Nothing to Be Afraid Of

For many months, I have been alluding to  big changes in our family. I have shared the fact that we plan to move to The Philippines and into orphan ministry but have been deliberately quiet about the details.

Mainly because we wanted to be 100% certain this was HIM and not US.
And because our organization's web site had to be prepared and tweaked before I could share it with anyone.
And because I would NEVER want to put something out there that people may feel led to support financially until I am sure it is what it claims to be, the doctrine behind the organization is square and they are good stewards in every way.

So, it is finally time for me to share the details of the project God is calling us to.

Our name? The Bartimaeus Project  (Mark 10:46-52)
 
Headquarters? Littlestown, Pennsylvania

Our "Job"? Traveling to various orphanages to work with visually-impaired children, evaluate them for possible hosting in the US for free surgery and (hopefully) a chance to find their "forever families".

When Will We Leave?  Lord willing, by March or April 2013

Where Will We Live? In a rental home somewhere around Metro Manila . . .yet to be determined.

Will the Whole Family Go?  Yes, even our high school graduate! We are thrilled!!!!!!!

How do you feel about such a big move?  I'm excited, scared (they have such BIG BUGS, BIG RATS and we will not use air conditioning in our home there -electricity is 3X the cost there as in the US).We have a lot to get used to.  Mostly, I CAN NOT WAIT!!!!! When God calls, the desire to obey Him over rides any fear or hesitation.  The fears are there but they pale in comparison to the chance to walk in the full life that He is offering.

When will you come back?  We don't know. Maybe a year, maybe never.  We are planning to rent out our house and not sell but that is mostly so our children can have the $ someday.

What do you need?
We need prayers most!! We also need many, many Believers to partner with us financially to accomplish this BIG THING. You will feel a part of something wonderful, I promise! And the Lord blesses gifts given in His name to work much for His kingdom.  His economy defies logic sometimes but always leaves me grateful I gave.

Right now, the organization is conducting a "Red Envelope Challenge". Basically, you go the web site, click on "Red Envelope" and pick an envelope (they are numbered 1-500).  Whatever number is on the envelope, that is how much you donate. You can choose #22, #4 or #500 . . . whatever you feel you can do!  Please take the challenge!!!!!

Next, we need families to partner with us monthly to keep us afloat while we are in the field. Even a small monthly donation is effective. Money goes much father in The Philippines and resources like food and medicine can be purchased so inexpensively.  

Finally, we need friends to champion our cause.  Will you spread the word? Will you consider talking about us on Facebook? To your church leadership? In whatever sphere of influence God has given you? 

You can find us at : www.bartimaeusproject.org


Help us help children . . . for the sake of good news of Jesus!

Utterly Dependent

The title of this post may very well make a reader believe it's going to be deep. Spiritual. A discussion of our helplessness without the Lord.   Nope. This post is about my internet!  
My husband and two precious teenagers are now in Manila and in just a few hours they will meet Francis in person for the first time!!!!!!   Our family of seven becomes a family of eight in just six hours or so!  How blessed I am! Also, how neurotic! 
If I had decided to sit down and post yesterday, the post would have had a very different tone. Exasperated. Upset. Despondent.  Ungrateful.  Our internet has been down for three days due to some severe storm activity.
I called to get help from our company only to find that no technician was available for FIVE WHOLE DAYS. 
Normally that would not be a big deal. I may have even welcomed the "outage" as a chance to get back to playing board games with the kids or cleaning out some unvisited corner of my house. But my family is overseas! I was not going to be able to skype in on their first meeting.   I was so distraught.  To top it all off, I went out into our backyard yesterday while the two youngest children were watching a cartoon. I was gone for literally three minutes. When I tried to reenter the house, I found Ezekiel had opened our laundry room door and "trapped" me outside.  I panicked and pushed the door so hard that it bent the track the laundry room door rests on and knocked it right off!!!   I tried to fix it but it's awkward, heavy and I'm no "handy woman".  I decided to "google" an article on how to repair the door track when it dawned on me, I had no internet connection.  Add the fact that it was still two more days until grocery day and I had nothing "easy" to make for dinner so I knew that thawing, chopping and plenty of cooking were on my agenda.
How's that for a whiny run-down of a day????? I went to the front porch and had a pity party which involved a few tears and a good bit of praying.   Suddenly, two things dawned on me.  First, I thought about  how ridiculously I was behaving.  I talk and blog about the sovereignty of God and suddenly when my day goes south, He's not in charge?  It's not a part of His plan in any way, shape or form?  Second, I had a wave of compassion for all the single mothers out there!  I can't handle two days of "singleness" with grace and yet I know women who have done it for years!  Who changes their lightbulbs? Who watches the kids for an hour while they go to book club?  Who puts their laundry room doors back on track and says "oh, you look tired, let's go out for pizza tonight"? Who takes the dogs out at the end of the night because they get all creeped out at the thought of stepping on a frog or a snake?  Nobody. 
If any part of God's plan for yesterday included making me grateful for my amazing, handsome, handy man of a husband, I can confidently say "mission accomplished".    If any part of the enemy's plan for yesterday included exploiting some pretty lame aspects of my character, I can also say "mission accomplished".  
I can't help but think about the apostle Paul and how content he learned to be "in every circumstance".
I want so much to think like that and right now, I do.  My internet is back on, the door is fixed and my sweet neighbor is bringing us dinner! 
What a difference a day makes. 

