So, in this next to last chapter of our marriage journey I am going to talk about our adoption. I felt blessed the entire time we were in the adoption process, because we were actually doing it! We were done discussing or praying for the right time, and that was an awesome feeling. After getting Yemi’s referral in Dec. 08, we had a court date set in February, and we hoped to bring her home in March or early April! But we had some more testing of our faith to endure…of course!
At the end of January, we received our second picture of Yemi. She was about 6 months old and had lost weight since her 4 month picture and weigh in. She looked very frail, and we questioned it 4 times but the adoption agency said everything was fine. Then in February, literally in one week, the following things happened.
So, the events of that week in February:
*Adoption agency said we and the other families who shared the same court date would need a miracle to pass court the first time because of a paperwork mishap. We all prayed and fasted, and God decided to move in an awesome way…for every single family except us. There was an additional problem with paperwork (not on our end) that couldn’t be solved quickly enough. I remember that phone call, and I remember the Lord saying immediately,” Will you choose to be offended by Me or will you choose faith?” You know, I have spent my whole life trying to live a life of faith, and be involved in things that challenge me to do that, but in that moment I knew that pleasing Him with my faith wasn’t so much about my actions but my reactions.
*In that same week, I can’t remember if it was right before or right after the court date, we got an email from our agency saying that the babies in our orphanage had not been getting food “for some time.” We had sensed something was wrong because of the picture of Yemi in January, and now our worst fears were coming to life. 2 babies in this orphanage had died that year before the parents could come rescue them. So, directly after this email, the families started a big formula drive, and a week later, 2 people were in the air with hundreds of pounds of formula. It’s confusing to explain, but I’ll just say that actually by the time we got that email, UNICEF had already started to give Plumpy’Nut to the babies and the children were already gaining weight and much better. We found out once we were actually in Ethiopia that the nurse during January and February was terrible, and finally quit. When she was replaced, the new nurse saved 9 babies’ lives by seeing the babies were not thriving and getting them what they needed. If you ever have a chance to watch this video and give to World Vision/Plumpy’Nut, do it. It is for real. We got a new picture of Yemi at the very end of February, and she looked good as gold. Praise the Lord!
It was awesome to go to Ethiopia and see this journey come to an end, although I would happily do it again. It had been a time to hang onto the Lord, see into reality that we would have never been forced to see otherwise, and join in the kingdom work of making the least of these family! I will write another time about prophetic words and scriptures the Lord gave during the journey, and His faithfulness to the present, as she is a healthy, chubby, happy, smart 17 month old running around as I type this!
Link for plumpy nut info!