best. weekend. ever. (part deux)

after the acrobats finished their balleweena performance, some amazing friends of mine took advantage of the family we had in town and planned a donation shower to gather goodies to send to acacia village where micah currently lives in ethiopia.  but first, it's impossible for me to share about that shower without telling you about another...

the lord has richly blessed me with a group of women from church who have become dear friends over this last year or two.  we all worship together as a part of the same faith family, many of us homeschool together, a handful of us are adopting together, and one of them is stuck with me weekly in our small group.  our lives are woven together in many unique ways, and i count it a true joy to live life with these precious gals.  shortly after we arrived back home from ethiopia in february, several of them got together to throw me a diaper shower to help us get ready for a new baby in the house.  a HUGE thanks to lacey, carrie, amelia, brook...



and jenny (the chic with the camera) for coordinating such a tremendous showing of love and kindness.



oh, and remember how i said that we were walking this adoption journey with others??  lora lynn and sheryl were fresh off an airplane from uganda adopting their collective three children between the two families - and somehow they drug their jet-lagged selves over to brook's house to love on me. 



these sweet friends and the others who came spent their time that night showering us with gifts...



writing us letters of encouragement and truth (which i still haven't been allowed to read - although i did, to no avail, try to enlarge this photo so i could see what was written on the cards)...  :-)



and most dear to me, covering us in prayer for everything from a successful court date to quick bonding and attachment to health and provision...  (in case you're wondering, this is my "hold it together, allison" face.  by the time the last amen had been said, i had failed miserably.)



girls, i love you all so dearly, and the lord blessed me beyond measure when he put you each in my life.  thank you!!!!!!

now that my feet have finally touched the ground

i would like to go on record as saying that the events of march 10, 2011 were some of the most awe-inspiring i've ever been witness to.  our passing court (a day EARLY at that) still has no earthly explanation, which only confirms that that was truly a day of god's power and glory on display. 

i'm not sure how to properly thank all of you, the people who have become so personally invested in micah's story, for everything you've done for us through your prayers and encouragement.  in a matter of hours after posting the news, we got literally hundreds of emails, facebook messages, and calls from family, friends, and in many cases, perfect strangers who have now become perfect friends.  we learned that families and groups gathered in various states across the country to bow before the lord and to pray specifically for us to be passed miraculously through court.  three friends shared with me that they, too, woke up during the night on wednesday night with a sense of prayer urgency regarding our court case.  you prayed and god answered.  he answered mightily!  so from this momma's heart - a heart that has waited, celebrated, grieved, grown, and rejoiced - thank you so. very. much. for what all you've done for our family.  for micah.

it was physically impossible for us to respond to each and every message, but we are compiling them all into a booklet that will go in micah's baby book as part of his adoption story and as evidence of god's grace in his life.  we did want to take a minute, though, to answer some of the main questions that were asked and let you know what's up next.

1) so what happens now?
at this point, micah is legally ours but the US embassy in ethiopia is gathering some documents to finalize the adoption.  we're filling out a handful of forms, but for the most part, we're waiting. 

2) when will you travel back to get him?
hmmm...good question.  the guesstimate we have at this point is 6-8 weeks from now so we're planning to travel in may-ish (with the emphasis on ISH). 

3) where is micah?
the week before we traveled to ethiopia to appear in court, micah was moved from his orphanage to our agency's foster home for children who have adoptive families waiting to bring them home.  the facility is called acacia village, and it's a peaceful, amazing place that josh and i both fell in love with during our visits there in february.  micah is being well-loved, well-cared-for, and well-fed (as evidenced by his girth).  :-)

4) how can we continue to pray?
i'm so glad you asked!  the changes surrounding ethiopia's adoption system most dramatically affect the families waiting to get through court.  an estimate i read recently said that children could spend as many as SEVEN YEARS in their orphanages waiting for their adoptive parents to pass, and the collateral damage from these changes (such as extreme overcrowding in the orphanages and reduced adoptions because of the increased wait time) stands to have dire effects on the most defenseless of ethiopia's population.  sooo....

• pray for the officials who are calling the shots there to have a tremendous change of heart and for the lord to bend their hearts favorably toward adoption (see proverbs 21:1). 

also affected by these changes are the families who are through court but are waiting for paperwork (such as birth certificates) to be processed.  until that's completed, the staff at the US embassy can't finish their job.

• pray for micah's paperwork to be processed quickly and correctly so that we can bring our baby home.  this so-close-i-can-taste-it portion of the journey is proving to make us somehow both sweetly calm and sadly heartsick for our little guy.

the logistics of our expected timing could prove to be a bit tricky.  i'm shooting three weddings around the time that we think we'll probably travel, and telling a bride a couple of weeks before her wedding that i'll be out of the country is simply not an option.

• pray that in his ever-perfect timing, the lord will send us back to ethiopia during a period that a) won't conflict with my work schedule and b) will allow me time to get back on my feet before spending 10 hours a day on my feet with a camera glued to my face.  (speaking of weddings - and just because i ADORE them - check out this engagement session i just shot for one of the aforementioned couples.)

we love you, family and friends, and we're so thankful to the lord for not only bringing us all together to pray for micah, but also for showing himself mighty and faithful in the process.

