Pray for peace people everywhere

An update on the Congo presidential elections.

Please pray that our daughter Agape will be safe. Her orphanage is located in Kinshasa, which is the capital city that this news story is reporting on. We are praying that God protects her and all of the other children from violence, and that she will have enough good food and water to wait out any uprising. Please pray for peace... for Congo, and for us. If you have ever seen the movie Hotel Rwanda or have read anything about the past 20 years of horrendous genocide in this part of Africa, you know how serious this threat is and how quickly this could turn deadly. Other parents in the article talk about how they are taking their children to safety... and that is not something that we can do. I am in tears right now, as this is just so hard for a parent to deal with. Thank you for your intercession on behalf of our daughter and the all of the fatherless ones in Kinshasa, Congo!

Please pass this prayer request on as you see fit.

Love, Jen and Dan Shultz

Congo Elections

Well still have no news on our paper work being processed in the Congo yet.  Is no news good news?  Not in this case.  Many prayers are still needed for the country.  Campaigns for the elections began this month, and are not off to a peaceful start.  Lots of violence, and growing tensions among citizens.  Not only does this mean more innocent people being harmed, but more violence only slows the election process.  Pray for peace in a land that has little.  We'll give more updates as they come.  Thanks.

Quick Congo Update - Prayers Needed

Time for a quick update ya'll. This was recently posted by our agency, and will give you all something to pray about for us....

"In Congo, things are progressing, but slower than we had hoped.  Some cases are in court and others are waiting for more documents to begin the court process.  We are not yet sure when the first children will be ready to come home from Congo. Presidential elections in Congo will be on November 25 and it is possible that things could be affected by election events. Again, a need for prayer for peaceful elections and peace after the election time!"


Please pray that the process will begin to move more quickly with the documents being processed and the court procedures progressing with no trouble from the elections. We want to bring our little one home very soon! Please pray, as this waiting is torture. Thank you!


With Love and Hope, 
Dan and Jen

UPDATE! (not what anyone expected)

Well, this week has certainly been full of emotions, twists, and craziness, and once again, it is very obvious that God’s plans are not our plans, and his timing is not our timing. 

This week we were blessed so much by the community coming together and showing love and support for us and “our” twins. We were certain that God was working everything out and clearing the way for our dreams to become reality! He was, but not in the way we would have hoped. We spoke with our agency yesterday, and we are not able to adopt the girls at this time (it is not our agency’s fault, it is just for a variety of reasons that we cannot go into). This is a crushing blow to us. We cannot say enough how hard it is to set your heart on someone so dear and beautiful as these girls, make plans to bring them into the family, share the joy and struggle with all of the cyber world, watch everything seem to come together, and then lose all of this. It is heart wrenching.

BUT, we have been told from day one by our agency that this international adoption journey is not one where we will be able to get comfortable in “certainties.” There were constant reminders that the children we pick may not be the children we bring home. The children we claim may only be in our lives for a season just so we may pray for them and love them and ask others to do the same. So in the back of our minds, we were prepared... but not totally. How can you be? In America we have come to simply expect plans to be fulfilled in a timely manner. But this is just not so... in either God’s world or the world of adoption.

So we will not be bringing home twins. What is God thinking???? This has had us in mourning since yesterday, and we will continue to mourn them. However, the Bible promises that while sorrow may last for the night, the joy comes in the morning...

So we are very thankful that God chose to immediately give us a beautiful, shy, and sweet little girl currently named Titina! She is between 3 and 4yrs, and we have “accepted” her referral right away, with no delay, thanks to the donations that so many of you gave! We were able to get right on it! So we are VERY excited begin making new plans for her. She has been on a “waiting child” list for some time now, so we are very happy that we can free her from that and give her renewed hope as she gives us renewed joy.

We say this with caution however, knowing now from experience that anything can happen... we still have court processing and legalities in Congo to get through. We still have 6 months of “wait and see.” BUT we are farther along now with Titina then we were before with the twins, so praise be to God! 

Right now we are learning so much about God’s sovereignty and our trust. And let us tell you, these are not comfortable or easy lessons. They are painful, frustrating, and rocking our world. They are showing us just how much we DON’T trust God enough and how much closer our hearts need to get to him. All that we want to ask is WHY LORD? But there are no straight answers from God, it seems. We know that we will see the beautiful and purposeful design in hindsight, but we just can’t see it now. This is just life.

But there is joy and hope, and that hope, through Jesus, is Titina! 

Fundraising Update!

For all of you who have been following our story via this blog, we wanted to give you an update on our fundraising. Miraculously, we have raised $4,500 in 5 days simply through the donations of friends, family, and people who we have never even met (some even from other countries)! It has been a beautiful outpouring of grace and love, and we are SO INCREDIBLY THANKFUL! Now we are only $1,500 away from our goal with 2 days left to raise it. We are fully believing that this will be possible! Miracles can and do happen every day.

As we continue to wait to see God's will unfolded through all of this, we have been praying a timely prayer for patience. (view the prayer here: http://thegospelcoalition.org/blogs/scottysmith/2011/10/12/a-prayer-for-impatient-waiters-like-me/ )And we are praying it on repeat!

