Is Love Enough? Depends...

A must read blog entry.  As my pastor would say, this is a "cookies on the bottom shelf" kind of post.  Honest, real, accessible, hopeful.


Here's the first paragraph.

Adopting in response to your faith, answering "the call of adoption," means nothing if you don't adopt to love a child. Yes, y'all, it really IS that simple. Don't adopt to save a child. Nor to rescue a child. And definitely don't do it just to prove or grow your faith. Or to join the "in crowd." If you aren't adopting to love a child, then STOP. Don't adopt. You won't gain anything. Neither will the child. The end.

Read the rest here.  So worth it:

http://ourlittletongginator.blogspot.com/2010/05/love-and-adoption.html

We Know Better

I found this on another blog today and thought I'd share.  The whole blog entry is worth reading as well; this is just a part.  

"What is happening to orphans right now as I write?

They are hungry.
They are eating trash.
They are chased away from the trash.
They are naked.
They are exhausted from running scared all the time.
They are tied up.
They live without shelter.
They live in fear of being abducted.
They live in fear of being eaten by wild animals.
They are raped.
They are prostituted.
They are beaten---in unimaginable ways.
They witness their friends being sold.
They live in fear being sold themselves.
They are forced to lie.
They steal out of necessity.
They are burned.
They are bruised.

Sometimes they wish they were never born.
They feel invisible.
They wonder why God doesn't like them.

They are crying out to the Lord because of their oppressor. Isaiah 19:20 

...And in a world where one third of the population claims to be Christian--- there needs to be no one left behind.   We know better."

Don’t excuse yourself by saying, “Look, we didn’t know.
For God understands all hearts, and he sees you.

   He who guards your soul knows you knew.

      He will repay all people as their actions deserve.

Proverbs 24:12

Random fun

I've resisted buying anything for our little guy until last week. For those of you donating, just want you to know that I was very frugal. These were both on clearance sales (for a whopping total of $1.98) and not really necessary right now, but I couldn't pass them up for what they represent to me of our next, exciting adventure with this precious treasure from God.  Plus, in the middle of the crazy, exhausting paperchase, I needed to celebrate!!

For your enjoyment, my big purchases:

               Toddler size swim trunks & blunt preschool scissors.
               Makes me smile that we're gonna need both.

THANK YOU and a little Adoption 101...

We are simply overwhelmed at God's provision!  Through many of you, we have met our first fundraising goal and begun working on the next one.  We have enough to finish our homestudy, pay our 1st installment at the adoption agency, file for US Immigration approval and apply for passports.  This is such welcome and wonderful blessing because things can keep moving forward.

There are pieces we simply have to wait on, no matter how hard we try to finish our objectives quickly.  Immigration approval, for example, takes about 8 weeks, whether you wish hard for it to go faster or not.  We have to have US Immigration Approval to complete our dossier (a packet of official documents that we send to China to tell them ALL about us.) There are so many steps toward making sure everything is correct, authentic, etc.  Suffice it to say, we run around crazy-like compiling and gathering a bunch of paperwork.  If we do it right (ha!), we will have all the other pieces in place ready to slap that Immigration approval (I-797) with them & send the whole kit and kaboodle off to Washington DC for the State Department & Chinese Embassy to certify.  Don't know how long that takes, but it's a hurry up and wait our turn. 

Then the dossier is off to our agency for final, fine-tooth-combed, review before it all gets sent to THE People's Republic of China.  Our somewhat realistic goal is to have our DTC (dossier to China) by mid-January (my dream goal is mid-December!!  Can't help it. I'm a glass half-full kinda girl!)  After we have a log in date (LID) in China, we will wait 2 (yea!!) to 6 (bleh...) months to be officially accepted, travel & get our SON!!  Again, lots just simply depends on who has our file at any given time, and how quickly they move on it.  We're praying for quick turn arounds, but we know many families who are praying the same way.  I know I'm God's favorite, but He's got to be fair, you know. ;)  (BTW, in case you didn't know, you are also God's favorite!!  Not sure how that happens, but it's just one of those divine mysteries I'm so thankful for!!) 

