an update...

So we are in Hammond and all moved it. As for the adoption we will complete our Home Study after the holidays and then be ready to send all of paper work to our agency to get our dossier completed. It is all coming together and the move has only set us back a little bit. We are just so thankful to be in the process and long for that sweet child more and more each day!! Thank you for all of you who keep up, ask questions, and supported us!! We are forever grateful to you!!

The Bidding is Over

Thank you so much for the bids you placed on the print from Robyn Crumby for the adoption. The bidding is over and the print is sold! Thank you much!

Current Bid

Current Bid $125.00

Our current bid

As of today, Sunday, at 4:39pm, the current bid on the item below is at $100! Thanks for helping us bring our baby home.

If you would like to bid, read the post below for instruction.

A chance to give on this Thanksgiving!!

Our wonderfully talented, sweet, generous, and kind friend is doing a fundraiser for our adoption. She has painted a beautiful painting to be auctioned off starting today and ending on December 7th. The way this will work is you can start bidding by posting a comment on our blogs, emailing Jonathan(jonathanclark00@gmail.com) or me(flowerblue1@hotmail.com), or on facebook. The bidding is starting at $55. ALL the money will go to bring home our sweet little one from Ethiopia!! Let the bidding begin!!!

www.robyncrumby.blogspot.com
www.jonathananderinclark.blogspot.com

Paperwork and physicals

Just to update you guys yet again....
So, first of all, we are moving. Check out our other blog for details on that.
We are currently working really hard to get all the paper work completed before or right around the time that we move, which is December 1st! Friday we will get our physicals done and it will be nice to have that out of our way. We haven't yet got the shirts finished for a few reasons. It is going to cost a lot to move and a lot to make shirts. We know that we need to make them so that we can continue to add to the much need adoption fund(saved or raised about $10,000 and still need around $16,000) but we are crazy-good about budgeting and need to make some changes in order to make all of this happen at the right time..

Pray for our move and money! Thanks

long needed update!

So we haven't officially made the switch to Ethiopia but we are in the process. We are waiting for our agency to create for us a new contract. We are hopeful that it will be completed soon. In the mean time we have had our last home study visit which means it will be completed once our switch is official and we have been trying some different fund raising ideas. We will be getting our t-shirts this next week. Sorry for the delay. We were unsure what our adoption process was going to look like once Rwanda closed. SO look for t-shirts soon! Here is a sneak peek....


THOUGHTS??

Our talk and now on to the decisions...

So Friday we had a talk with our agency and went over all the options for what steps to take next. A few of the next steps can include: switching countries, waiting it out for Rwanda to open up, or do a concurrent adoption(which means keep on track with adopting from Rwanda and pursue another adoption at the same time. We are leaning towards switching countries for a few reasons: One, being that it will keep us in the same time frame that we were on with Rwanda by just simply moving countries. Two, being our hearts desire is not just to increase our family but to also be obedient to what the Lord has called us to do. It has been a peaceful weekend of evaluating our hopes and desires during this entire process. We long to bring glory to the Lord first and foremost while being obedient to His word and His call on our family. We also desire to rescue a sweet child! We long for the picture of adoption to cause others to realize just how incredibly awesome it is what Christ did for us in adopting us into his family. We hope and pray that through this entire process that we get a great glimpse of His love for us and a deeper longing to know Him more.
Please continue to pray for us as we make the final decision tomorrow when we talk/email to our agency. Also there are many details that we need to reevaluate when it comes to switching countries.
THANK YOU SO MUCH!!

the unknown...

So since our last post not a lot has happened. We did find out that the country of Rwanda will not be accepting dossiers for a year or more. We are unsure as to what that means for our family so on Friday we will be talking to our agency about just what our options are. Do we switch countries or simply wait it out? The unknown is so confusing and emotional. To me, Erin, most days it feels like a miscarriage all over again. I trust that the Lord has our children already picked out it is just the unknown and the waiting that is hard! SO hard!! Please pray for us this week as we make decisions. Our prayer is that the Lord would simply lead us to our children. We hope that you will join us as we seek after the Lord and His desires for our family! Also pray for the country of Rwanda. It breaks my heart to think of all the babies that will just be waiting to be adopted!