It is a hard thing to wait on God's answer, especially when it has to do with something so heart wrenching as your children. We are sure that many of you out there know exactly what we mean because of the situations you may have gone through with your own children... times when you felt completely powerless to decide the outcome and just had to leave it in the hands of God. This is where we are. Not to mention the steady influx of emotion tied to being a mother and bonding with your child, albeit only through a picture. Pictures are powerful things! And yet our adoption agency continues to remind every family that adoption is most of all an adventure, and sometimes things don't work out as you thought they would. One family in our group has already experienced the loss of the child they were in the process of adopting. The heartache that is possible here is all too real. So that is also in the back of our minds as we continue to run towards the goal of our twin daughters. So we ask MOST OF ALL for your prayers that the rest of this journey - fundraising and everything in between until the final trip HOME - would go smoothly and successfully! No roadblocks! Amen!

Again, we are so thankful for the provision through the open hearts and hands of so many around the world and around our own community. You all are awesome, and we pray that you will be blessed ten-fold for what you have sacrificed to give on our behalf!

So for now... we wait. Sometimes patiently, some times not so much! But we are waiting and laying it before God nonetheless.

If you have not donated yet and would like to - we are SO THANKFUL for every little bit - you can do so via our pay pal link in the top left corner of this blog. If you missed the post below, our vision was that each person would only have to give $10 if we got enough people involved. Now we only need 150 more people to donate $10 in order to be fully funded to accept the referrals for our girls! So amazing!

You can also keep track of the progress by viewing our facebook event page at: https://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=266437166730425

Thanks and MUCH LOVE,
Jen and Dan Shultz

A grand announcement x2!

We'll since it has been well over a month since our last post it's probably a good time to give you a weekly update.  Last weekend was fairly exciting for us ... wait did I say fairly?  Last weekend was deathly exciting for us in every good way.  We held our harvest festival titled Fall FUNd Fest which was a huge success.  With the help of many friends and loved ones we had pumpkins, hay rides, pony rides, face painting, bracelet making, scarecrow stuffing, bouncy house, chicken bbq, performances from local musicians and dance studios, and even the uber-popular pumpkin sling!  God blessed us with perfect weather for the event and because of His faithfulness to us we were able to raise $5,000 that day.  We cannot understate how necessary support was to making this happen.  This was the single greatest fundraiser we've held yet.  Don't worry, we're planning on topping that soon.

On three separate occasions this week complete, and random strangers have given us checks to help us fund the adoption expenses.  Their timing has been perfect.  As exciting as Fall FUNd Fest was Jen and I have an announcement to make that will, and deserves to trump this successful fundraiser.  This week we laid eyes on our little twin girls for the first time.

That's right people we have a referral, and we couldn't be more excited.  We now have faces to make this adoption real to us.  It is no longer some great idea we have been hoping for.  We are now fighting to bring our children home.

With all the excitement and celebration that comes with this referral we do have a sense of urgency that we need to share with you.  In order to accept this referral we need to raise $6,000 more to pay for initial in country fees.  We need this soon, very soon.  Since we have a desperate issue we're doing something new.  Every single fundraiser we've tried our best to offer you something in exchange for your support on our adoption.  Yard sales, a pancake breakfast, and kids daycare activities have all given you something to walk away with after throwing some cash our way.

This time we are humbly asking for straight up donations.  Here's our breakdown:  if 600 people can give us $10 donations we will have raised the $6,000 needed.  We hope this is simple and doable enough for you.  If you would like to give more that would be fantastic, but we are asking for a minimum of $10 per person if able.  How can you do this?  If you look to the left under the "Congo time" you will see a paypal donation button.  Just click on that button and follow all the necessary steps.  Also share this with all your friends.  We will be setting up a facebook event for this fundraiser as well.

We're getting closer, but still have some obstacles to go through.  We thank you always for your support.

Meet Agape and Shiloh, our beautiful little girls.

Quick Update

Just wanted to leave you all with a quick update before we loose power from this major storm.  Just in case you live in a different part of the country from us (or world for that matter), we are currently in the middle of experiencing Hurricane Irene.  It's been a rather busy time in the Northeast weather wise lately.  Apparently we experienced an earthquake last week.  Technically Jen and I didn't because we were away.

Anyway, this post is not about the weather.  This week coming up is when we will be having our Home Study finalized!  We've completed the home visit without any problems and will be meeting with the agency on Sept 1st to have everything finalized.  This a major step of the adoption process out of the way putting us about halfway through the paper process.  However, we are not quite this far along fund-wise.  Currently we have raised slightly over $10,000, which only puts us about 1/4 of the way to our expected goal.

Because of this our attention for a little bit will have to go to some serious fund raising.  Particularly our Fall Fest planned for Oct 1st.  We hope you are planning to attend.  We'll be having lots of fun activities for the whole family to do.  I'll be making up a flyer with all the details shortly, and I'll be sure to post it here.

Did you know we have a website?  Come check it out here.

Just in case you didn't know...

So we've heard a lot of talk about under reported the Congo is in the news media in America.  I personally hadn't really heard anything about it before we started the adoption process, but I wanted to remain a little more open minded.  So while Jen was doing some shopping last night I decided to spend some time in the Barnes & Nobles that was nearby testing my theory.

My first stop, "International Travel".  Books on traveling to Morocco, Egypt, Israel, and many others, but no Congo.  Fair enough, not much tourism to a war torn country.  Next section I sought out was the World History section.  The Congo has a pretty eventful history where a lot has happened in the last 100 years, surely books have been written about that?  Apparently not.  Found books entitled, "Complete Idiot's Guide: Middle East Conflict 4th edition", "British Petroleum and the Redline Agreement", "Israel:  A History", and many others involving the same countries you hear about on the news.  Another book I found that deserves mention was entitled "A Biography of the Continent Africa".  A book that covers the entire history of Africa in less than 700 pages.  Now that sounds concise.  Ironically the American History section holds a variety of books some including the use of artillery shells in the Civil War, a 500 page book on just that, artillery shells.

