How You Can Pray

So many people have prayed for our boys to come home. I know that prayer is what is keeping their paperwork moving. An acquaintance told me Saturday morning that she had given up hope that our boys would come home. Thanks. I guess she's not praying.

For those of you who do pray, I have a specific request. The next timeline of four months or more can't get started until our paperwork is submitted to MOI (the minister of the interior). Our update last night said that legalization of the abstracts of the boys' birth certificates needs to obtained before their files can be submitted to MOI and the files need to be reviewed. Please join us in praying that these things happen quickly so that the files can be submitted to MOI. Our God is a God who answers prayer. I believe strongly in praying specifically. Please help us flood the gates of Heaven with prayers for our boys to come home.

Noah and Samuel are nearly 26 months old now. They have lived at the orphanage for nearly 2 years. Yes, selfishly I want them home and I've wanted them home since I saw their first pictures. However, for their sake I want them home. Two and under are the prime years for bonding and attachment. That's not to say that they can't or won't bond and attach to me and Chuck, but it may be more difficult for them. I want them to have every opportunity to do well in life, and there's not a thing I can do about them still being in an orphanage.

Last night I dreamt that I went to Haiti, which is kind of funny since I'm not invited. I was outside the orphanage with some of the American staff and I was holding Samuel. I was telling the staff that I was concerned about him because he was not gaining weight and was feverish. That is exactly how I found him when I visited briefly in September. He was noticebly lighter than Noah and he was burning up. In my dream I was asking them about getting him home on a medical visa or if MOI could process his file more quickly since he was sick. In my dream they were uninterested in pursuing that.

My dream left me realizing that I just wish that those who have the power to move the adoption process more quickly would feel the urgency that I feel to get kids home. I wish differences in culture and ideas didn't play into things. I wish they understood the love I have in my heart for these precious boys. I wish they understood that EVERYTHING Chuck and I do is weighed against how it would affect the boys and the timing of their arrival home. I wish they knew Jesus because that would change everything. Not know of Him, but truly know Him. Because Jesus changes everything. And He is why I have hope that our boys will be okay no matter how old they are when they get home.

The dream about Samuel happened in the moments before waking up this morning. I found myself willing myself to go back to sleep so I could hold him longer, yet so disturbed by the dream that I wanted to wake up. It was upsetting to dream that he was sick, but I don't dream about the boys very often, so I wanted to soak up holding him in my arms.

Lord, please work to get the abstracts of the boys' birth certificates legalized and the files reviewed and submitted to MOI quickly. Lord, I pray that MOI would notice how long we've been waiting and process our files more quickly. I pray in Jesus' name, the Jesus who changes everything. Amen.