A Quick Hi

Just wanted to pop by and give you all a quick update of our life...it has been a little bit hectic!

- Riley, last week had a knee injury playing basketball and likely re-tore his ACL. He had ACL recontsruction done in 2005. So he is on crutches for some of the holidays - hoping to be at least walking by Januaury...

- Riley also finished his first semester as Dean of Students at CLBI - it has been good and affirming. We know that at this time in our lives we are supposed to be here!

- Had 5 Christmas concerts in the last week! It was awesome and crazy busy but I did manage to videotape everyone of them for the grandparents and aunties and uncles!!

- We had our 7th annual christmas party and along with donations from our Saskatoon friends we raised 500 dollars for an organization out of Haiti! So much food and fun with 65 people in the house...

-we are healthy for Christmas. All of us had the flu in December but are all recovered - hope this is the last of it!

-AND...all of our necessary dossier documents have been sent to our agency - and they made it!! Woohoo!!! Our homestudy will be sent to the province tomorrow for approval (can take up to 6 weeks...ughh). We are praying for a much speedier approval and hope for February to get all of our paperwork to Ethiopia! We are so excited to have our children home and looking forward to the year and seeing what it brings....

I am sure there are many more things but that has been some of the highlights! Have a blessed Christmas....

Blessings from a couple in love and kids who are old enough to to say "yuck"!!

Candra

Where?

I had said in my last post that I had something exciting to say about our ongoing adoption adventure..

and...

Our home study is at our agency here in alberta for editing! That means that it has to pass through final approval with them and our province and then our dossier can be sent to our intercountry agency to be sent overseas! It also means that our part - what we can actively do - is almost done! It so exciting - and slightly nervewracking to consider that this has happened all in the last 2 months! 

So because our homestudy is in the hands of our agency and we have received approval from our province to go ahead with this homestudy, I felt that now is the time I can share with you the country from which our children will be from.

ETHIOPIA!!!!

Ethiopia is a country that has been on our hearts for almost 15 years  (yes, when we were first married!). Maybe because it was a country in Africa that we had heard so much about in the early 90's with famine sweeping the land. Maybe because my husband in particular, has always had an interest in missions in this part of the world. But maybe - just maybe -God was beginning to form in us a call to Africa. Never in my wildest dreams did I think that this call would be in part to expand our family through adoption - not once but twice! And never did I think that I may need to get a vehicle larger than a minivan!! Ha! 

Our journey to South Africa 2 1/2 years ago unleashed passion for adoption that can only be described as a calling. God has blessed us with a great family and we feel that we have more room....room for a sibling group! We have been covering this in prayer as this is a huge step in expanding our family. There is the amount of children to consider, the trauma and grief that they have experienced thus far and how it has shaped and formed them, the financial commitment of the process and how adding additional children will impact our existing family. But we are praying not only for a smooth process and transition but for resources and support once they are home. We are praying for guidance, patience and grace for us. We are praying God's protection and provision on them even now. And we continue the adventure....

Blessings,

Candra

ps. For those of you who have followed our adoption process, our original dossier that was done through SK is still "active" although our new province will not update it until the country reopens. So God opened some other doors for us to continue....

Do for one...

"Do for one what you wish you could do for everyone." 

- Andy Stanley - 

This quote has been running around in my head for the last couple of days. I listed to a sermon by this pastor (who has fantastic ministry and insights in regards to leadership) on the way home from work and I was struck by its simplicity and also its  great impact that it could have. 

God is moving greatly in our new community with regards to orphan care. We were honoured to be able to speak at our new church last week about our story and about the broader picture of orphan care. So many stories after church about how adoption has impacted people's lives. Amazing.

And then we hosted a somewhat spur of the moment prayer night about orphan care and had over 15 adults there. And oh, were there hearts for orphan care. I got chills hearing their stores... 

