Journey to L and H: Hellos and goodbyes

I flew back from Liberia a couple weeks ago to rejoin my kids, leaving Sam to continue on alone for the time being. 

I have to make mention of the incredible community we have here, who stepped up immediately with the task of taking care of our kids while we were gone. Each child ended up at a different family's house (Amelia at 3!) and while maybe for them it wasn't a big deal to add another child to their houseful, it meant the world to us. Thank you to Basingers, Jobes, Curries, VanRensburgs, Timmermans, and Brazeaus. We are blessed with these friendships and knew the kids were in great hands. They took our kids to school, basketball practice, the beach, the pool, fed them yummy food, reminded them to brush their teeth and do their homework, and much more. And we know that there were many other families who would have done the same. And thank you to those of you who volunteered to be on call if the kids needed anything. 

Once I returned, we went back to normal routines, with the hope that we'd hear from Sam soon about a court date. Days went by with nothing, and now weeks.

Not that there's been silence this whole time. Things are happening but at a maddeningly slow pace. When we say it's a journey of ups and downs, we literally hear good news one day and bad news the next. And in the adoption world, we cling to any glimmer of hope, and celebrate small victories despite there inevitably being several setbacks to follow. It's how we press on. 

The decision for the kids and I to join Sam without a court date set has been a hard one. But I think steps of faith are just that....pushing forward, not knowing if this is a good or bad decision, not knowing for sure if our court date will be soon or still a ways off. But we trust that God knows those things and He goes before us in this crazy journey. I am often filled with doubt and anxiety, but He is steady and faithful so I know I can trust this process into His care.

So the kids and I are leaving on Thursday to begin our journey to Liberia. Either way, the kids will be meeting their sisters for the first time. How awesome! I am excited to see how that will go. Probably a mix of awkwardness, nerves, a bit uncomfortable. But a necessary step towards being a family of 7! 

And besides our own news we have two other exciting adoption updates to share:

Our friends here who are adopting their second Indonesian child finally got all of their paperwork approved!!!! Though little Jojo has been living with them for some time, the process to finalize has been arduous and very stressful at times. They also have been unable to leave the country to go back to Canada to visit family and introduce their daughter. But very soon they will be able to travel to the capital city to go to court and finally officially adopt her into their family. We are overjoyed for them! Her older brother is one of Rovan's best friends.

Another piece of good news is that another adoptive family from Liberia, who have been given the run around by the US Embassy, finally received their approval to adopt their daughter Hannah, after unexpectedly having to return her to the orphanage to wait out the process. It's been a tough road for them, but praise the Lord Hannah finally is being allowed a visa to the US and gets to go home! Hannah is a friend to our daughters and we can't wait to get together with them in the US once this is all over. We have met Hannah and she is a JOY.

We ask for prayer as we take this step of faith and stay goodbye to our community for now. We don't know how long we will need to be in Liberia for, but we are expecting it to take a while. Afterwards we will head to the USA to finish out their paperwork, introduce them to family, and take some furlough time before returning back here

The kids have been enrolled in the school here in town which has been an incredible blessing to our family. They've made some very special friendships, been invested in by some pretty awesome teachers, and are very sad to say goodbye for now. Please pray for their hearts to process this change well. It's not forever but it still feels heavy for them.