"Though I Was Born an Orphan" and Update

Though I was Born an Orphan

Though I was born an orphan,
Abandoned and alone,
Enslaved and bound in darkness,
Without a hope or home,
The God of grace and mercy
From his eternal throne
Ordained to be my Father
And claim me as His own.

That I might be adopted
The Father sent his Son
To live in full obedience
And die for what I’ve done.
Now through his resurrection,
Through faith, with him I’m one.
A member of his household,
I am an heir, a son.

To soothe my fear and worry
The Spirit from on high
Was sent to be a witness
That “Father!” I might cry.
O How I love this Father!
I’m never left alone.
He’s come to dwell within me
Until he calls me home.

Since I have this adoption,
I cannot close my home
To widows and to orphans,
Abandoned and alone.
Lord, fill me with compassion
To love the fatherless,
That I might show the nations
How great my Father is!

--Eric Schumacher and David L. Ward

 I love these words to a song I found. It sums up what motivates Tim and me (and so many others) to adopt. I was an orphan, a slave to a cruel master, dirty, hungry, thirsty, LOST...

BUT GOD, who is rich in mercy, sought me ought, loved me, drew me near to Himself, whispered "You are Mine, and you are precious to me", bought me with the precious blood of Christ, paid my ransom for my sin debt that I could not pay, made me legally His own child. Then He cleaned me, wrapped me in the robes of Christ's righteousness, meets my every need, gave me an inheritance, and made me a joint heir with His Son, Jesus Christ.  

And I did NOTHING to deserve it all. I did nothing to initiate this transaction or relationship.  It was offered freely if I would just reach out and take His hand in faith and say "YES!"  

Because of the great love with which we have been shown in our own adoption by our Heavenly Father, we want to show that same kind of love to our children now and the 2 children the Lord has already ordained for us in BG. Our hope and prayer for our children is that by showing them daily earthly fatherly love, we would model our Heavenly Father's love so that one day they will know Him and accept His free gift of salvation. 

Adoption is not only a testimony to our kids of God's amazing love, but we pray that it will be a testimony to those around us and those we come in contact with through this process. 

                                                                      ******

I have been encouraged this week to connect online with some other Christian families who are adopting from BG as we are. It's nice to know there are others going through the same things and are even at the same point in the process as we are-- being so close to finishing the paperwork phase yet waiting and trusting God to provide financially. 

This week we received our letter from USCIS giving us a date for our biometrics/fingerprinting appointment. We will be flying to Juneau at the end of this month! We were hoping to have different dates so one of us could stay home with the kids while the other one went, so we wouldn't have to buy airplane tickets for the kids too (for an appointment that will last all of 30 minutes). But that could not be arranged as the appointments for everyone are packed full into 3 days, the length of time the biometrics machine will be in town before it heads off to another place. That's Alaska for you. Most people down in "the Lower 48", as we Alaskans refer to it, can just drive not too far away (maybe as far as the state capital) to get this done, but we have to buy 4 airplane tickets! Oh well. I am very thankful to have received these appointments. It is a big step.

I talked to the lady at USCIS in Missouri who is in charge of our application, and she told me she would probably receive our results the Monday following our appointment and could have our approval letter in the mail the next day! So that means we would have our final document needed for the complete dossier by the end of the first week of May. We would just need to notarize and apostille it which won't take very long. Then we'll have a completed dossier!!!!! This is so very exciting!!

Then we make 4 complete copies of all the paperwork and mail it all to our agency, along with $17,000 in fees split between our agency and the BG rep agency which handles everything on that side of the ocean. Then our agency mails the dossier over to BG, it all gets translated, then it gets accepted into the Ministry of Justice/ "MOJ" (BG's governing agency that oversees adoptions). Then they will begin looking for a match for us, or our "referral". The neat thing for us is that we know our children are already known and chosen for us in the mind and heart of God. Pretty awesome!

So we're almost done with our part of this process. We are still lacking $7,000 that we need before we can turn in all this paperwork in a month. If the Lord doesn't provide it in this coming month, then we will wait until He does provide. This is in His hands, and He will move in people's hearts to give according to His perfect plan. We just trust, hope, and pray (as the title of my friend's book sweetly reminds us to do). He will provide!

He Paid My Ransom!

 Tell Me the Story of Jesus

(chorus and verse 3)

 Tell me the story of Jesus,

Write on my heart every word.

Tell me the story most precious,

Sweetest that ever was heard.

 

 Tell of the cross where they nailed Him,

Writhing in anguish and pain.

Tell of the grave where they laid Him,

Tell how He liveth again.

Love in that story so tender,

Clearer than ever I see.

Stay, let me weep while you whisper,

Love paid the ransom for me.

 

                                                 --Fanny Crosby

 I am so thankful that God, my Heavenly Father, loved me before I even knew Him, and in that amazing love paid the great price for my ransom-- to redeem me-- and then adopted me into His family and made me His child, a joint heir with Christ!

"But when the fullness of time had come, God sent forth his Son, born of woman, born under the law,  to redeem those who were under the law, so that we might receive adoption as sons. And because you are sons, God has sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts, crying, “Abba! Father!” So you are no longer a slave, but a son, and if a son, then an heir through God." Galatians 4:4-7

" And you were dead in the trespasses and sins in which you once walked, following the course of this world... and were by nature children of wrath, like the rest of mankind. But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us, even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ— by grace you have been saved— and raised us up with him and seated us with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, so that in the coming ages he might show the immeasurable riches of his grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus. For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast." Ephesians 2:1-9

 

I just love all the parallels between physical and spiritual adoption! It gets me pretty excited. =)

Enjoy meditating this Easter weekend on our adoption in Christ made possible through His death on the cross and resurrection from the grave! 

