Details, Details, Details

Over the past few months, I have joined hands with others in finding the gifts of gratitude that are woven into the fabric of my life--the tiny details that sometimes go unnoticed, but yet it's those small details that really hold everything together. Just like gratitude, I must take the time to notice their intricacy and beauty.

As everything seems to be moving at such a fast pace, a blur, a spinning that does not cease, I find it hard to merely stop, catch my breath and notice these tiny details woven into her story and give thanks for them.

- Paperwork reaching her country in record timing
- School coming to an end, offering more time for preparations
- Anticipation building of meeting her
- Brothers and sisters eager to pick out & share toys/clothes for their new sister
- Money given months ago for our adoption, lost but now found in perfect timing
- My children and neighborhood children working together to juice lemons, selling lemonade up and down the street to help raise funds to bring their new sister/playmate home.
- Screaming deal on a used electric drum set for The Talker, he using money painstakingly saved for months
- Used drum seller refusing the money, insisting it be used toward her adoption
- Bounty of little girl clothes donated by loving friends for trying on her at the orphanage so we can figure out what size she is, lovingly given to leave for those she will leave behind
- Tears shed over goodbyes as a dear friend leaves for the mission field in Haiti while we are a world away in her country
- Hunting, hunting, hunting for dress pants for my short legs, finally found
- Spontaneous hugs from my kids, storing them up before we leave
- Friends giving of their time to spend with my kids allowing me to accomplish what needs to be done to get to her
- Treasured moments as a family, experiencing mini-golf together for the first time
- Suitcases borrowed, ready for filling
- Toys/activities given by loving hearts for play with her while we visit
- Making new internet friends along the way as her story unfolds
- Watching the numbers climb as people we don't even know, selflessly hosting "Love for Anika" parties, writing their part into her story

So many details coming together and yet so many still to fall into line in just this next week alone. We could use a bit of prayer for those details. Will you play your part in her story by joining us in praying over those details?

- Passp*rts/Visas due to leave the Embassy on June 2. They must reach us by June 3 in order to depart on time.
- Errands to run, meals to make, funds to come together, time to spend as a family
- Packing for 7 people...enough said
- Getting everyone where they need to be and making sure everyone knows their part in child care
- Remembering everything I need to remember, even the little things like library books turned in
- My man working 80+ hours/week to finish up renovations at his job on top of his regular work, all so he can be ready to meet his new daughter
- Rest for my hard working man's weary body

Thanks can never be enough to you for coming alongside and cheering us on as His story unfolds through her story.

Are You Kidding Me?

I had these grand plans of only adding to her story once per week, but frankly, I can barely keep up with Him daily and I think I will forget a lot of amazing little things if I go that route. So let's see if I can bring you along more often on the ride.

Over the weekend, it came to my attention that we would need to obtain a local police letter to see if it would suffice instead of a state wide one. In our state, it can be quite laborious to get the state level so if our daughter's country would be willing to take a local level report, it would be a welcomed relief. I really had no idea how to get one or how long it would take. The timing is important since our agency would like us to hand-carry it with us, if at all possible.

I woke up Monday morning and called at 8:00 am to our local department. I found out the process and was told that it could take a few days. So by 8:10, I was in their lobby getting the ball rolling. My man was to stop by on his way to work to request his info since I couldn't get it for him. Yet, the lady at the desk was nice enough to let me fill out his document so that all he'd need to do was sign when he got there.

By the time my man arrived an hour later, the lady had both of our reports done and ready and told us to bring a notary back later in the afternoon. Wow.

Woke up this morning to find confirmation that we will have an appointment with the DOE on the date we had hoped for in less than 2 weeks. Also received the good news that our documents have arrived in-country. Now for translation and registration!

As a result of those confirmations, we had our airline tickets changed to the new dates of our trip. Remember, we were already scheduled to travel to EE in a few weeks. Now we just needed to add a few days on to the front of the trip for the visit with our daughter. After that, we will meet up with our team for our original trip. When we received the new itinerary, we stood in awe of Him again. We expected that we would need to pay a fee for changing the tickets. Nope. No balance due. In fact, the ticket prices have gone down so there is now a credit. Are you kidding me?

“Are you kidding me?”

seems come out of my mouth on a regular basis now. My kids and I joke that if I had a dollar for every time that phrase slipped out of  my mouth before I could stop it, we'd have this whole adoption paid for already!

