2nd Congo Trip-Worth a Long Blog Post!

I need to reflect on the last few weeks and record all that has transpired. Partly because it’s awesome stuff that I don’t want to forget, but more importantly, because I need to give God the glory and praise He is due! I just got back from Congo for the second time, yesterday. And I have a big Remembrance Stone to set in the ground and talk about!

For months, we have been talking about making another trip to Congo, to visit our kids and hopefully to file our i600 at the US Embassy in Kinshasa, because the processing time there is potentially months speedier than filing in the US. We had just been waiting to have all our documents in order so we could plan the trip. These past 14 months of waiting to be able to file our i600 have been very difficult. It’s so hard to wait, but it’s especially hard when you aren’t making progress during the wait. It feels like the days you could be having with your children are being ripped from you. The months of not really knowing how they are doing frequently tempted me to fear and worry. But through this very difficult season, God has been so good. He has encouraged me on my darkest days when joy was hard to find, given me hope when I was tempted to fear the worst-case-scenarios, and taught me to trust Him, when circumstances around me are looking their grimmest.

While we waited and waited, our agency decided to shut down. This threw us another curve ball in the form of two months of just praying and trying to figure how to proceed with an independent adoption. We made a leap of faith and chose to stick with our attorney that our former agency had been using. Within days of choosing to do so, the Lord gave us peace and confirmation through His word, and other believers, that we should “stay the course” and trust Him to finish this. We also have been greatly blessed by the man who is now running our children’s orphanage. We have had better communication, more clear advice and direction, and increased assurance of how our kids are actually doing, than we ever had with our former agency. He has been a tremendous blessing to the children under his care, and to us as he has been the middle-man in all our communications with our attorney, out of the goodness of his heart and love for the kids.

After deciding to stay the course, we also decided we needed to make a trip as soon as possible. We are headed back to the US for 6 months in November and have a crazy busy schedule up until we go…but we carved out a week that we could both go to Congo and prayed everything would fall into place to make it possible. We were able to get our invitation letter from the Congo (kind of a miracle mailing something from there to India and getting it on time J ) and Kit flew up and back to Delhi to get our visas on the last possible day he could go before the trip. The week before we left, I randomly met another adoptive mom on FB whom we share a very good mutual friend with and found out they were arriving in Kinshasa the same exact day to visit their child and file their i600! This news encouraged my heart so much! Our God not only provides what we need, but He blesses far beyond all that we can imagine. But the God-designed appointments didn’t stop there.

Our sweet friends who live in a nearby city offered to take care of our boys while we were gone. It’s tough to leave your kids for 6 days, but especially when you live in a foreign country and are traveling a continent away! We were so grateful as we love and trust them so much. We knew the kids would have a blast and this made both of us going, so much easier. We arrived on a Monday afternoon and the plan was for the kids to come to us and stay with us for three days. We would meet with the attorney during that time frame and see the status of all our paperwork (we honestly didn’t know what he even had in his possession). Well, no one showed up for a while and we began to worry. But that wonderful man who runs our kids orphanage, he let us know they would be arriving that evening to meet with us. The kids didn’t come with, which worried me at first, but it ended up being a great meeting. Our attorney had ALL of our court documents, and while several of them had some errors, he was certain he could get them corrected and translated in time for us to file our i600 that week! We were hopeful and excited! Our kids came the next morning and we all walked across the road to the Embassy. We didn’t have an appointment to file (which you need in advance J)  but were hopeful they would squeeze us in sometime during the week. Unfortunately they couldn’t get us in until the following Monday morning and we were scheduled to leave on Friday at noon. So we decided to set the appointment and wait to change our tickets after we were sure we had everything in order to file. To file your I600 in country is a series of applications, court documents to prove your child is an orphan by US law, that our adoption has been finalized in Congolese courts, and a bunch of other things like birth certificates and marriage license, etc. It’s a LOT of paperwork and while we had a good idea of what we needed to supply, we had a lot of questions and confusion to go with it.