PLEASE PRAY!

This week has been an emotional roller coaster. We received news on adoptions in Rwanda. It is hard to explain but basically they will not be accepting any more dossiers (a completed file for adoptions) after August 31st. This is good and bad news. The good news is that Rwanda will be joining the Hague (which sets standards and regulations for all things adoption). This will make the adoption process down the road fast and easier for families. It also will protect the sweet children from child trafficking and fraud adoptions. The bad news is that there are rumors that it could take up to 2 years to complete the process. We have talked to our agency and they seem to think that where we are in the process is a good thing. They think that once we are ready to submit our dossier Rwanda will be ready, but we are still nervous. We simply want to adopt! We are unsure as to what the Lord is trying to teach us. The only thing that we know is that just this week we have been teaching Jackson Ephesians 5:20: "Always give thanks to God for EVERYTHING." As hard has it is, as badly as we want to be upset, and as confused and heartbroken as we may feel we are deciding moment by moment to give thanks. Thanks for the privilege of being parents, on the track of adopting, all the simple things he gives and takes away. We love Him and long to know Him more. His glory is our ultimate reward as hard as this life may seem at times it will be worth is all! We ask that you would join us in praying!
1. Pray for Rwanda and that the process for them will be quick and easy as they join the Hague.
2. Pray for the families adopting and in the waiting for the sweet children they long to hold and love forever!
3. Pray for the children that now have to wait in less than ideal situations for their loving families to adopt them.
4. Pray for us as we seek the Lord and decide what our next steps need to be in this process.
I could go on and on with requests but all we ask is that you would simply pray! Thanks so much and check back soon for updates as we know them.

T-Shirts are almost ready=)

We have almost officially gotten the design ready for our T-Shirts! We are so excited about having them finally ready. Just wanted to let everyone know!! (If you would like one let us know!! We are going to be selling them for $20)

Continue to pray for our sweet baby=)

What will you name her?

I just wanted to answer another question that we are often asked. "What will you name her?" I can answer that question with, we simply don't know just yet. It is a topic of conversation a lot around our home because we want to call her something other than "our sweet baby", etc. We really want to keep her name if it is something that we can keep but also want her to be a part of our family. With that said we plan on trying to keep her name and also adding our own as well. So for the time being she is our "sweet baby girl"! Hope that helps and keep praying for our "sweet baby girl"!

Thankful hearts!

WOW! The Lord is so good! We have been encouraged and overwhelmed by His continued encouragement through his people that adoption is the direction for us! The past few weeks our friends and family have poured out blessings upon us that let us know we are on the right track! We are getting closer and closer to our goal of $20,000. We still have a long way to go but know that the Lord will provide in due time!

Also we would encourage you all to continue to pray for us and our little one to be!

Where are you in the process?

We are currently in the Home Study process. We have just started this process which usually takes about 90 days. It is the biggest chunk of the adoption process. It is so much more than someone saying that you have a home ready for a child to live in. It is basically your entire life in one package. That is about the only way I can describe it. We are also moving on to the second step with our agency. This step involves the Home Study plus our medical exams, criminal check, ETC!! Basically A LOT!

We have also officially starting the fundraising process. This part of the process makes me the most uncomfortable. I think it makes me uncomfortable because I hate to sell things and, unfortunately, that is what it feels like. But our sweet baby-to-be is worth it. So in order to raise some funds we are going to send out support letters, sell baked goods at the BCM, sell t-shirts(if we can ever get the logo down the way we like it), and plan a 5K. These are just a few ideas that we have come up with. We will need to raise about $20,000 and we have currently spent about $6,000 of our own savings.

