Update

Through prayer and discussion, we decided to put our profile in for the Caucasian male baby in Missouri. I had written in our last post that we were unsure about whether we should because we had hoped to adopt transracially. We weren't sure if this was a right reason for saying "no" to this situation, so we took a few days to think it over. Just so you can understand our thinking on this issue, here are the reasons why we love the idea of adopting transracially:

1) There is a huge need to adopt minority infants in the U.S. and we want to help with that need.

2) God adopts and redeems people from all tribes, tongues and nations into His family (as the verse in our blog header states), and we love the idea of having a similar diversity in our own family. We want our current home to resemble our future home as much as possible.

3) We believe Christian churches are too racially segregated and would like to help bring about racial diversity to our church.

We believe these are all God-honoring reasons, so that is where our conflict came in over whether or not we should adopt a Caucasian child. After discussing this with our pastor, here are the reasons why we decided to go ahead and put our profile in for this child:

1) An orphan is an orphan: they're all children in need of loving Christian homes.

2) Special-needs children also bring diversity to churches and homes that is heaven-like.

3) Christians that are pro-life should be willing to adopt the special-needs children that are put up for adoption. (We're not saying that every Christian family should adopt a special-needs child, there are several additional considerations.)

4) We're in a better postion than most to care for a child with special needs. We have amazing health insurance through Luke's company so we can afford to pay for any extra medical bills.

I was sharing with some friends at our Wednesday Bible Study how having this time of waiting has given us opportunities to think through a lot of things regarding adoption. There are a lot of issues surrounding adoption that we hadn't thought about, but when situations like this arise we have to think through them and decide what is the right thing to do. I don't know what the Lord has planned for us regarding adoption, but we're gaining a lot of wisdom as we wait to find out! (Maybe that is one of the reasons why He is making us wait....)

Regarding this little baby boy, his condition is one where the prognosis is unknown. He may live a completely normal life, or he may have some speech and motor issues. We pray for God's wisdom for his birthparents; they have a very tough decision to make and an emotional road ahead. Please pray for them and for the birthparents in New Jersey and Mississippi. As always, we'll keep you posted if we hear anything.

Two (maybe three) potential situations

Monday we got three separate e-mails about three different potential situations with birthmothers: one from New Jersey, one from Mississippi, and one from Missouri. We decided to submit our profiles to the ones in New Jersey and Mississippi. We are still praying about whether or not we should submit our profile to the one in Missouri. The Missouri baby is a Caucasian male that has some possible special needs issues. We're not hesitant because of the special needs issues, but because we had really hoped to adopt transracially. We're not sure if it's right to say "no" to this situation because of that, so we are still praying about it. They don't have to have an answer for a few more days.

We're not always notified when they submit our profile, only when their are special circumstances do they ask us first. Our profile could be shown without us knowing and we could just get a call one day that we have been matched. I really like knowing when it is being shown though because it gives us specific situations to pray for. I think and pray a lot about these birthmothers and what they are going through physically and emotionally.

Please pray for these birthmothers and we'll keep you posted!

Encouraged...not discouraged

Those of you that have been following along with us on this adoption journey know that this adoption process is taking longer than we anticipated. I confess that this often can cause me to become anxious and impatient. These are sinful attitudes (1 Peter 5:7) and I know that I need to trust God more completely. So today I have chosen to focus on the blessings God has already bestowed upon us, and how some of these blessings we had to wait for, just as we are waiting now.

Looking back over past blessings reminds me of how God's Sovereignty is perfect and He brings events (or people) into our life at exactly the right moment. When I'm in the midst of waiting, I don't always understand why I can't have what I want right now. But in hindsight, I can always see why God made me wait. Reflecting on past blessings is a great reminder of why I need to trust God as I wait for His timing.

So if you pray for us this week, please pray that our hearts will be encouraged by reflecting on God's goodness to us, and not discouraged by the sin of impatience. I know that someday we'll look back on this whole adoption process and see the wisdom in God's timing, and be so thankful that He made us wait for just the right baby at just the right time.

Our pool isn't so bad...

We have a pool in our subdivision that sometimes can get a little crowded. After seeing this picture of a swimming pool in China, I'm not going to complain anymore. I don't think I would even attempt to watch Isaac and Caleb there...

