Brussels, Belgium

On our flight to Brussels, we were served dinner at 8pm (eastern time), they turned the lights out for three hours, and served breakfast at midnight (eastern time), and the sun was up!

There are many beautiful things in Brussels like the Gothic buildings at Grand Place 

and the delicious food at the cafes along the street (their version of hamburger and fries),

and the cobble stone roads and side walks.

There are also many interesting things like street musicians

 

and belgian pigeons (haha)

and interesting choices in clothing such as men's capris with long socks, 

 and a store where they sell shoes and postcards?.

  Brussels is 6 hours ahead so we've only had 2 hours of sleep in the last two days.   On to the next leg...hopefully after some better sleep :).

 

The hard truth

Look at your child's face, or if don't have a child, look at one's face who is close to your heart.....and think about this...

If you can bare to imagine, envision that child living in a place where no one is coming back to take them home.  They have no one to tuck them in at night.  

No one to cuddle and kiss her soft cheek, no one to tickle her and tell her "I love you".  

Imagine your child has no blanket to comfort her or even a mattress to sleep on, just hard wooden slats.  

Can you hear the flies buzzing around where she sleeps and lives? ...And a smell worse than any barnyard we have experienced here in America? 

She wears shared, tattered, clothes that she cannot call her own, and are two sizes too big or small.  

Her belly is hungry... I don't mean the kind where she whines a little, but the kind of hunger felt for days, and months, so intense she has no energy left to complain about it.  She is so malnourished she weighs half as much as a healthy girl her age. 

Imagine your baby girl crying and crying and no one coming to comfort her.  Deprived of attention for so many months she finally gives up her cry... laying listless, staring.  

Imagine this girl has no hope, no education.  If she lives to the be too old to live at the orphanage, she'll most likely resort to making a living through prostitution or crime.

Now imagine that you look into that child's eyes, face-to-face, and tell her it costs too much, you'll have to give up too much, it will take too long, you're not strong enough to bring her back home.  Nonsense, right?  You are strong enough, all you have to do is be willing, say "yes".

Wouldn't you do anything to get to that child, to bring them home?  

I know, I'm pulling at your heart's strings.  You say what I said before,  "That's for someone else to take on, someone more "special" than me".  But you see, that's exactly what the "special" people think right before they become "special". There's nothing special about saying "yes".  However, there is a challenge and a commitment and certainly a sacrifice.  

Here we come to bring you home, Della!!!

The finish line in sight!

In February, due to an adoption agency in another country not following our daughter's birth country adoption law, all cases were put through an additional 3-6 month investigation period at the US Embassy.  This investigation originally took 2-3 weeks and we were heart broken.  In February we were at the point where we were expecting to travel in less than six weeks to bring Della home.

Just this last week I resigned to the thought of not traveling to bring her home until after August.  There was no movement at all in the US Embassy's investigations.  We even had our congressman get involved.  And finally, yesterday, after almost exactly 3 months from the time our investigation started, we received an email saying it was cleared, completed!  I still can't believe it!  I have written another post on how I realize this process is fluid, but I still am not used to being jolted from one side of the raging river all the way to the other side before I've realized it's even happened.

We must consider it a great joy, friends, whenever we experience various trials, knowing that the testing of our faith produces endurance.  But endurance must do its complete work, so that we may be mature and complete, lacking nothing.  (Adapted from the Bible, James 1:2-4)

We now wait for Della's visa to be approved next week.  We will then leave to get her anywhere  from 3-6 weeks after that to bring her home!  Finally, the finish line is in sight!

Faith like a child

Our adoption experience has been so profound for our family, including our children.  Not only do we want to love our new baby girl, Della, we also want our children to care for others in a BIG way. I am excited to see how our children will multiply this experience.


The other week Josey says, "I want to be two things when I grow up, a farmer of animals and go to Africa and bring home 100 kids who don't have moms and dads".

Emma came to me with a very involved budget she calculated to determine how long it would take for her to raise money for children in orphanages by selling soaps she will hand make to people here in the states.  

Last week, at breakfast, we were talking about appreciating the food that we have even if it's not our favorite.  And we shouldn't complain because some children, like those in the orphanage Della came from, won't get but one meal today.  Wyatt says, "Mom, why can't we just take big trucks of food, drive up to the door and dump it at the orphanages, then no one would be hungry".

