Fair Trade for Easter!

Dear friends who wear "Free2Play" shirts, or who put the "End It" red X on your hands (or anybody who is against modern-day slavery or human trafficking, as we ALL should be) - now is the time to put your convictions where your Easter basket is. PLEASE don't celebrate our Risen Savior by having a slave make some chocolate for you.

Chocolate and coffee are the products most likely to be made by modern-day slaves. PLEASE check the labels for the "Fair Trade" logo. I'm sorry to say that Cadbury Eggs are NOT fair trade. A Google search will show that Cadbury was certified Fair Trade in 2009 for some of their products in the UK, Australia and New Zealand, but not here in the US. The Cadbury eggs that we buy here are actually made by Hershey, which is NOT Fair Trade.  (And please note how many Easter products they have!)

Please make the effort to research this. Please check dates on articles. Please check what country the article came from. And PLEASE check your coffee and chocolate labels. People's lives are worth way more than your desire for a Cadbury Egg.

Little Pink Bunny

Tessa is 7 months old today!  Cute baby bunny is getting big!  

And I didn't realize HOW big until I took her to a friend's house to see their newborn baby the other day. Then Tessa looked huge!  :D

Adoption Update

Well, there isn't really much of an update right now, but I want to talk about it anyway.  Our dossier was logged into China's system on February 28, so we are on Day 26 of our LOA wait.  (Well, it's already Friday in China, so really it's Day 27, haha.)  Our documents have been in translation for two or three weeks, so I hope that part will be finished soon.

Meanwhile, we are still Skyping weekly with Samuel and his new foster mother.  She is a godly Christian lady from New Zealand who founded this foster home years ago, and she is good with him and has become our friend.  But Samuel has had a difficult time dealing with the loss of the foster parents he had since last May.  We've had several rather disheartening reports about his behavior since their leaving, which have made us seek counsel from them, our agency, and others, and spend much time in fasting and prayer about the whole thing.  But in the end, God reminded us that He has been orchestrating these events from the beginning, and He will continue to do so.  He is faithful to complete the things that He has begun, and He will walk through this journey with us.  Sometimes we fear for the future - older child adoption is SCARY.  But we know that it is our enemy who would have us fear.  It is not from God.

Please pray for us.  Samuel has been through such trauma, and will come to us with many issues that we know about, and I'm sure many issues that we don't.  He will come to us without much knowledge of English, nor of American life.  He will come to us with past trauma and deep hurt.  He has been abandoned twice - the second time at ten years old.  (I still cannot even wrap my mind around this.)  And I'm sure he feels the loss of his former foster parents as yet another abandonment, though it was not their choice to go.  He will come to us with only the relationship that we have from Skyping and sending letters and gifts.

 We will need much wisdom and strength, patience and grace.  God is asking us to do more than He ever has before.  It will not be us being so great - it will have to be God's Spirit covering us and working through us.  So please pray for all of these things.  Please pray that Samuel's heart would be healed and that he would begin to see his need for Jesus.  Pray that he would grow to trust us and then to love us.  And that we would have an uncommon love for him, no matter what; that our hearts would be knit to his.

 Please pray for our other children, as well.  Their lives will not be the same.  It will not always be easy.  But God is going to grow them.  He is going to teach them compassion and mercy and patience and love.  He has already given them such hearts for adoption, and I can't wait to see how He uses them to love Samuel as they do Caylie.

 We know that God is going to grow all of us.  He is taking us out of our comfort zones and into a place where we MUST trust Him and look to Him, despite every circumstance.  He is, and will be, faithful.

Our Father's heart is for the orphan.  He tells us this over and over in scripture.  All we are doing is agreeing with Him that these precious lives matter.  All we are doing is saying YES.  We will wait to see how he heals Samuel's heart.  He is making all things new.

"Fear not, for I am with you; be not dismayed, for I am your God.  I will strengthen you; I will help you; I will uphold you with my righteous right hand."
 Isaiah 41:10

"A father to the fatherless, a defender of widows is God in His holy dwelling."  Psalm 68:5

"And He who was seated on the throne said, 'Behold, I am making all things new.'"  Revelation 21:5

Help, help!

This is where I'm finding myself more and more.  Keelan has his driver's permit!

Happy Birthday, Keelan!

Keelan is 16 today!  We are so proud of the young man he's becoming.  He is responsible and helpful and talented and interested in so many things.  We have a lot of fun.  :)
He picked Rosie's Diner for his birthday dinner.  Here he is with his his date. (And I am terrible about remembering to take pictures of everybody at our birthday dinners!)

