With Thanksgiving in our Hearts

As we reflected today on our blessings this Thanksgiving, it seems that our list is much longer than last year. We are so blessed! Do we have everything we want - No. Is that okay? YES, it sure is!! We have clean water, enough food to have leftovers some nights, medical care & insurance, a roof over our heads, good schools and so much more! As we continue to learn more about Ethiopia, our hearts break for the needs of most people there. The feast we enjoyed today seemed almost wrong in relation to the needs of so many around the world. Please continue to join us in prayer......that next Thanksgiving our child will be home with us enjoying a feast like they've never imagined. Please also continue to pray for the country of Ethiopia, especially its children. Thank you!

USCIS

We are excited to share that the package we sent out yesterday has been rec'd at the USCIS (U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services) and that hopefully, very soon they will process our "Application for Advance Processing of Orphan Petition". One more step to bringing our child to their Forever Home. Praise God!

Next.....checking off the 27 items needed for our International Dossier. :-) Please pray that all of this paperwork comes together without any complications in the next few weeks or so. Thank you!

Baby Steps

We wish we had breaking news....but we continue to just keep plugging along. We were so excited to recieve our Notarized Home Studies in the mail yesterday, but as we reviewed them, we found a couple of errors. So - now we need those to be fixed and must wait again. Hopefully, they will be corrected this week and by the end of the week we can send in everything needed to the United States Center for Immigration Services (USCIS). We are learning to take it all with a grain of salt, because when we think something is going to happen, it doesn't.....but that doesn't mean we are learning this lesson very quickly or patiently. :-)

As we move along in the process, we find it very easy to start worrying about the time table of all this......at this point it looks like we will still need to make two trips to Ethiopia and we start to "what if" those trips.....what if we are gone over one of the kids birthdays? what if the timing is difficult with our jobs? what if we don't have the funds for the tickets? what if Vicki has a panic attack on the plane? (did you know Vicki has a HUGE fear of flying?) what if we don't have our immunizations done when we get "the call"? And we can get so caught in this pattern of wondering about all these possibilities....but, we have to remember how we came to this decision in the first place.....God has called us to do this and He has called us to TRUST HIM. And, on a daily basis we will continue to do just that.

Please continue to keep the "Jansen Expansion" in your prayers.....for freedom from worries, for our child waiting to come home and for our family to be prepared for all the changes ahead. Please pray especially for a particular paper we need for our Dossier that has been difficult to get so far...we'd love for this piece of paper to be completed this week!

Thanks for your continued support in so many ways - we remain grateful!

The latest...

We've had a few adoption happenings this week - nothing major, but still worth rejoicing about. We recieved word from our Ohio Social Worker that our Ohio Child Abuse Clearances finally come back and so she has been able to send our Home Study on to her supervisor for final approval - we are thrilled and can't wait to have the Home Study here soon!

Once we recieve the Home Study, we can continue our USCIS paperwork, as well as our Ethiopian Dossier. The USCIS is where the U.S. Government clears us for our adoption, and the Ethiopian Dosser is what gets sent to their government to start the process in country there. These are both HUGE parts of this adoption journey

Having the Home Study also means that we can start applying for grants for the adoption costs - which we are eager to do, as we are still quite in need of funding.

If you haven't bought coffee yet - would you consider buying a bag a month until our process is complete? We know that $5.00 a bag doesn't sound like much, but if only 20 of you did that for the next 6 months - that would help us raise $600!! Every bag of coffee helps!


Here are a few prayer requests:

*For our Child in Ethiopia to be kept safe - physically & emotionally, comfortable and well fed, and that their heart & soul is already starting to be prepared for life as a Jansen :-)
*For the continual paperwork process to go smoothly
*For the present Jansen's to be in the process of preparation for the new member of the family
*For continued funding of this adoption

As always - we are grateful that you just spent a couple of minutes reading this - we thank you!

