Our Official Referral

It is with great joy and thanksgiving that I share our news...we are so excited to be adding Odesco Kaiwen and Mercy Stephen to our family through the miracle of adoption. As you may have noticed, they do not share a last name...we had intended to adopt siblings but the Lord in His wisdom has chosen these 2 unrelated children to join our family.

We have had all of our needed approvals in place since January 28th but there have been no siblings in the orphanage that fit the ages we felt we were supposed to adopt. Last Saturday evening, a representative from Acres of Hope contacted us and asked us to pray about these precious children. As we prayed, we sensed that this was indeed the Lord's will for our family. The only thing we were waiting for was Mercy's medical clearance which we received yesterday morning :)

B1, B2,B3 and B4 are very excited about their new brother and sister. They have been praying daily since August ,"Please help the people at Acres of Hope to know which children are to become a part of our family." Last week when we were still waiting for Mercy's medical clearance, we were having our devotions and reading about the mercy of God. The key verse for last week "happened" to be Micah 6:8

"He has shown you O man what is good;And what does the Lord require of you but to love mercy, and to walk humbly with your God?"

At this point they all agreed, "We'll love Mercy!! See, we are supposed to adopt her!!

Too cute!! This am on our way to church B3 said," Mom, God chose Odesco and Mercy to be a part of our family before He created the world...just like He chose us!"

This same devotional that I mentioned above just "happened" to focus on the whole concept of being adopted by God and the fictional family in the story "happened" to be adopting a little girl from China. I had no idea this would be the focus when I purchased this book...how kind of the Lord to prepare our hearts in this way and to allow the kids to see that this was His plan for all eternity!! I am amazed (although I shouldn't be...He is a BIG God!!) at the Lord's attention to every detail...even Mercy's name! We are still seeking information regarding the Liberian meaning of Odesco's name. We hope to keep it ..most likely as his middle name and we hope to give Mercy a Liberian middle name as well.

Well, I guess you'd like a few more details about the children. Odesco is 2.5 yrs old and has been at the orphanage for 6 months..basically in the past several months, other adoptive families have requested infant boys or siblings . We know the Lord was keeping him there for us!! I can only imagine the fun and creative things( ie: mischief!!) he and B4 will get into together!! Mercy is 4.5 yrs old and she entered the orphanage about 3 weeks ago. The representative from Acres of Hope met her and said that her countenance fits her name... We have to agree after seeing her picture. What a beautiful smile!!

We don't know yet exactly when the children will be traveling home~ We plan to have them escorted to the States (possibly Chicago or Minneapolis with a slight possibility of Dulles. Things seem to go quite quickly from this point on with Liberian adoptions so there is a slight chance they may even be here by the end of April!! As you can imagine, we have lots to do before they get here. B4 and B3's rooms are being redone(repainted/bunkbeds/closet organizers,etc) so my husband is a busy man!!

Last week we packed up Odesco and Mercy's travel backpack to send to the AOH Wisconsin office so that it can be taken to Liberia for the trip home. We had fun stuffing it full of clothes from B3 and B4's hand me downs, snacks and a few toys to keep them occupied on the 30 hour flight. Our next project is to work on photo albums for the 2 of them so that the "aunties" (female caregivers in the orphanage) can introduce them to their family here!! I am looking forward to making mini-scrapbooks for them:)

We are also busy pricing items for a huge fundraising yard sale we hope to have on 4/22 with two other families in the process of adopting, the K's and L's. We have been lavished with everyone's generous donations :). Thank you all for your generosity!! Needless to say, I don't think we'll be bored in the days of preparation ahead.

Please pray for continued grace as we work out all the details, finish the many household projects, continue with a full homeschool schedule ,etc. Please also pray that the Lord would prepare our precious Liberian children and us for the major transition ahead. I will update as we get more information.