One of the joys of this adoption journey was when God suddenly moved that our good friends, Luke and Kelley Larkin (along with their 3 kids) would accompany us to Zambia and we would go through this adoption adventure together. Yesterday was an incredible day for them as God moved in a most unexpected way to drop a 2 month old boy – which they have since named Samuel Lukas Larkin – into their laps. It is their story to tell, so we will leave it to them, but it really was amazing. What a joy to see God bring this beautiful little boy into their family. After two weeks of our families being here in Zambia with both families feeling as if little (read: nothing) happening, it was a great encouragement and an unexpected blessing. Congratulations Luke and Kelley! We are privileged to share this journey with you and delighted that we are the very first to meet this precious baby boy of yours. May he grow up to love and fear the Lord. May he never know a day apart from Jesus.

First, thank you all for your encouraging comments. We cherish every one! Most of the time, we can see the comments, but we aren’t able to connect to the Internet to be able to respond. We are so blessed to know that you all are crying out to the Lord with us even though we are halfway around the world.

This morning was very emotional again. Today was Steve’s birthday. We had imagined that by this point in the trip, we would be fostering our child. So, while we did celebrate tonight, there is still someone missing. First thing this morning, we received news that one of the babies at the orphanage had passed away overnight at the hospital. We had all grown to love this little one. Please pray for this family. Thankfully, this is not a common occurrence at HOM, but it does happen. Already, her crib was moved aside and her name removed from the front of the crib. This only makes us that much more eager to rescue our child from those realities.

On a high note, this morning we were able to attend the dedication ceremony for the new preschool building at the Bill and Bette Bryant House, which is the home for children ages 2-5 which is connected to HOM. It was such a neat celebration and we were encouraged to be able to spend some time with a team of women from Atlanta who made the preschool possible. There was a unique joy for me in getting to celebrate the ways in which the children there are being well cared for, but also in knowing that our daughter won’t ever go to this orphanage and her life will drastically change direction very soon.

Here’s the other reason why today was very hard. We are pretty sure that we know who our daughter is, but this morning we received some very sad news about her past. Our hearts grieve for her. She has had experiences that no child should ever have. We held her for hours at HOM today, but then we had to leave her there, with only a promise that we will come visit her until the day that we can hopefully bring her home. This is not the first day I have had to do this and it is gut-wrenching. Precious child of mine, we already love you more than you can imagine and we are doing everything in our power to bring you home to be with your forever family!

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!

As we approach the reality of actually bringing our child home, we decided it might be time to take the conversation about adoption with Jeremiah to a new level beyond just praying for “baby sister in Zambia,” which is a pretty abstract concept for a 2-year-old.

So, these are a few of Jeremiah’s new thoughts about the adoption…

• “I stay with Mom-Mom and Pop-Pop AND Nan and Pap” (while Mommy and Daddy go to Zambia)
• Are you going to miss Mommy and Daddy?  “Uh huh.  I play toys with Mom-Mom.”
• What are you going to do with baby sister?  “Sit on the couch and watch TV and drink milk.  She drinks different milk.  And I drink my milk.  And my milk is warmed up. “  Can we warm up baby sister’s milk?  “No.”
• What else are you going to do with baby sister?  “Play toys.”
• Where should baby sister sleep?  “in my room.”  But what if she wakes you up?  “That’s ok”
• “I wuv baby sister.”

Yesterday, we outlined the first of two ways you can partner with us in our adoption, prayer. The second way that you can partner with us in this adoption would be through financial support.

The entire cost of our adoption from Zambia is estimated at $26,000.  We have worked hard to save, scraping together every penny to pay for the adoption. Still, we need approximately $12,000 more to bring our child home. Will you prayerfully consider giving to support our adoption?

If you feel called to partner with us in this way, we have set up an account with Lifesong for Orphans where you can send a tax deductible donation and we will then receive 100% of your donation from them.*

To give by mail:

• Make checks payable to: Lifesong for Orphans
• To make sure it goes to our account, please write: ”preference Jeantet/#1791 adoption” in the memo line
• Mail checks (preferably by April 8, 2011) to:

Lifesong for Orphans
PO Box 40 / 202 N. Ford St.
Gridley, IL  61744

To give online by credit card (using PayPal):

• Go to Lifesong Donations (http://www.lifesongfororphans.org/donation.html)
• Click Donate
• In the purpose field, please enter ”preference Jeantet/#1791 adoption“
• Please note that online gifts incur a small credit card processing fee that will be deducted from what we actually receive.

Words cannot express how blessed we are to have family and friends walk beside us as we welcome baby #2 into our family in this unconventional, yet very exciting way.  Thank you for your love, your prayers and your generosity.  They are life changing!