hi handsome fellas,
see how excited we are that you're our boys?! even pete is smiling!
love,
mom
Friday, June 29, 2012
even pete is smiling...
see how excited we are that you're our boys?! even pete is smiling!
love,
mom
the oldest...
Originally posted March 7, 2012:
sweet, wonderful boy foday,
you are the oldest. you seem wise beyond your years. you are always first to answer our questions on skype. the first to prod your brothers to answer. the first to say hello, and the first to say ‘i love you.’
your sponsors tina and hanna tell me that you are so sweet and protective. that you take care of abdul and sufian. you are so well-behaved. kind to others. always trying to do the right thing.
how can i say just how proud of you i am? you are just 7 years old, and yet you have experienced too much. too much loss, too much sadness, too much hardship, and too much responsibility. never time to be a kid. never a chance to just have fun.
i wonder if you worry. i wonder if you are scared. i wonder if you are lonely. i wonder if you remember your birth father and the loss of him. i wonder if you remember the day your birth mom surrendered you to the center.
i hope you know we love you. you are always on my mind. always. i think about how i will love you, kiss you, and show you how to have fun. i imagine what dad will do with you - play, laugh, and love.
i pray that god will bring you to us one day, and that you will know how loved you are and how you can let go and be a kid. we will take care of you. and god will always take care of you.
i promise. god promises.
love, mom
the impossible...
Originally posted March 9, 2012:
dad and i had a tough conversation a couple of nights ago. we were worried about you guys. we were worried that we wouldn’t be good enough. that you wouldn’t be happy enough with us. we thought, what if three handsome boys is too many? what if we can’t financially provide? what if we can’t emotionally provide? is this what god wants?
and i cried. and he worried. and we prayed. and i talked to auntie megan, and auntie mary susan, and auntie kelly. and dad got an email that talked about judges 7:2-8. that passage tells a story about god and gideon. gideon had a big army. god took away a lot of gideon’s soldiers before their battle so that their victory, in the end, would be the lord’s. so the lord could say, “gideon, you have won your battle because of Me and not you. My grace and love for My people have given you this blessing.” in the end, god gave gideon an impossible task so that He could make it possible. in doing so, gideon and his soldiers knew the only way they found success was through god’s glory alone.
god alone.
are you the impossible? yes. are you the impossible that god can make possible? yes.
he has chosen us for you. chosen. that is a special word - a word with thought, intention and purpose.
i can’t wait to touch you, hug you, kiss you.
love, mom
Thursday, June 28, 2012
just a few days until...
Boys! 7 days until we get to see your happy, handsome faces in real life!
It’s been 5 weeks since you’ve had a good internet connection, so we haven’t Skyped in a long time. We miss you guys.
Dad and I have been getting so much support for you three and The Covering. The Raining Season is raising $35,000 so you and your friends can have a new place to stay next year. We’ll get to see the new building while we’re there! We are so thankful that we have so many friends and family who are willing to donate money so you guys can be taken care of and safe and happy. Even your cousins Tate and Halle are helping. They are having a big joint birthday party and asking everyone to bring donations instead of gifts for them. Amazing!
We are bringing over a bunch of Christmas gifts for all the kids at the center, but we also get to bring you your birthday gifts! Some very nice friends of ours bought you a real baseball glove, Foday. They also bought a nice soccer ball for you, Abdul! I can’t wait to play with you guys. And hug you. And love you. And kiss your sweet faces. And hold your hands. And LOVE YOU.
See you soon…
Mom
It’s been 5 weeks since you’ve had a good internet connection, so we haven’t Skyped in a long time. We miss you guys.
Dad and I have been getting so much support for you three and The Covering. The Raining Season is raising $35,000 so you and your friends can have a new place to stay next year. We’ll get to see the new building while we’re there! We are so thankful that we have so many friends and family who are willing to donate money so you guys can be taken care of and safe and happy. Even your cousins Tate and Halle are helping. They are having a big joint birthday party and asking everyone to bring donations instead of gifts for them. Amazing!
We are bringing over a bunch of Christmas gifts for all the kids at the center, but we also get to bring you your birthday gifts! Some very nice friends of ours bought you a real baseball glove, Foday. They also bought a nice soccer ball for you, Abdul! I can’t wait to play with you guys. And hug you. And love you. And kiss your sweet faces. And hold your hands. And LOVE YOU.
