Happy 3rd Birthday Moonbeam!

Dearest Moonbeam,

I cannot believe you are three today! Happy birthday sweetie! Even though you are so far away, I think of you everyday! I am praying for you constantly. I cannot wait to hold you in my arms again and whisper how much I love you!

I am thinking of your birth mom today and praying for her as well. I am so grateful to her for giving you life. I know she must ache to be far away from you as I do.

I am praying that you have lots of smiles, hugs and happiness to celebrate this day!

You are precious to me and more importantly to God who takes great delight in you!

We are having a party for you tonight! We will have birthday cake made by Auntie Kristen, and ice cream and decorations from Auntie Lesa. You are so very loved! I cannot wait until you are home forever.

Love,
Mama

Thank you for your ideas

Thank you so much to those of you who left comments and sent me emails. I really appreciate all of your ideas! I will definitely be throwing a party for Hannah tomorrow evening as a part of our Bible Study gathering!
My dear friend Beulah is baking a cake. Lesa is getting decorations and ice cream. I'll be bringing a few little gifts. Now, if I can just get through the evening without spending the whole thing crying! It's a celebration of Moonbeam's life, after all!

How to Celebrate?

Well, Hannah's 3rd birthday is less than a week away. Sadly, she is far too many miles away, still living in an orphanage.
So, I'm wondering, how to celebrate? Luckily the evening of her birthday I will be at a Bible Study with a group of dear friends - so I'm half tempted to plan a bit of a party? Any ideas out there? Any families who have had to celebrate a birthday without their child being physically present?
Please leave a comment - I am feeling really blue and could use some input....

A Call to Pray, Part 3

On July 23rd (which is during the night tonight, for us) Kyrgyzstan will hold presidential elections.
Please be praying that the election will go smoothly, that there will be peace while the people vote, and that the election would be uncontested.

Please pray that in the days following the elections any other remaining "obstacles" to completing adoptions are removed - swiftly!

Please pray that God would move on the hearts of those who stand in the way of completing the adoptions. Pray that He would break their hearts for the children and compel them to act - again I say, swiftly!

Quotable Quotes

I absolutely love this quote from Richard Baxter. He was a 17th century English theologian.

“In necessary things - Unity;
in doubtful things - Liberty;
in all things - Charity.”

I would like my life to reflect this.

All Quiet on the Adoption Front

As we count down the days to the Kyrgyz presidential election, news on the adoptions has become even quieter (if that's possible - what could be quieter than deafening silence?). We aren't likely to hear much until September at the earliest, as many Kyrgyz government offices vacation in August.
Hang on, Moonbeam and friends, you are not forgotten, you are loved and being prayed for daily by so many.

4 Days Without Luggage

Have you been wondering why I'm wearing the same thing in every picture posted from my visit trip to Kyrgz? Sadly, I've been feeling a bit self-conscious because I haven't really explained why. The story is that both my and Elisabeth's suitcases were delayed. I mean really delayed! We arrived very early Monday am into Bishkek and our luggage finally caught up with us late on Thursday night.

Have I mentioned what the weather is like in Bishkek in August? Well let me just say scorching hot! And not an air conditioner to be found - except for the one in our driver's car. And with five people packed into a Jetta - well - you can imagine!

You know, when you're without the comforts of home and you're visiting your daughter in an orphanage - you begin to realize what is really important. And clean clothes and air conditioning just aren't at the top of the list.

Each day when we arrived at the orphanage I wondered how much clothing Moonbeam would be wearing? On some visits she had nothing more than panties on. Which I don't think she minded too much since it was brutally hot, but still, it just really emphasized for me just how much stuff I own. It was a really humbling experience. And a very good life lesson to be learned - again and again.

Now, don't get me wrong, I'm not saying we should all sell everything and live in poverty. However, I find that I am focused on living from a more grateful space and I continually try to be generous with what I have.

Back to the story, when Elisabeth and I arrived in London on Saturday, for our vacation time there, it was so exciting to need a sweater (London seems to be cool, wet and rainy all year long) and to find our luggage made it with us this time! Not sure I've been happier to greet a suitcase!



Do we look a little giddy? :-)

Memories...

Lately I've been wishing I could post some adorable pictures of Moonbeam here on my blog! But, alas, until she has her feet firmly on US soil I cannot. So, I was thinking - why couldn't I post some pictures of my visit trip last year that show you all (well, at least those of you that aren't also adopting from Kyrgyzstan - you will already know this) what an amazing country Moonbeam is from!