How can you be praying for us?
- Pray that all the paper work will come in quickly.
- Pray for the funds to come in.
- Pray over our sweet baby, that she will be protected and taken care of.
- Pray that we would be prepared in all ways to love and provide for our sweet baby!

Thanks from the bottom of our hearts for caring enough to read and care about adoption! The Lord continues to teach us about His heart and desires to adopt all into His family. We consider it pure joy to display a small glimpse of what Christ desires for all humanity!

Here is one of the items we have sold...they were a hit with Jackson!

More answers...

Why did you choose Rwanda?

The reason for choosing Rwanda starts with why we decided to adopt in the first place. Jonathan and I had been really challenged to take care of the 147 million orphans in the world back in August. We thought that actual adoption would be down the road for us. So with that, we decided to really take seriously supporting other families who were adopting and going on mission trips that involved orphan care. Our church is highly involved with a ministry in the Yucatan that has built, and is now running, a home for children (Jonathan will be going there this month!). One night at church the man who heads up the trips to the Yucatan came up to us and handed us a piece of paper with the names and ages of the children who would be moving into the children's home that next week. Most of them where available for adoption. It was the first time that Jonathan and I had really been faced with the decision to actually adopt (The man had no idea we had been challenged to take care of the orphans). We decided to press on with looking into all options of adopting. We explored the options of adopting from the Yucatan and even met with the director of the children's home. We talked to some people about domestic adoptions as well. We were still unsure as to when we would actually start the process but wanted to educate ourselves for the future. Through exploring the potential in the Yucatan we got plugged in with CAN (Children of All Nations). CAN was very good at educating us on the adoption process as well as answering the millions of questions we had. Through prayer, a strong conviction, and a challenge to put our faith and trust in the Lord to the test we decided to step out. We chose Rwanda because it chose us. Each country has many requirements and Rwanda's requirements we felt like fit our family and our current situation best.

Answers....

In the next few posts we will attempt to answer many of the questions that are often asked of us, as well as give you pray requests.

Will you be adopting a girl or a boy?


We are planning on adopting a girl from Rwanda. We decided on a girl after fasting and praying for over a week. We were totally overwhelmed about filling out the 6 page form on the child that we desired to adopted. The extent of the questions on the form ranged from : "What do you expect from your adopted child intellectually?" to "What age range and sex do you want you child to be?". We did not want to "play God" but at the same time wanted to make the most wise decision based on our family and family needs. We trust and know that no matter what we might put on paper, God can and will give us exactly what He knows is best for us! That is why the WHO for us is a girl! We are so excited to dream about bringing her home and making her a part of our family!

How can you pray for us? We are currently taking online classes to complete our 10 hours of parenting classes required by our adoption agency. We recently completed a class on attachment disorder. Please pray that our little one will trust us and that we will learn how to cultivate trust quickly. THANKS!!!

Over the past year or so, we have seriously been contemplating what our role is in James 1:27 “Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself from being polluted by the world.” For a while, we really questioned (and doubted) if our role in caring for orphans was to ACTUALLY adopt. Through that process, we have had the opportunity to pray for families in the process as well as to support financially those adopting. In August of 2009 we felt pretty certain to seriously consider taking the step of faith to start praying about and dialoging the possibility of adopting.

We are very excited to share with you that we have officially started the adoption process! We are going through the agency, Children of All Nations (CAN). We will be adopting a little girl from Rwanda (a small country in Africa). What a fantastic opportunity this is to offer at least one child-in-need a family to love and the opportunity to learn about Christ! Hopefully, if everything runs smoothly, we could get our daughter by the end of 2011.

We would greatly appreciate your partnership with us. First and foremost, please join us as we pray through this wonderful (and, at times, EXTREMELY stressful and confusing) journey.

Our journey thus far has consisted of lots of paper work. We have gotten our passports, filled out a child profile letter, and now we are working on completing our dossier. The dossier is the most intense part of the early process. Please pray that we are able to get all the documents needed and all at the right time.

Please check in often for updates on how you can join us in the process!