L:
Naming is important to me. I enjoy the process of discovering just the right names for our children. It’s a little trickier this time, though. First, we don’t want to make firm decisions on names until we know the kids’ Rwandan names. We want to use their Rwandan names as well as the special names from our family. Besides that, Alyssa and Myranda (especially Alyssa) have strong opinions this time around. It’s definitely fun to have them involved in the process, but I really do pray that they are pleased with the final decisions that Nick and I make.
Saturday, October 31, 2009
Tuesday, October 6, 2009
Why Rwanda?
L:
That's a good question.
As our wait with China continued to lengthen, we began to ask the Lord if we should pursue another adoption while we waited. We were hoping to adopt again after our first adoption was complete. Perhaps we should instead adopt “again” now before our China adoption was complete? As we continued to pray and talk about this, our hearts were pulled more and more to pursue a concurrent adoption.
We wanted to stay with America World Adoption Agency because they are so committed to doing adoption in the right ways for all the right reasons. As we considered the other available countries with AWAA, Rwanda seemed like the logical choice for us for many reasons. However, we wanted to be sure.
When we had made the decision to adopt through China, three factors had come together to confirm our decision- a great need, a fairly smooth process, and China kept coming up everywhere in our lives during that period. With Rwanda, the first two factors seemed to be true again, but Rwanda just really wasn’t in our lives at all.
We decided, therefore, to ask the Lord to bring Rwanda into our lives if that was the country He wanted us to choose. We knew that it might not be His will to reveal His plan in this way. If Rwanda didn’t start popping up in our lives, that didn’t necessarily mean that He didn’t want us to go with Rwanda. However, if He did bring Rwanda to us in obvious ways, we’d know for sure that that was His direction for us.
Well, the next day, Nick was watching football and was flipping through the channels during the commercials. He stopped on a show about gorillas. After several minutes, we realized they were in Rwanda! Pretty cool. The next night, we were at our weekly meeting with our Truth Project group. The video that night included something about Rwanda!! We looked at each other and smiled. It seemed that maybe God was confirming His plan for our adoption to us in just the way we had asked. The next day, I received an e-mail newsletter. I hadn’t opened these e-mails for several months but decided to read this one. It had an article about Rwanda!!!
Three days in a row, God gave us a specific message about Rwanda. He didn’t have to answer our prayer in this way, but we are so thankful that He chose to give us this special gift. The confirmations didn’t continue daily, but He has brought Rwanda into our lives repeatedly since then and we are growing in love for this country and its people. We can’t wait until we get to travel!
That's a good question.
As our wait with China continued to lengthen, we began to ask the Lord if we should pursue another adoption while we waited. We were hoping to adopt again after our first adoption was complete. Perhaps we should instead adopt “again” now before our China adoption was complete? As we continued to pray and talk about this, our hearts were pulled more and more to pursue a concurrent adoption.
We wanted to stay with America World Adoption Agency because they are so committed to doing adoption in the right ways for all the right reasons. As we considered the other available countries with AWAA, Rwanda seemed like the logical choice for us for many reasons. However, we wanted to be sure.
When we had made the decision to adopt through China, three factors had come together to confirm our decision- a great need, a fairly smooth process, and China kept coming up everywhere in our lives during that period. With Rwanda, the first two factors seemed to be true again, but Rwanda just really wasn’t in our lives at all.
We decided, therefore, to ask the Lord to bring Rwanda into our lives if that was the country He wanted us to choose. We knew that it might not be His will to reveal His plan in this way. If Rwanda didn’t start popping up in our lives, that didn’t necessarily mean that He didn’t want us to go with Rwanda. However, if He did bring Rwanda to us in obvious ways, we’d know for sure that that was His direction for us.
Well, the next day, Nick was watching football and was flipping through the channels during the commercials. He stopped on a show about gorillas. After several minutes, we realized they were in Rwanda! Pretty cool. The next night, we were at our weekly meeting with our Truth Project group. The video that night included something about Rwanda!! We looked at each other and smiled. It seemed that maybe God was confirming His plan for our adoption to us in just the way we had asked. The next day, I received an e-mail newsletter. I hadn’t opened these e-mails for several months but decided to read this one. It had an article about Rwanda!!!
Three days in a row, God gave us a specific message about Rwanda. He didn’t have to answer our prayer in this way, but we are so thankful that He chose to give us this special gift. The confirmations didn’t continue daily, but He has brought Rwanda into our lives repeatedly since then and we are growing in love for this country and its people. We can’t wait until we get to travel!
Monday, October 5, 2009
Languages
L:
We've had a question about language differences. Rwanda has 3 official languages- Kinyarwanda, French, and English. Kinyarwanda is the main language, so we will not speak the same language as our new little ones. We'll learn some useful phrases in Kinyarwanda before we go, but thankfully, much can be communicated through gestures, facial expressions, and hugs. And it's amazing how God has given kids the ability to learn languages so quickly. Before we know it, they'll probably be talking our ears off in English!
We've had a question about language differences. Rwanda has 3 official languages- Kinyarwanda, French, and English. Kinyarwanda is the main language, so we will not speak the same language as our new little ones. We'll learn some useful phrases in Kinyarwanda before we go, but thankfully, much can be communicated through gestures, facial expressions, and hugs. And it's amazing how God has given kids the ability to learn languages so quickly. Before we know it, they'll probably be talking our ears off in English!
Saturday, October 3, 2009
We're Expecting
Here are the answers to some more questions. How old will they be? We've requested 2 children as young as possible under 42 months. We've been imagining that that would mean an infant and a toddler, but we really don't know. What gender? Girls and/or boys- we haven't made a specific request.
How Long?
Many people have asked about when we think we'll travel to Rwanda. Here's the expected timeframe. It's about 3-6 months from when our paperwork arrives in Rwanda to when we receive our approval from Rwanda. Then it's about 2 months until we receive our referral- that's when we will know who our new kids are :) Then we wait until we pass court in Rwanda and can travel a couple weeks after that. We think maybe we'll travel in March?
Thursday, October 1, 2009
Adoption Blog
We've finally started an Adoption Blog! Yes, we started the adoption process in 2006, but better late than never, right? We're setting up this blog so that our family and friends can stay informed about our adoption journey and pray with us through its developments.
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