Our Paperwork is in ETHIOPIA and we Have a REFERAL!!!

(Here we are mailing our paperwork in and then we were off to the beach. We were so exhausted that we feel asleep at the beach for two hours!)

"Yet with respect to the promise of God, he did not waver in unbelief but grew strong in faith, giving glory to God, and being fully assured that what God had promised He was able to perform." Romans 3:20-21

God is more than able to perform what He has promised! Last Monday the 22nd all of our paperwork called the "Dossier" arrived in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia! It was an amazing answer to prayer and has increased our faith so much! We haven't posted in so long because things have been totally crazy but in many good ways.
(This is us at Staples, copying all the documents. Actually Jon copied while I watched!)
First we give God so much praise because he provided all of the money we needed to mail in our paperwork!

(This is Jon organizing our paperwork! I had lost all sanity and organization skills at this point. I am so blessed to have such a wonderful and calm husband! He is going to make a great Dad!)
The adoption costs roughly $30,000 (this includes airfare and travel) however we started the adoption with about $7,000 in our own savings and just prayed and trusted God would provided the rest. Well the rest He has and is providing. After the fees when mailing in our dossier we have now paid roughly half of the $30,000. So, after a little math you can tell that this money has come from God! He has used so many people in our lives to provide this money and we are so grateful to you all. Your generosity is amazing and we are so thankful to you! Thank You to all who have given to bring our little one home! If you could join us in praying for the rest of the funds that would be amazing! We still are short the other half but fully trust that just like Romans 4:20-21 says above- we will not waver in unbelief but grow strong in faith!
(Here is all the paper work, an original set and 3 sets of copies)

Second we have amazingly exciting news! We have received a referral of a child!!!!
In adoption language a referral is the child that is matched to you and once you accept the referral the process quickly moves forward. On June 10th even before our paperwork hit Ethiopia our agency called us with a child that they thought we may be interested in. They knew that we were open to toddler age and they told us about a toddler age little boy!!!! We were in total shock that God had brought us a child so soon, nervous because we do not have the rest of the money needed, and overjoyed all at the same time!!!

We wish we could post a picture of him and tell you his name and more about him but until we pass court in Ethiopia our referral has to remain confidential. So if you could join us in praying for Him and praying for us to pass court that would be so amazing! Passing court is our next step. What happens is our Dossier is taken by a representative of our our Adoption agency to the Ethiopian court and it is officially determined by the judge that this little guy is our son! Passing court means the child is legally yours! So once we pass court we will be able to travel and bring him home!Right now we are still awaiting our court date, once we know we will post it so you all can be praying.

I feel like my writing is just rambles and hard for you all to follow. But if you are reading I am sure you can sense that my mind is racing with words and emotions and it is so hard to put them all down into a neat little post because this isn't a "neat" little thing. We have a picture of our son to be an He is halfway around the World. Being taken care of in the loving hands of our Father in Heaven who knew before the World began that someday we would be His parents. What an honor we have received. This is the miracle of adoption! All Glory to God!

Please pray for us as we continue to wait!

They Blessed our Hearts!

This past weekend we headed up to Ben's college graduation (Jon's brother)and got to spend wonderful time with family and friends. It was so refreshing to be away from home and have the whole weekend off! During this adoption we have often found ourselves in another world so it was so nice to step back from it for a moment. Adoption can be all consuming which is not a good thing.

One of our greatest blessings was spending so much time with Grandpa and Grandma Heidebrink. They are true reflections of Jesus. They are so selfless with their love and devotion to everyone in their lives. They are sincere in when they ask you a question they truly want to know the answer and they listen without interrupting!(Something I need to learn how to do!)

All weekend they just loved us without ending and they have such a burdens for everyone to get to experience salvation is Jesus Christ! They especially seem to have a burden for our baby, their first great grandchild! They were so interested in our adoption asking question after question letting us know they really cared. Not only have they given financially to us for the adoption but Grandma made us a beautiful blanket. She made it so we could use it when we go out with our baby to the park or beach and she said she could just see them crawling around on it! So can we Grandma!


So this posting is dedicated to you Grandma and Grandpa! We could never have prayed for more supportive, loving and accepting Grandparents of what God has called us into. We are so thankful for you and love you so much! We can't wait to travel out to visit you with your first great grandchild!