The couple we met, who arrived the same day to meet their child and file their i600, was not only great company, but a big help to us too. They filed their i600 and not only told us how it went, but offered us a very detailed checklist to go off of. Their agency’s Congo program director also arrived that day and not only knows her way backwards and forwards through this process, but freely gave us lots of helpful advice and answered all our questions! As each ‘coincidence’ unfolded, I was assured that our planning our trip this particular week was God’s perfect timing and that He was with us!

While our kids didn’t end up getting to stay the nights with us while I was there, they came each morning and spent the day with us until about 8pm. They were incredibly shy around others in the beginning, but as soon as we got in our room, they began to jabber away with each other and to us in Lingala and their lively personalities came out. We were so happy with how at ease they were with us in privacy. We played, colored (their first time to hold crayons), did puzzles, read books (they are great at mimicking and I’m sure will learn English so quickly!), and played a lot of football and Frisbee outside. They quickly figured out which bag was “theirs” and every time we went back into our room that first day, Tirzah tried on a new outfit! She is a girly girl for sure! Jeremiah LOVES soccer and is impressively skilled for his age. That’s not just a mamma talking! He and his “Papa” really bonded over soccer. They also called us Mamma and Pappa right away! They loved looking at the picture book we brought to show them pictures from our last trip and of their brothers. Each night was hard to say goodbye and as we did, we could see them get very reserved again and timid. I’m sure, even with all the explaining, it’s a confusing situation for them. But my biggest hope for this trip was that J & T would feel loved and have hope and assurance that we ARE coming back for them!

Another awesome God-incidence was in meeting three other adoptive parents who were just passing through for two days, on their way back from visiting their kids in a more remote area of Congo. They were a blessing to talk with and story swap. There is a lot of comfort found in knowing you are not alone in the hardship you’re going through. One of these parents is a pediatrician and offered to examine our kids! Besides a few minor things, she said they were in very good health! This report and seeing the well-fed kids at their orphanage were very reassuring. They are being well cared for while we all wait and seeing that with my own eyes gave me some peace in my heart. Even while we are so far, God is watching over them, answering our constant prayers for their wellbeing!

Thursday afternoon we met again with our attorney, who had ALL of our documents corrected! We needed a few more things translated, but had until Monday to get it done, so we decided Kit would stay and I would return back to India as originally planned. Getting his ticket changed wasn’t fast, but ended up being very reasonable. I had a good trip back and a great reunion with my boys! They had an awesome week with their friends but were ready to come home. We’ve been just lounging around enjoying our time together and the boys were able to skype with their brother and sister to “meet” for the first time! J and J pretty much made funny faces at each other the whole time. They are going to have a lot of fun together!

Jeremiah and Tirzah have been able to spend the weekend with Kit and enjoy some extra time with their Papa. I have to say of my husband, he is one amazing guy! I mean, obviously I already know this, but this past week he was so awesome with the kids, with the attorneys, getting our documents all in order and forms filled out (sometimes repeatedly), changing his work schedule around so he could stay a few more days, and now even taking care of the kids day and night on his own (this is no easy job especially when you can’t speak the same language as your kids!) I could NOT have done this trip alone and got anything accomplished. I am forever grateful for this man and more in love with him after this week than ever! I am sure he will have his own stories to write about and share after this weekend J

Tomorrow morning, Monday, is the big day in which he will file our i600 for our kids! I seriously can’t believe it is even possible, but like I said, only our God can “work all things together for our good”, and “do far more abundantly beyond all that we ask or imagine!” So while I am a little nervous about what tomorrow brings, I know He has clearly led us to this day and event and I trust that He will continue to lead us every step of the way. The last couple weeks have affirmed again, what He has continued to affirm for the last 2 ½ years of this adoption process. He put this desire in our hearts, He has planned for J & T to be adopted into our family, and He will see this through! Please pray for a smooth and favorable filing appointment tomorrow. Please pray the Congolese immigration begins issuing exit letters for US adopted children miraculously soon! And for the hundreds of families who are like us, so desirous to see an end to this long adoption process and the beginning of a life with our children at home, in loving families!