I was just beginning to become discouraged when I finally found something.  A fair sized book on the bottom of the shelf on King Leopold.  This actually sounded promising until I read the back.  To my surprise the book was about his control over and dealings with the Congo, however, King Leopold is described as a humanitarian who brought industry to the country.  Before we award this noble king with a peace prize let's elaborate on this a little bit.  In 1885 Leopold claimed the Congo as his own land naming it "The Congo Free State".  The industry that was brought was the entire country being forced into slave labor to mine and collect diamonds, precious metals, and ivory.  All the proceeds of these products went to further Leopold's wealth.  The working conditions the people of this "free state" had to work under caused the deaths of about 10 million in the almost 30 years he had control over the land.  I think we can consider this book slightly inaccurate.

So it turns out that it's true.  The troubles in the Congo are under-represented, or ignored at all.

To do my own part to remedy this a little bit here is a short little information about what's going on in that country today:

The Congo is considered to be the worst place in the world to be a woman.  It's estimated that a woman is raped almost every minute, and about 400,000 annually.  To give you a comparison, the U.S. is about half this amount, and about 1/2-2/3 of these are "date rapes", which are incredibly sad, but the victim doesn't not suffer nearly the level of trauma as other forms of rape.

In the Congo, rape serves as a war tactic for local militias to take control of a village.  All the women are gathered together and violently raped in front of the entire village.  Many of these women require emergency surgeries or die after these incidents.

Do we wonder why there are no tourism books to the Congo?

Thank you for reading.  We humbly ask that you take some time to do some research on the crisis in the Congo.

Why I love the floating lanterns...

I am in LOVE with the movie Tangled! Just love it. First of all, it is really a throw back to the old-school Disney animation, style, and story line, which makes it awesome. Second, I am a real sucker for a nice, innocent, lighthearted - funny - but still tear jerking, love story... one chock full of true love, sacrifice, and redemption. Disney seems to have a knack for this. Third, and perhaps most of all, I love the LANTERNS. They have captivated me. I spent all week trying to build one my myself (complete and utter FAIL, by the way... I want it to be known that they are more complex then Disney makes them out to be!!!). The scene in the movie that stands out the most to me is when Rapunzel and Flynn are out on the boat watching the lanterns set off and swirl around them... the use of light is absolutely breathtaking and gives me chills just thinking about it! But even more special than the beauty of the lanterns themselves is the meaning that they hold for me. In fact, this whole movie is pregnant with symbolism and meaning! Let me explain...

I recently held a girls night sleep-over where we watched the movie Tangled. As I planned out the night, I felt that I wanted to tie the movie in with a devotional that we could do before bed, and I wanted it to have to do with the lanterns. they had so captured my heart and my imagination, and I had the grand idea of making one to set off with the girls after our devotional. I thought about how in the movie the king and queen NEVER gave up on their stolen daughter. Year after year, without any sign to hope of her return, they continued to set off these lanterns on the faith that one day she would see them and come home to their waiting arms. The whole town, in fact, shared in this endeavor for their one little lost princess, for all of her 18 years! To me, this screams of he faithfulness of God. We, his prodigal children have been "stolen" or "kept" away from him - either by our own choices or by the blindness of our hearts - and yet he still seeks us. Every day he sends us messages of love and longing. His most poignant message was in the birth, life, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ, the most important "lantern of love" to ever grace earth's skies! God does not give up on us, but searches for the ONE out of the 99. And the church shares in the father's heart for the lost, and searches for them too! How awesome is that! But just like Rapunzel felt as though somehow the lanterns were meant for her, yet she did not know what they meant, many people also miss God's messages. We look right past the butterfly on the flower, the veins in the leaf, the kindness of a stranger, and the hug of a child, and do not see the glory of God beckoning us. But he will never stop seeking us! He does not get discouraged! The sun, arguably the BIGGEST lantern we will ever see, continues to rise each day letting us know that mercies are new and alive THIS DAY. God. Never. Gives. Up. On. Us. His love, mercy, and grace astound me... part of me cannot understand such faithful, persevering love...

But another part of me CAN. This is how I am beginning to feel about my children. The ones who I have yet to see. I do not know their faces, I do not know anything about their world, and I do not know if they even have the heart to hope that they will soon get a family... YET I WILL SEEK THEM WITH ALL OF MY HEART. I will never stop trying to get to them: pursue the funding that is necessary, fill out all of the paperwork, educate myself on their Congolese culture, make sure that my heart is prepared to work through their hurts and baggage with them, and so on. I wish I could let them know that I am coming... I am thinking about them... I have not forgotten them... I will bring them home! If only I could set off a lantern, then maybe, somehow, they would see it and know that it was from me for them. I wish it were that easy! Like a Disney movie.  :)  I think that is why I wanted to make and launch a lantern so badly... because in my heart, it would be for them. Just like the king and queen seeking their lost daughter, never losing hope. But even if I can't physically send my children a message, I can do something just as powerful....

I can send my message to God in prayer. He holds my children in his hands even now, and he always will. Even after we adopt them, they will still belong to Jesus first and foremost! He knew them and he knew that we would be family before he created them. Moreover, they were created for Dan and I, and Dan and I were created for them. What a miracle! So, when I pray to the Lord, it is like I am sending him floating lantern messages, glowing with my deepest dreams, hopes, and hurts. In response, he can reach and meet the needs of my children wherever they are until I can get to them. My messages touch my Abba Father's heart. And the best part it, I do not have to wonder whether he received them... I can KNOW that he hears every whisper of my heart! Thankfully, I do not have to be able to build a successful floating lantern to do this either, or I'd be in big trouble, LOL!

