As many of you
may already know, Nic and I successfully submitted our dossier to Ethiopia on
October 18, 2013. In adoption
lingo this means that on October 18, 2013 we were officially DTE (dossier to
Ethiopia). I cannot begin to
describe what an amazing and wonderful feeling it is to have completed all of
the necessary paperwork and finally be on the waiting list to be matched with
our sweet little Amira. Praise The
Lord….and that is exactly what I want to do. Throughout our short adoption process, The Lord has made
himself readily available and known.
He has given us strength and guidance along the way as well as reassurance
that we are fulfilling his will for our family. I cannot emphasize enough that we could not be where
we are today without his unfailing love and support.
Over the course
of the past few months we have faced a lot of different feelings and
emotions. International adoption
is a long and sometimes uncertain process. There is a lot at risk when dealing with a third world
country. In addition to the emotion
strains, there is the financial aspect too, adoption is expensive. However, I truly believe that if we
bring our prayers and petitions to our Heavenly Father, he will answer and
comfort us. He loves us
unconditionally and He will not leave us or forsake us….
“For
I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither
angels
nor demons, neither the present nor the future,
nor
any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything
else
in all creation, will be able to separate us from the
love
of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.”
Romans
8:38-39
Over the past
few months, I have personally brought several fears to The Lord and He has not
only answered my questions but he has calmed my heart. I, without a shadow of a doubt, know that
we are walking alongside God throughout our adoption. It really is remarkable how He has visibly shown his support
throughout this process and how He continues to reassure us we are following
our call. Again I want to
re-emphasize we could not do this without him. Our God is an amazing, wonderful, compassionate God who is
beyond worth of our praise.
Great
is The Lord and most worthy of praise; his greatness no one can fathom.
Psalm
145:3
Therefore, it is
at this time I would like to truly thank and praise our Lord for his grace and
compassion by sharing with everyone how wonderful He has been to us throughout
our adoption. The following is a list of just a few wonders God has performed
over the past 5 months:
1.) When I first began having dreams about a
little African Girl I had no idea what they meant. After a lot of praying I discovered that this little girl, who
kept reoccurring in my dreams, was not just a random little girl, she was so
much more than that. Little by
little, she was showing me how I can love someone who I do not even know. She was showing me the pain that
existed outside of my little comfort zone in Chesterton, Indiana. Ultimately, I
feel God was using this little girl as the starting point and introduction to
the idea of expanding our family through adoption.
2.) After I shared with Nic what I felt in my
heart we should do, he agreed that we should check into the idea of
adoption. I quickly discovered,
with the help of my sister in law Chami, an amazing Christian adoption agency –
America World Adoption Association (AWAA). After a little research, I found that AWAA held seminars
across America to introduce potential adoptive families to the process of
adopting internationally. I
immediately thought we would have to travel to Chicago or Indianapolis to
attend one of these seminars and with Nic’s work schedule I knew that this
would be very difficult to plan.
What I discovered next was too amazing to be coincidental…AWAA was
planning a seminar that next weekend in the small town of Chesterton,
Indiana. I cannot emphasize enough
that I know God planned this seminar in our hometown to give us the extra nudge
we need to take the next step.
3.) When we first began to share with
everyone that we were going to be adopting a child from Ethiopia there was a
mix of reactions. Some people were
excited, others fearful, and others were confused or concerned. After a while I began to also become
fearful of the unknown and I began to question our decision. I started to research more and more
about the possible outcomes…big mistake because it only made things worse. Finally I took all my fears to the Lord
and he answered me in a big way. I
was driving home from work and I broke down and began to pray and plead to the
Lord. I begged him to show me a
sign that our adoption was what he willed for our family and if it was his will
that he would give me the strength I needed. Immediately and I mean immediately after I finished praying
“Kings and Queens” by Audio Adrenaline came over the radio. If you have not heard the song or seen
the music video please google it.
God answered my prayers and he answered big. The following are just a few of the lyrics from the song
Kings and Queens:
****Every Child has a dream to belong and
to be loved****
****These could be our daughters and our
sons****
****Won’t you look around, these are the
lives that the World has forgotten…. WAITING FOR DOORS OF OUR HEARTS AND OUR
HOMES TO OPEN****
If that song isn’t an answer to prayer
than I don’t know what is. It was
at this point I finally
was able to let go of my fears and trust in the Lord and our adoption.
