This is not a drill!!

When we were in Cape Town in 2016. Look how tiny Tisetso is! Be still my heart.

After four and a half long years, we are finally writing to say that we have a court date!

On April 7, 2022, our family will grow by one and we are so excited, thrilled, and elated. We cannot believe that after waiting so long, our time has finally come.

This time around is going to look different in a several ways, but here are three:

1. We will meet with our daughter only four days before the court date. When we met Tisetso, we had two weeks before the court date, so things are a little more sped up this time around.

2. We will also be spending three months in South Africa compared to the six weeks last time.

3. We will be in South Africa during the autumn and winter months compared to the summer we experienced last time.

We have begun to finalize lists and boxes are pouring in from Amazon with things for our daughter and for travel. We are putting her room together (Harry Potter themed, of course!). We are shifting things around to make room in our home for another person!

We are so thankful that throughout our time of waiting the Lord upheld us. I (Heidi) had a particularly hard day while we were waiting and found this verse to be so encouraging:

He is not afraid of bad news;
his heart is firm,
trusting the LORD.
Psalm 112:7

I knew that no matter what news we heard (or didn’t hear), it would not shake the foundations of God’s hold on my heart or of His creation. My heart was firm because I was trusting the Lord.

We are also thankful for each of you. We’ve had so many friends and family members praying for us and encouraging us these past years as we walked this much longer than expected path. We know life is meant to be lived in community and we are so thankful for ours.

Clothes and a Lion Named Roy

Because we have a little less than 3-4 months before heading over to South Africa (if the courts approve our referral), we've started getting ready to welcome T* home. One of the main things we've been able to get for T have been clothes. We've been buying a ton of the summer items that are on clearance now because, when we head over, it will be summer in South Africa. Talk about feeling sorry for this kid...he's leaving summer and being dropped right into the middle of our winter when we return.

I surprised Brian with a sweet t-shirt I found for T. Target had a series of band t-shirts. I was going to wait to give it to Brian until the day we signed the paperwork for T, but I couldn't wait. I'm pretty sure this kid is going to be STYLIN'!

Along with clothing this kid, we've started making our registries for our adoption shower. We even found an awesome stuffed animal we will give T when we meet him for the first time. A lot of attachment resources recommend giving the child a stuffed animal for them to have during the crazy time in their life when they are leaving one life behind and starting a new one. T's favorite animals are lions and horses, so that's where we started. We found this sweet guy on Amazon and are excited to give it to T (we also bought a back up). We're calling him Roy until T has a chance to name him.

Definitely subscribe to the blog if you don't want to miss anything. We are so blessed to have so many people who are asking about T and what's next, so we don't want to miss anyone. We're excited to keep you updated as we have more info.

*Legal name withheld until he is legally our son.

Hope in the Lord

This season of waiting has been hard. If you've talked to me in the last three weeks, it seems the waiting has intensified as we are waiting for some paperwork and for a file to come through from South Africa. Each day I wake up with hope for the day. And each day, for the last three weeks, I've given up hope somewhere around 10:30 am because the work day is officially over in South Africa. 

When you are waiting for an adoption to move forward, you have such hope. You hope for the timeline to be quick (you don't want to wait for 10 years), you hope for the child to be loved where they're at right now, you hope they will be protected from evil people who prey on helpless children, you hope that when you meet them for the first time they don't hate you. You hope and you hope and you hope. These past few weeks have been filled with such hope; it's almost overwhelming at times. As we've been waiting and hoping, I've found such encouragement and joy in Scripture.

Over and over again in the Psalms, we are called to hope in the Lord.

“I wait for the Lord, my soul waits,
and in his word I hope;
my soul waits for the Lord
more than watchmen for the morning,
more than watchmen for the morning.
O Israel, hope in the Lord!
For with the Lord there is steadfast love,
and with him is plentiful redemption.
And he will redeem Israel
from all his iniquities.”

— Psalm 130:5-8, ESV

“O Israel, hope in the Lord
from this time forth and forevermore.”

— Psalm 131:3, ESV

“Blessed is he whose help is the God of Jacob,
whose hope is in the Lord his God,
who made heaven and earth,
the sea, and all that is in them,
who keeps faith forever;
who executes justice for the oppressed,
who gives food to the hungry.”

— Psalm 146:5-7, ESV

As I looked at my watch this afternoon and saw that it is bedtime for our child in South Africa and realized we will be waiting until Monday (at least), I realized that God is not wasting this time. This huge idea of waiting on the Lord and having hope in the Lord is finally settling into my soul. I am starting to understand more fully what it means (in my own small way) to hope in the Lord. God has allowed me to translate this season of waiting into a deeper understanding of hoping in Him and I am so thankful.

I am realizing more as I write this out that my hope in the adoption, for a child, is not a bad thing, but it could and probably will disappoint. My hope in God will never disappoint. God will never disappoint. 

Peace in Waiting

I've sat down and started several blog posts over the last couple of months, but was unable to publish them. For fear of sounding like a broken record, I just didn't have anything new to say. It was tough. Knowing something and seeing it on a screen in front of you made it more real for me.

In the midst of this season of waiting, one thing has emerged—peace. The last file we looked at was in December. Over the past six months, the Lord has done such a great work. When I am tempted to freak out over the many things on my mind God was so quick to remind me about the sweetness of His sovereignty. 

Back in April, we got some disappointing news about the adoption. Providentially, that week, I was preparing to talk about the sovereignty of God at our women's seminar. When tempted to freak out, I already had Scripture floating through my mind to calm my heart. God has been so good to remind me of these truths over and over. (I often need to be reminded, as I quickly forget.)

As we are praying for the right child for our family, please pray with us. We don't know how our family will look at the end of this process, but we are trusting that the Lord knows and will work powerfully to take orphans on the other side of the world and bring them into our family.

Thank you for praying with us and asking if there's any new news. It is so encouraging us that people care. We look forward to the day when we have big news to share.

What's Next?

Now that our dossier has been completed and shipped, we've gotten the question "What's next?" quite a bit in the last few weeks. Well, the next step was for our dossier to be received in country, but we were notified Tuesday afternoon that it was received by the agency in South Africa. That's a huge relief!

So the answer is that the next step of the process is waiting. Nothing to do. No paperwork to collect, sign, notarize, or apostille. It's all done for now. Now we wait. Now life continues as normally as possible knowing that life could change at the drop of a hat (as any life can). It's just different because we've removed all barriers to getting these kids home. All paperwork is turned in. All it takes is a phone call and a file of a child (or children) in our inbox. 

It's been mentioned by several people that waiting must be the hardest part. For both Brian and I, it is one of the easier times. We know that the timing is completely in God's hands. Our kids will come home at the exact moment He has ordained. There is a huge peace we've found in trusting the Lord. A quote by Paul Tripp has been brought to mind several times since we started waiting.

“You live your life in the utterly mundane. If God doesn’t rule your mundane, He doesn’t rule you because that’s where you live.”

— Paul Tripp, War of Words (sermon)

Our life, while different than some, is mundane. We go to work, we eat dinner, laundry is done, cleaning, repeat. There has been a sweetness to handing this season over to the Lord. It's no longer up to us to finish anything. It's all done. Now we wait, trusting the Lord to rule in this season, as well as the next.

Prayer Requests

• Please pray with us that the Lord would protect our kid(s) during this season of waiting. Pray He would provide loving caregivers, food, clothing, and shelter - things we cannot provide for them at this time.
• Pray for us as we wait and prepare to welcome the child(ren) into our lives.