Hope

We've had another busy week here! Friday was Dave's 40th Birthday and he was blessed in many ways....including waking up to signs in the front yard from a friend of his, who wanted to make sure Dave didn't forget how old he is. :-)

As part of Dave's Birthday celebration, on Thursday night, our family went to a concert together. We have long been fans of Steven Curtis Chapman and love his music. Steven sang lots of songs and we had a great time worshipping and celebrating. We also enjoyed some music from his son's group "Caleb" and were blessed by that. Mary Beth Chapman, Steven's wife, also spoke at this concert. If you don't know much about the Chapman family....years ago, their daughter, Emily, went on a Mission Trip and came home on fire for orphans around the world and felt her family should adopt. Her parents weren't ready - so Emily prayed (sounds a bit like what the Jansen girls did for their Dad!) :-) and the Chapman's ended up adopting three beautiful girls from China. About 2 1/2 years ago, through a tragic accident in their own front yard, their youngest daughter, Maria, was killed. This past Thursday evening, the Chapman family shared through music and spoken word, of how everything about their God and faith was questioned as they dealt with this deep grief. They gave testimony about how real God is to them now more than ever before and how they continue to live each day in the hope that they will SEE Jesus face to face, they will see Maria again and there will be no more tears. It is so wonderful to live in that Hope!

You would think that after losing a daughter you've adopted, you might lose a bit of your passion for adoption and orphans. But, the Chapman's haven't lost that passion at all - they have done even more for orphans around the world. Their organization "Show Hope" has increased the work it does for those children who so often fall through the cracks. Our request for today......please go to their website at http://www.showhope.org/ and see what wonderful work is taking place. Take a look at Maria's Big House of Hope....consider having an Orphan Sunday....ponder if you could give up something you really don't need each month to be a "Show Hope Partner". Did you know that every 18 seconds another child becomes an orphan? Or that every 14 seconds a child loses a parents due to AIDS? (so how many does that make during the simple reading of this blog?) Or 16.2 million children worldwide have lost both their parents? As a "Show Hope Partner" your money helps in two ways.....The first half of your gift provides care for an orphan as they wait to go home to their forever family and the second half of your gift goes into a fund to help provide adoption grants to adoptive families (Show Hope provides 30-40 grants a month, but sometimes have to decline twice that many a month!).

As a family, we volunteered at the Concert to help Show Hope's Mission - and as a family, we ask you to consider what you can do. We know that not all families are called to adoption - but we are all called to care for orphans. How can you do that?

Today, we were able to attend the Ethiopian New Year's Festival put on by the local Ethiopian Group in Columbus. We were able to eat some Ethiopian food, experience some of their music and dancing, see Ethiopian clothing and see many, many beautiful Ethiopian children. It made us even more eager to make our trip over there! We continue to trust God's timing and provision in this entire process - we know He is in control!

You Can Count on Change

This week has brought a lot of change to our home. Vicki went back to work on Monday and the kids returned to school on Wednesday (with Jonathan beginning high school). Wednesday also marked Vicki's birthday, as well as Dave & Vicki's 20th anniversary. Needless to say, Wednesday was a pretty big day! We enjoyed a family dinner out at an Ethiopian Restaurant here in Columbus. Overall, it was a great experience and we were thrilled at how much the kids enjoyed the food there (they are usually picky eaters).

As we had dinner together, we posed the question....how do you think your new brother or sister will feel being picked up by two strangers (Dave & Vicki) put on a plane, and then being offered new foods for each and every meal after that? Everything in their life will taste different, look different, even smell different...... This led to a good discussion about patience with our new family member because of the variety of ways they may react to their new experience - and some understanding as to why they may react with fear, anger or tears for days, weeks or months. We all have a lot of understanding to go yet, but we had a good opening chat about this. We've tried to raise our kids to be flexible - because in a Pastor's home, you never know what may change next. We hope that as we've tried to prepare them that change is always happening in life, they will end up being more equipped for this upcoming change in their lives.

So, would you pray about this? Pray that we are equipped with patience, understanding and flexibility. Pray that our new family member is one able to "roll with it" and will embrace this new adventure that they will be taking and will feel our love and accept it. Pray that we will all bond quickly and continue to be a family unit that expects change to happen and will trust that God takes care of all the details.

God is good - all the time!

Thanks to ....WHO?

Dear Friend,

Thank you. We found the envelope that you left with a gift in it for our child and their journey to their "forever home." We are most grateful. We are sad that you craftily used a cashier's check, so we have absolutely no way of finding out who you are - so we use this public forum, hoping that you read our blog, to express our deep gratitude for you and your gift. We feel overwhelmed with being blessed with so much!