We went to Brittany and Brad's for presents and cake, since it was past Tessa's bedtime.

Happy Birthday, Keelan Josiah!  We love you!

LID and Other Stuff

We found out yesterday that our dossier has been logged in to China's system!  Our log in date (LID) is February 28.  Now to start counting the days!

In the meantime, we've been learning as much Chinese as possible before we travel.  It's a lot of fun.  Hopefully we will be able to converse with Samuel more easily than we did with Caylie when she first came to us.  He is also learning a bit of English while we wait.

We have been celebrating Chinese New Year! 

Xīn nián kuài lè!

 新年快乐

And our sweet grandbaby Tessa is six months old!  Isn't she the cutest thing?  I am so glad that we live just a few minutes from them.  Tessa and I hang out while Mama Brittany decorates cakes twice a week.  

That's all I've got for now.  (Hmm. . . saying that reminds me that I still need to post about Caylie's birthday.  Oops!) 

Hopefully I will have more adoption news very soon.  Please keep praying for Samuel's heart as he says goodbye to his foster parents in a couple of days, and as he adjusts to a new caretaker.  And also for us, that God would prepare us in every way for what Samuel will need.  Thank you, friends.

Samuel and Adoption Update - Prayers, Please!

It's driving me a little crazy that I still can't publicly post any pictures of Samuel!  Hopefully that will change soon.  We will be allowed to do so as soon as we have our Letter of Approval (LOA) from China.  I can't wait for you all to see him.  He is such a handsome boy with a beautiful smile!

Our dossier got to China last week, and is now at the CCCWA (China Center for Children's Welfare and Adoption).  I'm hoping it is logged in by now, and that we will get our Log In Date (LID) in the next couple of days.  Then we can start counting the days till our LOA, and I am praying they will be short!  Yes, I mentioned this in my last post, too, and I'm sure it is not the last time you will be hearing about it, haha.

Meanwhile, we are still Skyping with Samuel and his foster parents every Friday evening.  The gift of this is immeasurable to us.  When we were in process for Caylie, we never even dreamed such a thing was possible.  It is such a blessing to us to be able to get to know him and for him to get to know us before travel.  It will make things so much easier and comfortable when we finally meet in China.  His foster parents are wonderful Christian people, who care for him very much, and work very hard to prepare him for adoption.  They are extremely gracious and open with us about things Samuel is dealing with and what we should plan for and expect.  We are so very grateful to them.

However . . . due to circumstances, Samuel's foster parents are having to leave their ministry of living and working in his foster home.  (It is a large, church-run group home.)  We got this news on Friday evening when we were Skyping with them, and it absolutely breaks my heart.  Amy and Donald are such precious people, and I don't want to lose them.  I certainly don't want Samuel to lose them.  They have been the ones who have loved Samuel and helped him through the initial trauma of losing his long-term foster parents last May.  They are the ones who have taught him about Jesus and what it means to trust Him and to pray.  They are the ones who have seen to his education and have worked very hard to prepare him for adoption and for his new family.  They love him very much, and it is heartbreaking to me to think of him having to lose them now, when there are still months before we can be there for him.  And it also hurts my heart for them.

 So, please pray for this situation.  Please pray that God would hold Samuel's heart tenderly, and that He would give peace and grace through these next days and weeks.  Pray that Samuel would understand the situation as best he can, and that he would not be hindered any further in understanding that we are his FOREVER family, and will NEVER leave him.  Pray that he would understand that God has a GOOD plan for his life, and that He is always faithful to those who trust in Him, despite what circumstances look like.  We are thankful that the woman who founded this home is coming back to live there and care for the children.  Sandra is a godly woman also, and I know that she loves Samuel.  She is very much involved in preparing him for adoption and teaching him what it means to trust in God.  Please pray for Sandra, as well, that she would have wisdom as she takes on this role, and for Amy and Donald, as they leave a ministry that they have poured their whole hearts into for several years.

A bit of extra fun stuff . . . I am so thankful for two friends who have recently traveled to Samuel's foster home to adopt their own children, and have taken care packages to him in their suitcases!  (Thank you so much, Nichole and Martha!)  We have been able to send him many photos of our home and family, as well as some clothes, toys and candy treats.  And this week a rep from our agency is going to China to visit the waiting children, and she will take yet another package to Samuel!  Such a blessing to all of us.

Thank you for your prayers, friends, for our adoption process and for Samuel.  Our Father's heart is for the orphan, and He continually shows us that in many ways.