ethiopian faith journey

(Follow link to the right 'OUR STORY FROM THE BEGINNING' for more of our story)

“For I know the plans I have for you”, declares the Lord, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.” Jeremiah 29:11.

God has been writing our story in His book of life – orchestrating details and making connections for our faith journey to Ethiopia for some time. Here is a glimpse of what God has unfolded for us and the journey He has called us to – God has written the story start to finish, but we are just beginning to receive this blessing. He will unfold His journey for us a little bit every day and we are blessed to have you experience the love of Christ for His children with us. There will be a day when we know the whole story and I pray that we can spend eternity with each of you singing praises of His goodness together!

The above verse from Jeremiah goes on to state, “Then you will call upon me and come and pray to me, and I will listen to you. You will seek me and find me when you seek me with all your heart. I will be found by you,” declares the Lord…” (v. 12-14)

We have called upon God and prayed to Him and He was listening. We sought Him with all our hearts and we found Him calling us to Ethiopia.

After we adopted Eliana, God led us to cross paths with many people who were touched by adoption, considering adoption or knew someone adopting. After seeing the way Eliana’s story touched lives, I (Angie) began giving out our phone number to anyone showing interest, praying that God would use our blessing to touch others for adoption. I received a phone call one day from a woman, Jen (& husband, Larry, also in the process of adopting), who expressed several people had given her my name & phone number, from varying circumstances and she felt that God had placed it on her heart to connect with me. They were using the same agency, All God’s Children International, and they actually lived only 3 miles from us – ‘isn’t that a coincidence’ we commented. We kept in touch and I was blessed by watching God at work through their journey to Ethiopia for their beautiful daughter Aleena. By chance, we actually met in person at the Little League field while watching our boys and we shared the joy of their upcoming travel to Ethiopia in crossing at the ball fields! About 4 weeks ago, Jen shared with me with that Aleena has 2 biological brothers that were later relinquished for adoption. After petitioning the Lord and praying for Aleena’s brothers, they felt God was telling them not to adopt them. She was broken and crying out for these boys and the Lord’s provision for them.

Upon receiving the email, something stirred in my heart…the same quiet knock God gave me when He brought Eliana to us. That day, I knelt at my bedside and prayed for these boys that God would bless and protect them and lead them to the family He had already chosen for them. I prayed that God would break our hearts for these boys if I was hearing the knock from Him and not from within my own selfish desires. Joe and I began to pray for these boys and the families that would be approached about them – ‘Lord…let the people hear your heart for them and bless their precious lives.’ Every family contracted with All God’s Children (AGCI) prayed over the placement of these boys and each one received a ‘no’ from God. When there was one family left to contact, we called AGCI and stated that although we were not currently contracted with them, we were praying over them and felt God calling our hearts to them. At this point, our hearts had been broken for these boys and our confirmation from the Lord would be that He stirred every other waiting family’s hearts to say ‘no’. On November 26, 2007, we received a call from AGCI that these boys had not been placed. Joe and I prayed together once more for these precious lives and received clear calling from God that our sons, Muaz (age 7) and Bereket (3 months) were being saved for us. Praise God from whom all blessings flow!

As of Friday, November 30, we are an officially contracted family with All God’s Children International and are pressing forward at mock speed to bring our sons home! Our adoption process in being done in reverse order since normally the home study and paperwork comes first and placement with your child follows. Well – God is working this miracle for us in reverse, so it is a race to catch up and bring them home. Our second confirmation from God that this was His calling for us is that it is also beyond us financially. God is made strong in our weakness and we are about to experience that in all of His fullness. In the next few weeks, we will be watching God make the miracle of approximately $18,000 happen (and then another $20,000 in the next 3-4 months)! In the past, I struggled with making this need public in order to adopt again, but God has shown us His need for these two boys to be safe, loved and growing in Christ. It is about watching an awesome God work a miracle and giving Him the glory for who He is! It is about leading others to Christ by experiencing His love for His children (our boys) lived out to the fullest measure…

“Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you.” Matthew 7:7 The Lord is working in powerful ways and we are excited to see Him work a miracle…

Joey has arrived!