4.) The day of our Bob Evans Fundraiser, Nic
and I took Jaxon and Evy to Butterfly Park in Valparaiso to burn off some
energy from all the syrup and pancakes they had that morning for
breakfast. After an hour or two of
running around and playing on slides we decided to head home. On the way home I remember thinking to
myself about the fundraiser and hoping that the event was going well. Once we got home we had the kids sit on
the couch to take off their shoes and then took them upstairs to take a
bath. After I came back downstairs
I discovered something on the couch that was again to amazing to just be a
coincidence. A piece of shredded tire from the park had come home with us on
accident…This may not seem like a very big deal but the shredded tire was an
exact replica of the shape of Africa.
It was as if God was telling me that everything was just fine with our
fundraiser, not to worry but just leave the details to him.
5.) On May 24, 2013 we were accepted into the
Ethiopian Program. It was at this
point and time we would begin the compiling the documents we needed in order to
submit our dossier. Just a
reminder, our dossier is the extensive amount of paperwork that we had to
gather on our lives that is review by both American and Ethiopian governments
to determine that we are fit to raise an adopted child. The initial email stated that AWAA
anticipates that it will take anywhere from 4-6 months to complete this paper
chase. I remember thinking right
then and there that I wanted to submit on an important day to our family…October
18th. But after
reviewing the list of documents I concluded this probably wasn’t going to be
possible. There was a lot to do
and at this point I was hoping just to get it all done before Christmas. But once again the Lord answered and
helped push every piece of paper through with no or minimal problems. There are two major things that are
really neat about us being DTE on October 18th. First, I didn’t know that AWAA only
sends out dossiers on Fridays…October 18, 2013 was a Friday. When I submitted our dossier to AWAA on
October 4th, we discovered that one piece of paper was submitted
incorrectly. It was literally such
a minor error I didn’t think it was going to be a big deal. When I questioned my family coordinator
about the error prior to her receiving our dossier packet, she said this would
probably pushed our DTE back a week…October 25th. I was so bummed to be this close and to
literally be a week off. The next
day our family coordinator emailed me to let me know she reviewed the error
after receiving our dossier and determined we would be DTE October 18th!!! This may not seem like a huge thing but
October 18th is a special day to Nic and I and we were very happy
that everything worked out the way it did.
6.) When we were preparing to submit our
dossier in early October, we quickly realized we had everything we needed with
the exception of one thing…we were close to $1900 short. We decided that we were going to write
the check anyway and submit our paperwork. This was on a Friday evening, so I knew that I had at least
the weekend to gather the remaining funds to cover the check we mailed
out. So Sunday night rolled around
and I decided it was time to start looking through our checking and savings
account. It didn’t take me long to
find additional cash. When we
began fundraising, I decided that it would be best to open a second checking
account to keep the money we fundraise separate from everything else. I quickly discovered in our other
account we had $1950…$50 more than what we needed to cover the cost of our
check. Therefore, I transferred
the money to our “Amira Checking Account” and we were covered with $50 to
spare…God has a sense of humor. J
7.) Speaking of money and fundraising I want
to talk a little about our fundraiser lasagna dinner. I first want to say that speaking in front of others about
personal topics is not my forte.
That courage and strength came from above. I want to point out that every time I practice our testimony
at home I cried, but when it came to talking at the dinner it was like second
nature and I was able to keep my composure. Thank you Lord for that.
8.) I want to mention one more thing about
our lasagna dinner before I close this blog entry. When planning and preparing
for our fundraiser I decided about a week before that I wanted to record the
event. One reason being that I
want to share every aspect about Amira’s adoption with her someday, our
testimony being one of those stories.
The second was to share with friends and family who wanted to hear our
testimony but couldn’t make the event.
After I had distributed a few DVDs to friends and family I received a
text message from a friend….
“Nicole, I just watched the video. Oh my goodness. Loved it,
bawled my eyes out, very moving
very touching and I did notice something. Behind you were hands hanging on the
clothesline or whatever. I noticed when you were at the podium and you were speaking
two hands were enveloping you. Not anybody else that spoke just you. It made me
think of the verse Psalm 91 He who abides in Me stands in the Shadow of the
Most High.”
I
watched the video and my friend was right – I stood in a spot that if I stepped
back, two hands would be on my shoulders.
The reason this seems so amazing to me is because it was confirmation to
me that God is continuing to bless and support us along our journey. He was reaching out over us…literally.
I wanted to share these moments with everyone because I think
they are too awesome not to share.
Our God is amazing and he is everywhere. I see him in every small detail and aspect of our life. Whether it be reaching out over us at a fundraiser
event or leaving little piece of Africa around our house he is there and he is
worthy of our praise.
God Bless.