A beautiful ballet/opera house:

A park in the city....I never did figure out why they paint all of the bases of the tree trunks white? Anyone?

Our driver took us up into the mountains one evening - it was a gorgeous drive. We followed this river through the mountains.

A summer Yurt along the river. There were some amazing horses grazing alongside. Syd adores horses so I had to get a few pictures of them.

We drove all the way to this little restaurant called 12 Chimneys. They have these outdoor tables - each with a little fireplace - and thus, 12 Chimneys.

Great memories....I cannot wait to make new ones with Moonbeam!

Faithfulness, Part Two

Sometimes God reminds us of His faithfulness through the stories of others. Today was one of those days for me.

I had the opportunity to go to Cherry Creek Presbyterian Church this am. I went to hear my friend Tami speak about her adoption journey in Kyrgyzstan. Cherry Creek Pres is hosting Tami's "Red Card" program. It's an eight week Sunday School program designed to teach families about advocating for Children at Risk around the world. Find out more about this amazing program here.

Anyhow, I digress, Tami shared about God's faithfulness to her both during the adoption journey and since. It was so encouraging to hear the many ways that God answered prayer for her daughter and others. As I listened, with tears in my eyes, I felt a surge of hope! As if God was reminding me, I haven't forgotten, I am at work, I do have a plan.

After she shared her story, Tami passed out pictures and prayer requests from six of the waiting families (including me). She asked each of the tables to pray over the child and the requests from the waiting family. She also asked them to write notes of encouragement to the family. It was such a blessing to know that over 100 people were praying for the waiting 65 families. I stuck around at the end and helped Tami collect the cards from the tables - I was so excited to see how many cards there were! At least 5 per family and some even more than that (some of the tables were fuller than others)! It will be so fun to get these in the mail and will be yet another reminder of how God is touching lives through this wait.

At the very end of the time, as people were leaving, this little old man came up to me, with tears in his eyes, to tell me he was praying for me and for my daughter. He gave me a hug and had to turn away - he told me "you know, I just don't cry". OK, now I'm crying.

God is so faithful! I love the 3rd chapter of the book of Lamentations. It lists all the reasons for hopelessness, and there are many of them in this case, but then a turning point in verse 21 and following:

Yet this I call to mind and therefore I have hope:
Because of the LORD's great love we are not consumed, for his compassions never fail. They are new every morning; great is your faithfulness.
I say to myself, "The LORD is my portion; therefore I will wait for him."
The LORD is good to those whose hope is in him, to the one who seeks him;
it is good to wait quietly for the salvation of the Lord.

Yes, great is Your faithfulness, dear Lord!
Read the whole chapter here.

Happy 4th of July!

I love fireworks, but generally hate the crowds associated with a fireworks display. I'm just not all that interested in joining the masses to wait around for a few hours to enjoy 15-30 minutes of beauty! Tonight we had friends over for a BBQ. When they all left to find fireworks to watch, I tuned in to PBS to watch A Capitol Fourth. :-) Am I getting old or what?

I was reminiscing today about 4th of July's gone by and remembered one of my favorite years - 1989 - I was in Greece - on the beach in Ios - a smaller Greek Isle. I had the wonderful opportunity to travel throughout Greece and Cyprus for 5 weeks that summer with a bunch of college friends. Ahhhhh :-)

Hope everyone has a wonderful time celebrating the freedom we enjoy as citizens of this grand country. In spite of her many faults, I still count myself incredibly privileged to live here in the good ole' US of A!

Fireworks image found here.

Home Study Update

Today was my home study update visit. It was rather bittersweet for me. I cannot believe that I have to go through all of this paperwork and visits etc yet again and sweet Moonbeam still isn't home. (Insert big, heavy sigh here) I've been feeling rather blue lately. OK - I just re-read what I wrote and I'm thinking "wah, wah! Get over yourself, many families have gone before you and have had to update many times! And someday, this will all be worth it!"

On the sweet side, while here, my social worker and I discussed the domestic waiting child program and how the process will unfold. That is exciting and something to look forward to. She even said that it is possible I may have a child at home by the Fall! Wow! To borrow a line from Pamela, I may be having the longest and the shortest pregnancies simultaneously! ACK!

Funny story, Syd told the social worker that she cannot wait for Hannah 1 and Hannah 2 to come home. :-) Even though I have told her they will not both be named Hannah, she tells me, "well, we don't know what the 2nd little girl's name will be so I'm just going to call her Hannah 2 for now." Ahhh, laughter, it's good for the soul.