::..:: gathering my way ::..::
March 30, 2005
last night we had a break through with anna and simeon. after trying for two hours to connect with the "right" person at the us embassy the deputy chief of the section answered the phone. she was very helpful and told me to go to bed and she would take care of everything. i was about to give up but thought why not one more try and i got her pretty cool. anyway she took the paper work from our power of attorney and said the kids can get their visas friday so we will be heading to dc tuesday to pick them up barring any amazingly bad things happening. this is such a challenging thing to go through but nothing compared to what the kids have been through. keep praying.
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March 29, 2005
so i have been thinking about how we live and how we love others. last night at our life group we talked about having life to the full. its hard to get past the stuff that consumes our lives. we define ourselves by it, establish hierarchies with it and Jesus ask us to give it all away to love our neighbor, so subversive, so radical to our commodity mindset. how do we break the bonds of stuff and consumption and begin to see life in a fuller sense. i have been thinking about a phrase that has helped me attempt to define things with a different idea. maybe what we are called to as follower of god is to live a life of sacrificial engagement. how we interact with others has its genesis in sacrifice not a program or a duty, but a life style given over completely to giving ourselves to others in ways that cost us a lot. but how do you get that message into people's heads in a way that they will hear it and ponder it, any ideas?
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March 28, 2005
well we are on hold again. the us embassy has changed the way they grant visas for the kids. they have to go to the embassy and then schedule a meeting within the next week or longer for a "hearing" to approve or disapprove the request. it seems our culture makes it excessively hard to adopt from africa. the usa wont ratify and invoke the hague convention on adoption so unless the country is not a signer you can adopt from there. there are ONE MILLION orphans in ethiopia how many kids are sitting waiting for families, shouldnt our country make it easier instead of harder for this to be done?
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March 24, 2005
anna and simeon have made it through the adoption processing in addis ababa and are suppose to be coming home next week. sydney looked at me and said we should be jumping up and down about the news. i just feel calm, like i knew it would always happen and maybe a little numb from all the ups and downs. also i am still cautious until i know they are on the plane home. they still need to get visas at the us embassy which can be an issue, not sure why but it can. so we are thankful and excited about the progress, thanks for the prayers and support. we are suppose to leave tuesday at noon to go to dc to meet the kids at the airport wednesday.
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March 12, 2005
saw this link on dan hughes blog, watch the video and my question is why would we ban this here? for more info about landmines and how they effect so many people go here here is a list of countries that have not signed the anti landmine treaty according to ibcl the united states has 11,236,245 landmines stockpiled and has destroyed 3,355,000 landmines. why don't we hear about these things and why is our media afraid to tell the story. i have children who come from places where this is a real day to day reality and people can't farm because their fields are strewn with landmines and so then people starve and die anyway, shouldn't our country be changing this? isn't that what a leader does? and what about the church shouldn't it be speaking out for the people who are living with this crisis each day.
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March 08, 2005
our family grew by one yesterday. arsene millogo is staying with us unitl he and debe paul get married in august. they fell in love at our house at christmas and arsene was attending howard university in dc with a track scholarship, he runs a 10.08 100m. he is from Cote d'Ivoire and has lost family and friends due to the war there and had to leave his home to stay alive. he is 23 and had a very difficult life yet is one of the most humble people i have met. he ended up with us because he lost his scholarship due to a bitter ex-coach. he was running yesterday at UC and the assitant track coach saw him and they are seeing if they can offer him a place to finish his degree, he has two years left. pray he finds a place to finish and have a place to train and use the ability God has given him.
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March 06, 2005
well the women hasnt written the letter, guess it wasnt in the mail. so the orphange where anna and simeon are staying cant keep them any longer so pray that nigisti will write the letter and revise the documents to allow the adoptions to be finalized. i still may have to go to ethiopia this is such a roller coaster, keep praying.
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March 02, 2005
the women who had been refusing to write a letter we needed to continue to process Anna and Simeon has relented and written the letter and its in the mail and we have a person going tomorrow to talk with the head of social affairs for Ethiopia to see how quickly the kids can get processed. praise God, keep praying
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