"Dear Lord, I do not ask that Thou shouldst give me some high work of Thine, 
       some noble calling or some wondrous task.

Give me a little hand

     to hold in mine."

(Anonymous) 

Meet Naomi

     Almost 8 months old

           

Just today, entered into the ZAPE orphanage

run by those working with the Wasatch Organization.

 

She is beautiful and precious in His sight!

    We are overwhelmed with love for her. . .

Please, continue to pray for this adoption process !

Thank you,

Nancy and Gracie

. .a LARGER Embrace ..

Adoption feels like genetic connection because it links you directly not only to your own gene pool, but to the genes of all humanity,

all the way to the roots from which we all originated .. .

Adoption carries the added dimension of connection not only to your own tribe but beyond,

widening the scope of what constitutes love, ties and family.

It is a

larger embrace.

Isabella Rossellini (actress/adoptive parent)

I am Italian.

Some of my grandparents didn't have a good grasp on the English language!

I grew up loving pasta, gnocchi, braciole, polenta 

                      and hearing the word, "Manga!" spoken from relatives at meal times.

I am also American; born, raised and schooled in the United States of America.

My secondary culture in America is Hispanic, having been brought up in an area that abounds with people who LOVE family, lively music, eat rice and beans daily and speak both Spanish and English in their homes.

The  Presbyterian church we attended had two thriving congregations:
 Hispanic and English.

I have lived in Lebanon, Jordan, Sudan, Haiti and Egypt, and I carry with me little bits and pieces of ALL of those places embedded deep in my soul,  and enmeshed with my Italian-Hispanic background! 

ALL of this . . .

thrills me!

My daughter . . my beautiful, 10-year old, smiling princess . . is Haitian.

Until the age of 6 months, she'd heard  and understood nothing but the Creole language.

My heritage and that of my daughter, is a diverse and beautiful one 

that reflects the TRUE Family of God!

What thrills me MORE is the "Larger Embrace" that I see forming around Naomi, who we HOPE will be the second beautiful little princess in my family.

So far ..the "Larger Embrace" has been been offered from arms that s t r e t c h from the lands of Russia, Singapore, the U.K., Australia, Congo, the States, Germany ..

This Embrace comes from those who are giving, praying, working, facilitating, referencing, encouraging, supporting ..

And I see that it truly DOES, 

"Widen the scope of what constitutes love, ties and family!"

Today's BLOG is dedicated, 

WITH GRATITUDE 

to those so far who have offered that Larger Embrace and to those who still plan to!

Thank you for being 

FAMILY.

"If you can't feed 100 people,

Then just feed one."

Mother Theresa

Today. . . 

    Is an unnaturally quiet  one in our neighborhood.

 Today is an official holiday in my 'host country'  and while the world appears to be resting around me, I am hard at work in my room!

Today . . I have set aside to research and apply for adoption grants.

I sit with my long list from the chart entitled, "Resources For Adoption," and pluck out the grants that I am qualified for, 

       . . which are few.

Today, my faith spirals downward as I battle every family's battle on the adoption journey .. feeling overwhelmed by the magnitude of it all 

and I still lean into a God who reminds me in His Word,

 "IS ANYTHING to difficult for Me?"

 Yet, I fight discouragement and ask the same question all of my friends seem to murmur as we talk adoption these days . .."WHY must this process be so hard; so expensive?"

   Then, come the faces. . .

 Beautiful, waiting children . ..all precious in His sight!

Each website offers desperate pleas for families and individuals to come and rescue those who are waiting. Statistics are given .. .how many are lonely, how many are without care, without love, sick, disabled, unwanted, hungry. ..

I see their faces and instantly feel the need, sense the urgency of all it, 

my tears flow for them to find forever homes!

An estimated 153,000,000  orphans wait, 

                                                                    wait,

                                                                        and continue to wait ..

The need, overwhelming.

The desire to help, ALSO .. .OVERWHELMING

HOW can I?

I can try . . .try to adopt this ONE,  at least this ONE.

"We were not separated at your birth.

It was the moment at which we began our journey toward each other."

Nancy McGuire Roche

The journey has begun .. 

  Ours to Naomi and Naomi's to us ..

My journey to Naomi begins with lists of requirements.

My journey requires me to jump through every possible hoop that might prove me to be an acceptable and effective parent.

Along this journey I tackle a massive questionnaire with intense, thoughtful questions, medical reports and health statements from my doctors, employment verification, health insurance verification, financial statements and proof of investments, copies of  three years' worth of tax returns, police clearances from two countries, a child abuse registry check, two or three letters of recommendation, a certificate of completion of parental training, and proof that I don't have various diseases and ailments!

At the completion of all of this . . .is the home study, where I will fly in our social worker to interview us both, examine our home environment and return to write his report stating whether or not he deems me to be a fit parent, ready to adopt.

All of this . . . only the beginning of my journey to precious blessing #2!

Naomi's journey is one of waiting and shifting; a journey she doesn't yet understand.

She is born and shifted from her mother's warmth to distant relatives who have kindly agreed to care for and protect her, for a time.

She is soon to be shifted to an orphanage where locals are paid to care for those precious souls who are on the same journey as Naomi, waiting . .. .shifting . ..

Our journey also requires faith in God, wisdom and prayer.

Our journey requires an enormous amount of money, almost immediately.

And that brings us back to faith

in God.

Please receive my invitation to journey with us in faith,

and pray for Naomi

and for her homecoming.

Our "Redemption" . . an amazing thing

God decided in advance to adopt us into His own family by bringing us to Himself through Jesus Christ. This is what he wanted to do and it gave him great pleasure. (Ephesians 1: 5,6) 

According to the Bible, I was born into the desperate situation of being a sinner, separated from God.

 There is nothing that I could have ever done on my own

 to rescue myself out of my desperate condition and great need for salvation!

Before we knew how desperate our situation was, our Lord, who died for our sins, LOVED us and had worked to rescue us and bring us into relationship with Himself.

We are  sought-after,

Desired 

                     Beloved  

                                          Ransomed 

 . .and He placed His love on us and longed to call us HIS OWN!

Before I had a name, HE had named me, loved me, and I was known by Him.

Faraway, in the Congo . .. there is a little baby girl whom I have named!

She has NO IDEA how desperate her condition is!

TO others, she might be labelled  ..."unwanted."

Others who know of her, might think she's been abandoned, left alone, orphaned.

HOWEVER . . .that is so very FAR from the truth! 

What this babe doesn't know is that for months, I  (and others) have been working to bring her to myself!  .. to bring her into a safe place, a loving family.

She doesn't know that she is      . . .  LOVED 

SOUGHT AFTER        LONGED FOR     WANTED

Some day, she will be adopted and given a new name!

That day, all that I have becomes hers!

She will have a NEW life and will have the fullness of my love, my time, my possessions.

She will have a new family. She will have RELATIONSHIP! 

She doesn't know that there is someone far far away who loves her so much, that she will willingly give all that she has to redeem her,

                                                           and bring her into her family!

She is valued. She is precious in my sight. She is accepted and I CAN'T WAIT for her to be mine!

Today, I'm freshly aware of the cost and the blessings of MY Redemption by our Lord Jesus Christ, and I am so very grateful  for my adoption into His family!