PS (Grandma you wanted this recipe so I googled it for you!)
Ingredients
1 (20 ounce) can crushed pineapple, undrained
1 cup butter, softened
1 1/2 cups brown sugar, packed
1 egg
3 cups quick-cooking oats
2 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 cup raisins
Directions
1Drain pineapple well, reserving 1/2 Cup of juice.
2In a large mixing bowl, beat butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Beat in egg, crushed pineapple and reserved juice. (Mixture will be very wet).
3In a medium bowl, combine oats, flour, baking powder, cinnamon, salt, and raisins. Stir into pineapple mixture.
4Drop by heaping tablespoonfuls onto greased baking sheets. Bake at 300 for 20-25 minutes or until golden. Remove to wire racks to cool. (Unfortunately I didn't copy down the oven temp when I copied the recipe. I played with it a bit and found 300 to work well for me, even though it seems a bit low).

"Your Own Children"

Throughout this adoption process many people have asked us why we don't have our "own children". The questions and comments never seem to end, "Have you tried to have your own children?", "Do you want your own children someday?", and probably the most painful "When are you going to have your own children?" I think most people just assume adoption is second best and we are really longing for children by birth instead.

However, these comments and their hidden meanings are not at all how we feel. We as adoptive parents are just as excited as any parent who is pregnant and dreaming of the day they will see their child face to face. Our child is just as real as one that is growing in a Mother's womb. Our child is growing in our hearts and daily we dream of them and wonder what they will be like. We wonder will we have a boy or girl, will they be shy or outgoing,and what kinds of things will they like to do? We wonder what they will be when they grow up and we pray they come to know and love Jesus at an early age.

Other people have also been dreaming of our child as this past week we received our child's first gift. As Mom Johns was shopping it suddenly occured to her she is going to be a grandmother and her daughter is carrying a baby in her heart! So just as she would be out buying outfits if we were traditionally pregnant, she decided it was time to buy stuff for the baby that is growing in all of our hearts! And here came to be their fist gift along with a baby bottle fille with change they have collected to help bring their grandchild home. This gift was more special than they would ever know!




We also were blessed with more baby bottles filled with change from my friend Tanaya and all the nurses on her unit at the hospital.She has been such a fundraising help to us and support of our adoption! We are so thankful to her and all the other nurses generous hearts!

And to help bring home their first Great grandchild, Grandma and Grandpa Heidebrink sent us a very generous check. It said "To Bring Home our Greatgrandchild". As we thanked them for the money, Grandma said "Don't worry about it, its for my grand baby!" We just praise God for their maturity and faith and support of our Adoption! We couldn't ask for more supportive grandparents.

Adoption is just as real and exciting as being pregnant and having a child by birth. It is also just a much of a miracle.

So as not to offend but educate about what adoption means let us share one of our favorite quotes from the book "Cross Cultural Adoption".

"By regaling us with anecdotal stories of women who found themselves pregnant shortly after adopting, you are somehow demoting the wonderful thing that has just happened to us to a second rate experience- as if she is just something to distract us until the "real" thing comes along or a means to a more desirable end."

"Lift up your eyes round about and see; They all gather together, they come to you.
Your sons will come from afar, And your daughters will be carried in the arms." Isaiah 60:4

Easter no longer just eggs!

When we went to church on Good Friday I couldn’t help but think about how much adoption reflects the heart of God. It has been said “Adoption is the Visible Gospel”. So what do you see when you look at adoption? Adoption starts out with two people’s hearts being drawn to love and raise a child that does not come from their own bodies. A child who is not automatically part of their family by birth yet the love for this child to become part of their family is so strong it drives them to pursue adoption.

So far in this adoption process we have gone through much excitement and disappointment, days of chasing and filling out paperwork, meetings where we reveal the inmost details of our lives to a total stranger and countless hours of praying and waiting for that day when our baby finally comes home. This has been the hardest thing we have ever gone through thus far in our lives but it all comes with the joy of knowing our baby is coming home after the long days and month of working and waiting. When we do finally meet them we can only imagine the joy and love we will feel to know that the child we did all this paperwork and adoption process for is finally part of our family. They will have gone from an orphan with no hope for the future to a child of ours with all of our love ready and available to them all the time. They will be our son or daughter!

