Excitment and Pain

Each time I look at the photos of the two children that are going to become my daughters, my heart skips a beat in excitement and awe. Then my heart hurts over the pain and struggle already experienced in the lives of these and millions of other precious children. Please pray for healing, for peace, and that God would prepare the hearts of these girls to join our family, to attach to us, to trust us, and to love us. We are so humbled and amazed by this journey. We are truly overcome with emotion, anticipation and love.

Next Step

 

Our next step is to officially accept our referral. Our acceptance letter should arrive at the agency office on Monday morning.  When they recieve the acceptance they can begin taking steps to secure a court date. A court date in Ethiopia adoptions represents the time when the children who have been referred to us legally become ours. We are not present for this court date, a representative from our agency stands in our place. The court system in Ethiopia closes in early August and stays closed until early October. So if we don’t make it through, we will need to wait until after October for a court date. Once the court date has successfully passed, our agency begins travel preparations.

 

Many families from our agency who have already received their referrals are standing in line for court dates and all are hoping and praying to get through before closures. We ask that you join us in prayer that God would work mightily in each of these families lives and the lives of the children waiting in Ethiopia. We trust His perfect timing and if we don’t make it through (our agency said we have “a hair of a chance.”) we know God has reasons for us to continue to wait. Please pray with us for miracles knowing that God can orchestrate every detail to move our family and others through court, and also for continued peace and unwavering trust in God if He reveals that His plan is for us continue waiting all through the summer and fall before being able to go pick up our children. 

We Received our Referral

 

We are so excited to share with you all that we received our referral yesterday for two sisters! We really are in a bit of a shock. We had prepared ourselves to be waiting for at least two more months. Also, all the information we could gather seemed to imply that we would be receiving a referral for one child, not siblings. Another clear reminder to wait and trust in the Lord! We can think and plan and guess all we want and we’ll still never know what lies just around the corner.

Now listen, you who say, “Today or tomorrow we will go to this or that city, spend a year there, carry on business and make money.” Why, you do not even know what will happen tomorrow. What is your life? You are a mist that appears for a little while and then vanishes. Instead, you ought to say, “If it is the Lord’s will, we will live and do this or that.” As it is, you boast and brag. All such boasting is evil. Anyone, then, who knows the good he ought to do and doesn’t do it, sins.  James 4:13-17

Appointment Update

We saw Dr. Janousek (Grace’s neurologist) on Tuesday of this week and he was not quite as optimistic as we were after hearing that there had been no changes in Grace’s brain. Not certainly pessimistic either, but he just seems to think that “something” is looming over the horizon. He does think it is good news that things haven’t gotten worse on her MRI and that her development is normal. But he still wants us to go to Mayo (on 6/30) and see the neurometobolic specialist. He says she knows of new research and developments about a year ahead of him because she is so specialized. And he thinks that whatever is going on is almost certainly metabolic in nature. He wants us to keep up with her so she can catch whatever it might be.

We are at peace and enjoying the time we have with Grace. Knowing always that God has her days, and ours, numbered before us and planned for our good, even when trails come.

 

MRI

Last fall, after the doctors gave up trying to find what might be causing the abnormal white matter in Grace’s brain, they diagnosed her with 1) Leukoencepholopathy and 2) Normal neurological development. We were told that we should do a follow up MRI the following summer. Well, summer is here and Grace went in for her MRI at Children’s Hospital in Minneapolis on Wednesday, June 12.

We have an appointment scheduled with the neurologist at Children’s/Noran Clinic next Tuesday and an appointment at Mayo with the pediatric neurometabolic specialist at the end of the month. We assumed we would not hear anything until our appointment next Tuesday, but we were pleasantly surprised today when Noran clinic called.

The doctor was already able to review Grace’s MRI scans and the nurse told us that there has been no change in Grace’s brain since last year. Praise God! We have been fervently praying for our little girl, trusting her life and future to God, knowing that He could miraculously heal her from any abnormality, yet praising Him no matter the results would be this week. While the follow-up scans did not show “healing” from a medical perspective, we are so thankful to God that no further deterioration or demyelinating has occurred.

We are curious and interested to hear what the neurologist has to say at the appointment next week – to hear if he is as optimistic as we are. And we hope the trip down to Mayo will not be necessary given the results of the scan. We’ll update again after the appointment.

My frame was not hidden from you
       when I was made in the secret place.
       When I was woven together in the depths of the earth,

 your eyes saw my unformed body.
       All the days ordained for me
       were written in your book
       before one of them came to be.

 How precious to me are your thoughts, O God!
       How vast is the sum of them! -Psalm 139:15-17