Clinging to Hope

Since my last post about our adoption, not much has seemed to change. We finally received the Act of Adoption we'd been waiting for, with all the corrections made, but we are still waiting to submit our i600 because our agency has recommended we get a few more documents first. Hopefully this will make the actually processing and approval of our i600 easier and faster, once we submit it. From acceptance of our i600, we enter the investigation phase so that we can then apply for their US visas.

Not much seems to be happening in the way of the DGM suspension either. Looks like September will be the earliest they begin issuing exit letters for adopted kids again; but just this last week, they did issue some of the ones they announced they would last October. So some movement is more encouraging than none. They are taking their time during this suspension to re-evaluate their adoption laws and the enforcement of those laws. I think many are nervous about the possible changes that could come out of this and to whom they will apply the changes to.

All this to say, not much has changed, but there has been a LOT going on in my heart throughout this seemingly bleak time. I say it's bleak, because at this point (after 2 years + of being in process) we don't have any certainty when or if our kids will be allowed to come home. This long period of uncertainty (since last October) has weighed heavily on me and especially lately as I've been feeling pretty hopeless, discouraged, and fearful of what is or isn't to come.

But I praise God in the midst of this! He is so good! When I am at my most discouraged place, He has gone great lengths to clearly speak truth to me, encourage me through sisters in Christ, and to just make me feel so loved by Him that He would keep telling me the same truth over and over again to build up my hope again.

Just when I was at my most discouraged place, I went to a women's retreat that some incredibly generous and loving women from a church in Arkansas put on for my coworkers and I. I didn't know how badly I needed it and how badly I needed to hear from Him what was planned to be spoken that week. (The speaker had prepared it far in advance). The  whole theme was being still and waiting upon the Lord in the midst of our storms, our times of uncertainty, and letting Him fight for us. My sweet friends and coworkers prayed over me and spoke words of truth to me that were like water to my soul. Sometimes, when I am in the midst of something so big, it gets really lonely. To see my friends carry some of the burden on my heart, yet who were so confident in the Hope we have that our God is bigger than this mess--helped me see past the mountain and cling to the Hope of what He is going to do to make this all right.

Even today, as I listened to my current bible study lesson (Living Beyond Yourself, by Beth Moore) I was reminded to keep pursuing the task He's given us and to leave the rest up to Him. And that the Lord will guide us through this thing, as scary and unknown as it is. (Isaiah 58) And through a sermon on the Battle of Jericho I was reminded that when we look at the 'walls' keeping us from the promise He has given us, our perspective gets off balance. We need to keep our eyes on Him and keep walking for as long as He tells us to, pressing on, knowing that the victory is His. And even though we don't see the progress in the midst of the pressing on, all at once, when He says so and in His way, the victory will come.

So that's where I'm at. Pressing on, one day at a time, and clinging to my hope! My hope is in the Lord and that He will finish what He started in this adoption. He has lead us every step of this journey and He won't stop now.

I am thankful for this renewed hope because even today, my four year old broke down in tears, asking when Jeremiah and Tirzah are coming home! He was just distraught, out of the blue, so I asked him what made him think of them coming home. He said he had a dream that they came home last night and asked "why is it taking such a long time? They have to take so many airplanes to come to our airport, It'll take, like, an hour!" I said "I think it will take longer than an hour, honey" and he said, "yeah it will take, like 255 days for them to come home!" While I hope it doesn't take 255 days for them to come home, I know that if it does, He will carry us through this. I am so grateful that I had just been encouraged so I could encourage his tender heart. My daily prayer through this is that the Lord encourages Jeremiah and Tirzah's hearts for me. That they have a remembrance of us and are clinging to the hope that they have a family who is yearning for them to come home. For us and all of our kids, that even in this tough time, God is doing something beautiful in our hearts and teaching us patience that clings to a Hope in God alone. And that through this whole adoption, He will be glorified in us and in the outcome of this journey.

