The merging of God stories

I began this blog as a chronicle of our journey to adopt a baby from Taiwan. Today, I find myself thinking about what the purpose of this blog is now...

Adoption doesn't end when you are matched with a child or when you bring him home. Adoption is a life journey! We brought him home to our FOREVER family on April 20th. Everyday since then has been part of the life-adventure that God dreamed for our family. Brian and I are adjusting to being parents after almost 10 years of marriage (August 12). Nathanael is adjusting so well to being in our family. He LOVES his dog Jack and often laughs outloud at him. He knows who mom and dad are and recognizes if someone else is holding him. He smiles and giggles and lights up our lives. People often say, "That is the cutest baby EVER" as he gives them one of his charming smiles.

I was in a youth revival service tonight in which the speaker discussed our "God stories." My God story began when God broke through my pretending and asked me to get real with Him. I became a Christian that day. Life has never been the same for me since that day. My God story continued when he led me to attend Kentucky Mountain Bible College, where I met my husband, Brian. My life will forever be changed because God called Ted and Bev Skiles to Taiwan to be missionaries and through them, gave us this wonderful gift--Nathanael. What a blessing to be adopted into God's family. What a blessing to adopt this sweet baby boy into our family. What a blessing to be able to share our lives together, just as God and I share our lives together. As I see it our family is really about lots of God stories merging into one beautiful tapestry of God's love and grace. As we are obedient to God, he works to make something beautiful out of our lives. Feeling thankful today. How about you?

April 20th to the present

We arrived home on April 20th. We were overjoyed for our family and friends to meet our sweet baby boy! Upon leaving the airport, my mom wanted to ride with her grandson. So, I let her and I rode with my dad. Nathanael, quite worn out from being so sick and traveling for 23 hours, began to cry. They pulled over so I could get in and comfort him. My mom informed me that he was wheezing. Not what a new mom wants to hear upon arriving home!

I immediately called a good friend, Lori Weimer, who helped us get in to see a doctor that day. What followed was the longest, most exhausting week of my life. We ended up being at the doctor's office everyday that week. During the week, he began breathing treatments, had chest x-rays, spiked a fever over 105 degrees and had a Urinary tract infection, resulting in him being hospitalized for the weekend. Did I mention that Brian was also sick upon arriving home and we were experiencing jetlag? We would have never made it without the Lord's help to multiply our strength and send in reinforcements in the form of Libby Sellers and Brenda Visser. Both of these lovely ladies are nurses who each stayed a night to help us monitor Nathanael prior to him being admitted to the hospital.

All that being said, that week taught me that with the Lord's help, I can handle A LOT more than I thought I could!

Nathanael has been healthy since that time. He has the occasional stuffy nose, sneezes, and occasional cough. This mom with allergies thinks he suffers from them as well, but only the seasonal kind and nothing major.

Since we've been home from Taiwan, Nathanael has been able to meet most of my side of the family and some of Brian's. He has met his church family and has many "aunts and uncles" who love him. I am staying home with him and loving it, even though I've become a bit of a hermit. =)

He has learned the following things since we've been home: rolling over from his back to his tummy and back over to his back, sitting up for periods of time, squealing, spitting and sticking out his tongue, grasping toys and mommy's hair, and wrapping pretty much everyone he meets around his finger! Praise the Lord for this precious, giggley, smiley, healthy baby boy!

Taiwan, Here We Come!

We are leaving in 2 days to go to Taiwan to bring home our son. We are so excited to meet all the wonderful people who have been caring for him during this time. It is hard to believe that after all the paperwork hassles, government red-tape, hours on hold, emails sent, calls made, and pictures received, we will meet him in person on Tuesday morning Taiwan time (Monday night U.S. time)!!! We are so happy, excited, and in awe of God's blessing in making us a family from opposite sides of the world. I'm reminded that we titled our blog "heart to heart". In just a few days, we will be able to hold Nathanael heart to heart and tell him how much we love him and have been praying for him.

"I prayed for this child and the Lord answered my prayer and gave him to me." I Samuel 1:27

PRAISE THE LORD

I am pleased to announce that our paperwork arrived in Taipei. I receieved a call tonight from THOGL to tell me that everything looks great. We are leaving Sunday to go get our son!!!!

Visa sent to Taiwan

Our visa documents were electronically sent to Taiwan at 3:00 p.m. today!!! Thank you for your prayers!

"I will sing to the Lord all my life; I will sing praise to my God as long as I live. May my meditation be pleasing to Him as I rejoice in the Lord." Psalm 104:33-34

Travel and Visa

We will be leaving for Taiwan on Easter Sunday afternoon!!! We are so excited! Please keep praying about the VISA, as it has not arrived at the National Visa Center, yet. We serve a big God who has worked out so many details and we are praising HIM!!!!

