Our first homestudy meeting

On Tuesday, we had our very first home study meting. It was a very chaotic day. I went back and fourth between whether or not we should cancel. We had issues with childcare and all sorts of urgent things that needed to be taken care of the same day. I also signed up to bring a meal to a friend that had a baby. I felt such opposition. I pondered whether this was an attack from the enemy to keep us from adopting or the Lord saying it isn't time. We considered adopting the siblings of a friends sons from Ghana. I prayed to the Lord and said " you know I don't want to inconvenience anyone and I don't want to go outside of your will. If you want us to adopt you'll help me find childcare for my children with someone I trust." ( which isn't a whole lot of people) Finally, miraculously my friend called saying that she would love to watch my children and to have them over. Our kids were able to play with her dog, chickens, a bunny and pet horses nearby. They had a blast. Huatzin and I discussed that if this meeting went bad or if something didn't feel right we'd go ahead and pull the plug and try to adopt from Ghana instead. I cooked the meal for both families, stopped at the store, dropped off the kids, dropped off the meal, and got to our appointment with 2 minutes to spare.

The meeting went really well. I really like our social worker. ( I didn't think I would) She left us feeling very hopeful which is something they don't do in the classes. They always tell you worst case scenario and overestimate everything, especially timeframes. In the classes they told us it could be anywhere from 12-18 months or more to get certified. She told us it could be as little as 4 or 5 months or less depending on how quickly we got everything turned in. Our social worker was very optimistic and down to earth. There aren't any siblings matching our preference at this time. ( Black or Asian, or any HIV orphans) She did mentioned that with our flexible preferences of 0-5 any ethnicity, willing to accept siblings, drug exposure and some special needs we probably wouldn't wait long to adopt. YAY. A really total God thing happened. 2 years ago our entire family fell in love with a sibling set. They were so "perfect" for our family in every way. I told her how we used to pine over a sibling set on the heart gallery. She asked us which one. I mentioned their names. She KNEW them. I have asked around all over the "system" and had just given up hope that I'd ever know what happened to them. She told me that it was such a shame I didn't contact her sooner. I wish we wold have considered her agency first instead of Olivecrest.
( we had a HORRIBLE, TERRIBLE AWFUL experience with Olivecrest, ( I've since met many others who have also) which eventually led to us not getting a sibling set we desperately wanted, and kept a sibling set from ever being ADOPTED into a loving home. Our family might have looked very different than it does now. I will keep them in prayer for as long as I live. They are on my wall and in my heart forever. When I pray my my own children I pray for them. We have not since then, seen any other sibling group that matched our preferences so perfectly. The Lord at least gave a bit of closure.

I am so excited at what the Lord is doing in our family. I am bubbling over with anticipation to on getting licensed to adopt. I DREAM of the day they call us saying " we have a match for your family." I await especially for the moment when we hear " "these children are now fully and legally YOURS!" I long for the day He uses our family to bring joy, hope, love, rest and closure to orphans. I pray we will be able to rescue, redeem and ransom little ones on the brink of destruction. We want to be the ones that bring stability and peace to them. We want to show them the love of a father and mother, to lovingly point them to the Christ.

Psalm 68:6 "God sets the solitary in families: he brings out those which are bound with chains"
For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, they are sons of God. For you did not receive a spirit of slavery leading to fear again, but you received a spirit of adoption in which we call out, Abba, Father. The Spirit himself testifies together with our spirit that we are God's children. And if children, then also heirs heirs of God and coheirs with Christ, if indeed we suffer with him in order also to be glorified with him. (Romans 8:14-17)

Sharing at the Children's Home! Things I wish someone would have told me

I was asked to speak again to the teen girls over at the Children's home. When I came to Christ years ago, I asked the Lord to use the suffering in my life for good and to help others. I didn't want my pain to have been without purpose. Even though it's only about 10-20 girls at a time, it is the Lord answering the deepest desires of my heart. I am always SO blessed and excited when I get to share what the Lord has done for me. I It sounds silly but to me it feels as though I am walking on holy ground! I know that what He has done in my life He can do for others. It is my prayer that seeds are planted, hope is restored and that lives can be redeemed and souls are brought into the kingdom in the lives of the foster youth here in the US.