Road trip to Goa

This year we decided to road trip it to Goa for some annual meetings. We've never made this trip before so we were unsure how the roads would be for the second half of the trip and very uncertain about the bathroom and petrol locations along the way :) We took a different route going and returning and because we did, we got to see some beautiful views along the way. Besides the challenge of finding toilets and petrol, I love driving through rural India. You experience and see so much that the big cities can't offer. We took the longer route on the trip down, so we could stop for the night in a small town on the coast of our state. The beach was clean and the water warm! It really is a gem and hard to beleive it's in the same state as some of the other places we've been. It's like a whole different culture and has a very different feel to it. We wanted to linger longer the next day and go see a fort on an island, but it just so happened to be Holi (the festival of throwing colored powder on people) and call me a grump, but I have NO interest in participating in that tradition :) We we found a quiet place for breakfast and stayed in our car as much as possible to avoid being 'colored'. 

Too busy to take a pic with mom.

Cricket on the beach.

A local beach in our state.

Kids + Sand = endless fun

He would hate me putting this up, but he's too handsome not to :)

It was fun to watch the locals on the beach for a change, rather than feeling like we are the ones being watched. :)

Homeschool Conference

Proud of his certificate of participation.

Jackson and I got away for a week in February to chilly New Delhi for a homeschool conference. Besides being big sissies in the cold, wet climate, we had a really great time. Jackson got to be in a Kindergarten class all week long, which he now accredits nearly everything he knows to. He was able to play with a couple good buddies and make some new ones too. Mom had sessions everyday, including some great breakout sessions on Classical Education and daily encouraging sessions from Pam Tebow.

Her sessions were so uplifting as she spoke from experience of living abroad, homeschooling her kids in the US and abroad, and discipling her children with God's word. The biggest take-away I got from her, was the importance of speaking scripture to our kids, daily. And not just in the form of reading bible stories, but in daily life, applying scriptures to every situation we can, and helping them to hide the Word in their (and our) hearts. She always put scriptures to a tune, to help her kids (and herself) memorize it. I have been trying to grow in this area this school year, as we have included the ABC bible verses in our school day. We do a scripture a week and the boys have amazed me with how much they remember. I've always been poor at memorizing so I've bee motivated to learn along with them, but also on my own. For the past two years, I have been trying to memorize scripture that is applicable to what I'm dealing with in day to day life. (i.e. our adoption process). Our family enjoys Seeds Family Worship, which has helped us all to hide God's word in our heart. This year I'm using Desiring God's Fighter versus app for a weekly verse to memorize and I plan on using that with my kids when we finish up ABC's Bible verses. The Fighter Versus app even has the verse put to song for you! That's a huge bonus for those of us like me, who are not so musically talented.

I also loved the Classical Education Sessions and felt like I walked away with a better understanding of the philosophy and an ambition and excitement to educate my kids this way. I've 'drunk the cool-aid' on Classical Education and even look forward to teaching my kids Latin someday (and learning with them).

We are nearly done with school year and are excited to have a summer break that will be full of other activities. The boys start Hindi lessons 2x a week next week, either tennis or football (soccer) soon, and lots of swimming and art at home. I really need to use this time to have regular speech therapy sessions with them both as well. I was so grateful to have speech therapists and reading specialists at the conference! The ST gave me lots of helpful tips to work on my boys lisps.

Jackson is STOKED to be in First grade. Achieving that status has been his motivation on lazy days. He is in such a hurry to grow up :( Hudson, while already teaching himself to read, is going to do another year of preschool, or what we'll call Lower KG (Indian-lingo for PreK 4).

So here is my homeschool plan for first grade for Jackson:

All About Reading Level 2 (We have LOVED this phonics program)
All About Spelling Level 1
Singapore Math First grade (We love this math!)
Hand Writing Without Tears Level 2
Tapestry of Grace Primer (for K-2nd graders) Humanities subjects which we will spread out over two years. We are super excited about this! It's designed to teach mom how to teach as well.

Lower KG for Hudson:
All About Reading Level 1-He's already doing it on his own, so I might as well encourage it.
Learning Palette math and phonics from Usborne Books.