THE longest post ever, ever, ever, ever...

Hello my people! Well, everyone is on safari for the next 3 days except me so that means I HAVE TIME ON THE INTERNET!! So instead of spending hours in the kitchen at dinner preparing meals for our guest, I’m only cooking for me! Er… not cooking but eating cereal and sandwiches instead. I really do love to cook but it’s nice having a couple days off cooking so I can concentrate on ministry type things. I spent about 5 hours in Kawangware with the st. boys today. Yep- I had them all to myself. I took everything medical I could find in the house and set off for a mini clinic. I removed a foreign object in James’ ear that had been causing hearing loss and drainage. Ewe- it stunk but he was laughing b/c he could HEAR! Haha! Now, I just need to pick him up some antibiotic ear drops and he’s good to go. They have all been de-wormed and treated for various aliments. They also got some new (to them) clothes J.

Sweet James

Bloggy World

Sorry about the neglect of this blog. Just the thought of it being an “adoption blog” and the fact that little has happened concerning the adoption has given me a bad taste in my mouth thus thwarting my desire to post. (I think I’m going to change this to a “thoughts and events in the life of Lindy that aren’t allowed to be posted on the ministry blog”. You know… just for my own journaling and for your fascination. I might even take it off of being private! I know you all are really following b/c you want to know what’s up with the adoption, but just assume “nothing” unless I post about it! J

Can I just tell you that I wrote this post … oh…. 3 weeks ago. I tried posting it 4 times. And the last time I lost it all. I had so much heart felt thought poured into it. So that made me mad at the internet and at trying to post- thus pushing back the update even farther.

Mother’s Day

I have a friend. Her name is Jessica. Jessica has 6 amazing kids that call me “aunt Lindy” and CT “uncle Chris”. In Kenya/Tanzania, this is the respectful way to address a close friend. The Helsby’s call us by the same. (I personally love it)

I have a couple friends that are always very sensitive to my heart on mothers day. Jessica is one of them. This year Jess took all the sweet little hands of her children and 2 of my nephews and made me an apron. On it read the verse from Isaiah:1-3. In the middle it has all of their sweet hand prints that are the points of a crown. Yep, you guessed it. Cried like a baby. SO SO special to me! I’ve already worn it and gotten all their hands dirty here in Kenya (which is kinda cool if you think about it.) Never mind our red, puffy eyes- k?

Adoption

We were given information that we needed to go to America in order to file te i600. So we left in November to go back to the states to file our i600. We filed at the end of November and began our wait for a fingerprint apt. We waited 12 weeks and began wondering what in the world happened. Why haven’t we heard anything? We waited a few more weeks and found out our file had been mailed to Kenya. Frustrated, we had them send it back to the US- Charlotte USCIS office. We waited some more for this appointment to get our fingerprints taken. 6 months to be exact. Long in the short, we never needed to go back to America. We were supposed to have our prints done at the embassy in Kenya (which we had already done and sent with our 1600 application.) I won’t bore you with silly details about CT driving to charlotte to ask his question. Just know it has all been super silly. So Kenya has asked for proof of residence here in Kenya since our Homestudy stated we would be living in Kenya indefinitely. Um... yea. We don't have one of those. And it's not even in the works. So I'm not sure if they will make us have that and then amend our homestudy THEN file. I SURE hope not. It will take at the very least 6 weeks to get a residency visa IF we are even accepted, which is a feat in and of itself. Then we'll have to amend our homestudy and get it renotarized. By that time, all of our paperwork will be expired. Some of it for the 2nd time.

I wrote an email to a lady whom I have received responses from. The last question I asked was “Will the embassy be contacting us about filing here in Kenya?” She wrote back saying “The embassy will LIKELY contact you.” “Likely” contact me… hmmmm… is that supposed to encourage me? So…. I guess I’m waiting on the embassy and that has been almost a month so I’m calling today (Friday). Remember, the dates on our paperwork rot whilst we wait.

I have taken so much comfort in SO MANY scriptures in this wait. I know I sound like I’m being negative a lot, but it’s really not that I’m personally angry. Just ill at the situation and the fact that there are so many orphans who need a home and mine is OPEN to receive children. I think it’s just that I want justice for these children. Our friends sara and graig, that lived with us, always seem to encourage us so much. First of all, just in the fact that it took them 5 years to adopt abby. Like us, their paperwork expired and they lost money left and right. (Lindy, God owns the cattle of a thousand hills, pretty sure he can replace that money lost) Also, they have so gently reminded us on a few occasions that God loves our children so much more than we do. He is very much aware that they are orphaned and need a good home. I have prayed on many occasions that we will raise our children to be missionaries thus be great commission minded. So apparently God is picking out the perfect little missionaries to put into our home and they must not be at the orphanage yet.