I shared a bit about my upbringing. I told them how I used to be in foster care. My father was in and out of prison and on drugs. I lived with my grandparents and how my grandfather was violent and my grandmother and I fled to a domestic violence shelter. I spoke of the abuse from my father, neglect from my mother.. I mentioned things like the shoot out at a gas station when I was about 4, followed by a high speed chase on the freeway by the police and my mother being arrested on Christmas day, and how the police gave me a doll because they realized I didn't receive anything that morning.

I spoke about my stay at CASA and CSP youth shelters, and how it changed my life even though my mom was on drugs. I spoke about finding needles in our home and being kicked out when I was 17. I shared all the things I've learned along the way and what I wish people would have told me. Included in Part 2 next post) I gave them the print out of what God taught me along the way and we took turns reading it together as a group. Most of it was straight scripture!!! Some of the teens were blessed and some it was hard to tell. Unlike the other other time I spoke and the response was huge. I included The Fathers love letter. I ALWAYS bring along either this letter or the kids comic book letter. It's words have transformed my life!

One of the girls was so excited that we both lived in the same shelter. I was surprised to hear that some of the workers and counselors there would try to crush the hopes of the girls wanting to have faith in Christ with snide remarks and sarcastic comments. Some of the very people that should be helping them are some of the biggest faith killers and dream destroyers. One made a comment that "they only visit so they can get credit." Ok well, I'm not in school and I am a homeschooling SAHM of 5. I don't think any of the ladies were there to get credit! I can't figure out fir the life of me, why ANYONE like that would get a job working with children! Especially broken hurting children! It reminds me of Matthew 18:6 "but whoever causes one of these little ones who believe in Me to stumble, it would be better for him to have a heavy millstone hung around his neck, and to be drowned in the depth of the sea." Anyway, I think our group did good. All we can do is offer our meager efforts to the Lord like the boy with the loves and two fishes and leave the cultivating and multiplying of the fruit up to Him. I am confident that if we show up, He'll do the rest. Watch this and let it settle into your spirit. Let it transform your mind and spirit in Christ. Be blessed as you set your mind on things above and know who your daddy is and who you belong to! Love, Alida w5

Our Adoption Journey/needing a larger mode of transportation

OK,
Some of you have asked WHY we are upgrading to a 12 or larger passenger vehicle. Well.... We were going to wait to announce it, but figured we might as well share... We have now BEGUN the paperchase hustle. :-) For those of you unsure about this adoption lingo... We are prayerfully going to attempt to adopt a precious sibling set from foster care. I have poured my heart out before the Lord many times asking Him to glorify Himself through our family. We long to take up the cause of the the widow and the orphan and to reflect His light and glory into dark situations. One of the ways we hope to accomplish that is by providing a home to those in need. We can not help ALL of the over 100,000 children languishing in foster care, but we can bless a few. A Jewish Proverb says “He who saves one life, saves the world entire.”
A love the verse from Ghandi, "Be the change you want to see in the world! "

We will start the CPR certification, the foster care and fost/adopt classes shortly. We may or may not get to adopt these children but here is how it started. We met with a wonderful adoptive couple from Saddleback (which BTW has a HUGE orphan outreach movement going on!) We were invited to their home and they shared the pros and cons of each type of adoption (private, domestic, foster to adopt and international) and shared their story. We walked away encouraged and feel that for the moment fost/adopt is the way to go.

After praying to the Lord asking Him to send us the children meant for our family I felt moved to go online and typed up "waiting children." Lo and behold I found a set that seem to fit us perfectly. There are four children. The oldest being the same age as our boys, another being close to the age of our daughter and another close to Josiah's age. ( and another kiddo thrown in for good measure.:-)

I prayed about it and excitedly printed it out. I woke my husband up and told him that I found our children. He looked at me almost delirious from his comatose sleep and eyed each photo of the children nodded and went back to sleep! ;-)He was a bit surprised at how MANY of them there were (he was thinking more along the lines of one or two) be but loves the idea of a home full of children. It is so sweet to hear him speak about bringing them into our family. When I homeschool my boys I think of how the oldest would LOVE the lessons we are doing. ( I can't WAIT to help him get caught up academically! It will be so fun) When I fold my daughters clothes I think of how cute it will look on the little girl. A while back I brought these 4 baby gap African jumpers with the intent of sending one to a friend, believing in faith that God would bless us with children to fit them. ;-) Pray for us! May the Lord go before us and give us the children that He has for US. (whatever THAT looks like. I have no clue. ) Thank you for your love, support and prayers, may His will be done. Alida