in order to provide you with as much information as possible.

Words cannot express how heavy our hearts are with this news. We have so, SO many questions that it really is hard to know where to start. We have been instructed by Gladney to hold all questions for a few days while they sort through all of the changes, but honestly, being "quiet" is really hard. And, if we can be totally blunt, some of this is just unacceptable to us. However, instead of ranting and raving, we are just asking that you please pray specifically for the following concerns/requests:

* This goes without saying, but traveling to/from Ethiopia twice, doubles our travel expense. God has already proven to us throughout this process that He is our ultimate Provider. However, in our flesh, this added expense is a bit overwhelming. Please just pray that we focus on our Provider and place total faith in Him.

* Over the next few days we are supposed to receive a few more updates concerning these new procedures so please pray that some clarity will be given. The idea of us traveling to Ethiopia, meeting our son, going to court to finalize his adoption, then leaving him there for 3-6 more weeks while we wait on an appointment with the US Embassy, is simply not o.k. Please pray that the Holy Spirit will drop some common sense on those who (obviously) need it. :)

Thank you for being a listening ear and most importantly, for your precious prayers. We totally know that God is in control of this and nothing has caught Him off guard. In the end, we want Him glorified and if this is one more avenue for Him to be exalted, then we are willing to take the journey.

AAHHHHHH...it just stinks, though!

Waiting...

Just wanted to send out a quick update on how things are progressing with Marek. As of mid-August, we are officially on the waiting list! This means that we have been approved by Gladney, and our government and all of our paperwork is being processed with Ethiopia's government/leadership. As of right now, the average wait time is 8 months (Currently the longest waiting family is 8 months) for a baby boy from 0-12 months. By this scale, we hope to receive an official referral to a child sometime around March/April. Upon referral, court dates must be established in Ethiopia which can take anywhere from 2-6 weeks...then, it is travel time!

In the meantime, we are going through numerous hours of training that is required by Hague regulations. We are also in the process of applying for some grants to help offset the remaining expenses. International adoption is expensive BUT God has blown us away by how He has provided. At the end of the day, we KNOW it is Him...and this is just the way we like it! We are looking forward to Him continuing to amaze us as He provides the remaining money. To HIM be the glory!

Please forgive us if we are slow to update during this wait time. According to most people we have talked to that have already been through this process, the waiting time is the hardest. All of the paperwork is being processed behind the scenes and we will likely not hear anything from anyone until the phone rings one day with a sweet voice telling us that we have a baby! You will probably hear us screaming with excitement upon this call! Oh, how we look forward to that day...

Thanks for checking in on us...we love you!

A New Home

As many of you already know, Dustin recently graduated from SEBTS.  Prior to graduation, we began interviewing with Burkemont Baptist Church in Morganton, NC.  To say the least, we all fell in love with each other.  The staff at the church are amazing men who love the Lord and enjoy having fun with each other.  The people of Burkemont are loving, strong, faithful, and desire to see Jesus shared with all.  After a few months of interviewing and visiting, God could not be clearer about His new plan for our family.  So, a few weeks after graduation, we started packing!

All of that to say, we are now residents of Morganton, North Carolina! The move went SO smoothly! The movers that the church sent were terrific and did a spectacular job of keeping everything safe and sound! Since arriving in Morganton, God has sent us some extremely special people to help make the transition so much easier. Matt and Alicia Clark, precious friends from Wake Forest, came on Thursday, move in day, to help us unpack boxes and they were a HUGE help!! Then, on Saturday, Momma Patty, James, and Bailee SURPRISED us when they drove into our drive way around 10 a.m.!!! We were all ECSTATIC and Hollis was beside himself to have Bailee here to play with. Their sweet servant hands helped in NUMEROUS ways with projects around the house and they also went to church with us on Father's Day - our first Sunday at our new church, Burkemont Baptist! After their departure on Sunday, Momma Carol arrived on Monday to stay the week!!!! She worked like a maniac helping us with curtains and yard work ALL week long. Hollis loved planting flowers with his Nana!

We did have to update our Home Study once we arrived but thankfully, it has already taken place.  We are now finishing up the last few pieces of paperwork (new employment letter for Dustin, new insurance plans, etc...) for our foreign dossier and will send all of it off mid-week.  Once this is complete, we start waiting...and waiting...AND waiting!  Right now, it looks like we will go on the "official" wait list for our little man sometime towards the first of August.  Right now the "wait time" is about 8 months but of course, it could be shorter or longer.  (We are hoping for the "shorter route!")

Thanks for checking in on us.  We will update our contact info as soon as we get our cell numbers changed.  Love you!

Thank you, Wake Forest!

We recently held a silent African auction fundraiser at Thales Academy (where April teaches 2nd grade).  Honestly, we really did not know what to expect!  We sent out invitations to all of the families associated with Thales and also to numerous friends from Wake Forest.  It did not take long for God to, once again, remind us that we are so bad about "putting Him in a box." Our expectations of what He is going to do is so small sometimes!  Thankfully, He overlooked our silly, short term memory and blew us away!  Due to the sacrifices by those we love and care for so much in Wake Forest, many needs were met!  After all was finished, we were able to deposit another $2600+ into Marek's adoption fund!  Praise Jesus - our Jehovah Jireh!

We desire to be good stewards of the money that God has provided through the sacrifices of many, so we have opened up a separate checking account designated strictly for the adoption. Any expense, fees, deposits, etc... flow directly through this account.  As of today, we have completely paid for all of the "before child" expense and have enough money left to purchase our airline tickets.  There is only one more big fee that is remaining, but it is not due until after Gladney places us with a child.  We are going to be working diligently on some grants to help offset the remaining money that is due.  I know this stuff is not fun to read but it is our heart's desire to be upfront and honest every step of the way to you all.  Your dedication and financial support is precious to us and we want to handle your gifts with integrity and in a manner that is honoring to you and, most importantly, Christ.

You are precious and are loved beyond words!