Another step closer!

Today we traversed the long and smelly road to El Paso to have our fingerprints taken (we're getting good at this!). After we located the plain little building in El Paso and filled out a short form (I'm so thankful now for those!), we waited for a few minutes before we had our fingerprints taken - digitally. I felt world-class. I mean, fingerprints, yeah. No big deal. But digital fingerprints? We're officially in the fingerprinting big leagues!

We took the kids with us, of course (because all fingerprinting aficionados do this - it's good for them to be cultured), and after we were done we visited a nearby park. I don't think there's anything as fun as a new park for our kids, unless it's a new park with their dad around to show them the ropes.

After we'd worked up an appetite, we all piled into Dustin's Back-to-the-Future car and drove to a Korean restaurant we'd found online before we left home. It was delicious, and since there were very few people to serve, our waitress struck up a conversation with us about all things Korean food. When she learned we were adopting from Korea and would be traveling there, she gave us all sorts of interesting things to try, on the house! Even the kids were excited to see what Korean water, kimchi, and Korean dumplings tasted like. Afterwards, they all decided we should make going to Korea a family trip. They'd better start saving up their allowance!

On February 3 we got a phone call from Lifesong, whose mission is to bring joy and hope to orphans. We knew, because they had called the week before, that we were going to get word soon on the application we sent in. At the end of December, we finished all the paperwork, prayed over a large manila envelope, and sent it in to Lifesong, asking if they would allow us to do a Both Hands project, and if they would consider us for a matching grant.

When the phone rang that day, Dustin answered, and it only took a few seconds for the grin to spread across his face. Standing across the room, I knew.

We have officially been accepted by Lifesong to receive a matching grant for our adoption, and to work with Both Hands!

So now, let the work begin! We're praying that God will lead us as we put together a team of people who will wrap around us in this adoption, and asking that He will make our efforts successful. We are blessed to serve Lourdes Banegas in this project as we work on giving her house a "face lift" with a team of volunteers in April. Until that day, our team will be helping us send out sponsorship letters to everyone they can think of. It's sort of like a sponsored 5k: the donated money (tax-deductible, thanks to Lifesong!) all goes to our adoption fund, except instead of running or golfing, we're serving a widow. A beautiful way to live out James 1:27.

_While we were still standing amazed at how God delights in equipping us to do His work, we received an email just three days later from our adoption agency. Our sweet case manager let us know that she had a referral she'd like to send our way. As she watched God working to provide for our adoption expenses, she felt that she might have the information for our son in her hands. So, with our blessing (and jaws dropping, hearts pounding, hands and feet tingling), she emailed us the name, age, medical information, history, and photos of the sweet little orphan boy we hope to soon see face to face and call our own.

Getting the referral was a little surreal - a lot like seeing a first ultrasound. It's amazing to look at your baby's face for the first time. And I love that he's sitting in a little throne to get his picture taken. Our little prince!

And while we can't spread the pictures of his charming face on the internet, we had to show you something...

If you would like to make a donation to support our adoption, your gift will be doubled up to $3000. 100% of your donations (up to the full amount of the adoption still owed) will go directly to our adoption account. Send your check with Preference: Leonard, Dustin #2570  written in the memo line to:
Lifesong for Orphans
PO Box 40/ 202 N. Ford St.
Gridley, IL 61744

Please leave any questions in the Comments section.

Thank you!

In spite of the fact that I am perpetually 10 minutes late to everything, I like to get paperwork done on time. We've been pretty diligent in doing just that, and in sending in every check needed when it was due. Nobody's had to wait for us, and it's been a nice feeling to know that.

God has clearly shown us the adoption road, and we want to walk well and not falter.

And when it's time to wait, we want to wait well.

We've received several emails this last week from Regina, our caseworker, regarding our place in line. She told us recently that we were number 7 in line, and she let us know this last week that, while we are currently at number 5 in line, the three families ahead of us in line will not be ready for their referrals for a few months. So that leaves...drum roll, please...us!

After reading the email, we looked at each other (with HUGE smiles on our faces) in disbelief, both of us wondering how we were going to come up with the remaining $18,000, but more than that, so completely excited that everything was finally happening.

I'll confess, we thought about shortcuts. Should we borrow from a bank? After all, if anything is, adoption is a cause worthy of borrowing money for! Or maybe borrow from our inheritance (with our parents' permission) with the intention of paying it all back?

Or maybe...

Maybe remember that God is on time, and that He has a child picked out already for our family - a child who will be ready for us exactly when we are ready for him. Because sure, it's possible for us to borrow from people and then spend years paying for the child who will be so worth it. But if God has been so faithful to provide everything we've needed up to this point, it would be foolish for us to assume that we have to take the rest into our own hands.

I read a story once of a man named Edgar who runs an orphanage in Mexico. He and his boys had run out of food, which wasn't unusual, and he sat down with them to pray. After they prayed that God would provide for their needs, Edgar had a choice: either he would go out and ask friends and neighbors to give them any extra rice and beans they had on hand, OR he would wait for God to answer his prayers. And keep praying.

After they were done praying the first time, the littlest boy piped up and said, "What kind of food does God deliver?"

Edgar smiled at the boy and said, "God desires to lavish His riches on you. Let's see what He provides.," They prayed again. Again, the little boy spoke: "Do you think...Will God bring us...meat?"

The faith of a child: to ask for the best in their time of need.

The man challenged that little boy to believe that God heard them as His children, and to ask again.

The same day, a man had flown into Monterrey, Mex. for a business convention. He told Beth Buckenberger, author of Reckless Faith, that he had lots of extra "product" that was no longer of use to him. Beth, embarrassed, told the man that she had forgotten what his business was, and he explained that he represents a meat company, and had brought choice cuts for potential vendors. Beth, connected to several orphanages in the area, said yes, of course she knew of people who could use it! She called Edgar and as she explained, he whispered, "Praise God!" and then turned away from the phone and shouted the news to his boys, that the Lord's response to their prayer was on its way over!