This journey is (littered? cluttered? polluted? filled?) with so many random expenses.  Like lab work and physicals, Express Mail for this, Priority Mail return envelopes for that, fees for this official piece of paper, filing fees here and there, notary fees for EACH AND EVERY document.  County certification, State certification, Embassy certification...  AAHHHHH!!!  I'm getting so used to notarizing everything that I nearly had my grocery list stamped by the Notary Public last week!  Whoa, Nelly....

So, THANK YOU, THANK YOU for helping us keep things moving with your generous & loving donations.  Our travel to China cannot happen soon enough.  Every day that passes, our son becomes more & more a part of our hearts, our thoughts, our dreams.  It's becoming so real to me that I have a child waiting for me that, at times, I can't breathe. I ALWAYS look at the clock and wonder what he's doing (probably sleeping, since he's 13 hours ahead!!) and who is watching over him.  

We are going to send a care package to him in a few weeks with pictures of us and our home, a blanket & some other items suggested by our agency.  I hope that someone will show him our pictures regularly so he KNOWS he has a family just dying to get him home.  I read another adoption blog last week where the family had sent pictures ahead.  Their little guy started pointing at them the moment he was brought into the room to meet them for the first time!!  Oh, Lord, let it be that way for us.  That is SO not the typical way it happens (there's usually lots of crying, wailing & gnashing of teeth OR quiet observation & resignation), but it would be BEYOND amazing if he had even some slight recognition of us!!

So, when you think about it, please pray for favor and quick work on the government's side of things in ALL adoptions.  BTW, would you please pray for our dear friends who are desperately waiting on permission to go to Russia and bring home their little girl?  They've waited far too long for her, and the Russian system has all but stopped pending more government intervention.  So many babies & families waiting to be united forever trapped by bureaucracy.

With grateful & FULL & longing hearts,

Fundraising, Body Mass Index, Financial Statements and other forms of public humiliation

If you read the backstory on why this blog is called Random Clarity, you know that insight, illumination, wisdom, whatever you want to call it, comes to me in weird pieces.  Perhaps all of us are like that or maybe yours comes more logically, but I'm enjoying the random glimpses behind the scenes that God allows me from time to time.  Most of the time, I really don't get a very satisfactory answer to the "why" behind the "what the heck is going on??", but I get grace to live with the questions.....and a healthy reminder that it's not all about ME.  Ouch, and Thank GOD!

We didn't choose an international adoption, but we believe that God chose it for our family.  There are lots of crazy pieces to this puzzle that are - frankly - embarrassing, humbling, uncomfortable, and (thankfully), amusing.  China has pretty strict requirements on Body Mass Index.  As if going to the doctor and stepping on the scales after rocking babies all winter long wasn't embarrassing enough.  Now, a foreign government is shining a flashlight on the pounds that crept on while I was sleep deprived & carb-loading & loving on our babies.  Ugh....at least I had fun doing it!!

Lab testing:  it's kind of amusing to hear the questions asked when my kids have to get HIV & Hep B tests and the uncommon answers.  Yes, we all still live at home.  Yes, I'm 18 (or 20) years old.  No, I'm not AT ALL at risk for an STD (yes, that's what that means!)  Surprised looks from the medical staff....

Ever hear of the Great Recession of 2008-2010 (and counting)?? Well, we did, and that's the time period all our financial documents are compiled from.  Downsizing, job-hunting, patching together part-time jobs.  I'm GLAD I'm not a fly on the wall when the adoption professionals review our paperwork.  One of the miracles of this adoption is that we were even approved to move forward.  God works in mysterious ways, His wonders to behold!!

Ahh.....fundraising.  Remember my quote from an earlier post?  "Nothing kills pride more than having to ask for money?"  Well, the humbling just BEGINS with the initial asking.  It continues powerfully when you receive an early donation from a family on their OWN, very expensive adoption journey...or one from a young family that is struggling to make ends meet because of job instability...or a friend who doesn't even let you finish telling the sweet story before she whips out her checkbook...or a 9-year-old who cracked open her piggy bank to help bring this little guy home.  The most unlikely & unexpected candidates give and give and give, and you stand there, helpless & dependent, receiving the blessings from a gracious God and obedient, ordinary heroes.

It's so hard...

And SO GOOD.

Baby steps closer to our baby with the help of community.  Ahhhh.....I like it.