Maybe I should change the name of this blog to www.areyoukiddingme.com! Ha!

I must confess, that when I woke up this morning, before checking my email, I was fretting about the money we will need to bring on our first trip. Yet when things like these are happening so frequently, how can I? He is a mountain moving God that has proven Himself to our family over and over and we can't help but push our worries aside and have confidence in the One who is writing His story through her story.

Tiny Details of Her Story

I am absolutely humbled that God would allow me to be a part of her story. As I tell her story time and again, I am so in awe of what He is doing and cannot figure out for the life of me why He’d want to involve me—us—our family!

Probably the hardest people to share her story with are those that instantly place us into sainthood upon hearing it. Please let me be clear. We are no heroes. We are simply passionate about joining God in the work of placing orphans in families and are obedient when He has asked us to be willing. That is all.

Just simply willing.

We have a family. There are children who need one. Why not us? As I have explained it to a few people along the way, I only have one life to live and I do not intend to waste it. I do not desire to live comfortably and without risk. After all, this is not my life to live. It is His.

Every time I think to ask you to lift us up in a specific prayer, by the time I get to the computer to write, it has been answered already. This is going at such a crazy, fast pace that it practically leaves my head spinning. When I am tempted to worry about some part of the journey, I merely have to look back at how many impossible things have become possible in the past few weeks that I cannot help but hear Him whispering in my ear, “I’ve got your back. No need to fear that I will not come through.”

This past week alone, I have barely been able to keep up what He is doing. Can you believe that we modified our homestudy for a new agency, prepared a dossier, had it apostilled and out the door to Russia in one week? Impossible. Think again.

Can you believe that before I’ve even had time to think about changing around the child care arrangements for my other kids since we are lengthening our original trip a bit, I have had people come to me and ask if they can fill in the gap for me? Our child care modifications were ready before I was!

Even the tiny things have been taken care of. For example, I normally work in our Connection Center at church on the first Sunday of the month. I hadn’t even thought about getting someone to fill in for me yet. No sweat. He’s got my back again. Another volunteer contacted me this week and wondered if I could work for her this week and switch my June date. Well, since I’ll be on a plane to EE, that will work just fine!

Did I ever tell you the other tiny detail that was not tiny to us? Back in February, when we first discovered her, we found out that her birth name is the same as the very best friend of DOP—the one she had to leave behind. Of all the names…really? Daughter of Purpose has grieved that loss and always wanted us to go back for her friend. When we investigated the possibility, we learned that her friend had already been adopted. God knew that name was special to us and has used it as a confirming piece in her story. Of all the names…I still can’t get over it!

All of the pieces seem to be falling into place without me even doing anything. I have never experienced anything like this before!  At this point, we are simply waiting on the official word from EE that all of our hard work to get our paperwork done so quickly has paid off. We are waiting to hear if we have an appointment with the DOE in 2 weeks.

Thanks for praying for us, especially those that don’t even know us, but just know Anika’s story. It’s clear to me that He’s got some seriously big plans for her. I can’t wait to be a part!

Unfolding His Story Through Her Story - Part 4

By the following Monday, we received an unofficial word that they would make an exception for a family with up to 5 children in the home—ha, ha! That would work just fine for us! One mountain down.

By Tuesday we knew the next mountain we were up against. There were two other families in front of us. In these types of situations, it’s a first come, first served basis. We would need to wait it out. Yet again, it looked impossible, but everything in me knew that this was my daughter so I fasted and prayed throughout the week while we waited.

Another interesting piece as we waited was that whoever was to be her family, needed to be able to travel to visit her in June. We already have a trip planned to EE in June and have visas. Crazy, huh? We knew this was not an accident.

Thursday, May 12, 2010 we woke with the realization that this was the “Gotcha Day” of Daughter of Purpose. Three years ago, on that day, we walked away from the orphanage with her. I knew there was something different about this day. I begged the Lord to honor the significance of this day and to allow us to have another cause of celebration on this day—let this be the day we find out that she really is our daughter. His response to me was that I needed to fast & pray again. I complained a bit, reminding Him of all of the fasting and praying I had already done, but then again yielded to His will.

The kids and I went to the park that day. My friends say I was pretty quiet. I guess it’s because I was single minded that day. I was praying for my daughter.