Two days ago Eli was taking rocks from the driveway and breaking them apart to find beautiful sparkling minerals.  He asked if 1 cent was too much to ask when he sold them, I told him he should ask for at least 10 cents each.  He sold as many as he could to me and his siblings.  Yesterday he got his siblings involved and they all mined for minerals.  Last night he told me he wanted to give all the money he earned to a "5th World Country", I kindly corrected him, "You mean a 3rd World Country?"  All the children excitedly agreed they would use the money they earned to buy school supplies for the orphans in Africa.


Kids think the impossible is possible.  I'm sure you've heard the saying "Faith like a child".  Their thoughts and ideas are not hindered or squashed until someone else (usually an adult) tells them it's not possible.  I've thought lately, instead of telling them "You can't do that, it's not that easy", how about asking "How can I help you do that?"  If only we, as adults, were willing to say "yes" like a child, how many could we show love to?  How few orphans there would be!

I'm not sure where this journey will end, if there is an end.  I am excited....scared.....willing.  I know God speaks to me through my children.  I think He is reminding me to have a perspective like that of my children.    

Matthew 19:26 "Jesus looked at them and said, “With man this is impossible, but with God all things are possible.”

HAIR!!!

When we first talked about adopting from Africa, I was very concerned about how I would handle a little girl whose hair is so different from mine.  My friend, who, at the time was in the process of adopting her 2 newest boys from Africa told me, "You probably won't get a girl, more people prefer to adopt them".  So I was not so worried about the hair, I could just shave it or keep it really short on a boy.  Yeah, God has a good sense of humor.  We said we would take a boy or girl, whoever needed a home.  So, here I am, as we are anywhere from a month to several months away from bringing our little girl home, FREAKING OUT about my abilities to do her type 4 hair.  Within days of receiving Della's referral I found a mom with a daughter just like mine who created a website on everything about chocolate hair.

http://www.chocolatehairvanillacare.com/

I look back over the past years and see how God had planned placing Della in our family and has prepared us for her arrival in little ways.  Her hair and skin will require special care.  I don't think it's a coincidence that my hair went from totally straight to gradually becoming curly after the birth of my third child.  I had to start a different hair routine and found the "no-poo shampoo" (no sulfate shampoo, no silicone products) through a friend of mine who has had beautiful curly hair all her life.  I had no idea how much work went into curly hair!  Anyway, it turns out the "no-poo shampoo" is what is used on chocolate hair.  (Isn't it interesting my hair is becoming straight again.)  I have had 4 biological children with eczema and I myself have dealt with it.  You have to be vigilant with moisturizers and vaseline to keep it under control.  And wouldn't you know, that's how I have to treat Della's type of skin! 

Now, as I walk through the stores or in town, I take notice of the neat and tidy hair styles of little chocolate girls.  I tell myself, "I can do this".  And if I can't, I'm willing to ask those little girl's mom's for advice :).  Della's foster mom is prepping Della as her hair grows more each month.  It's long enough for tiny braids:

first braids

The adoption process

"fluid"  

subject to change or movement, readily reshaped

 
That is the perfect illustration of our adoption process.  Just when we think we know what to expect, it changes direction. 
 

 

 

"everlasting"

continuing for a long time or indefinitely; eternal

 
That is the perfect illustration of my reaction to our adoption process.  And more importantly, a wonderful characteristic of the One who knows the story before it begins.

 

"Trust in the LORD forever, for the LORD GOD is an everlasting rock."  Isaiah 26:4

“For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the LORD, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.” Jeremiah 29:11(NIV)

Another BIG blessing

We have learned from Della's last update she is growing very well!  So well, in fact, she has almost doubled her weight since last September 2012!!  She was 12 lbs. 13 oz. in September and in January she was 24 lbs. 4 oz.  She weighs more at this age than our Josey did at the same age.

I'll post her full photo once she's home :)

 

September 2012

Even though our wait for her can seem long and difficult, it's really only been a little more than six months since we started the adoption process.  It's very good to know she is growing and getting stronger even if she can't be with us yet.  In this month's photo I see about 5 or six little tiny ponytails in her hair, they look like puff balls :).  This is the first time we've seen any kind of ties in her hair.  And she has chubby cheeks and a belly.  Every photo we've had since September shows her wearing the clothes we sent her that used to be wore by our other girls.  It makes me feel even more like she's our daughter, part of our family!

January 2013