See you soon…
Mom
handsome boys...
time to brag a little...
Abdul, Foday, and Sufian - June 17, 2012
Abdul - April 2012
Abdul - May 2012
Foday and Abdul - January 2012
Foday - May 2012
Foday - January 2012
Foday, Abdul, and Sufian in school uniforms - 2012
Sufian - April 2012
Sufian - June 2012
a hundred documents...
Dear boys,
People always talk about how much work a homestudy is. I sort of enjoy gathering all these documents that “prove” we’ll be good parents (criminal reports, financial statements, mental health evaluations..well, we won’t talk about that one…), but it is pretty tedious. Turns out most government doesn’t function online. You have to call, fax, or go in person to request official documents. They still require personal interaction?! Guess so.
So, yes, we’ve started our homestudy! No idea when we can bring you guys home, though. That’s the number one most asked question in our lives - when do we get to bring you back? For starters, you sweet boys don’t even know we want to adopt you. We’re supposed to wait to talk to you about it until there’s more official movement with Social Welfare and the court system. TRS is also waiting to get an official approval from the leader of your old home, Shenge village. They say all the birth families of Shenge have jointly decided adoption is in the best interest of their children, but cultural traditions say the village leader has to give the final say. Erica and Tina are both there now, so I hope they have some info for us when we arrive next week.
Some day I hope we can go to Shenge and see your birth mom. I hope you can hug her and talk with her about your childhoods and your birth father. Maybe she can tell you some things about your birth family. Maybe she can see that the extremely difficult decision of giving you up and surrendering her parental rights had a happy and positive result on you. But I know it will also present challenges for you. You will always wonder why, and how, and it will always be a part of your life. I hope you know she did it because she loves you. Because she wanted you to live, have a chance, and be part of something better.
Someday I hope we meet because I’d like to hug her and tell her I’m sorry she couldn’t care for you. That she is a woman I admire. That she is loved by her birth sons, their mom and dad, and by God.
Love,
Mom
god loves a good snowball...
i'm a really normal person. i don't really think there's anything necessarily extraordinary about me. i had a great childhood, great parents, great sisters, great college life. i have a really great husband, great dogs, a great job, great friends, great vacations. just in general i have a great life.
that said, i don't think i've ever gone above and beyond with what God's given me. cut to september 2011, and i started to wonder what god had in store for the rest of my life. i am somewhat envious of my husband's relationship with god and the strength of his faith. i think it's pretty common that someone who's survived some hard knocks in life would have a stronger relationship with God than someone who's coasted gloriously down the river of life. jeremy's faith floors me, and rescues me and my own doubt, and that's a big reason why i love him with all my being. so back in 2011 i said a little teeny tiny prayer to God - i asked him if he would wreck my heart and show me my purpose beyond music and living a good life.
he brought back into my life two women who will forever change it. erica and kelly introduced me to The Raining Season, an organization that runs and funds an orphanage in Sierra Leone, West Africa. this orphanage houses 96 kids who now have a chance at life. food, education, healthcare, clothing, shelter, and love. love from their caregivers, from their American sponsors, and from Jesus. the short story is i was touched by the intimacy of this organization, and jeremy and i decided to sponsor a couple of kids - a sister and brother. then in November, in one of the most ironic events of my life, i was sitting in a casino in Las Vegas and got a call from kelly. struggling to hear her over the ringing of slot machines and shouting of the tv's, i heard her ask if jeremy and i would be the forever family to three little boys at the orphanage. brothers, 7, 6, and 4. uhhhh...what's a forever family? "a program we introduced for the kids without families who want to adopt them. there's an adoption ban in Sierra Leone, so none of these kids can be adopted internationally. so we want to match them with an american family who will support them as long as they need it - visit once a year, skype every week, email, and send school supplies/clothes/etc." forever family? as in forever forever? "well, as long as they want you in their lives." huh. so a couple of weeks later i had scared myself into saying no. jeremy was kind of leaving it to me and my heart and had made it clear he'd support my decision. pastor pete at crosspoint church was doing a whole series of sermons on fear. and getting out of your comfort zone. stepping out of the white picket fence that surrounds your comfortable little life. the random daily devotionals that land in my gmail every morning seemed to have a freakishly similar message - take a risk in the name of God. but my job was a little uncertain! we had just started a business! how can we afford a yearly trip to africa? how can my gentle heart handle the poverty and sadness of a third world country?