At 4:11 pm my phone rang and knew this was it. I was either going to receive good news or bad news. I braced myself to hear whether I was right or not. Was this my daughter or not? I really wanted her family to be ours, but yet I ultimately knew that God was in control and He knew what was best for her. All I really wanted was for her to have a family and that through them she would know about Him. Would we be chosen?

Tears streamed down my face as the social worker let me know that she had just gotten confirmation that we were on deck. The families in front of us either had to or chose to step out. Second mountain down.

That meant that what I knew ever since February was true. The precious treasure on the other side of the screen that captured my heart IS my daughter!

After I hung up the phone with the social worker, screams erupted in our home as I told the kids! I’m pretty sure I blew out the ear of my man when I called him at work!

SHE’S OURS! SHE’S OURS! SHE’S OURS! SHE’S OURS!

I could not believe this was happening. I mean I could because

He is a mountain moving God,

but yet at the same time I couldn’t believe it was real.

Now that we’ve committed to be her family, we have a whirlwind of activity to do before we leave in June. We have to have our homestudy slightly modified, every document done, shipped to EE, translated and registered by June 7. Sounds impossible, but with all of the mountains we have seen move recently, I have no doubts that God will empower us to get it done and for the funding to come together. As my new friend, Amy says, “God is cool like that.” I love that! You are right, Amy, God IS cool like that!

We could use your prayer over the next few weeks as we prepare to meet our new 2 ½ year old daughter.


We’ve come too far to doubt that God will meet our need to bring our daughter home.  I am so astounded by the privilege He’s given me to tell His story by telling her story. I hope you stick around to listen as the rest of it unfolds. I think it’s gonna be good.

Unfolding His Story Through Her Story - Part 3

Something about this particular little one stayed with me over the months. Even though the door was closed, I couldn’t shake her and quietly kept her in my heart, praying for her and wondering if she’d ever found a family.

On a Monday morning a few weeks ago, The Driver and I discussed our thoughts about changing to another country in EE for our adoption and he left for a staff retreat with intentions to pray specifically about this issue.

Late Tuesday night, as I closed down the computer for the night, I made an impulse decision to check into Twitter. I hadn’t been on Twitter for about two months and I’m still not really sure why I decided to check in to the Twitter world,

but that one decision changed my life.

As I glanced over my Twitter feed, I didn’t focus in on a whole lot, but one tweet in particular stood out to me. I have gone back and looked for this tweet, but have been unable to find it. I’m not even sure who it was that tweeted this, but I remember it saying something like this, “Maybe YOU can be the one to change the life of this little girl.” It had a link to a blog attached so I clicked it.

The image that came up at the end of that link was her—my daughter-to-be still needed a family. She had grown up a bit, but I instantly knew it was her. They had changed her name for privacy, but I knew it was her. Thinking that maybe I had lost my mind, I backtracked to where I knew her info was on her orphanage’s website—in Cyrillic, mind you. I translated the pages, navigating as I went along and…there she was...correct name and all!

Needless to say, I did not sleep very well that night, tossing and turning, trying to decide what to do. I knew she was my daughter, but how was I to conquer the mountainous law that stood in my way? As I prayed through the night, the scripture came to mind in Matthew 17:

“If you have faith as small as a mustard seed, you can say to this mountain, ‘Move from here to there’ and it will move. Nothing will be impossible for you.”

By the time I got up in the morning, I knew what I had to do. I needed to begin asking questions and “pushing” those mountains. I also knew I needed to put into practice what the Lord had been teaching me about over the previous few months. So I asked a few friends to join me in fasting and praying while I began calling and emailing everyone I knew might be able to help.

I knew that asking for a waiver or something of that sort was like asking for the moon in her country, but the Mama Bear in me had to try. Shockingly to me, I did not meet resistance. What I found instead was an attitude that said “It’s not common, but it’s not unheard of—we can ask.” The mountains were beginning to move.

(Another part of the unfolding will be posted tomorrow...)

