Fasting, Praying, Adoption, Africa... and Turning 30

Yes, lots and LOTS happening.  Over the past few weeks Chris and I have been talking through our adoption journey.  We've been wrestling over what we feel God is calling us to and thinking about Embrie Grace.  My friend Toni challenged me to fast and pray over where we were at as we tried to listen for God's voice.  As I spent a couple days in prayer and fasting I was hopeful for clarity.  At one point Chris and I sat down to talk and as we did he received an email from Chief Theresa in Malawi inviting us to come to Africa for a few weeks during the month of May.... WHAT?!?!  Not the clarity I was looking for.  Not what I thought was going to present itself.  Not even the topic of my prayers.  However, it felt like an immediate answer to prayer for both Chris and myself.

What does that mean?  It means we are going to Africa.  In May.  In less than a month.  WOW.

Chris has been twice in the past 5 years and works closely with our church's Justice Ministry.  I have been desiring to go since he came back from his first trip.  When Chris went the second time, Kai was only 4 months old- not my time.  We signed up to go with a team last summer.  The day after we filled out our applications we received a call from our agency with our match for Embrie Grace- not our time.  Now, we feel that God is telling us it is our time to go.

WOW.  I just keep thinking WOW.  And HOW?  First things first... line up childcare.  Check.  Our families and our friends have offered to come stay with the boys or host them.  YAY!  Book the flight.  Hasn't happened yet.  Still trying to nail down the dates but we should be gone sometime between May 18th and June 4th.  Pay for it all.  Nope.  Not even close and really we are completely relying on God to provide, because, well, we have no other options.  Passports. Check.  Shots. Yikes- not yet.

So... PLEASE PRAY.  We are jumping in.  Completely.  We feel so much peace about this decision.  No hesitation.  No fear in how it's going to happen... but we have no idea and no plan.  No plan other than to pray and ask you all to pray for us and for the possibility of giving to our trip.  If we had more time we would have sent out a letter asking for prayer and financial support (probably the letter we wrote last year!).  If we had more time we would fundraise, sell things, be creative, SAVE.  But we don't.  We need to book our tickets this week.  We leave in a month.  We need $5500.  Yep.  HERE is a link where you can donate.  Simply sign in or create an account.  Click on mine or Chris' name and select an amount.  It will go directly towards our trip.  It's tax deductible and a statement will be sent to you.  So please, please PLEASE consider giving towards this trip.  THANK YOU!

For those of you that don't know about Malawi, Africa and the partnership our church has there, here are a few details.  Malawi is one of the poorest countries in the world.  Mission has been partnering with Somebody Cares for the last 5 years.  Over the last Christmas season the people of Mission gave over $500,000 to feed 8500 orphans and vulnerable children for a year, and drilled wells providing a lifetime of clean water for 8000 families.  While there we will be doing anything and everything asked of us.  Visiting the villages, going with the home based care workers, praying and fellowshipping with the beautiful people there.  To learn more about our partnership with Somebody Cares in Malawi, Africa click HERE.

Below are some pictures from Chris' last trip

Answer to prayer.

The opportunity to travel together to Malawi is an answer to a 5 year prayer.  It has also given us the peace and excitement to decide to "go in the book" again, which is adoption talk for putting our name/profile/family out there to be presented to birth moms.  Which means that once we come back from Africa we will once again be waiting for our call.  It is an exciting decision.  It was an emotional decision.  We are still healing.  It still hurts.  I can't imagine it ever not hurting.  But, we have peace and we have hope.  We ask for your prayers for our family as we wait.  We ask for your prayers for our future birth mom as she is making difficult decisions.  Pray for peace for her.  Health for her.  Pray that she feels comfort, surrounded in God's love.

Please consider praying and giving.  We are so thankful for all of your support and are BEYOND EXCITED.  :)  THANK YOU!!!

Oh and I turned 30 a few weeks ago.  Big Sigh.  ;)

I have a few updates around the house to show you but this is probably enough info for one day!  Check back tomorrow! :)