HE'S OURS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

the lord kept me up praying until after 2:00 this morning. 

at 8:22 the phone rang.

our case worker, patricia, said he's yours.  

how did this happen?!?!? i cried.  our court date isn't until tomorrow.

she replied, i have no idea.

but then again, we know exactly how it happened.

"shout for joy to the lord, all the earth.  worship the lord with gladness; come before him with joyful songs.  know that the lord is god.  it is he who made us, and we are his; we are his people, the sheep of his pasture.  enter his gates with thanksgiving and his courts with praise; give thanks to him and praise his name.  for the lord is good and his love endures forever; his faithflness continues through all generations."  

(psalm 100)

and now, after 148 days of having a son in our hearts that we couldn't introduce, we would be honored for you to meet micah.  TO GOD BE THE GLORY!!!!!!!!!

psalm 46:10

i knew it would come.  i knew i would begin to feel that gnawing sense of urgency shouting at me to do something!  it's a battle i've fought for as long as i can remember, so the only surprise here is that it took so long to show up. 

so today i popped off some emails to a couple of people tied to our case, and i pulled up JCICS's petition to ethiopia's prime minister, compared the signatures to my email address book, and sent more emails personally asking any friend or family member whose signature i didn't see to go and sign it*.

*this event in and of itself needs some talking about.  first of all, there have been over 18,000 signatures in two days and it's literally growing by the minute.  WOW!!!  and no, i did not dig through all 18,000 to find my target email audience.  there's a search feature, and i typed in each last name until i found what i needed (unfortunately, that doesn't make me sound any less desperate).  :-)  i have to say THANK YOU, though, because i was so humbled and touched by the countless times i saw the signatures of our friends and family members who are going to bat for micah and the five million other orphans who are directly affected by this decision.  serious warm and fuzzy. 

further, i started on a tazmanian-devil-type cleaning spree of our house (which is my go-to response to feeling out of control), but as i was shoveling spring clothes into drawers, winter clothes into bags, and dirty clothes into the washer, i heard truth coming from upstairs.  josh was laying on the bed with all the little people explaining to them a bit more about what's going on with our court date on friday morning local ethiopian time.  as he explained the significance of passing court, he pulled out his bible and read psalm 46:10.

be still and know that i am god.

i can't bear the thought of not passing court on friday if i didn't do every. single. thing. within my power to bring our baby home.  but at the end of the day, i have to continually confess my desire to control and then remind myself that all of my efforts are in vain if the lord's hand is not in them.

"...if their purpose or activity is of human origin, it will fail.  but if it is from god, you will not be able to stop these men; you will only find yourselves fighting against god." (acts 5:38-39)

"who can speak and have it happen if the lord has not decreed it?  is it not from the mouth of the most high that both calamities and good things come?"  (lamentations 3:37-38)

"unless the lord builds the house, its builders labor in vain.  unless the lord watches over the city, the watchmen stand guard in vain.  in vain you rise early and stay up late, toiling for food to eat - for he grants sleep to those he loves."  (psalm 127:1-2)

"in his heart a man plans his course, but the lord determines his steps."  (proverbs 16:9)

"there is no wisdom, no insight, no plan that can succeed against the lord."  (proverbs 21:30)

now...in the interest of updating, we got this notice from JCICS tonight:

 

In only 24-hours, over 11,000 concerned individuals have joined our Emergency Campaign for Ethiopian Children by signing our petition. We extend our thanks to all who have supported this initiative by signing the petition, distributing the campaign information and expressing your support of child protections and ethical adoption.
Today, we have continued our communication with the Ethiopian government and respectfully brought the outpouring of concern to them. We believe that there may have been positive developments and will provide further updates as information is confirmed.

praise god!!  we continue to ask that you go to the petition and spend the needed one minute to sign it.  and finally, it's now thursday morning in ethiopia, meaning we're about t-24 hours from the court hearing that will either grant us legal custody of micah or will put us into an "indefinite" waiting period before we reach that point.  we beg of you to commit this to prayer, particularly as you go to bed tomorrow night and as the lord puts it on your heart throughout the night.  

as for me, i'm going to go pray while i bake a few goodies for my amazing hubby's birthday tomorrow.  :-)

prayer

if i'm being completely transparent here, i need to tell you that my prayer life hasn't always been the greatest.  in fact, it's probably been the most poorly trained of the spiritual disciplines in my life.  i'm easily distracted, i haven't always made time with the lord a priority, and in all honesty, i've struggled to see the correlation between prayer and god's movement at times.

do i like sharing this?  not in the least.  but it's important for me to do so in order to tell you what the lord has so graciously shown me over these past few months.

this was the picture that i posted on the night of thursday, august 12, 2010.  it was izzy, of her own accord, kneeling on the bedroom floor praying for her very sick brother, judah.

he died the next day.

now at two years old isabel had not yet been drawn to the lord or seen her need for his saving grace.  but i, as a believer, was on my face praying the exact same prayers of healing for my infant son who died hours later.  what does that say about prayer?  but more than that, what kind of god would do such a thing as take the life of a child from his praying mother?

the kind of god who would take the life of his own son to save his created children. 