Unfolding His Story Through Her Story - Part 2

As I wrestled and as the kids and I unpacked Isaiah 6, He used my children to encourage me to step out and trust Him. Of course the kids didn’t know any of the dialogue going on in my head, so imagine what I thought 

when I saw this one morning on Littlest One’s paper:

 And then imagine my thoughts when I saw that Daughter of Purpose had painstakingly written this out for me later that week and presented it with a smile:

I knew what God was calling us to do so The Driver and I prayed about where to start. Initially, we started with our heart for Moldova and pursued adoption that direction because it just made sense, but were always open to Russia. Moldova had captured us when we learned that it is a hot spot for sex trafficking. 30,000 females go missing a year in Moldova. Traffickers prey upon innocent orphans who have recently “aged out” of the orphanage at 14 years old. They often don’t have options beyond a skanky, cheap dormitory or the street. Alcoholism, drugs and prostitution become their way of survival. Traffickers make empty promises of high paying jobs…and that orphan is never seen again.

We were headed to Moldova until a few weeks ago when rumblings from the Moldova adoption community began to surface that Moldova is changing their process and intends to resurrect a law that is already on the books. They intend to enforce a law that states that adoptive parents must stay in-country for 1-3 months for bonding. If their social worker does not deem them bonded after such time, they can cut off the adoption. Everything this family has invested in a child thrown out. Nice. We knew we couldn’t be in another country for that time frame so we began to pray about changing our focus to Russia.

Let me backtrack to February of this year. As we were working on compiling our homestudy, I happened one day upon a site that advocates for children in need of families. I also happened upon the picture of my daughter-to-be and knew right away that she was my daughter. I can’t really explain how I knew,

but something deep inside of me just knew

I knew that I was looking at my daughter. 

So I pursued her, but right away the door shut. The regulations of her region in Eastern Europe would not allow a family with five children to adopt her. I accepted the closed door for what it was and moved on…sort of.

(Another part of the unfolding will be posted tomorrow...)

Unfolding His Story Through Her Story

Choosing where to start her story

has been no easy task because I believe her story has been written into the fabric of our family for longer than we were previously aware, but looking back…she’s been there. We just didn’t see her until now.

In an effort not to bore you with minute details, although some of those are important, I will start with the story of her shoes. If you would like to read the full version of this story, click here. Otherwise, here’s the short version of what happened about four years ago.

While we were in process of adopting Daughter of Purpose, we hadn’t even found her yet, I was in need of serious encouragement from the Lord that we had done the right thing in opening up our lives to the adoption journey. While looking through a bag of hand-me-down clothes with Mini-Me, from a family that had never given us clothes before and never has again—so very random—I happened upon two pairs of toddler girl shoes. They were precious and I knew immediately they were a fingerprint of God of what He had in store for our family and even Mini-Me voiced it too. How did I know? That family had no little children in their family even close to that age. When I later asked them about the shoes, they had no clue what I was talking about. God placed those TWO pairs of shoes in into those bags for me.  As tears brimmed in my eyes I knew we were meant to fill them with two little girls from Eastern Europe, I just didn’t know how the story was going to unfold.

The first pair of shoes was filled by Daughter of Purpose in 2008. You can read about her journey into our family here. Initially when we brought her home, it was like a woman remembering her labor pains. I was still remembering the hard work of bringing her home so I had no intentions of “laboring” in that way again—or at least for a long while. We had bonding and family adjustments to make. That has been a journey in itself. You can find snippets of that woven in and out of the fabric of our lives over the past few years written here on The Mommy Map.

Fast forward to the Fall of 2010. The Driver has always been ready to fill the second pair of shoes, but I still wrestled and wondered if maybe I’d heard the Lord wrong. If you know me, that is my way. If the Lord asks me to do something, I need to wrestle with it first and then submit my will to His. This was to be no different.

My kids and I had begun a study on the book of Isaiah with BSF and were plugging along just fine until we began studying Chapter 6. I read verse 8, “Then I heard the voice of the Lord saying, ‘Whom shall I send? And who will go for us?’ And I said, ‘Here am I. Send me!’

I don’t know how everyone else read that passage, but I knew right away that this was the beginning of the unfolding of the story of how God would fill that second pair of shoes. Some of my conversations with Him went something like this:

“I am willing, but Lord, really—I’m good with what I have. Five is a good number.”

“I’m glad you are content, but I’m not done.”

“I don’t know if I can do this. I sometimes feel overwhelmed.”

“You are right, you cannot do this, but with Me—you can.”

“What if there is not enough of me to go around?”

“There won’t be enough of you, but there will be enough of Me.”

“Okay, Lord. I am willing, but could we take this slowly?”

Well, it went slow for a little bit.

(Another part of the unfolding will be posted tomorrow...)