So there you have it... why I love the movie Tangled. Why it chokes me up to see those lanterns. Why I am so obsessed with setting one off... and watching it float gently out of sight like a shooting star in slow motion, gleaming across the night sky and heading toward to horizon. Now you know that when I see them I am thinking about my children over in the Congo wishing I could send them a message... and until that day comes I am just talking about it with Jesus.

And I am working to get to them - seeking them - never giving up until I hold them in my arms!

Home Study Visit!

The excitement is building... the home visit portion of our home study will be in less than 48 hrs! Yay! Friday at 1 pm we will have our social worker come out to do our home inspection, and then we are officially done with our portion of the home study. We will have the completed document by the end of the month. This is a big step for us, and gets us almost "paper ready"! Woohoo! Pray that all goes smoothly and that we can get the rest of our papers quickly so that we can officially send in our Dossier so that it can go on to Congo and the lawyer can begin searching for our kids! We will keep ya'll posted...  :)

Feelings, Paradoxes, and Updates

Hi Friend and Family!

Our summer has been crazy as usual, but filled with many non-usual things along with the same-old… things like getting finger printed, meeting with social workers, filling out numerous applications, and writing autobiographies. Not to mention reading some fabulous adoption books! Yes, it has been the summer of the “paper pregnancy” as the adoption books so aptly call it! And like many biological pregnancies, it’s an interesting mix of exciting, tiring, quick, long, hopeful and bewildering. In fact, I (Jen) have been through so many emotions during this time, that I cannot begin to explain them all in one (short enough to read in one sitting) post. So, let me break it down and get ya’ll up to speed!

Exciting: We are just bursting at the seams to be parents! Literally, everywhere we look we notice families. When we are out to eat, at the store, at concerts, on vacation… everywhere we are noticing the fullness of life with children. We just can hardly wait! And even more exciting is the amount of adoptive families that we have noticed. It’s like we have “adoption radar” now. At Creation there were so many families that were obviously brought together through adoption, and even a few adoption groups who were attending the festival together! This was really awesome! Then at Yosemite we saw a number of adoptive families too. It felt as though we were linked through a kinship deeper than blood… and automatic union of having the heart of adoption (truly, the very heart of GOD!) beating in our chest. So cool! We are STOKED to become parents, and this consumes our thoughts! Also, one of our fundraisers this summer was a kid day at our house, and it was a BLAST! Talk about excitement… try hosting 29 kids at your home all day! Now THAT’S excitement!

Tiring: There is a LOT of paperwork. A LOT. Can I say that again? A LOT!!! Homestudy, Education worksheets, books to read, more paperwork for the dossier. Not to mention the fundraising, which weighs heavy on our minds. We still have $25,000 to go, and it is a whole lot of work to come up with such an amount! The kid day was awesome, but it does take a lot of time to prepare and recoup. Ahhhh, fundraising. We often wish we had more help in this area… it is hard to come up with enough different  (cost effectively, yet unique and fun) ideas and carry them out! So, at the end of each day, when we have done everything we need just for normal life plus whatever we can do of our adoption related planning and paperwork, we are TIRED. But I guess that is a good preparation for parenting, huh??? LOL!

Quick: So much happens so fast in adoptions! We are constantly getting updates from our agency. Children are being adopted off of the waiting children list (it is so exciting to see one disappear, because that means that they have gotten a family!) and new children are added. We just got a message this week from our agency that said this: “I am not sure if our Congo families are aware, but we have been getting a good number of referrals of toddler boys and girls.  Many families have received and accepted referrals and our first complete sets of dossiers are going to Congo on Monday… so let the adoptions begin!” WOW!!! How exciting! As many of you know, we are one of the initial group of families at our agency that are going through the country of Congo. It is a new program for our agency. So far, things had been moving pretty slow as we were all feeling our way through the Congolese process. But now the pace is picking up, and we need to get with it and get moving! The next set of fees are due, and we have the money to pay them, but then we are without funds for the next step… accepting a referral. In one way (emotionally) a referral can’t come soon enough, but in another way (financially) it is coming too quickly! Hmmm… God WILL provide IN TIME. We need to trust this!

Long: We miss our kids! Although we have never met them, we think about them constantly. Whenever I see black children, I wonder if mine will look like them, and I can’t help but smile! J A couple of times I have actually cried, because I just long to look into the eyes of my children and hold them in my arms. Pretty sure that looks weird, crying for no reason in public places! Ha! But mostof the time I just take note of cute hairstyles and clothing styles that I see, and I am SO tempted to buy kid clothes at Goodwill. Arrrggghhhh! It is so hard to wait sometimes! On our family vacation, as we adventured on hikes and saw magnificently beautiful vistsas of mountains, valleys, and waterfalls, our minds were on our children, who we wished we had with us to share in the experience. And when I look at my beautiful dark-skinned Cambodian sister Emma, I think about how awesome it will be to have two more chocolate beauties in our family photos. Yup, the waiting can definitely seem LONG.

Hopeful: We are FULL of HOPE!!! How could we not be? When God is doing something so extrodinary as building a family out from two separate continents, how can you not be filled with awe and wonder!? We are hopeful that by next year at this time we will have our children with us. We know that God will find a way to build us a bridge to them, and that hope drives us forward! It is especially encouraging to see so many others getting their child referrals who are going through this process beside us… we will be joining them soon too! That is almost unreal to think about… A God of wonder who knits hearts and souls together to form a beautiful masterpieces of color, culture, and love!