The other day I sat down with Zippy in hopes to encourage her in her wait for a child as well. (Remember she had surgery in November to clear her tubes…but still hasn’t gotten pregnant.) I was sharing with her what the Lord has shown me through Romans 4:19-21, 1 Sam 1:22a. She took my bible and began flipping to verses that she had taken delight in as well. She and I went back and forth flipping from OT to NT. It was so wonderful to talk to her about this and see what she has been reading as well. Then she looked at me and said “When I pray for a child, I have taken your burden as my own. I pray first pleading God to give you children because your situation is harder than mine since I have a 12 year old daughter.” Seriously? Any body else out there sobbing? I don’t deserve Zippy’s friendship and dedication to me. Do you see why I missed her so much while we were away from Kenya? THAT is why I say she is my BEST-KENYAN-friend.

Growth in the wait-

"No distrust made [Abraham] waver concerning the promise of God, BUT HE GREW STRONG IN HIS FAITH AS HE GAVE GLORY TO GOD, FULLY CONVINCED THAT GOD WAS ABLE TO DO WHAT HE HAD PROMISED"

Can I please just express to you how God has grown me through this? It’s really beyond words. I tell you these things not to be boastful, but to embolden your love for God’s perfect timing and growth in “the wait’s” of life. I have realized that through God’s words and this wait I have grown leaps and bounds in my faith and I’m doubting it would have happened without this “trial”. Never in my life has a 2 hours quiet time in the morning not been enough. I don’t even know how to describe it. When my alarm goes off at 5, I can’t wait to get my coffee and jump in the word. Some times when I’m reading my bible I get so excited about certain verses that my heart skips a beat and I smile (like when you kiss your hubby for the first time after being away for a while). I realize that after children 2 hour quiet times may be few and far between. The only down side to this is that when my quiet time gets interrupted or cut short I get miffed b/c I’m so possessive of it. Chris laughed at me b/c I was being so selfish about my Jesus time. Why do you think I get up so early? B/c NO ONE else is up… I love that. Just me and Jesus. J ::sigh:: What can I say? I’m IN LOVE!

I am SO SO thankful for where I am spiritually that NOTHING can compare with the joy I have through knowing him more.

Which brings me to my next topic:

St. Boys

I’m just going to toss my pride out the window for a bit. I was a stinky missionary (not that I’m awesome now by any means.) But I really stunk before we left for the US in November. Let me give you a short list of my issues:

I became jaded, lacking compassion and care for what my purpose was here, I was lazy, consumed with adoption stuff, lusting for children, obsessed with the paperwork, had a bad attitude, lacked zeal, had a serious shortage of genuine love for people, did not display a happy heart, and I became a hermit. My desire to serve the needy… I mean "really serve" was pathetic. In all honesty I had no business raising children with all the pathetic selfishness I was wallowing in.

While in the states, the Lord renewed my heart and spirit. I truly am a new servant. I can’t possibly spend enough time with my… yes, MY boys. There are 12 of them and I love them as I can imagine loving my own children. My prayer is that they KNOW I love them by my actions. I also can’t help but pray for their salvation as I look into their eyes and get to know their personalities, quirks, and needs. I can’t begin to explain how much I hurt for them when they hurt and how my heart wants to just burst out of my chest when they make me proud. I never loved them like this before… I can’t believe what I missed due to my wallowing in my own self pity.

Thank you Jesus for redemption!!

The Helsby’s

So… can I just brag on the Helsby’s? K, good. I was going to any way.

Becky, Dave, Hannah (13), Jake (11), Carter (10),Lauren, (7), Megan (5), and Katie (2) have been missionaries in TZ since 2004. They work at Muvuno village started by them and another family in Mwanza. (north/western Tanz). Muvuno means harvest in swahili. Their goal (long term) is to raise up orphaned ostracized children to be God fearing, self sufficient, grown ups capable of raising godly children in Christian homes. What they are doing is nothing short of God glorifying selfless serving. They spent a couple days with us when we first got here. We are missing them. GK even cried when they left. Yep- they are so great that they made even the hardest of hearts weep. ;) jk gk! Can't wait to visit them in the fall and see Mavuno with my very own eyes!