Ready, Set, GO!!!!

A LOT has happened since my last blog post just a couple of days ago.  I'm not much of a list maker but just for today, I think I'll write a list:
1. Big family meeting to pray about who gets to travel to meet Francis took place
2. A  tiny tantrum occurred  at said meeting (hey, I was PMS-ing, give me a break)
3. My husband and two oldest children won the bid to travel (I'm okay with it now)
4. Tickets were purchased (3 round trip and 1 glorious one-way)
5. Francis had his Embassy interview and all went well (except he got publicly sick in front of a restaurant after the interview, much to the horror of the patrons eating  just inside the window, I'm sure)
6. Boxes and boxes of gifts and orphanage donations have been received, packed and repacked to meet the airline weight requirement.

Those are the biggies this week. Lots of great little things have happened but those were definitely the big, exciting steps taken toward bringing our son home.  
I have developed a wicked case of insomnia  on top of it all. I don't feel stressed or worried, I'm just so excited that I can't sleep. If I wake, I start thinking about the adoption, the travel, the closeness of it all and I'd rather lay in bed and daydream than actually sleep, I guess.    Today, after a full week and 5 days of teaching preschool Vacation Bible School, it all caught up with me and I was wiped out. My sweet husband took the three youngest kids to the pool at the YMCA and I was able to doze in front of the TV - the movie was "Mask" with Cher playing a biker chick mothering a physically deformed teen son - it was almost too interesting to fall asleep to but I somehow managed. 

I am starting to field calls and requests from friends and family members who want to come to the airport when Francis arrives. I'm honored and thrilled!  They have every right to come and I'm touched they would ask. So many people have walked with us through this adoption, prayed for us, donated, encouraged and loved on us that there was never even a thought of keeping his "welcome home" all to myself.   How wonderful for Francis to see a crowd of people anticipating his arrival!  I hesitate to put times and details on the blog because I have had a few "weirdos" over the years contact me via this blog fishing around for information but if you're a friend in real life, you know how to find me and I'll be glad to let you know when to be where. I'll probably be so keyed up I'll need a ride rather than driving anyway!  

Keep those prayers coming, friends. Our father is faithful and as I see the finish line on this adoption, I also see the start of a new family and all that comes with it.  The good and the bad, the stress and the joy, the peace and the worry and I say BRING IT ON!!!!