i texted kelly to see if we could go get coffee that afternoon. i was going to tell her we couldn't be a forever family right now. she never texted me back...not for a few days at least...which was very unlike her! by the time we did talk, my heart was saying yes to being a forever family at jeremy's prodding. we decided - we are a family that takes risks. we don't want the easy life for us. we don't want the safe, predictable life for us. we want something extraordinary, Godly, hard, beautiful! and it seemed this provided that opportunity.
we said yes. i asked jeremy if he'd ever thought about adopting these boys if it was a possibility...but it wasn't. then on february 10, 2012 we found out the ban was lifted. suddenly, it's a possibility. after a lot of conversations, prayer, more prayer, and a few more conversations, we decided the dude with bright red hair and the girl with the easy life were going to be the parents of three brand new African boys!
so...this is our journey. how it started with this little tiny prayer, a little post on facebook asking for sponsors, a couple of black bean salads at calypso cafe, a phone call in a casino, infinite dinners at Chuy's, and three beautiful, handsome, precious, incredible, smart, talented brothers in Freetown, Sierra Leone.
that said, i don't think i've ever gone above and beyond with what God's given me. cut to september 2011, and i started to wonder what god had in store for the rest of my life. i am somewhat envious of my husband's relationship with god and the strength of his faith. i think it's pretty common that someone who's survived some hard knocks in life would have a stronger relationship with God than someone who's coasted gloriously down the river of life. jeremy's faith floors me, and rescues me and my own doubt, and that's a big reason why i love him with all my being. so back in 2011 i said a little teeny tiny prayer to God - i asked him if he would wreck my heart and show me my purpose beyond music and living a good life.
he brought back into my life two women who will forever change it. erica and kelly introduced me to The Raining Season, an organization that runs and funds an orphanage in Sierra Leone, West Africa. this orphanage houses 96 kids who now have a chance at life. food, education, healthcare, clothing, shelter, and love. love from their caregivers, from their American sponsors, and from Jesus. the short story is i was touched by the intimacy of this organization, and jeremy and i decided to sponsor a couple of kids - a sister and brother. then in November, in one of the most ironic events of my life, i was sitting in a casino in Las Vegas and got a call from kelly. struggling to hear her over the ringing of slot machines and shouting of the tv's, i heard her ask if jeremy and i would be the forever family to three little boys at the orphanage. brothers, 7, 6, and 4. uhhhh...what's a forever family? "a program we introduced for the kids without families who want to adopt them. there's an adoption ban in Sierra Leone, so none of these kids can be adopted internationally. so we want to match them with an american family who will support them as long as they need it - visit once a year, skype every week, email, and send school supplies/clothes/etc." forever family? as in forever forever? "well, as long as they want you in their lives." huh. so a couple of weeks later i had scared myself into saying no. jeremy was kind of leaving it to me and my heart and had made it clear he'd support my decision. pastor pete at crosspoint church was doing a whole series of sermons on fear. and getting out of your comfort zone. stepping out of the white picket fence that surrounds your comfortable little life. the random daily devotionals that land in my gmail every morning seemed to have a freakishly similar message - take a risk in the name of God. but my job was a little uncertain! we had just started a business! how can we afford a yearly trip to africa? how can my gentle heart handle the poverty and sadness of a third world country?
i texted kelly to see if we could go get coffee that afternoon. i was going to tell her we couldn't be a forever family right now. she never texted me back...not for a few days at least...which was very unlike her! by the time we did talk, my heart was saying yes to being a forever family at jeremy's prodding. we decided - we are a family that takes risks. we don't want the easy life for us. we don't want the safe, predictable life for us. we want something extraordinary, Godly, hard, beautiful! and it seemed this provided that opportunity.
we said yes. i asked jeremy if he'd ever thought about adopting these boys if it was a possibility...but it wasn't. then on february 10, 2012 we found out the ban was lifted. suddenly, it's a possibility. after a lot of conversations, prayer, more prayer, and a few more conversations, we decided the dude with bright red hair and the girl with the easy life were going to be the parents of three brand new African boys!
so...this is our journey. how it started with this little tiny prayer, a little post on facebook asking for sponsors, a couple of black bean salads at calypso cafe, a phone call in a casino, infinite dinners at Chuy's, and three beautiful, handsome, precious, incredible, smart, talented brothers in Freetown, Sierra Leone.
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