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
Sunday, October 23, 2011
Saturday, October 15, 2011
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!
Wednesday, October 12, 2011
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
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
Saturday, October 8, 2011
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.
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.
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