What's in a Name?

We have wonderful news!  We got the long-awaited email from the US Embassy today that we are complete in the investigative process.  Our embassy appointment is next week.  I can not express to you how much we have longed to hear this news.  Things are finally moving and we are so excited. 

I have another blog post from last week that will have to wait because I promised the Fish Sticks months ago - long before the investigative process existed - that we would tell people the names we have chosen for our boys when we got our embassy appointment.  Little did we know it would be such a long time.

Here is the post that I wrote months ago and am so happy to publish now.  Thank you so much for your prayers.  Keep them up!

All of our children have a Bible name for their first name and a family name for their middle name.  With each child, we waited to find out the gender and reveal the name at the time of their birth.  Going through an adoption, we decided that we would wait until we were told of their embassy appointment before we would share their names.  Unlike any other time, My Man and I allowed the Fish Sticks to help us in finding names for our boys.  We will keep both of their African names as a 2^nd middle name, which I will have to share AFTER their adoption is complete, for safety sake.

What’s in a Name?

First I made a list of possible Bible boy names that we have loved and considered in the past.  After I made the list, I did additional research on each Bible character and the meaning of that name.  Two names stuck out so much when I read what they meant in addition to the character itself that it brought tears to my eyes.  These happened to be the 2 names that the family voted on unanimously for our boys.

Their names will be:

Jeshua Levi  and Jedidiah Lloyd

Jeshua is found in both Nehemiah and Ezra.  He was part of the tribe of Levi, a worker in the temple.  He oversaw all the workers in rebuilding the temple (kind of like the occupation of My Man).  He explained the Torah to the people and led the Israelites in worship when the temple was complete.  His name is from the same root as the name Joshua and the name Jesus.  It means “Saved By the Lord.”

Jedidiah was the name given to King Solomon by Nathan the prophet as his “blessing name.”  Solomon was known as the wisest man who ever lived and the man who pleased the Lord with his request for wisdom.  Jedidiah means “Loved By the Lord.”

Levi is a name that we wanted to use for a long time.  Our brother-in-law is named Levi but goes by his middle name.  He is a third and we always knew that if the Lord blessed him with a son, then it was probable that he would name his son as the fourth.  After having 4 daughters, the Lord did bless our BIL with a son, but he felt guided by the Lord to name him something other than the fourth.  We are so glad to be able to not only name our son Levi, based on who Levi stands for in the Bible as the tribe of priests set apart for the work of the Lord, but also as a family name.  Uncle Ross has devoted his life to serving the Lord overseas.  He is a godly man who seeks the Lord in everything he does.  He is very wise, clever, talented – a great father and husband.

Lloyd is my husband’s middle name, but he has claimed that we are not naming Jedidiah after his daddy but rather his great grandfather, Lloyd Edward.  Lloyd Edward was grandaddy’s father who went to be with Jesus when My Man was 4 years old.  He was a man of God who was an author, a professor, a teacher and a pastor.  He loved his family and he loved his Lord.  His memory lives on through the stories that Granddaddy tells us.  I can’t wait to meet him in heaven!

After we unanimously voted, we realized that the boys will have identical initials (because their African names begin with the same letter also).  J.L.N.F.  As we near the end of this process of adoption, we pray for our little guys that they will never doubt that they are “loved by the Lord” and “saved by the Lord.”  Jeshua and Jedidiah, we can’t wait to have you home forever!

Hosting a Chinese Adoption Shower

Our precious friends are going to pick up their baby daughter in China next month.  I joined with 2 other sweet families from school and hosted a Chinese Adoption Shower.  What fun it was for me to host a baby shower, after all these years of being out of practice, and to host my first ever adoption shower.  We made it a couples dinner and invited about 20 couples.

I scoured the internet and Pinterest to find good ideas to make this party both special and personal.  One of my co-hostess has 3 daughters from China and she had so many great decorations.

 The dining room had a gold table cloth with center pieces and Chinese lanterns hung from the light fixture.

For party favors, we placed Asian snacks (found at the dollar section in Target) in a red basket with dragons.  Around each snack was a card with prayer requests on it held with a rubber band so each family could keep the card as a reminder to pray for the family.

 For the centerpieces, we put pictures of the baby of honor with a Chinese flag (held down with rice).

 The lanterns were my favorite.  We hung them from the kitchen fixture also.

 Down the kitchen bar was a straw mat table runner with chop sticks, sushi shaped candles, a few more centerpiece cans and this layered container from Singapore.

 I made a banner from ribbon and patterned card stock to match baby girl's bedding (that someone had purchased). 

 Each pendant had a Chinese character with a corresponding Bible verse to be prayed for their sweet daughter.  You can access this document here.

 We had a local Chinese restaurant cater the dinner.  On the table is a plaque to pray for China and a gold bowl with fortune cookies.

 Displaying a child's China tea set

 All the plastic ware was red.  The chopsticks were placed in an Asian teapot and the utensils were in a box with Chinese characters.

 As another party favor, my co-hostess made a delicious Chinese Chex mix and placed them in these Chinese to-go boxes with Bible verses on them about children and family.

At the front door, we placed a table with red table cloth, Bible, pens, index cards and red Chinese envelopes.  We asked each guest to write a Scripture on the index card, place it in the red envelope and hang it on the tree.

During the gift opening, I read Fun Facts about Chinese Culture (that I got from several different web sites, but you can get my google doc here).  After dinner and gifts, we had each person take a quiz (document here) about Chinese adoptions and the country.  This quiz led into a prayer time, using the prayers request that our friends had given us.