"yet it was the lord's will to crush him (jesus) and cause him to suffer.  he was pierced for our transgressions, he was crushed for our iniquities; the punishment that brought us peace was upon him, and by his wounds we are healed."  (isaiah 53: 10, 5)

i didn't even realize it at the time, but during the previous few years, i had fallen into the trap of "comfortable christianity".  i was content to cruise along on autopilot, scarcely needing to cry out to the lord for much at all; my faith was culturally normative, and it didn't cost me too much of anything.  the problem with that is that according to jesus christ himself, that's no faith at all (matthew 16:24-25).  i haven't shared this publicly before, but realizing a disconnect of sorts, i began praying in the early summer of 2010 that god would work in my life - through whatever means necessary - to bring me to my knees and to restore the intimacy of our relationship.  and while the events that unfolded that august were not at all what i would have chosen for myself, i know for a fact that god brought them about to answer that very prayer. 

yes, i realize that might be a tough pill to swallow.  but i believe with every ounce of my being that the lord took judah's life for my good and for his glory (romans 8:28).  how could any of that be "good", you ask?  by human standards, it's not and it never could be.  the events of that august were ugly, they brought heart-wrenching pain, and out of them i walked a terrible and dark path for many months.  but the americanized or worldly version of "good" is far from the "good" that the lord desires for his people - which is being conformed to the likeness of his son (v. 29).  lord, i pray that that is taking place in my life.

"'for my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways,' declares the lord.  as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts.  as the rain and the snow come down from heaven and do not return to it without watering the earth and making it bud and flourish, so that it yields seed for the sower and bread for the eater, so is my word that goes out from my mouth: it will not return to me empty, but will accomplish what i desire and achieve the purpose for which i sent it.  you will go out in joy and be led forth in peace; the mountains and hills will burst into song before you, and all the trees of the field will clap their hands.  instead of the thornbush will grow the pine tree, and instead of briers the myrtle will grow.  this will be for the lord's renown, for an everlasting sign, which will not be destroyed."  (isaiah 55:8-13)

so if god's going to do what he's going to do regardless, what's the point of praying?  follow along...

there are many passages in scripture that address god's faithfulness to answer our prayers, and it's through prayer that god accomplishes the fulfillment of his will.  just in the gospel of john alone we hear that "you may ask me for anything in my name, and i will do it" (14:14), "ask whatever you wish, and it will be given you.  this is to my father's glory that you bear much fruit, showing yourselves to be my disciples" (15:7-8), and "the father will give you whatever you ask in my name" (15:16 and 16:23).  so if we pray for something earnestly "in jesus' name", doesn't the lord promise to answer in the way we prayed for him to?

not at all.

it's not so much that as believers we're praying in jesus' name as it is we're praying with jesus' heart.  as you saw above, god's been using a long chain of events to draw me closer to him and to (prayerfully) make me more like jesus.  one of the most amazing byproducts of that transformation in a believer's life is that his heart begins to care less about immediate comfort or desire and more about matters of eternity and the glory of god.  so in reality, praying in jesus' name has nothing to do with slapping a moniker on the end of a god-chat; rather, it has everything to do with truly knowing the lord and desiring his glory.

so, do i know it's god's desire for us to pass court on friday?  no, i don't.  so then how precisely is our family praying for the end of this week?  let me back up a little in romans 8.  verse 27 tells us that "the spirit intercedes for the saints in accordance with god's will."  we've got great comfort in knowing that even when our prayers feel like they're sometimes floundering around in uncertainty, the holy spirit is perfecting them before our holy god.  we may not know the eternal, perfect will of the lord, but he does.

secondly (and this has been a much harder heart-stance to adopt), we are doing this:

"do not be anxious about anything, but in everything, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to god."  (philippians 4:6)

that little "with thanksgiving" phrase is quick to read, easy to say - but sometimes so difficult to pray.  praying with thanksgiving means that i am to praise god, even now, for how he will answer regarding our court date on friday.  if we pass, i praise him.

if we don't pass court but rather wait indefinitely to hold our son again, i praise him.  

and why do i do this?  because he's proven that he will move in sovereign ways that are ultimately for my good and for his glory.  i've seen it.  it's my life.

please understand, my friends, that this isn't something i just took upon myself to start doing.  i want my baby home.  my heart aches terribly for his presence.  but how can i walk away from the incredible working of the lord in my heart (through judah's death) and not trust in god's sovereign and perfect plan?   

"this is the confidence we have in approaching god: that if we ask anything according to his will, he hears us.  and if we know that he heard us - whatever we ask - we know that we have what we asked of him."  (1 john 5:14-15)

we're praying fervently and expectantly for our court date on thursday night here and praying equally intently for god's glory everywhere.  please join us?

(also, please take one minute - i promise that's all it takes - to sign this petition to prayerfully change the course of adoptions in ethiopia.)