 - a college student who feels called to foster care

- 2 families contemplating and (hopefully) moving towards adoption

- an RA who has a huge heart for the girls on her floor in university dorms

-another college student who is going on an overseas internship next year to work with children

-a young woman who is leading/discipling Gr. 9 girls in our community

- a lead pastor who prayed alongside us and is open to how the community of Christ should respond

- people praying alongside us for our adoption journey

It was awesome. And God was there.

And this week, for me personally God has been doing a great work in me. Turning my heart towards His people. In James 1:27 when it talks about taking care of the widow and the orphan - I got to see that this week. His great love for His people and how my willingness is all He needs.  A few stories from the week - 

At work, I am privileged to be able to serve those who access our Home Care services. I met with a gentleman who has just moved into one of the facilities. He is in his mid-nineties. He has lived a life full of many experiences. He lost his wife several years ago and as he was telling me this part tears filled his eyes. He said ''I sure do miss that wonderful woman. If I could tell these young couples anything it would be this - treasure your spouse." I just sat and listened. I tried to serve this man - a widower. And in turn, God gave me another glimpse of how much He cares for those who have lost and still grieve.

I get so excited when I get to hear about people considering adoption. In a matter of 12 hours, I touched base with 2 families. I got to chat with an amazing woman who feel the call to adopt. I was privileged to pray with her and have continued to pray for her and her husband as they wait on God...We then got an email, the next day, from another married couple who we count as dear friends (although we haven't seen them in a long time!) who feel that now is the time for adoption. Wow! We get to skype with them this week and hear their heart and my prayer is that we can encourage them in this journey and be of whatever help they need.

We have 3 sets of friends in SK (one is my sister and husband) who are waiting for their child through adoption. Next week, I get to present the cheques with money we raised for 2 of these families as a tangible - "We are behind you heart and soul". This was made possible through RUN 143 - a great organization raising money for orphan care - globally and locally.

So here is where the quote comes in. I can't save the world. I can't eradicate the orphan crisis in the world. I can't listen or be available to everyone  But I can do something for one. 

I can invest and engage and be present.

And pray that God would continue to guide my steps to do His work.

Blessings,

Candra

next post...update on our adoption. It is exciting!!!!

Adopting a child who is HIV+?

Hey everyone - it's Riley.

One of the situations that has changed for us over the previous year relates to our adoption plans in a way that we never shared publicly.  And we wanted to share it now in case it might be of some encouragement to someone out there. 

We had arranged our previous dossier to specifically adopt a child who is HIV positive.

There was a lot of research, connecting & learning that went into the preparation for this.  Now we are hoping that it will eventually be of some practical help or use in our lives.  Our new social worker was a bit shocked to find out about all of the preparation & reading that had been documented in our previous dossier - she had never seen anything like it.   The reasons we have gone a different direction have nothing to do with having a HIV+ child in our home, but have to do with a lot of external factors that we now need to consider (access to immediate specialists, dynamics of community/city, change in support systems, etc.).  And as stated before, we are now working with a different country where the children have different needs.

It’s ironic - I had some initial hesitation in beginning to consider pursing this and this past summer I found myself grieving the change.  I don’t think we realize just how heavily invested & attached we get to children we’ve never met during the waiting/praying/planning process.  For us, decisions in the moment & also future plans always take into consideration those children that are not in our family yet.  We had plans about how to talk to the child’s teachers, how to help our children cope with friendship difficulties arising from perceptions of this chronic illness, discussions with extended family about how to deal with our kids getting scrapes & cuts, etc.  It’s a bit stressful bringing up the topic to family & friends who may not be supportive of such a unique situation!  And now this preparation gets set aside...

There are a lot of great resources and information available if you are ever interested in learning more.  Tragically, most people’s understanding (& mine to begin with) was stuck in the 1980’s.  

So why share this detail now?  If we can be of any support or encouragement to those of you who are interested in caring for a child with HIV (via adoption or foster care), please let us know.  Or if you need someone praying for you, we would love to get behind you in any way we can!