Bewildering: SO MUCH YET TO DO. So much yet to pay for. So many more fundraisers to plan and hold. It just seems like everyone is so busy these days, and we are certainly right there with them. Truthfully, some days I feel like I am just treading water trying to keep my head above the waves of responsibilities and tasks that need to be accomplished. The financial mountains that have yet to be moved seem daunting and fundraising can be disheartening, especially when it is all up to us and we still have so far to go. So, there is the bewinderment. But we know that this will all help us to GROW and be better prepared for the work of parenting, which is a whole lot more challenging then paperwork and fundraising, that’s for sure!  J

So, that’s where we are. In the midst of a paradoxical mixture of happy and crazy! We are following God and trusting HIS timing. Most of all, we just can’t wait to have this Homestudy finished very soon! This will be a major step for us. Plus, we have a Fall Fest fundraiser in the works, so stay tuned for more on that! And if you think you could help us with the planning for that in any way, we would be GRATEFUL!

Thank you so much for your awesome support and love and for reading my ramblings! Peace and Love from Jesus to YOU and your families!!!!

Jen 

V2k

Just checked our blog tonight and noticed that we've had over 2,000 views, and haven't posted anything for almost two whole months.  We thank you greatly for your faithfulness to our humble little blog.  We have some good reason for our absence to this site.  We recently came back from a trip to Yosemite National Park, and it was awesome.  To celebrate passing the 2,000 mark I will actually blog an update!

We're almost ready for our Home Study to be done.  This is a huge step in becoming paper ready to adopt. Things have been moving a little slow for us with being in school, but we hope to change that.

As far as fundraising goes we have begun planning a Fall Fest event for October.  We're hoping for this to be quite monumental in order to take a big chunk out of our financial need.  In order to do that we need to plan big.  If anyone would like to be a part of this "big planning process" we would more than appreciate your help.

Anyway, that's all for our short update.  Time for bed.

Last Chance!

Hello all, sorry about the lack of blogging last week.  It was a pretty busy week, and we were more focused on getting ready for our weekend away.  However, lots have been going on here in the adoption realm.  We have our first home study meeting next Monday.  We will come up to them, so it won't be the big scary one.  So, in order to prepare for this we are having one final yard sale on Thursday and Friday of this week.  EVERYTHING MUST GO!!!!!

We hope you can come out and see what wonderful stuff is still left.  Speaking of wonderful stuff, our silent auction is still going on too!  Come on over and see what wonderful item you would like to bid on.  No worries, no bid is too large ... I mean small ... Anyway, here's the facebook link to the items.  Comment or message us for bids.

https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.10150203978038553.308035.694503552&l=d72ffcf477

The Italian Stallion

Today we hosted our Spaghetti Dinner at our church, and kicked off our Silent Auction as well.  Needless to say, it was a blast.  Unlike Pancake Breakfasts (which was also a blast), spaghetti dinners are a lot easier to hold.  Not to mention cheaper to prepare for as well.  I wish I could post some pictures up from it.  My main job was to man the spaghetti pot and keep the supply up.  Not an easy task being at a Mennonite church with an all-you-can-eat function.  I felt like the Italian Stallion with my trusty Starbucks in hand.  We also were able to share a 10 or 15 minute presentation giving an overview of our adoption.  Basic things such as, why we're doing this, how far along we are, support needs that we have.  Everything went well, and we were able to add quite a bit more to our funds.  Only about $30,000 to go ... no big deal.

On a much more serious note.  We got word of some very dear friends of ours who had to realize a dream of theirs would not become a reality.  They are heartbroken, and Jen and I are heartbroken for them.  Watching them helped me realize a little better how fragile our dreams are.  At this point, it would not take much for our own dream of adoption to fall apart as well.  Yet, we must remember the One who holds our dreams.  He is the one who gave them to us, and He just may see fit to take them away.  These friends of ours have huge hearts, and fresh ambition.  I trust in time that they will be pursuing a new dream to call their own.

Thanks again for reading.

Learning how to love...

Hi Everyone!

This is finally Jen writing! First, I need to apologize for being so delinquent at this blogging thing. Dan has been doing a great job, though, I must say. I love reading the posts that he writes! But I really wanted to share with you all about the whole "stolen cell phone" ordeal, and what God has taught me through such a seemingly insignificant occurrence.

First, you must know that my cell phone is like my "brain" and I probably depend on it too much... I don't know ANYONE'S number without it, and I never know what time it is!!! So having it stolen was very personal to me, and I was very upset. Fortunately, is God's providence, He timed it so that I actually realized the phone was stolen just when I was leaving to go and cut my Dad's grass. Cutting his lawn is a 2 hour job, so I had LOTS of time to think and pray. As I was riding the mower I was telling God how frustrated and hurt I was, how I did not have time for this right now, how the money that we would have to spend on buying a new phone would make any profit from the yead sale pretty much useless, etc. I had been able to narrow it down and figure out who had done it, and I was just feeling so hurt and angry that they would do something so violating as stealing from me. I told God over and over how I just could not understand how anyone could steal... it is a desire that I cannot fathom. I would not be able to live with myself if I stole from someone else, and dishonesty is one of my biggest pet peeves. As I was telling God how I did not understand this person, I realized that I was sounding pretty self righteous... "God, I know that I could never do that..." I knew that I better be careful. Instead I starting praying "God, what do you want me to learn here... I know this is a chance for me to grow, but what are you trying to teach me?" In response, two songs kept running through my head. If you know me, you know that I LOVE music, and it is really one of the ways that I keep my heart tuned into to God. I really feel like (as Pastor Vernon says) music is the language of the soul. So God was speaking to me through this. The first song was "Learning how to Love" (check out this link for a live performance video) by the band Caleb. The song talks about how we all have broken promises, betrayed trusts, been selfish, and made mistakes, and we are all just in the process of "learning how to love." But it is just that... a PROCESS. It is amazing that God and others can love us despite ourselves but it is proof of grace. The chorus says "I've been changing, but I'm still learning how to love..." How true! The second song was "All the way to Kingdom Come" by Rich Mullins (By the way, Rich's music is one of the best sources of wisdom I've found outside of the Bible!). The chorus says:

