Time Flies When You're Having Fun!

Hang through this friends....it's going somewhere.  Last night Bella Kate (who is 3) and I were playing on the deck waiting for Dan to get home.  She got in her Little Tikes Coupe and said, "I'm going to school Mom, see ya later!"  I laughed as she "locked" her door and put on her imaginary seat belt.  "Tell me to be careful!" She cried like I was totally neglecting my motherly duties.  I told her to be careful and have fun.  Off she went to the other end of the deck.  She got out and "played at school" for a few minutes then hopped back in and Flinstoned it back to me.  "I'm home!" (I hope she is always this enthusiastic to get home) "How was school?" I asked her.  "Oh, it was fine." with this very grown up voice. Suddenly, flashing before my eyes was a 16 year old girl pulling into the drive way, telling me school was fine that day.  Ugh.  While I have hopes and dreams for my kids to grow up to be independent, go to college, get married, and have a family of their own, the reality of how quickly that will actually happen sometimes becomes very clear.  She will not be under our authority for that long.  I need to be busy and purposeful with the time I have to guide her and teach her.
It seems that not that long ago every event that I longed for took fooorrreeevvverrrrr to get here.  I didn't get it when grown ups said, "When you're older, time flies."  And while I believe the Bible is true and accurate I didn't get it in James when it says "...you are a mist that appears for a little time and then vanishes.."  Really? 70 years seems like a really really long time when I just can't wait for (insert Christmas, graduation, wedding, baby, etc).  But in the grand scheme of thousands of years of history on Earth and then go ahead and throw in eternity, 70 years is truly a mist.  While I do need to stay on it for the 20ish years I have to train up my kiddos, what about staying purposeful for my God?
I told you you're going to have to stick with me.  This is supposed to be about adoption, right?  Adopting internationally has brought on a lot more criticism, from strangers and family, both directly and indirectly, than I expected it to.  Recently said of me, "She doesn't know what she's getting herself into." and how "You're not doing your girls any favors." At first, comments like this would make my skin want to melt off from the blood boiling underneath.  But now I'm just letting them know they need to take it up with God, because their problem is really with His command and His word, not with me.  The one that makes me laugh the most is, "You really want more kids after this?  I mean in this economy that's (insert ridiculous, crazy, brave(but not in a good way))."  They usually follow up with, "yeah, we might do that someday."  Now before I go on, there is a time to do things, and I'm not discounting that, 2 years ago would not have been the time for us to adopt.  BUT why are we waiting?  We are adopting for a lot of reasons, but at the core of it is Jesus changed our lives by adopting us and God's word says to care for orphans.  We have 70 years (give or take on average) to do what God has commanded us to do.   I don't just mean adoption.  I don't think adopting is a command, but caring for orphans is.  There are lots of ways to do that.  But either we believe what the Bible says or we don't.  We make the dangerous assumption (especially in the part of the country that I live in) that just because you recognize that Jesus is the Son of God you assume that you have a relationship with Him and are forgiven.  Even demons in the New Testament would call Jesus out on who He is, and they were afraid because the knew the authority He had.  They recognized who He is, but they certainly will not spend eternity with Him in heaven.  So we believe in God? James says even demons believe in God and shudder.  It takes us recognizing that we are separated from God, we have messed up, and need to not only recognize who Jesus is and what He did for us on the cross but recognize we need forgiveness and get that by grace through faith.  Then if that's true for us we need to get busy.  There will never be a perfect time to share the gospel, adopt an orphan, go on a mission trip, live overseas.  Satan will always provide you an excuse.  But if we believe what the Bible says, our life has changed because of Jesus Christ.  If our life has really changed, don't we want others lives to change too?  There are places so desperate for the gospel.  They can't wait until we are retired and our kids are in college to hear.  A couple generations will be gone by then.
When I was in Ghana working at a hospital I was overwhelmed by physical death.  Babies, kids, young adults, every day dying.  It took me months of being home to shake some of the the things I had seen.  But I'm surrounded by spiritual death constantly and I don't blink an eye.  So while my time is flying, what am I going to do with it?  Because soon I'll vanish.
Thanks for hanging through this my bloggy friends.  This isn't for you, it's for me.  Now I need to get off here and get busy!

Ladies & Gentleman, We Have A COURT DATE!!!

Can you feel the enthusiasm of my title?!??!  Three weeks ago I saw his precious face for the first time and in 5 weeks and 5 days I get to hold him in my arms. My heart is overflowing with joy! You all who read my last post know I was praying to see my son this year and I asked you to pray for the same.  I'm so thankful that God has answered this prayer.  
Our court date is December 22nd!!! WAAHOOO!!
While this is what I was praying for, it wasn't super realistic of me.  To be assigned a court date as fast as we did and have one assigned just over a month from now is a blessing from the Lord, I will give Him the glory for the most wonderful Christmas present a mom could ask for!


So today I've been a busy bee.  We are working on our travel itinerary with an agency, I made our appointments at the travel clinic for vaccines, looked into travel insurance, made a list of documents we needed, and reviewed our travel pack from West Sands. I also realized this afternoon that since we will be getting home on Christmas Eve, I not only have 5 weeks to get everything in order for us to leave the country for the week, I only have 5 weeks to get everything ready for Christmas! Although, there is potential the Jenkins may be celebrating Christmas on December 26th so mom and dad will actually be awake and able to remember it! So if I lose my train of thought while talking to you it's because I'm mentally crossing off and adding to my to-do list (or just day dreaming about holding my little man :) 


What happens now...(I'll be so happy when the only thing left to happen is be a forever family!)


December 12th: Preliminary hearing in Ethiopia.  They review our paper work and little man's paper work.  We get travel clearance or request correction to documents. (We are praying for clearance!!)


December 18th: Fly to D.C.
December 19th: Fly to Ethiopia
December 20th: Hold on to and cuddle our little guy!!! Happy Day!
December 22nd: Court!!
December 23rd: Leave Ethiopia
December 24th: Home to our girls 


Noah has still has not been moved to the transition home.  So at some point between now and December 20th he will be moved.  Please pray for him to get there soon and safely.  I'll be one relieved mama when he gets there.


Please pray that our MOWA (they write a supportive letter to the judge that we are clear to adopt Noah, without that letter our case cannot be final) letter is there and that when we leave Ethiopia Noah is our son.  The longer the letter takes, the longer it will be until he is home.  


Obviously flying in December has weather risks.  We are asking the Lord to hold off a white Christmas until Christmas day :) 


So thankful and excited to bring Noah home!  So thankful for our friends and family who have been so encouraging and supportive!  We love you all and can't express our gratitude.  Please keep praying for our little guy.  That he stays safe and healthy. That someone is loving on him today, that he is well fed, and clean.  We can't wait for you to meet him!


My turn of "what I'm thankful for" at Thanksgiving might take a while :)