Lux et umbra vicissum…

Yes, we’ve been accurately diagnosed. We suspected as much before, because we showed all the symptoms. First of all, we experienced heart palpitations and sometimes even breathing difficulties when thinking about orphaned children. Then we felt a strange magnetism towards Ethiopia from which we had gotten our first adopted children. Then we started feeling drawn to specific orphans in Ethiopia…

We have adoption addiction.

😉

So now we’re beginning round two. No, it’s not just because we love to adopt. We do love to adopt, but we hadn’t been planning on doing it again quite this soon. Rather, there was a girl we were incredibly drawn to before our first adoption was complete, but at the time we felt like God was saying no to adopting her…. and we recently discovered that she still needs a family; and not only does she need a family still, but now she has a younger sister also up for adoption!

Joel & I prayed about it for about two months pretty intensely, and we finally decided that God was leading us toward adopting these two beautiful girls. Due to some pretty strict rules, we can’t disclose anything about them until they’re legally ours (after the court date), but I’ll say that they’re beautiful, bright sisters who are older than our current children. Yes, this will be a bit of a struggle, but we trust that God will be in the whole thing with us if He leads us down this path.

We would love it if you would pray us through this process. God is so good, and He does respond to the prayers of His people. Here are a few prayer requests for now:

1) For God’s perfect timing. This process can take a long or a short time, and many of the factors that determine that are out of our control. Please pray that God would work the adoption along the best possible time-frame for everyone involved.

2) For God’s financial provision. We don’t have another grand piano to sell like we did last time, and this adoption is shaping up to be more expensive than our first. We believe that God will provide if this is His will. Please pray that the funds would come in as they’re needed. I’m going to be selling some handmade jewelry to try to help and we’ll probably set up a Cafe Press site for t-shirts and such, too.

3) For a new vehicle. Our minivan is maxed out. I wouldn’t mind just figuring that we had to take two vehicles when we go places as a family (that’s mainly on Sunday mornings), but as it is I wouldn’t even be able to take the younger of the two girls without having to remove car seats each time. (She’s not big enough to be in the front seat, but too big for a car seat.) We’re praying for a 12 passenger van.

4) For a smooth, healthy adjustment for all. Our oldest is laid back and adventurous, which will help, but she doesn’t understand fully (and won’t till it happens) how her life and role will change when her new sisters arrive. Our second child very much wants these two new sisters, but she doesn’t adjust easily. I’m praying that her desire for her sisters will help her adjustment to be quick and relatively painless. The younger ones will probably do fine. The oldest girl we’re adopting is very bright and is driven to succeed, so I think that’ll help her. The younger sister… we just don’t know. She seems bright as well, but she didn’t have quite as good a start in life as the older one. Please pray for her as she’ll be going through a lot of turmoil in the next year or so.

5) Huge praise!!! We’ve found a home church, which in and of itself is a wonderful thing. As a fabulous bonus, there are several adoptive families there, and one of them has adopted six children of varying ages from Ethiopia! Hallelujah!!! That will allow for some community that our girls may not have otherwise experienced. 🙂

Thank you for all of your prayers! When I have a small stash of jewelry made I’ll post a link to where you can buy it if you’re interested. I’ll also post a link to our Cafe Press site once it’s up and running.