"We didn't know what love was 'til He came

And He gave love a face and He gave love a name
And He gave love away like the sky gives the rain and sun
We were looking for heroes, He came looking for the lost
We were searching for glory, and He showed us a cross
Now we know what love is 'cause He loves us
All the way to kingdom come (All the way)
All the way to kingdom come"

Suddenly, I was struck with the fact that I needed to learn to give more grace. Just as I am still learning how to love, so is this person who took my phone. I have been given a great family, a solid background of growing up in Christian community, and many positive, Godly influences to guide me through the decisions and formative years of my life (and I STILL make wrong, unloving choices!). This person may not have had that. I have not lived in their skin or walked in their shoes, and so I need to remember that they are not at the same place I am. Even more, I only have the capability to love and choose rightly because I have met Jesus. I wouldn't have known what love even was without him... so maybe this "thief" has never really met him. Without God, without a source of love in our life, without learning early in life that others can be trusted, how can one learn how to be trustworthy? I need to take my focus off of judging and grumbling about fairness and blame, and just pray for this person and try to understand where they are coming from. It is a command of Jesus to pray for your enemies, after all! So, my heart has been softened, and now I just pray that one day this person comes to know the love that I have been so privileged to have been given since birth. I hope they are "learning how to love" and meet the one who "gave love a face and gave love a name." And I really am not mad anymore... maybe still annoyed at the inconvenience at times, but my heart is light and unburdened of bitterness. It feels so good.  :)

But God was not done with me yet... He spoke again, and said "you know, your adopted children might have issues like these, and you need to learn how to deal with this without getting personally hurt. You need to be able to love your child even if they do this, and have grace to help them learn love." You see, some children enter an adopted family with smiles and love to give, but some enter with emotional baggage, attachment issues, anger, hurt, and a strongly ingrained drive to "fend for themselves" in any way possible. Our children may hoard food, lie, steal from us, react physically, or refuse to let us get close... at least for awhile. And while we are not necessarily expecting this, we need to be prepared for it as a possibility. We need to be ready to see our children with grace, compassion, patience, and love that is not conditional on their return of that love back to us. This brings me to the inclusion of one of my favorite words E.V.E.R. ... Agape. Agape love is the love that Jesus has for us. It is unconditional and self-sacrificial, not based on what it can get in return, and not dependent on any action of others. It is just the pure, self-sacrificial love of putting the needs and service of others at top priority, JUST BECAUSE. Beautiful. This kind of love is beautiful. The only way that we know it even exists... that it isn't just a myth... is through Jesus! I have always wanted to name my first girl Agape, and I am hoping it will be a name representing the character that she will one day grow to embody. But until then, I need to embody it for her. And one way or another, it WILL be tested. Can I do it? Can I love my kids this way when they refuse to love me? Yes, with God's help... yes. Not perfectly! But, yes. And in his wisdom, he is giving me the chance to start learning how to do this even now.

So, the long and short of it is, I am still learning how to love. Thankfully, I am learning it from the one who came to show us what it looks like. With all my heart, this is what I want to do.

Well, if you have made it all the way to the end of this, then I applaud you! Now you know why I let Dan write, LOL, because when I write it turns into a "novel"! But God is being faithful and teaching me much through this whole adoption process, fundraising, yardsale-ing, etc. As we prepare our home for our children, God is preparing our hearts. This is all part of the process of becoming parents, I suppose!

Thank you so much for your prayers and support... they are treasured by Dan and I.

Blessings,
Jen

PS Just have to give a shout-out to my incredible hubby who volunteered to give up his precious iPhone savings so that I can buy a new phone (not an iPhone... I can't handle all that new-fangled technology). He is living proof of Agape love as well, and I love him! (and I will be very thankful to have a phone again!)

Starting to feel a little more superstitious... (a post by Dan)

So did anyone notice the date today?  That's right, Friday the 13th.  Unfortunately, we haven't been able to forget it.  We are holding yet another yard sale today that's been running a little slow.  What's worse is that we been the victim to theft.  A few minor losses of items we've noticed are gone, but haven't been sold.  Even worse still is the stealing of Jen's phone.  By re-tracing the events up till noticing it being missing we have the culprits narrowed down.  Unfortunately we have no way of tracking them down.  It is a very violating feeling when you have such personal items stolen from you.  Right now someone is invading the privacy of, basically, Jen's whole life.  Her contact list has people with whom she is close to on it.  She has pictures of her own precious memories (nothing she would be ashamed to show people).  Essentially, a piece of her is missing, and it has shaped the course of today.  What was supposed to be a nice romantic night of dinner and enjoying each other's company will now be spent obtaining a new phone for Jen giving us a constant reminder of a not-so-good day.  To sum it all up, this hasn't been one of our better days.  But even in the midst of our hardship we still recognize God is faithful to us, and has prepared us to face this very day.  We trust His sovereign control of this situation.  Anyway, not the type of post we want to make a habit of sharing with you all.  We consider anyone reading this blog to be very dear to us and we want to be transparent and offer you both our joys and sorrows.

