Trust and obey, for there’s no other way.

Hello, this is Lindsey!  Scott has been sluggish in updating his blog, so I thought that I would give a whirl at it.  I wanted to post an update about where we are at the process of bringing home our child, along with how God is working through the whole process.

We are currently going through the book Experiencing God during our Wednesday night Bible study.  This book keeps revealing to me day after day about how lost I really am.  I am so caught up in trying to make myself happy and content.  I am realizing that there are two ways to live your life: God-centered or me-centered.  Although I want to think of myself as this perfect Christian who has everything together and all the answers, I truly am not.  I continually struggle with making decisions that only have my best interests in mind.  I surrender some parts of my life to Christ, but I hold onto the majority of it.  I really enjoyed this quote from the study:

No one can sum up all God is able to accomplish through one solitary life that is wholly yielded, adjusted, and obedient to Him!

I often wonder why God called Scott and I to such a task as adoption.  I wonder how we actually heard His call amidst the mess that we (I) are.  I also wonder how many other calls that I have missed because I was too focused on myself and the plans that I was trying to make for myself.  I am overly thankful for God’s unconditional love and His grace that He would keep pursuing me after all the times that I have turned my back on Him.  As I walk forward each step of every day, I have to ask myself, who am I yielding my life to: God, or myself?  Who are you yielding your life to right now?  Are you missing out on something that God is calling you to do because you are afraid that obedience will cost too much? 

Scott and I are grateful for the people at NewLife who understood God’s focus on the orphans and who responded to what He was calling them to do.  Through their actions, God was able to work in Scott and I’s lives.  You never know what outcomes your actions are going to have, no matter how small they are.  By being obedient, you could be the stepping stone to other Christian’s obedience.  We are happy to announce that you will have the opportunity to be part of our story next Sunday, November 22nd.  NewLife Community Church Canal Winchester will be hosting a Concert for Adoption at 6:30.  During this concert you will enjoy a host of different musical talents and hear different couples from the church share how adoption has affected their lives and what you can do to help.

On our end of things, we are in the first part of our home study of preparing the paperwork.  We need to gather all of the information before we meet with the social worker.  We have sent in our requests for the child abuse registry reports, driving record histories, and medical statements.  This week we will work on scheduling a class to become CPR certified, scheduling an appointment for the fire marshal to do an inspection, passing out the reference letters for our friends to complete, and getting a letter from our employer regarding our current jobs.  We have an appointment tomorrow to get our fingerprints taken for the US government and we’ll get a second appointment for fingerprints for the home study.  After those things get completed, we’ll meet with the home study provider and go through an interview.  When the social worker has the required information, they will write their report.

I’ve also received some questions about the timeline.  As far as we know right now, we will likely travel to the Ukraine in July to bring home our child.  This could easily change, but it’s our best guess.  After the home study gets approved, the US government will have three months to approve our I-600A.  After the I-600A is approved, then we’ll start filling out our dossier paperwork.  It’s important not to start this paperwork until the I-600A is approved because the dossier paperwork expires in 6 months.  Once the dossier is done, we will send it to CWA and they will review it and have it translated.  The translated dossier will be sent to the Ukraine for the government’s approval.  In the past few months, they have been reviewing the paperwork and sending out a letter of invitation to travel to the prospective adoptive parents within 10 days of receiving the dossier!!  Wow, ten days!!  They will send us a letter with an appointment date usually 30 days out.  We’ll then have a month to schedule our travel and the transition of coming home as parents. 

Speaking of becoming parents, we are starting to make steps towards the change.  There were a couple of times  this past weekend when I’m sure that Scott’s heart skipped a beat.  The first was when we assembled the crib and put the mattress in it.  I’m sure he’s sad to see baby things taking over his computer/game room!  The other thing that jolted us into reality was installing the car seat in our car.  These are the main baby items that we have.  They are required for our home study so that the social worker can ensure how safe they are.  

So, that is where we are at.  Throughout this whole process, I’m just learning to trust God more and more and to lean on His strength and not my own plans.  It has been an enjoyable experience watching other people meet the needs that we have pop up.  We do not consider this adoption solely as a means to expand our family.  We feel like we are being obedient to God’s calling in rescuing a child from a life of loneliness and helplessness, since in reality, that is what Christ did when He died on the cross to save a mess like me and give me life more abundantly.