__And the boys at Edgar's home ate meat that night that would make a king jealous.

That man could have prayed, and then gone out on his own to do what needed to be done. But instead, he stayed on his knees in a room full of children who had the faith to ask for the best.

God likes to be asked for what we need.

So even though a small part of me - a part of me that's getting smaller every day -  would like to go out and ask every bank in town what rate they could give us on an adoption loan, I'm going to tell my soul to be still.
I'm going to keep praying, and I'm going to ask my children to pray with me. Because they know how to ask for the best, and I have a God who delights in giving it.

"If you abide in me, and my words abide in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be done for you. By this my Father is glorified, that you bear much fruit and so provie to be my disciples." - John 15:7,8

In the adoption world, delays are expected - especially when you're adopting internationally. When we chose the Korea program, I was impressed with the way everything was laid out. The timeline looked so nice and neatly packaged. We would start out as number 12 on the list of families waiting for boys, and steadily move up the list until we were at the top, probably within about 8-10 months. Then, we would receive our referral and wait to travel to pick up Leonard child #4.

And we were expecting delays.

What we weren't expecting was to be at #7 now, and to hear from our agency that we could expect our referral in as little as two months!

Now, I'm all about getting our referral as soon as possible (although I know once we have a face and a name, it will be very difficult to have to wait to go pick up our little goober). The problem is my faith. See, it's a little...lacking. At best.

Two months doesn't leave me much time to be the hero and figure our how we can "miraculously" scrounge up $17,000. It's not like I'll find that under our couch cushions! It doesn't leave room for the fundraisers we'd planned because those take 8-10 weeks just for approval, and we're still waiting on the last bit of paperwork to come in the mail for our application! It doesn't leave room for much of anything, because things take time in the world of fundraising, and our adoption timeline was supposed to line up nicely with that.

But as I shake my fist at the God who called us to visit orphans in their distress, I remember what it means that He is God. This wasn't my idea; it was His first. So my fist has to drop to my lap as I hang my head and open my hands to Him.

Do you ever see a verse written somewhere and know that God was sending that straight to your heart? I got one of those yesterday. Actually, I got the same one twice, from two different sources:

"Peace I leave with you; my peace I give to you. Not as the world gives do I give to you. Let not your hearts be troubled, neither let them be afraid." - John 14:27

So we'll wait on God to act, because to Him, it doesn't matter if we have two years or two days. Two months? Makes no difference. God knows we need help to do this. He knows we can't carry this burden on our own shoulders in this short amount of time. He knows that I tend to get stressed about money - because I don't trust Him the way that I should. He knows our weakest points, and uses them for His glory.

So I'm praying like crazy that our Father will look on us with favor and that He will equip us to go, right on time. And He has given me His peace.

8 weeks.

When we decided to move forward with adoption from Korea, we moved quickly and diligently, the way I believe God calls us to move when He's shown us where to go. Within a day we had filled out all of our paperwork for our application, written a check for a rather large amount of money (not to be confused with the very large amount of money still to come), and sent everything off in the mail with a prayer. On September 23, our agency sent word that they'd received our check and would be sending our request for approval to Korea the following week.

And then? We waited. The three weeks we were expecting our approval to take quickly passed, and the days kept getting crossed off the calendar as we continued work, homeschooling, laundry, cooking, cleaning, photography, bedtimes, and all the other things that make our days normal. But in the busy-ness of life, we were waiting.

_Doubts come often in the waiting.

When things don't follow my timeline and I have to remember who's God and who's not.

Honestly, sometimes it's harder to stand through a drought than a storm.


Last Thursday was a difficult day. Dustin and I were both weary after a long week. Ironically, when you feel down-trodden, it's the hardest time to be on your guard, and I'm pretty sure we were both objects of spiritual attack. It wasn't attack regarding adoption, but rather the temptation to give up on the everyday struggles. Just for one day. Just take a break; you deserve it...

In our weakness, God was our strength. He brought us to His Word, and in chapter after chapter we were reminded that God is good; life is hard; and there will be an end to these struggles. When that end comes, I want to know that we were faithful in the big things and the small things.

"The LORD your God is in your midst, a mighty one who will save;
he will rejoice over you with gladness; He will quiet you by his love;
he will exult over you with loud singing."
Zephaniah 3:17

Friday the email we've been waiting for showed up in our inbox while I was working at the computer. I'd like to say that I saw the little envelope in the right-hand corner of the screen pop up and I knew instantly that this was what we'd been waiting for - and I did! But I also knew it every other time it had popped up in the last 8 weeks. So I held my breath and opened it, wondering if it would bear the news that we'd been accepted by Korea--that we were considered good enough by whoever-it-is-over-there-with-the-rubber-stamp--and would be officially placed on the waiting list.

I'm normally what my mom calls "stoic," but this even-keeled heart was bursting at the seems as I read that Korea had officially accepted us as a waiting family--and, to top things off, that we were now number 9 on the waiting list with our agency! It seems that while God's been working half the world away, causing the right events to happen in the best time so that we can bring our child home exactly in His time, I've had to trust that He hasn't forgotten.

To be still. To wait. To know that the story He's writing is better than the story I would write, because He knows each chapter and each character intimately, and in His wisdom each piece of this messy story will fit together perfectly--for His glory.

So now, at number 9 on the list of families waiting to call a little Korean boy "son," we wait again.

We choose to trust that He will provide everything that we need, and that the God who sets the lonely in families delights in this story He is penning.