                                                    Mom, Ezekiel and Daddy (above)

Lemuel carrying lunches for the homeless ministry

Our two oldest (in the center) handing out lunches at the homeless ministry

Our sweet Ky Ky tried fondue for the first time

The Gift That Keeps On Giving

Good news abounds in our home related to our upcoming adoption of Francis!  We have the date for his Visa Interview (mid-June) and a projected travel date (June 22nd)!  I am in awe that we have made it to this point.
It seems just yesterday I was looking at his photo and file, wishing we could adopt him but knowing that it would take a miracle.  Our miracle has come! God moved mountains and now all that stands between us and our new son are some squares on the calendar . . . oh . .. and a 24 hour plane ride (ha ha).  
I can not think back over this adoption without counting the blessings one by one so, bear with me as I thank God for:
1. ICAB giving us permission to adopt just five months after bringing Ezekiel home (the rules say we have to wait two years before applying but due to Francis' age, the board made an exception).
2. Providing every cent needed for this endeavor through generous friends, family members, one fund raiser and our own hard work.  We  have paid for more than half of this adoption IN CASH with NO DEBT thanks to Dave Ramsey and Financial Peace University.
3. The wonders of technology!  We have recently been granted permission to skype with Francis and
HE IS PRECIOUS.   I could fill 20 blog posts with sweet, funny, serious and even tense things that we have discussed in our skypes but for now, I'm going to be like Mary and just ponder them in my heart.  It somehow doesn't feel right to say too much about this subject except that skyping with Francis confirmed what we already knew - he's a great kid and he's going to fit perfectly into this family.
4. An adoption agency that stands behind us, goes to bat for us and trusts our instincts.  Thank you, Christian Adoption Services, for bringing us to the final stages of a fourth Philippine adoption!  There's no agency I'd rather have representing our family than CAS.
5. Teenage children with open hearts who are EXCITED about their new brother - nobody is whining about losing their place in the birth order. Nobody is griping about sharing their room or even their PARENTS with Francis.  All of our kids are just as thrilled as we are that God has given us this opportunity.


I'll end the list here but it could go on and on.   I'll share a photo I snapped during a recent skype session and ask a rhetorical question:  "Doesn't he look like an E****vel?"   One of mine, no doubt!

Off The Cliff!!!

Time for an update on our adoption of Francis!  If you're already weary of hearing about the financial aspects of adoption, you may want to leave this blog and go check your Facebook instead (ha ha).   I want to give credit where credit is due.  First, between the chip-in, gifts from friends and family and our Chic-fil-a fund raiser, we have been blessed with about $9,350 toward the expenses of our adoption!!!! Thank you to all who have generously helped us. There just aren't words to express how grateful we are. The donations not only serve to meet practical expenses but to assure us that God is in this and that He will provide.   We did apply for several grants and were denied each time. The reason the organizations stated is that they feel we have the resources to pay for our own adoption.  The first denial letter than expressed this sentiment made us laugh.  We wondered what THEY saw that WE didn't see. . . and then it dawned on us . . . it's THE DEBT.  Over a year ago, we began to follow Dave Ramsey's principles as laid out in "The Total Money Makeover".  We were able to make a huge lifestyle change and pay off our car, credit cards (which are closed) and set up an emergency fund to be used if my husband were to lose his job.  When grant organizations looked at our application, they saw a family with no debt and some savings and said "no".    We have been taught that the emergency fund is not to be touched under penalty of death unless my husband becomes unemployed. We are afraid to even LOOK at the emergency fund directly - kind of a "Raiders of the Lost Ark" deal - unless we should be tempted and turn into powder.  We vowed that in our minds, the emergency fund was OFF limits and the first of us to suggest using it for an expense unrelated to job loss or nuclear meltdown would be flogged with a cat 'o nine tails.
That was then. This is now.  The emergency fund is being used to finish off this adoption. It is going the way of
parachute pants and Rainbow Brite -  gone but not forgotten.    Bringing Francis into our home IS an emergency.  Obeying the call of our Savior IS an emergency.  We're jumping off the cliff with NO SAFETY NET and, despite my fear,  it feels more like a privilege than I expected - an honor really.  . . a chance to exercise faith that I hear about in others but never knew could be manifest in my own life.   I can not end this post without, once again, praising God for my precious husband who had to set aside his own fears and make the leap with me.   He is a generous man and quick to give of his time and resources but this was a "biggie" yet it seemed a "smallie" when it came down to it.
Thank you, Father, for doing so much more than we could have asked or imagined!