When we celebrate Easter tomorrow it is the story of our adoption into God’s family. God created us in his image and with the desire to have a personal relationship with us. Yet because of Adam’s and Eve’s disobedience to God sin entered the world and our intimacy with God was cut off. We were all suddenly separated from God. God gave us the 10 commandments however we have all broken them and therefore have all sinned against God and we needed a payment for our sin. Our sin caused us to no longer be children of God, we had become enemies of God. Our holy and perfect God could not be intimate with a sinful people. So there needed to be a solution for our sin. Before Jesus came there was blood sacrifice of an animal that God deemed acceptable to be the payment of sin. The living blood of that animal was spilled out to represent what should be our death. God says “without the shedding of blood there is no forgiveness.” Hebrews 9:22. God also tells us “The wages of sin is death” Romans 6:23.

But don’t despair there is hope the second part of that verse says “but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.” God knew we couldn’t keep the law (the 10 commandments) and there needed to be a final payment for our sin. So God came to the earth in the form of a man Jesus and he was the life that died for us once and for all. His blood spilled out and body nailed to the cross was what we deserved, yet he paid the sin debt for us so we don’t have to. And on Easter we get to celebrate that after being dead for three days Jesus rose from the grave and conquered sin and death. He now sits at the right hand of God and will come again to judge the living and the dead.

The good news: through Jesus God adopted us into His family! We no longer are orphans condemned to Hell but now have a choice to chose Jesus as our savior and enter into God ‘s eternal family. When we accept Jesus as the payment for our sin and ask God to forgive our sins we are automatically accepted into God’s family and become his son or daughter. We gain access to heaven not by our works but by his grace, the grace of God suffering and dying for sinners so we can have life. God takes us, people who once were without a name, hope or future and makes us his children! He gives us a hope here on earth that we can finally have a personal relationship with God and future of eternal life in Heaven with Him! If adoption doesn’t display this Gospel of God’s love for us I don’t know what does!

As I searched for a video to explain this better God couldn't have been more faithful in bringing this! Check it out, and put your thinking cap on.

"I will no leave you as orphans; I will come to you." John 14:18 Happy Easter!

The Big Move

Hi Everyone,
Sorry we haven't posted in so long, things have been really busy here. Every time we think we can't do anything more something else comes up with the adoption or our lives. We are just so thankful to have God holding us up, without Jesus we would be floundering! He truly is our strength in the midst of all this whole journey.

Yesterday we moved from our tiny one bedroom apartment to a wonderful 2 bedroom apartment in the next town over. We are loving all the new space!!!!!!!!! But getting organized will be a real challenge. But as you can tell our computer is one of the first things hooked up so we can be in touch with the rest of the world.



The apartment was completely God's doing. One day day I had just prayed asking God to forgive me for not believing he would provide us an apartment in the time we needed. You see we had given our old landlords a date of when we would be moving out and 2 weeks before we needed to move we still couldn't find an apartment. But then that same day I was praying for forgiveness for my lack of faith I prayed in faith that God would give us an apartment that same night. Well wouldn't you know how God works, that night he brought us to this apartment and when we walked in and met our new landlord we all realized that we go to the same church. Then the old tenants started to tell us about this beautiful Ethiopian adoption that there friends had just gone through! So amazing and so God!

So here we are in the midst of our many boxes and total disorganization trying to get organized for our last visit with our social worker this evening. We feel so excited to know this is the place God has provided for us to start our family! Soon we will be unpacking for three!

Please pray for us as we continue to try to get organized and finish out our adoption paperwork!




"My Soul, wait in silence for God only,
For my Hope is from Him.
He only is my rock and my salvation,
My stronghold; I shall not be shaken."
Psalm 62:5-6

In His Grip,
Jon and Jolene

Who is Called to Adopt?