Defend the cause of the Fatherless....

November 4th is Orphan Sunday...a time for churches around the world to open their eyes, take action and pray for the over 143  million orphans in our world. We have been privileged to be a part of this movement over the last few years and again are excited what God has in store for this year. We have approached our brand new church about having it be a part of the service (we are waiting to here back) and will have a time of prayer at our house that Sunday evening...

As followers of Christ, we are commanded to care for the orphan. Tangible ways include adoption, foster care & sponsorship. If you do not feel any of theses options are for you, PLEASE consider getting behind an adoptive or foster family - financially, prayerfully, or other tangible ways (housekeeping, laundry, cooking, babysitting etc.). The options are endless!!!

Let's love to kids with everything we have. 

Let's risk for His sake...

Begin again

I am hoping, now that things have settled a little but that my blog may get more attention. There are so many things that I think " oh I should blog about this" and then time gets away and it has passed. So I mostly want to talk about adoption today but thought I should give you some highlights of my last month:
1. Painting and decorating our main areas - I still have to finish the kitchen...just need to get motivated!
2. Hosting people in our home - we co-lead a discipleship group from the Bible School and have started a life group with our church (10adults and 15 kids...so good!)
3. Having Thanksgiving in our new home with family and friends!
4. Being more settled in my jobs. And actually enjoying my commute to work on Wednesdays...am going through a Beth Moore Bible Study on Wisdom (on CD in my van)!
5. Enjoying more relaxed time with my man- with less weekend commitments and no house to build I feel like we have TONNES of time!
6. Going to Edmonton (more than once) to shop
7. Seeing my kids develop friendships and become more and more settled in our new community.
8. Laughing a lot more
9. Getting on track with a budget again - really, truly this is relaxing and freeing for me and our family- moving is crazy in terms of finances and transitions. Espceially when 2 vehicles are needed. So it is all good now.
10. And beginning a new season in our ADOPTION!

So in one of my last posts I explained our decision to open up another file for another country...we have been super excited to begin the process and have started our criminal record checks, references, the paperwork for our home study and my husband (he is incredible) has initiated emails with all parties involved (province, agency, our home study agency, CIC etc.) I was privileged to be able to attend a seminar on international adoption which is required by our provincial agency and it was great to connect and realize that our experiences with little man are beginning to prepare us for the realities of what is to come. Not all mind you.
This time around we are hoping to adopt a sibling group. Of older children (somewhere between the ages of 2 & 9). We have prayed over this and wondered if we are crazy. Maybe. But God has impressed it more on our hearts each day that we have the capacity (with God and our support system), the space ( a gorgeous new home), the resources (although the financial ones seem daunting some days), eager kids (who asked for 6-10 sibling:)!!!) and the commitment to see this through. Our thoughts and prayers are not without doubt, uncertainties and if I am completely hones- straight out fear. But we have begun the preparation - we have ordered more books an adopting older children, started examining our own lives & desires and have recognized the challenges that this may bring.
I am reading a book in which it says,

"commitment, rather than love , is a key element to long term success in an adoptive family. The feeling  of love can be elusive to us parents during times of prolonged stress and unrewarding parent/child relationships"- B. McCreight (Parenting your adopted older child)

God is showing us more of Himself as we begin this process in our new province. He is also causing us to examine our own lives, our priorities and what we as parents & as a family want to be about. And we want to be about being open to having our lives stirred up for His glory and for His sake. Amidst the challenges that will inevitably come, we long to see His face, to be His hands and feet, and to have more kids!! We have the opportunity once again to grow our family through adoption- so please join me/us and we begin another part of this adventure!

Tomorrow we begin our home study in our new home with our new social worker...here we go.

our new home- with many memories to come

Blessings,
Candra

Fall begins!

First day of school

Gr 2 & Gr 4

First day of preschool

And well...just because he is cute!

Blessings,

Candra