So, thank you all for your loving support.  We look forward to a brighter day tomorrow.  Today is almost over, and we are glad that we never have to re-live it ever again.

Fundraising

So it's about time we begin looking into more fundraising ideas to help meet our goal.  Keep your eyes out for new links and ways you can help support our adoption process.  You all have already been very supportive and giving to us, and we could never thank you enough for that.  Unfortunately we are still pretty far from our goal from bringing our kids home to us.  We're saving up as much as we can, and we're we're asking you to continue to come along side us in our journey.  Let us know if you have any great fundraising ideas.  After doing many yard sales and a pancake breakfast we're willing to try anything.  Thank you all once again.

Chaos...

...that's what you get when you put the Whitesel/Purks family together in one kitchen attempting to work together with a limited number of rations, and ultimately no idea what's going on.  Yes, I'm talking about our pancake breakfast that we held today.  As expected, God blessed our efforts with a good turnout of friends who love and support us dearly, and with the addition of some new faces that we got a chance to meet.  Ignoring my cheap shot earlier Jen's family was a lot of help, and we couldn't have pulled this off without their help.  Jen herself showed her true love and devotion to our children by waking up at 05:30 this morning.  Anyone who knows Jen knows she still considers that time of day "night-time" and that it is reserved for sleeping only.  This was truly an outward sign of how desperately she wants to see the face of our children in front of her.  The breakfast itself was great.  We loved seeing people come and fill up on good food.  Having an all-you-can eat affair should remind us of Heaven, where no one goes hungry.

Upon returning home, and bringing our stuff from the breakfast inside to our large stack of un-washed dishes and clothes Jen comments, "Well, time to get ready for our spaghetti dinner."  We can never find enough hours in the day, but todays were spent well and we thank all of you who took your own time out to help fulfill our dream of adoption.  This really would not be happening without all your love and support for us.  As the African proverb goes:  It takes a village to raise a child.  We thank you in the most sincere way possible for being our village at this time.

Notice we're getting fancy at this whole blog thing with some pictures.

MVI 2006

Here is a video from a concert we saw in March.

Watoto show in Ephrata, PA

If anyone can make it out to the Watoto Children's Choir concert on May 15 in Ephrata, PA you're in for a true time of blessing.  I had mentioned Watoto in an earlier post, and had promised to write more about them.  I still will, but if you're interested hearing their story from them is incredible.  Their concerts are usually free (we've seen them 4 times in different locations) so I think this one will be too, but be sure to bring some money to buy a CD or authentic Ugandan bracelet.  If for anything, come out and witness the sharing of ultimate hope and joy from those who have faced disparity far beyond what most of us have.  We shared Watoto with a few of our friends back in March, and they were blessed beyond imagination with these guys.

Watoto continues to inspire us as we join the many in this world seeking to end the orphan crisis that plagues the most defenseless in the world.  These children are living proof of the good that comes out of adoption.

The concert info is as follows:

Sun, 15th May 2011
	New Joy Brethren In Christ Church 35 New Joy Drive Ephrata, PA 17522 717-733-2864 6:00pm

Here is a video explaining the ministry of Watoto.

PANCAKES... yummy AND supportive!

HI everyone!

As most of you know, we are in the process of adopting from Congo (prayerfully a sibling set of two), and so we are holding all kids of fundraisers. Well, we wanted to get the word out that next Saturday, May 7th, we will be holding a pancake breakfast at our church, Andrews Bridge Christian Fellowship, to raise money for our adoption. The breakfast will accompany our church's mission fundraiser yard sale, which is also a great cause of it's own! 

Here are the stats:

What: Adoption Fundraising Pancake Breakfast! ALL proceeds to benefit us in our adoption from the Congo!

When: Saturday, May 7th, 7:30 till 11:30am

Where: Andrew's Bridge Christian Fellowship (off of Rt 896)

Price: $6 for adults/ $3 for children - Eat in or take out!

Menu: Pancakes, eggs, sausage/bacon, fruit, drinks

More info: Send us a message or comment on this post with any questions!

Here is a link for Google maps directions to our church.

Or, for those of you who are technology savvy with your GPS, here is the address: 1873 Georgetown Rd, Christiana, PA

Our hearts are so full of expectancy and love for our children in the Congo, and we would be honored if you are able to come by and eat with us or support us by spreading the word about this fundraiser. We totally understand if you can't make it, we just figured that we would start getting the word out there! Thank you for your prayerful consideration and your awesome support!

Blessings,

Dan and Jen

Yard Sale Part 2

Hey everyone,

Had our second yard sale this past weekend, and did just as well as the first one.  We now have $2,000 towards our goal, only $33,000 left to go.  It was exciting to see people that showed up for both yard sales.  We owe a big thanks to many people who helped donate items for us to sell.  Also a big thanks to our friend Kim who hung around and helped out with stuff.  We still have a long way to go before we've raised enough funds, but this past two weeks has really shown us how God is faithful in providing for our needs.  Today being Easter, is enough to tell us this already.  We pray that you feel God's presence with you as well.  Blessings, Dan and Jen

About Celebrate Children International (CCI)

Hey everyone.  Just wanted to write a post offering some more information on how we came to choose our adoption organization and country.