This past weekend, we have been working with numbers, throwing around figures and reworking them all again, to figure out how we will pay for our next "installment" for this adoption process. Again and again, we didn't come to a final solution, because right now, there just isn't enough money there. And, again and again, we keep telling each other how faithful God is and that God has got it covered in ways we don't even know yet......and we truly believe that with all of our hearts, but this living by faith thing is a bit un-nerving sometimes.

So, dear friend, you must know, that your anonymous gift is so much more than the check that was left......it was a direct reminder to us that God has this covered in ways we don't even know yet and that walking forward in faith is the most exciting, invigorating way to live and today we choose to keep walking that way. Thank you not only for your financial gift, but for being a tool used to show God's faithfulness. We still have a long way to go for our next "installment", but your gift spurs us on with hope and determination. May God richly bless you for your thoughtfulness and generosity!!

Love,
Dave & Vicki

p.s. We just rec'd our first 2 bags from "Just Love Coffee" and can personally tell you - it is great, fresh roasted coffee! Thanks to those of you who have already ordered coffee - God is going to use your coffee habit to bless an orphan! :-)

Ethiopia - Birthplace of Coffee

Did you know that they say that Ethiopia is the birthplace of coffee? They even have ceremonies there to bless the coffee (no wonder Vicki wants to travel there!) ;-)

We have been looking for a way to make coffee a part of our fundraising efforts and are excited that we have found a way. We have found the "Just Love Coffee" Company who have opened up the online "Jansen Expansion Coffee Store". For every bag of coffee that is purchased, they will send a portion of the money for our Adoption efforts and will continue to do so until our adoption is complete. We think that the coffee bags with the Ethiopian flags on them will be especially tasty....... Please check out the link to your right and start shopping!

We are thrilled to find this opportunity and excited to partner with this company, who deeply care about the orphans in the world. Please take some time to read the "Just Love Coffee" story on our Store page. Thank you for your help in caring for the orphans.

Please take 4 minutes and watch this

Please take a little over four minutes and watch this video at www.vimeo.com/13771428

I came across this video today on the blog of another family who is awaiting the adoption of their child from Ethiopia. I join them in feeling like what we are doing is not enough and yet, at the moment, my hands are tied to not do more. Or can I? What else can be done to help these people, these children, all of who are important! For now, I post this video and plead with you to watch it and open your heart to what God may want you to do. At least pray for their safety, protection and peace. For now, I can help spread the word of these orphans who need to be cared for.

Addis Ababa is where we will someday fly to bring home our child - this video makes me wonder if our child is out there rummaging through the trash? Please pray for our child - I can only trust that God is caring for him or her at this very moment. There are times when I must force myself not to think of our child, because I can not see the papers and procedures that need my attention through my tears. But, those tears are my reminders to keep pressing and plodding on, trusting in God's plan in it all.

Thanks to you!

Thank you to everyone who came to share in our Pancake Breakfast - and a very special "Thank You" to those who helped in various ways! We are so grateful! We were able to raise $1100.00 today, just enough to assist us in sending our Formal International Application Fee and first agency fee in this coming week (with just a couple of pieces of paperwork left to fill out, of course!) ;-) We had so much fun seeing so many friends today and appreciate the overwhelming support in so many ways in our adoption journey. YOU are making a difference in the life of an orphan - how cool is that?

If you were unable to attend the Breakfast, but would still like to contribute (we are only 1/5 of the way there in our financial journey of adoption) please contact us at VJansen90@gmail.com.

Thanks again everyone!

Home Visit #1 - Done!

Home Visit # 1 in done! Yahoo! We spent about 2 hours with Katie, our Social Worker, early this evening. She was very nice and did an individual interview with every member of our household, a couple interview and then a walk through of our home. She answered a few of our questions, clarified some paperwork and set up an appointment for her next visit....August 19th. Until then, Dave & Vicki have LOTS of reading assignments to take care of and just a few final pieces of paperwork.

Katie shared with us that the most likely reason our final Home Study paperwork might take a while would be our Child Abuse clearance from the State of Ohio, simply because it takes a while. Would you please pray specifically that this paperwork would be done ASAP? Thanks! We need our final Home Study paperwork done in order to apply for Adoption Grants and would really like to get the Grant paperwork process started soon (well, except that means we're just filling out more paperwork....again.....).