As we continue to go through our adoption process we are currently working on finishing our home study. This is a series of meetings with a social worker where information about us is given to her so she can write up a formal document. When we say "information" we mean everything from physical exam forms, financial statements, criminal background checks, and also autobiographies about us! It is definitely a lot to take in and we just can't wait to have it finished!Soon we will have our fourth meeting with our social worker and then she will start to write up our home study. Once complete we will fax it to our adoption agency in Virginia for a final approval before we send it in with our other documents. Things are finally starting to come together and we hope our dossier will go to Ethiopia sometime in May.

During all of this paperwork we tend to find ourselves asking why more Christians aren't adopting? Finances can't be excuses because $25,000 is spent everyday by average people on cars and that isn't even given a second thought. So what is it? Why isn't the church's heart drawn more toward the orphan? Do they think adoption is only for the "childless couple"? Like adoption is second best or plan B?

May we share with you the fact that adoption is plan A, it is God's choice for all of us. We have been adopted to be children of God through Jesus' death and resurrection for us. If it wasn't for Jesus we would all be destined for Hell, for an eternity apart from God. However, because Jesus was willing to die for us and give us the opportunity to receive life in Him we now have a huge choice to make. Do we want to remain orphans with an eternity apart from God or do we want to enter into a relationship with our Heavenly Father and spend eternity in Heaven with Him?

One of our favorite verses in the Bible is Romans 8:15, it tells how God places us in His family once we believe in Jesus as our Lord and Savior. That he conquered our sin on the cross and therefore when we receive Him as God's payment for our Sin we can be free to enter into God's family. We can be Sons and Daughters of the God of the Universe! He has chosen to adopt us!

"For you have not received a spirit of slavery leading to fear again, but you have received a spirit of adoption as sons by which we cry out, "Abba! Father!"

Since we have been adopted it is only natural for God to call the Church, those who have a personal relationship with Jesus Christ, to care for the orphan. Adoption is something God is calling all Christians to whether it may be giving financially to help sponsor an adoption or actually adopting an orphan into your own family. We just feel so passionate that the Church can not remain asleep any longer to God's calling. And we are praying God would open more people's hearts to adoption. Adoption is not the answer to infertility, adoption is God's calling to us as believers! We would love you to watch this video of a family who so demonstrates what adoption is all about. We know you will be so moved and blessed by it!



Right now it is estimated that there are 148 million orphans worldwide. Do you think it is time for the Church to wake up?

How God Provides . . . .

It has been so amazing to us to see the Lord's hand in our adoption so far. He has been so faithful to us already and we praise Him for it. One of the ways we have seen God's faithfulness to us is through his financial provision. Back in January when we began this process we knew we didn't even have close to the amount of money we needed for our adoption but we just moved forward in faith knowing that God will provide. He promises us that in His word.

So when our first payment came up for 1,500 dollars we thought "Wow God, this little money we have saved is going to go so fast but we know you will give us what we need." As I opened the mail that day I noticed a card from our good friends in Virginia. I thought to myself they better not have sent us any money because we know they don't have any extra to spare as they have two small children and are so dedicated to Lauren being a stay at home mom.

However, what we found inside was much more than a check. It was a letter from God whispering, "Have faith, I will provide." Even as I write this tears fill my eyes as I remember God sending us a check from them for almost all of the $1,500 we needed for our first payment. They didn't have this money but in faith prayed they could given and God provided. We want to share the note with you that was inside the card they wrote to us. The current economy has no effect on what God can do! (if you click on the note you can read it)

Each time we start to lack faith we remember how God worked through them and know He will do it again. And He already is!

Another friend of our recently took some baby bottles to her work. As she went throughout her shift as an ICU nurse she showed other nurses the bottles and told them how it was our fundraiser and one lady said she didn't have any change. Tanaya told her "that's ok you can bring some next time", and then a little while later she came back saying she had found something. She then proceeded to drop in a tiny folded up 2o dollar bill. You see we only are trying to get some change for each bottle and God is giving us way more than we could ask for. So thank you to all the nurses who are contributing and to Tanaya for her great support!

We have been so blessed to have such great friends support us in these ways. God has truly blessed us. As I read through my Bible today God lead me to this verse.

"Faithful is He who calls you, and He also will bring it to pass." 1 Thessalonians 5:24

God has called us to adopt and when we don't have the faith it will come true we are reminded that God is so faithful to what he asks us to do and he will bring it to completion!!!