"I will be glad, yes filled with joy because of You. I will sing Your praises, O Lord God above all gods." Psalm 9:2

Court Hearing

I love when I get emails from Ted Skiles that begin with the following verse: "Like cold water to a weary soul is good news from a distant land.” Proverbs 25:25 We got good news last night. He said that court went "just fine" and that we can be preparing to travel about a month from now! We won't know exact travel dates for a couple of week probably. Praise the Lord for answered prayer and thank you all for praying!

"I prayed for this child and the Lord answered my prayer and gave him to me." I Samuel 1:27 NCV

Adoption Discipleship

We received new pictures of Nathanael today! And we heard that everyone is on the mend at the orphanage after a bout with the stomach flu. We cannot express how grateful we are to the caregivers who are taking such good care of Nathanael and all of his friends!
Please remember to pray for the USCIS situation. The Secretary of State's office received the correction yesterday, but needs to send it on to USCIS in Metairie today. We know God is in control and we are hoping for no delays in bringing our little sweetie home! I know this sounds complicated, but this really is the "par for the course" with international adoption. We are praising the Lord for his help in bringing people into our lives who have walked this road before and have helped us on the journey. It's kind of like "adoption discipleship"--helping one another along the journey of adoption, which we all know is close to the heart of God. I want to do the same for other families.
Please pray for our court date to go well. It is March 9th at 10:15 a.m. Taiwan time..which is March 8th at 8:15 p.m. CST. We would appreciate prayers during the 10-12 day waiting period following court as well. I am meditating on the following scripture as we approach these important days:

"We prayed for this child, and the Lord has granted what we asked of Him." 1 Samuel 1:27

Fingerprinting: Check, Waiting: Check, Check

We completed our biometrics (digital fingerprinting) appointment yesterday with more than a little freaking out on my part! We left 30 minutes earlier than we needed to for the appointment. However, a semi was blocking one lane of traffic on the bridge on I-10 over the lake. It took us over 30 minutes just to cross the bridge. Needless to say, we were late and I was worried that we would not be able to continue with the appointment. Those letters from USCIS can be so threatening, stating that you are abandoning your application if you do not make your appointment time. Anyway, as a newbie, I did not know that they schedule several people for 8 a.m. and we were fine. No problems, Praise the Lord!!!

I am continuing to wait to hear that USCIS has received our corrected homestudy. As of yet, I have requested this information with no response. Please pray that they respond to me soon.

Other than that, we work on the nursery and wait for our court date on March 9th. Please continue to be in prayer for the court date and our birthmom.

Do you see a recurring word in this blog: wait. For now, I am trying to do what the following verse states that David did. I'm trying to improve with the "patiently" part.

"I waited patiently for the Lord; He turned to me and heard my cry." Psalm 40:1

Adoption Update

Our paperwork was filed with the court in Taiwan yesterday! Now we wait for a court date and wait for immigration here in the states to complete their processing. We are so excited that our adoption case has been filed!

I have not received an update on Nathanael's condition since Tuesday night. Please continue to pray for him. The last we heard, he was still in ICU.

The song "While I'm Waiting" seems appropriate while we wait to hear about Nathanael, so I thought I'd share the lyrics.

While I'm Waiting

I'm waiting
I'm waiting on You, Lord
And I am hopeful
I'm waiting on You, Lord
Though it is painful
But patiently, I will wait

I will move ahead, bold and confident
Taking every step in obedience
While I'm waiting
I will serve You
While I'm waiting
I will worship
While I'm waiting
I will not faint
I'll be running the race
Even while I wait

I'm waiting
I'm waiting on You, Lord
And I am peaceful
I'm waiting on You, Lord
Though it's not easy
But faithfully, I will wait
Yes, I will wait
I will serve You while I'm waiting
I will worship while I'm waiting
I will serve You while I'm waiting
I will worship while I'm waiting
I will serve you while I'm waiting
I will worship while I'm waiting on You, Lord

We serve a faithful God!

I wanted to update you guys on the process! We are waiting for our background checks to be returned and Brian to get his TB test for our homestudy to be completed. We are REALLY close!
God has been talking to both Brian and I about trusting him to provide for our adoption and our daily needs. Our pastor has been sharing really relevant sermons about being desperate for God. Brian talked about how when we are really desperate, we have no hope to meet our needs without God stepping in. Brian even shared about this today in worship. Well, we agreed to ask God to meet our needs and....Today a wonderful couple gave us a check for $1,000 toward our adoption! God is so good and so are His people!

"And God is able to make all grace abound to you, so that in all things at all times, having all that you need, you will abound in every good work."
2 Corinthians 9:8