I took all of these photos BEFORE guests arrived and then was so busy making sure things were running smoothly that I totally forgot to take photos of the actual shower, which makes me sad.  It was such a special time to celebrate with our close friends. 

Hulk Mama

I went to the clinic to get my travel shots for Africa.  $360 later I got 3 shots and a prescription for "expensive" malaria pills (which I still need to fill).  These 2 Fish Sticks got Dum Dums.  It doesn't seem right to me.  I might suggest to the clinic that if I have to pay that much and get that many shots, peanut butter chocolate ice cream might be in order.

On the 14th we hit 4 months passed of our waiting for our investigation to be complete. The US Embassy in country organized a conference call to all adoptive parents on that very day to explain some of these new procedures and the reasons behind implementing them.  It was meant to clarify things to the waiting parents and to nip in the bud the rumors that seem to be floating in cyber space.  The problem was that they didn't anticipate the number of callers that would be participating and many of us didn't make the call.  It filled up at 120.  This drove me to do an insane move.  I joined FB after years of saying I never would.  No need to find me and try to be my friend because truthfully I'm not there to be friends.  I'm there only as a Crazed African Mama Bear trying to keep myself in the know to get my little boys home.  So with the help of another mama in the same boat, I was able to get updates on what was being said on this important phone call.

The gist of it was neither encouraging nor discouraging.  I'm an optimist and so I look for the good.  I was confident to hear that they continued to take cases in the order in which they were received - and it appears we were one of the first in line.  I heard that they are working first also on local cases before traveling to difficult areas.  Our boys' case was local.  So we continue to wait until June 14.  On June 14, when our 6 month mark is complete, the Crazed Mama Bear will come forth once again.  We are all hoping that won't be necessary.  I'm Bill Bixby, the mild-mannered hitch hiker who when he is provoked, huge green muscles rip out of his shirt and you wished you had never crossed him ("You won't like me when I'm mad.").  Just teasing of course, but the feeling of being stuck in the shuffle of paperwork while orphans are waiting is just plain hard.  Not to mention that large, monthly bill that continues to come that we never expected to pay past 6 months of interim care.

In the meantime we pray that our boys stay healthy and strong, we thank the Lord that they are in a loving home receiving lots of hugs and kisses with food and care (unlike so many other orphans), we thank the Lord for an agency who advocates on our behalf, we pray for sufficient funds to finish this process and we refine our packing list in anticipation of traveling to Africa.

Walter's Flying Bus App

Watch this trailor about an animated book you can get on iTunes for 99 cents only during May 5-12.

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One hundred percent of after-tax profits from App sales go to efforts helping orphans with special needs around the world, including advocacy, care, and adoption assistance grants.

 

Just another simple way you can support orphans!

Overview of the End

Thank you all so much for continuing to ask me about our boys and our adoption process.  I just wish I had some great news to share, but not much has changed. We are still waiting.  And waiting.  And waiting.

For those who like bullet points like myself, here's what things should look like from this point on.

*  We began a 3-6 month investigative process by the US Embassy in Country on Jan. 14.  Next week marks 4 months past in this process.  We know of no one who has completed this process yet (as it is a new regulation) but have been told that our paperwork was one of the first in the new process.  We hope to hear soon that we are finished.
*  When we have completed our investigative process, we will be assigned an embassy appointment that someone will attend in our stead.
*  After the embassy appointment, Country will issue a visa to our boys.  We learned this week that due to adoptions taking place that do not comply with the law, they are extending what used to be a couple day process to 1-2 weeks to ensure that all adoptions are ethical and in accordance with the law.
*  Once we have word that we received our visas, we will be contacted that it will be time to travel to Africa and pick up the boys (Probably a 2 weeks notice).
*  Once in Africa, we will be given the boys to stay with us in a hotel while we apply for an exit letter that allows us to leave the country as a family.  This can take anywhere from 7 days to 3 weeks, we've been told.

How can you pray for us right now?

1.  SPEED!  Pray that we will be finished with our investigation quickly.  Pray that we will receive our embassy appointment and then our visa quickly.
2.  HERE & NOW!  That God will be preparing us now for being a family of 10.  That we will use our time wisely with our children now in our home, spending quality and quantity time with each and every one of them.  That the boys will be ready to join our family.  That the Lord will keep them healthy and safe while they wait.
3.  LATER!  That our attachment to the boys and their attachment to us will be smooth.  That God will give us wisdom in parenting.  That our children will adjust well to the new additions.  That God will strengthen our marriage as we finalize this adoption.

Just a note of reassurance....

Right now it saddens me to hear and read that many people in the world see international adoptions as a money maker at the expense of children.  It not only saddens me, but it angers me.  It makes me think of the verse in Matthew 18:6  "If anyone causes one of these little ones--those who believe in me--to stumble, it would be better for them to have a large millstone hung around their neck and to be drowned in the depths of the sea."  It happens everywhere and many countries have had to shut their doors to adoptions because of the corruption that has occurred while orphans fill their streets and orphanages, stripping them of any hope they had to have a family.  As frustrated as I am at the delays in our adoption when it seemed that we were so close to having the boys home, I know that these delays are a result of precautions that are necessary because of the unethical adoption practices that have occurred.  These delays are to not only protect OUR children but the many children out there who have families waiting for them.  I also am 100% confident in the practices of our adoption agency.  Over 140 children have been brought home from our Country through this small agency and not one of them was denied a visa.  All adoptions have be true and correctly completed.  I am confident that these additional investigations will only confirm what we already know...that our boys are true orphans in need of a family.

So add to your prayer list....that the corruptions that occur in adoptions will be revealed and that justice will be done to those who practice such things at the expense of loving families and orphans.