The process really started for us by choosing which country we wanted to adopt from.  Jen was sure that she wanted to do Africa first.  For me, the decision was more difficult.  In fact, being specific with what I wanted has been very difficult for me in general.  If we were having biological children we wouldn't be able to choose if it was a boy or girl, or if we would be having twins or not.  Sure, some things would be decided by default, like the baby would definitely be white.  Anyway, the fact that we are expected to be very specific about what kind of child we want has felt very unnatural for me.  So getting back to the point, we both agreed on Africa since we have always had a heart for the continent.  This passion started with a ministry named Watoto, but that's another post!  Since most agencies will work within some country in Africa we started narrowing down our options.  At first we looked at Bethany, America World Adoptions, and Holt International.  I particularly wasn't in favor of Holt too much.  We had heard great things about the company (they basically have started and shaped international adoptions in this country), but they weren't specifically faith based.  We feel that adoption is a ministry and a way to be a witness of God's love for us, so I felt as if that could only be accomplished by choosing an organization that matches our views.  Bethany provided us with Kenya and Ethiopia as options, and America World gave us Rwanda and Ethiopia.  I felt a more personal connection with Kenya, because we know a pastor who has a well established ministry in that country.  Jen felt a more personal connection with Rwanda because the child she sponsors through Compassion lives there.  So, we spent some time praying about where we felt God was calling us to choose (that usually works out better than deciding your self, usually).  Both agencies looked great, but we didn't feel a strong desire toward either one agency.

Now Jen has a rather dire obsession with Steven Curtis Chapman.  One of his cds is playing in her car about 80% of the time, and we NEVER miss one of his concerts that come to our area.  Don't get me wrong he is cool, and has done amazing work for orphans around the world.  Anyway, during one of her Facebook stalkings on his wife Mary Beth's page she saw a post with a link to a friend of hers, named Wendi Green, who was adopting from Ethiopia.  The link was to her blog that was filled with posts that are much more long-winded than I am being.  Anyway, she completely managed to connect with Jen through her personal experience with adoption, and Jen felt compelled enough to send her an email telling her so.  Thankfully, Wendi was not at all creeped-out by some stranger emailing her saying that she spent hours on her blog.  In fact, she loved it, and began having a conversation with Jen that she described as refreshing because of sharing her feelings on adoption, and at the same time burdened because we have not yet completed our own yet.  Anyway, Wendi and her husband had used CCI for their adoption and referred us to them as well.

CCI is a very small organization with fewer staff, so you'll get a chance to meet all the staff.  This was really important to us, since we didn't like the big corporate feeling that Bethany and America World provided.  They are both wonderful agencies, and we would recommend them to anyone, but they are just too big for us.  We originally decided on Ethiopia since CCI didn't offer any other country in Africa, but unfortunately adoptions are facing a major slow-down.  Sue's response to this slow-down, and possible shut-down, was to travel to the Congo to see if she could set up possibilities there.  To make a long story (oh yes, much longer) shorter.  Sue is able to set up adoptions in the Congo that are moving really quickly since the country does not process many adoptions right now.

Anyway, the point of this post is that adoptions are a wild roller coaster that you can't see where it's going.  Once you decide on something, be ready for it to completely change.  It requires from us a lot of flexibility and trust in God, but we are starting to get used to it.  Because I've said this tomorrow will probably bring lots more unexpected change for us, but oh well.

Thanks for making it to the end of this.  Blessings to you all.

Andrew Peterson sings "Planting Trees"

Andrew Peterson tells the story behind his song "Planting Trees." Don't forget to pause the music at the bottom of the window.

Yard Sale

This past weekend we hosted a yard sale as our first fund raising event to work towards paying for the adoption.  We've felt a little overwhelmed with this part, because of the great amount that we need to raise ($35,000).  When planning this yard sale we both expected very little from it.  We kept making comments like "hopefully we'll get $50 after it's all over."  We spent time praying that we could raise money, but it was with a heart of negativity.  Well, God remained faithful to us as we ended up raising about $1,000!  He sure did prove us wrong.  Lots of friends and family helped by contributing valuable items to sell, and stopping by to donate or purchase some items.  Before you celebrate this victory for us lets get one thing straight.  Our doubt was sin.  God has placed this desire in our hearts to achieve, and we didn't trust Him to bring this desire to fulfillment.  We say that we serve a great God, and that He will provide us with everything we need, yet we don't come to Him with great expectations.  Not to say that God will grant us anything that we want.  The whole adoption process is going to show much about God to us, and part of the point of this blog is to share that with you.  Throughout life we are all going to meet great challenges and hardships.  The Bible is very plain and clear about that.  As our great friend Kendall Keeler shared in his sermon today, God does not desire to save us from our hardships, but through them.  We will have trouble in this life, but we are always being lead by the mighty and loving hand of a great Saviour.  The task of adoption is a great task with many challenges ahead for us.  This next year will stretch us more than we have before, but we will not fail.  We will follow the path God has laid out for us, and at the end we will be holding our children in our arms.  Nothing will stop us from achieving this.  From this day forward we expect great things from our Great God.  We hope you do as well.

Welcome

Welcome everyone!  We've started this blog so you can catch updates about our adoption.  We'll try and update this weekly, but a lot has already happened so hopefully you will see many posts for the first few weeks.  Feel free to subscribe by blogger or by email by typing your email in the bar under the title.  For now, God Bless and keep you.