A Tough Decision

Our oldest son, Isaac is now five and will be ready to start kindergarten next month. Deciding where to send him for kindergarten has been a very tough decision for us. We had always planned on homeschooling until about a year ago when we heard of a school called Faith Christian Academy. We were drawn to the school because 1) it is part of Faith Community Church which we know is a very sound church and 2) it operates on a university schedule where the students attend class there for three days a week and are homeschooled for the other two days. We loved the idea of our kids getting the classroom experience and the homeschool experience. We also loved that FCA is a very rigorous school where expectations are very high, and we knew our kids would get an excellent education. So after a few visits to the school and a lot of thought and prayer, we signed Isaac up to start kindergarten this fall.

A couple of weeks after we had signed him up, Luke and I both started having second thoughts. We started thinking through the practical side of him attending this school. FCA is twenty minutes from our house, and with the price of gas that would greatly increase the expense. The school also requires twenty hours of volunteer time per year for the parents which would increase the amount of trips back and forth. We also started wondering if we were going to miss out by not homeschooling exclusively. We know many families that homeschool and have been very impressed by their children's academic success and spiritual development. Would we be missing out on something if we didn't homeschool?

This started several weeks of very difficult decision-making. We felt like we had two really good options--which one was better for our family? We prayed a lot about the decision and spoke with many friends to get their thoughts on the issue. Everyone we spoke with was in agreement that both options were good, which made our decision even harder. I wanted someone to just tell us what we should do--the decision was too hard to make! Finally, we both decided we felt like we needed to homeschool. We still think FCA is a great school, but we feel like homeschooling is the best thing for us. Finally...a decision was made!

Now that we have made this decision, we are gearing up for our first official year of homeschooling! We have decided to homeschool through a satellite school, Christian Liberty Academy. Christian Liberty Academy is a Christian school in Arlington Heights, Illinois. In 1967, they started a program called CLASS (Christian Liberty Academy School System) to support homeschooling families. When you enroll in their Administrative Plan, it is as if you are actually enrolled in their school (only the parent does the teaching). We will be mailing all Isaac's work and tests to CLASS, and they will do all the grading and keep all the records. They will mail us report cards and keep his transcripts. If we choose to continue with this through 12th grade, he will graduate from CLASS and get a diploma from them. One of the concerns Luke had with homeschooling was that I would be too stressed trying to plan and grade everything. With CLASS, they will take care of all of that which will help me just enjoy teaching our kids!

Another exciting thing about the upcoming school year is our playgroup that will be evolving into a homeschool co-op. We have been in a wonderful playgroup over the last year with several families from our church. All of these families are also homeschooling so we are going to start doing field trips together and planning holiday parties, field days, etc. This way the kids will get the benefit of a home-schooled education, but will still get the fun stuff like field trips and parties with kids their age. What a blessing to have these other families to do this with!

Our big project before I start homeschooling (which means we only have about a month to get this done!) is turning our sub-basement into a classroom. Here's the picture of what the sub-basement looks like now:

We have our work cut out for us, but I have big plans for this space! We'll be very busy over the next several weeks--I'll keep you updated on our progress!

CLASS is also very inexpensive because it is not-for-profit. We paid $240.00 and that included EVERYTHING for his kindergarten year (curriculum and shipping, administrative costs, teacher's manuals, etc.). We received the curriculum via UPS this week. Here's everything they sent us:

I haven't even begun to look through all this so that's another huge project I have before me! If I don't blog much this month you'll understand why...

Please be praying for us as we begin this huge task of home-educating our children. We are very excited about it and pray God will bless our efforts. We'll keep you updated as we go...

Hymn for July

Well it is the beginning of a new month and that means it is time for a new hymn to memorize in our family devotions. Last month we encouraged you to memorize with us. Here is the original post.... http://sing-to-jesus.blogspot.com/2008/06/behold-lamb.html

Both boys were able to easily memorize the hymn and love to sing. As promised to Caleb, this month we are going to do "Low in the grave He lay." This one is probably familiar to most of you but here is the tune if you need it.... http://www.cyberhymnal.org/htm/l/i/lintgrav.htm

Low in the grave He lay, Jesus my Savior,
Waiting the coming day, Jesus my Lord!

Refrain

Up from the grave He arose,
With a mighty triumph o’er His foes,
He arose a Victor from the dark domain,
And He lives forever, with His saints to reign.
He arose! He arose!Hallelujah! Christ arose!

Vainly they watch His bed, Jesus my Savior;
Vainly they seal the dead, Jesus my Lord!

Refrain

Death cannot keep its Prey, Jesus my Savior;
He tore the bars away, Jesus my Lord!

Refrain

Robert Lowry (1826-1899)Words & Music:
Ro­bert Low­ry, 1874; ap­peared in Bright­est and Best, by Ro­bert Low­ry and
W. How­ard Doane (New York: Big­low & Main, 1875)