After the Home Study, our family enjoyed some ice cream together and then went to church to set up for the Pancake Breakfast fundraiser tomorrow. We were able to get everything as ready as possible for it and can't wait to see everyone tomorrow morning! If you're in the area......feel free to come and have some breakfast with us!

First Home Visit

We have our first home visit scheduled - finally! It will be Friday, July 30th at 6:30 p.m. and will take 2-4 hours. We are soooo excited! Now we await another packets of papers that should be coming in the mail for us to fill out as part of the home visit study. Vicki is staring to see forms and papers in her sleep!

Adoption by Abba

Our brother-in-law sent us this wonderful article today (Thanks Chuck!) www.Christianitytoday.com/ct/2010/july/10.18.html We encourage you to read it. It is a wonderful explanation of why adoption is SO important, and why those of us who are believers in Christ have some responsibility to the orphans in the world (did you know there are millions of them?). We too, were once orphans and we have been saved by a gracious God, who loves us as His own. We know that not everyone is called to adopt - but give it some thought. How are you being called to help an orphan? What is your responsibility? Take some time and figure out how you can make a difference in the life of an orphan. You will make God smile~

Answering some questions....

As the news has started to spread about "The Jansen Expansion", there have been a couple of questions that we've been answering a lot...

Are you getting a baby? No, we are not. Our preference is a child between the ages of 4 and 6 years old.

Will it be a boy or a girl? We don't know. We decided that we aren't going to pick. When we had our biological children, we didn't know what they were, and we'll go the same route this time. When the agency makes the referral to us, we believe that is the child that God has chosen to be in our forever family - whether it be a boy or a girl.

How long does the process take? 10-18 months seems to be about "normal" from what we've heard.....but we've also been told to plan on the unexpected and to just not plan on anything. So - the real answer probably is - who knows? (that would give you insight on how to pray - we like to be planners with a date, time and schedule - this waiting game may prove difficult).

Currently, we have been assigned a case worker with an adoption agency here in Columbus, who will do our home study - which, we hope, will deem us approved to be an adoptive family. :-) After the home study, and coming up with the formal application fees we still need, we will begin the more formal process with Adoption Associates (see website below), and start preparing our Dossier for submission to Ethiopia.

The journey continues.....

First hand experience

This week, our kids are enjoying the blessing of being at Camp Geneva (www.CampGeneva.org if you don't know of the place - it ROCKS!) and Dave & I are slowing down and enjoying some time in Holland, Michigan together. One of the best things we did this week was have lunch with a couple who adopted from Ethiopia almost a year ago. We had many questions for them, and thankfully, they were more than willing to answer them all. They helped define some of the things we didn't quite understand yet and shared openly about their experience. One of the neatest things they did was bring some of their pictures from when they traveled to Ethiopia. WOW!! This made us more excited than ever! There is so much imagining and wondering about what to expect - and of course, everyone's experience will be different, but it helped to see one of AAI's orphanages there, helped to see the place where we would stay, helped to be assured that they felt safe while they were there, helped to hear them speak of many famlilies who didn't know how God would make their adoption possible, but He did! We continue to feel more called than ever to this journey and more excited to see how God is going to work.

We have found ourselves this week thinking about next summer - and how different our lives could be by then. Now, we can't say that we don't have worries or apprehensions - we have plenty of those - but we are ready for this ride of ups and downs, blessings and trustings, and God's faithfulness through it all. Let's ride!

Beginning the Jansen expansion......

Yes - you read that right! The Jansen's are expanding! We have recently begun the journey of adopting our child from Ethiopia - a child that God already knows the name of and has waiting to come home to this home. We are very excited, full of wonder, and overwhelmed with the fears of finances, more responsibilities, changes and all sorts of other things. But - God has shown us again and again and again, that when we follow His call, He is in the details. So then, we have chosen to move forward in faith, expectantly looking forward to all that God is going to do! We already know it's GOOD!

For more information on how we came to this decision, please pour yourself a cup of iced tea or coffee, and listen to what we recently shared with our congregation: www.centerpointfamily.info and click on "sermon archive" to the right. Then click on "How Real is Your Religion" for 5-30-10.

As a family (along with our awesome small group) we will be hosting a pancake breakfast fundraiser at CenterPoint Church on Saturday, July 31st. If you live in Central Ohio, will you please consider joining us and help us start raising the funds necessary to bring our child home?