We are officially the proud parents of two girls from the country we are adopting from!
We accepted their referrals a week and a half ago. But between getting ready for Leti to come and being struck by the worst allergy attack in my life, I held off to blog about it until Leti came. And then I had to finish the Leti series (I told Leti blogging about her time her helped me mourn her being gone!).
Here's how it happened, now almost two weeks ago:
On Tuesday afternoon, I received an email from our social worker with the picture of a 5 1/2 year old girl, asking if we would like to adopt her. We were hoping for two girls between 3-5 years old, so we weren't sure. 5 1/2 isn't too far from our age range, but we were still expecting them to be younger. One of my main concerns was that we would have to start school in the near future with a 5 1/2 year old (we are planning to home school for a time). Yikes! That really makes me nervous.
Ever since we have started talking about adopting orphans, we have both had a heart for older children - mostly because they are the most neglected, not as many people want to adopt them. But, we decided to ask for younger girls (3-5 years old), because man's wisdom says that younger kids adopted from international orphanages/places have less issues to deal with. They are "easier" to deal with, to train, etc. In considering a 5 1/2 year old girl, we knew she may have more "issues."
But, what if God wants us to adopt her? Perhaps he knows that she has
less issues than a four year old may have. Perhaps He plans to give us
more grace to love and raise her. Or, perhaps it will be more difficult than a younger girl. There is just no way to know.
As I wrestled with all of these things and thought about how God wants us to care for orphans, there was one thought that flooded me:
The Bible calls us to care for orphans. But does the Bible say, "Care for orphans, especially those cute, younger toddlers who you'll have more time to train?" No. God says to simply care for orphans in their distress. All orphans. Young orphans. Older orphans.And here before us was a 5 1/2 year old orphan who needed a home and a family. If she is not adopted in the next couple years of her life, she will probably never be adopted. She will be kicked out of the orphanage at age 14 and be enslaved to a life of prostitution. These are the facts.
It was not out of guilt, but out of following the loving voice of our heavenly Father, who loves to rescue orphans, that we said YES to the 5 1/2 year old girl. I cannot share her name publically, but let's just call her Audie.
I wrote our social worker Wednesday night to let her know we would adopt Audie. In my email I asked her several questions to know more about this little girl . . . how long had she been in the orphanage, how do you pronounce her name, does she have any friends in the orphanage, etc. She emailed me back early Thursday morning saying that Audie did have a friend about the same age as her at the orphanage and is available for adoption. Would we like to adopt her? (She attached her picture. She is 6 years old.)
HMMMM . . . 5 and 6 year old girls.
Definitely not what we had in mind. But here is the big way God showed up and made it very clear to us: Since we started our international adoption in June, I have been PRAYING THAT THE GIRLS WE ADOPT WOULD BE FRIENDS ALREADY. I can't even tell you why I felt so strongly that I should pray that, but I did. And I remember most of the time I prayed this, I told God that I knew it was asking a lot, but I knew He could do it if He wanted to.
And He did it! And He used that prayer request and His answer to it to guide us to say YES to these two girls. I'm not sure we would have otherwise said yes to the second girl who was older. But, knowing that I prayed for them to be friends and they are, in fact, friends, God made it a pretty easy and clear decision for us. We are thrilled!
We will call our second girl MJ for now. Actually, Audie and MJ are forms/abreviations of their African names. Because they have had their names for 5-6 years, we are not going to change their names to the two names we had picked out. We will probably talk to them about it when they get here (through an interpreter!) to involve them in the discussion. I would love to have them keep their African names and call them Audie and MJ. I love these names!
We are still waiting on the referral of a younger boy.
Our timeline hasn't really changed since we accepted the girls' referrals. I'm going to ask our social worker tomorrow, but I would guess they could come sometime around December or January, like we have been thinking.
We went to eastern Iowa for the weekend and got to spend time with Jason's grandma.
And Aunt Cindy.
Then the boys lounged at Grandma Rhonda's house.
Such a big boy!
We went to Burlington for Jason's best friend from high school, Josh's, wedding reception.
Since Josh's wife, Minori, is from Japan, we got to eat sushi at the reception. Score for us! Abram ate his watermelon with one chopstick.
We also got to enjoy some Pocky snacks from Japan. I LOVED these when I lived in Thailand.
Abram loves them, too!
Riding home from Burlington Sunday morning (yes, in the same clothes he wore to the reception!) with his beloved balloons from the wedding reception. They provided great entertainment for him while he was awake in the car.
Holding onto his balloons again later in the day.
He is the lover of two blankets now - his new blanket from his Tia Leti and his old blanket.
One more picture with his Tia Leti. Notice she wore her new Iowa State shirt home!
The moment we were not looking forward to. It was sad. But, we vowed we were not saying good-bye. We will definitely be seeing our Leti again . . . hopefully soon.
And gave Leti the tour (with help from Mya and Brady).
Leti absolutely L.O.V.E.D. Cornerstone! She described worship as what her heart has been longing for. We both cried A LOT of tears together while we sang. God orchestrated the PERFECT songs and message for Leti and the journey she is on (not to mention me, too).
After church, we stopped by home to change clothes.
And take a family picture.
And then took off again for the Ehresman Pad.
We had Leti-leftovers for lunch. Yum.
She still talks about her first Tia Leti moment with Abram right after he was born. She was the first person who got to hold him and she told him all the things a loving aunt could to tell her precious nephew.
Once we realized it was 3:30pm, all the girls ditched the boys (and Amber Witt who had come over to play with Brady in the pond) . . . 
And headed to Sonic in Ankeny to catch the end of happy hour (half off all drinks from 2-4pm every day)! 
And did a little shopping. Leti and I had fun buying a few things for Abram's brother and sister.
We came home and read.
And played.
Someone acquired a new aunt over the weekend.
In fact, Leti said that we're not the only ones who adopted. She adopted two neices and two nephews this weekend.
More fun with his Tia.
Somebody got a new monkey blanket from his Tia.
We hung out and did lots more talking after Abram went to bed. We talked a lot about Leti's journey and all that God did during her short time in Iowa. She would tell you now that while she came to Iowa for Abram, God had other purposes . . . her trip to Iowa turned into a journey toward knowing Him more. (I can share this on the blog because Leti has been sharing about her journey with everyone she sees!) We have all been blown away by the awesome ways God is working! 
SISTERS! 
(Leti texted me last night to ask for Kate's phone number. She said she missed her new sister.)
After we woke Abram up to go home, it was hard for Kate and Leti to say good-bye.