October 14, 2008

BEREKET IS WALKING!

























lOOK WHO'S WALKING!!!
BABY BEAR IS NOW UPRIGHT & MOBILE!
He still prefers the speed & stability of crawling, but is able to walk several steps and learning to master the 'stand & go' as well as 'steer and turn' features. He has lots of eager teachers & encouragers in his sibling pack.
YEAH - BABY BEAR!

JOY IN THE LORD



"May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace as you trust in him, so that you may overflow with hope by the power of the Holy Spirit."
Romans 15:13
These words spoke to my heart as I searched the scriptures for a verse about joy. We have been leaning hard on the Lord recently as we work through surfacing grief and healing issues with one of our precious lambs. It is only by the power of the Holy Spirit that we are able to give hope in times of brokenness. There is such joy on the faces of our children in this picture - we trust in God's promise to heal the broken and make them whole...

October 10, 2008

SOCCER STARS



THE SOCCER BROTHERS...
HOW HANDSOME IS THIS CREW?
The boys had a wonderful day at soccer today and mom had to post a little brag about their exciting morning.
Aiden enjoyed his time on the field and is learning new skills and building up endurance for the running - he is quite a little goalie and is pretty intense about not letting the ball by (you should see his game face when the ball is coming down the field - so Aiden!).
Ethan and Muaz play on the same field and are separated into 2 teams - they seem to always play against each other (usually opposing positions) which is an interesting brother dynamic (all the love & ALL the competition - pretty intense)...
The final score of their game was 6 (Muaz scored 5 of them) to 2 (Ethan scored both of them) - they played so hard and had so much fun! Ethan is catching on to the rules and skills of the game & getting more aggressive on the field. Muaz has some excellent ball handling skills and it is so much fun to watch him move the ball down the field - he was the talk of the bleachers today. One of the grandpa's asked him for his autograph after the game - his smile was priceless! I love the look on their faces when they get the personal satisfaction of a goal & then when they glance up to the bleachers to make sure mom saw - it melts my heart...I love my kids!
The first thing Muaz said when we left soccer today was, "Mom - can I call daddy?!" It is becoming a tradition on Friday's after soccer to call daddy right away and each of the kids give him a play-by-play of their games...good times!

October 9, 2008

DEDICATIONS





We had the privilege of dedicating Muaz & Bereket to the Lord at church a few Sundays ago...thank you Jesus for our sons and for entrusting them to us 'for such a time as this' on earth. We pray they grow to be powerful men of God & live to serve Him with the very lives He has gifted them with.
Other Asperger family Happenings:
  • Baby Asperger 6 is expected to arrive in a few short weeks (induction scheduled for October 24 - perhaps sooner)...we are excited to meet our new little guy & enjoy a precious tiny -'newbie' in the house again. Please pray for safe delivery and healthy baby boy.
  • We started an orphan care ministry at our church 'Hope for the Fatherless' and we are excited about where the Lord is leading us. We have a benefit dinner scheduled for Nov. 22 as a means of reaching the hearts of God's people to care for His fatherless children through foster care and adoption. We are praying the event will make a Kingdom impact on hundreds of people to reach out to embrace His children.
  • Muaz, Ethan & Aiden are enjoying 'homeschool soccer' season right now and could hardly go to sleep tonight because they get to play tomorrow! Muaz is loving the chance to play soccer...finally!
  • School is going really well - it is a delight to my heart to have the privilege of educating our children and to be able to experience their learning and see thier growth both academically and spiritually
  • We have been presented with some wonderful growth opportunities as a family in the past month as a result of behavior challenges and surfacing grief issues. I have found myself leaning hard on the Lord for wisdom and guidance and He is showing me the beauty and healing that results from brokenness. The Lord brought us to this time and place and I daily pray for Him to give me everything I need to be exactly what each of our children need each day...

EPHESIANS 1:3-6 (NLT)

"All praise to God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly realms because we are united with Christ. Even before he made the world, God loved us and chose us in Christ to be holy and without fault in his eyes. God decided in advance to adopt us into his own family by bringing us to himself through Jesus Christ. This is what he wanted to do, and it gave him great pleasure. So we praise God for the glorious grace he has poured out on us who belong to his dear Son."

ADOPTION IS GREATER THAN THE UNIVERSE