Then think about all the multiple millions of orphans in this world who need their ransom paid to be brought into a forever family, in the same way your ransom was paid to be made a child of God!

New Fundraiser-- Great Deal for You!

For a $20 donation at http://coupaide.com/deal/abbott/ or by clicking "support us" below, you will receive a $50 Restaurant.com e-certificate! That's a good deal! Check it out, and thank you for your support!

Compassion is Action, Not a Feeling

Not all of us are called to adopt, "but all of us are called to be compassionate. All of us are called to remember the poor. All of us are called to remember the fatherless and the widows (James 1:27). That will look different in our different lives, with the different situations and resources God has given us..." -- Russell Moore in Adopted for Life

Are we "moved with compassion" for the multitudes, the weak, the outcast, the hungry, the lost, the dying, the crippled, the blind (spiritually and physically), the destitute, the fatherless and widows, AS JESUS WAS (and is)? Compassion is not merely a feeling of sadness and maybe saying a prayer for someone. It is action! Please take the time to watch this 7 minute video.

Lifesong for Orphans/ Both Hands Foundation Approved!

We were informed today that we have been approved by Lifesong for Orphans to do a Both Hands project in our community for a widow. This means a couple things. First of all, it gives us an account with this non-profit foundation for people to make tax-deductible donations to our adoption account. This can be done through the new Paypal link underneath our fundraising thermometer (can donate by credit card through that button even without a Paypal account), or by check through the mail to:

Lifesong for Orphans
PO Box 40 / 202 N. Ford St.
Gridley, IL 61744

In the memo line on the check, please specify our name and account # -- Abbott/#2708 adoption

Also, please be aware that Paypal has a fee of 2-3% of the amount you donate, so what Lifesong will receive for our account, will be less than you specify originally. To avoid this fee, if you want, just send the check instead. Also, I have to mention here, that the IRS requires Lifesong to mention since they're non-profit-- know that your donation officially is to the organization, Lifesong for Orphans, and technically has full discretion of use of funds, but they intend to honor your request to use all of your donation to your specified account. It's just a technicality for tax reasons. None of your donation goes to administration costs. 100% goes to our account.

Let me explain a little about the Both Hands project. It works a lot like those who run a marathon or play a game of golf for a charity/ special cause, in that the 10 volunteers from our community send out support or sponsorship letters to raise money to spend 1 day working together on a widow's house. The project is anything from landscaping, to deep cleaning, to home improvement project of some kind. Once we finalize our 10 volunteers, we will be choosing the widow from our community soon and begin working with her and finding out what she needs done around her house. We will set aside one day, probably in early May to work on her house. Between now and then, we'll be sending out the sponsorship letters, working to get needed supplies donated, and general planning for the project. All of the sponsorship money goes to our Lifesong account to help us raise money for the adoption.

We are excited about this opportunity to fundraise and be a blessing to widow in the process!

Psalm 68:5-6a-- "Father of the fatherless and protector of widows is God in his holy habitation. God settles the solitary in a home."

James 1:27-- "Religion that is pure and undefiled before God, the Father, is this: to visit orphans and widows in their affliction, and to keep oneself unstained from the world."

"Kisses In the Wind" and an Update

Well, we haven't been updating you very much because there has not been very much to update you on. We have been working on getting documents together for the dossier, which also involves a lot of waiting. Just yesterday we were able to mail out our I-800A application to the U.S. Customs and Immigration, along with almost $900 for the fee and what will be our 3rd fingerprinting (which we'll have to do at one of their offices, so we'll have to fly out somewhere, probably Anchorage, to get those done). Approval from them usually takes about 2 months, from what we've been told. They basically give the United States' approval for us to adopt children from a foreign country. So it's pretty important! We also received our FBI clearances today, which now we have to mail to Washington D.C. for apostilling from the State Dept. It makes my head spin! While we're waiting for some of these that take a long time, we'll be working on some other documents that we need to fill out and get notarized then sent to Juneau for apostilling (which is basically the state's stamp of approval saying that the notary is an official, valid notary). I had to google the word when I first heard it. So that's where we are in the process. We're slowly but surely making progress. Pray that all these applications and documents being mailed across the country arrive safely and time efficiently and get processed and approved quickly with no hang-ups.

 As far as finances go, at the time that all the paperwork is ready to be turned in (the dossier), which we hope will be 2 months, we will owe the agency and Bulgaria $17K. We believe that loans are not the answer, and are committed to not going in debt. The Lord will provide completely for this adoption. Of that $17K, we still need about $7,000. Our adoption fundraising thermometer on the side of this blog tells how much has been provided up to this point, but a few thousand of that has already been spent on previous fees like our home study, application fees, fingerprinting, etc. I just wanted to explain that so you understand that thermometer and current needs. The Lord has provided amazingly so far, and we have no doubt He will continue to do so. Please prayerfully consider what part the Lord would have for you to help. There is a "donate" button on the "ways to help" page if you would feel led to do so. Otherwise, you can continue to help us by praying it in!

Finally, I'll post an adoption poem I found and love--
 

KISSES IN THE WIND (The Waiting Child's Lullabye)

I hold you in my heart and touch you in my dreams.
You are here each day with me, at least that's how it seems.

I know you wonder where we are... what's taking us so long.
But remember child, I love you so and God will keep you strong.

Now go outside and feel the breeze and let it touch your skin...
Because tonight, just as always, I blow you kisses in the wind.

May God hold you in His hand until I can be with you.
I promise you, my darling, I'm doing all that I can do.

Very soon, you'll have a family for real, not just pretend.
But for tonight, just as always, I blow you kisses in the wind.

May God wrap you in His arms and hold you very tight.
And let the angels bring the kisses that I send to you each night.