We so appreciate all of your prayers and we wanted to make sure that we tell you as much as we can share about what is happening here.  Basically, when we arrived at HOM (House of Moses) yesterday, we were told by the social worker there that in order for any of the children to be officially approved for adoption, some further research must be done.  Now, while that was sad to hear as we are eager to move through this process, we are not discouraged and we will continue to pursue our child.  We will continue to go to the orphanage each day and play with the children there (they are soooooo adorable!).  The social worker from the Department of Social Welfare (DSW) and the social worker from HOM had a meeting today (a miracle in and of itself – we were initially told that meeting wouldn’t happen till Tuesday!) to discuss case files and we now have a meeting scheduled with the DSW social worker on Tuesday (Monday is Labour Day here).  Please pray that the social workers have wisdom and that they will conclude that the best way to care for one of these children would be for us to be their forever family.

Putting the emotions of landing in Zambia into words has been much more complicated than I could have ever imagined. The adrenaline of being here versus the exhaustion of travel. The giddy excitement of knowing we will be meeting our child soon versus the fear of the uncertainty in the process. We are grateful the Lord has led us here and anticipate experiencing his glory in new ways.

Having been here for a day and a half now, let me share a couple of initial quick stories…

The Rising Sun: We arrived in Lusaka (the capital of Zambia) shortly after 6:00am local time (midnight EST) and shortly after the rising of the sun to start a new morning. Looking out the plane windows as the sun came up was breathtaking. Absolutely gorgeous horizon. Ever since then, I’ve been humming to myself “He Reigns” by the Newsboy. “It’s the song of the redeemed, rising from the African plain.” The chorus continues,

All God’s children singing
‘Glory, glory
Hallelujah
He reigns
He reigns.’

Incredible. Just as we are experiencing the rising of the sun in a new way as we see it shine over the African plain, so also we are experiencing the glory of God moving in this land. He reigns.

Blackouts: Yesterday, our first in Zambia, we were all about zombies wandering about. We were so tired. That was a lot of travel. Pretty much, the day started Tuesday morning in Philadelphia and ended Thursday night in Lusaka. I was so exhausted, I think I blacked out a few times as sleep deprivation set in. Praise God for a good night sleep. Let’s pray for another one tonight!

House of Moses: The orphanage we came to adopt from is called “House of Moses.” It is a Christian orphanage that serves children under 2 years old and is one of three orphanages in this system (the Bill & Bette House serves children ages 2-4 and the House of Martha serves children ages 5-12). Of course, we wanted to get to the orphanage as quickly as possible, so we settled in at our lodging and took off for the House of Moses. We spent time there yesterday and today doing everything from feeding the infants to playing trains and eating lollipops with some of the kids at the Bill & Bette House.

Here’s the thing that most struck me though as we spent time with these children: Kids, made in the image of God, were meant to have families. Moving past the “easy” head knowledge about orphans to hear actual stories, I encountered the darkness that creates this situation. We heard one story that I can’t even share about one of the orphans who was essentially left for dead. It sucks. The image of God left for dead. Please keep praying that God will be gracious to us and our future child that the child will be identified soon and this process move quickly. Thank you!

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PS> We will post as many pictures as we can, but we cannot take pictures inside of House of Moses.

PPS> Our internet connection is spotty at best. We are grateful for your emails, FB messages and comments on the website. We apologize in advance if we are slow in responding.

In a previous post, I recounted the events of the tornado striking the St. Louis airport as we were sitting on our plate at the gate waiting for clearance to depart. Certainly, this was not how we envisioned our adoption adventure beginning. But since that event, I have not stopped reflecting on it.

That tornado struck, if you will remember, on Good Friday. The irony is not lost on me. Good Friday is the day of the church calendar that we set aside each year to reflect the extent to which God went to redeem us – the death on a cross of the Second Person of the Trinity. In some small way, the destruction we saw and experienced out of that day’s tornado, and my reflection on my willingness to endure anything and pay any cost (including experience a tornado take out the airport I was at), reminded me of Christ’s redeeming love. I “suffered” a tornado that destroyed the entire area around the airport (praise God, no casualties!). Christ, willing to endure anything and pay any cost, allowed himself to be crucified on that first Good Friday. Why? In order that God the Father might adopt us – me and you – as his sons.

“Let us fix our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith, who, for the joy set before him, endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of God the Father” (Hebrews 12:2). Jesus endured more than is possibly imaginable to make me his son. By the strength of his Spirit, I will now endure whatever I must in order to bring my child home.

PS> I know this post is a little late – the tornado was 1 week ago, but it was also 6 time zones, 4 flights, 3 continents and 8000+ miles ago, so cut me some slack!

I’m sitting on the plane en-route to Lusaka. This is a ten hour flight that left at about 7pm in London an should arrive in Zambia around 6am there…definitely the longest flight any of us have ever been on! I should probably be sleeping…I think I might have slept about 1 or two hours on the flight last night and I know that tomorrow will be a full day…but I can’t even think about sleeping right now. In a few short days, I’m going to meet our child and welcome them into our family forever…I feel like I could jump out of my skin! My heart is racing a mile a minute. When I showered before getting on the plane yesterday, it felt eerily like the shower I took after my water broke with Jeremiah. I remember thinking…this is it…we’re going now…I’m going to meet my baby at the end of this! Well, while this adoption journey has been significantly different than when Jeremiah came into our family, but, at the end of this very long trip (at least I wasn’t in labor for 3 days…that would have been brutal) I get to meet my baby!

On a completely different note, we had a great time during our layover in London today. By the time we got out of the airport, we only had like 5 hours to explore, but it was really fun! We took the Underground to Westminster and we saw Big Ben and the Houses of Parliament, the River Thames, the London Eye, Westminster Abbey, and St. James Park, and Buckingham Palace, and even had time to sit down for a traditional lunch of fish and chips and shepherd’s pie. Now, given the Royal wedding is in 2 days in Westminster Abbey, we didnt get to see inside any of those places, but it was fun to give Steve and J their first glimpses. Yes, the wedding of the century really will be just that, given all the ground work we saw today!

My child, this process has been full to the brim with unknowns and even as we sit here now, we only have speculations of what the next few days will look like. But there is one thing that I am 100% sure of…I love you more than I can even describe and I can’t wait to hold you in my arms!

Not without some unexpected twists already, but we are off. London tomorrow. Lusaka on Thursday. And, Lord willing, we will meet our child in just a couple of days now!