While I'm Waiting.....

I'm waiting
I'm waiting on You, Lord
And I am hopeful
I'm waiting on You, Lord
Though it is painful
But patiently, I will wait

I will move ahead, bold and confident
Taking every step in obedience
While I'm waiting
I will serve You
While I'm waiting
I will worship
While I'm waiting
I will not faint
I'll be running the race
Even while I wait

I'm waiting
I'm waiting on You, Lord
And I am peaceful
I'm waiting on You, Lord
Though it's not easy
But faithfully, I will wait
Yes, I will wait
I will serve You while I'm waiting
I will worship while I'm waiting
I will serve You while I'm waiting
I will worship while I'm waiting
I will serve you while I'm waiting
I will worship while I'm waiting on You, Lord
Lyrics by John Waller~

Waiting. Is there an art to it? If so, I need to learn it. Right, now I am just learning that I am not very good at it.

This past week, we received the news that the Country of Ethiopia is dramatically slowing down their adoption process. Apparently, there has been some fraud problems and so, they are slowing the process down (from 40 "consents" a day, to 5 a day). We do somewhat understand....we want each child, especially our child, to be brought to their new family & home in integrity, honor and honesty throughout the entire process of adoption. But, when there are still millions of orphans in Ethiopia, it is very difficult to understand why the process has to be slowed down to this extent. It has kind of made our hearts stop and made us catch our breath.

We still have hope that our papers are somewhere being worked on and that soon we will receive news about our referral. Until then, we will serve, we will worship, we will pray, we will trust and we will (hopefully) learn to wait -on God - a little better. And, as we wait, you may see us looking off, pondering, and maybe wiping away a tear or two - it is only because our child in Ethiopia is never far from our minds and hearts......and we just want to bring them home.

Toby & Diverse City.....Diversity?

This past Friday night, we had a great night as a family! We surprised the kids with tickets to see Brandon Heath and Toby Mac in concert. All six of us are huge fans of Toby Mac and his band "Diverse City". I think that each of us knew the words to all the songs he sang. It was such a fun night to spend together. We wanted to give the kids a memory and celebrate the current family of six that we are. In some ways we have said "no" to our kids a lot in these past adoption process months, so that we can say "yes" to having their new sibling come home....so it was great to surprise them with this night out. I hope that they will remember it for always.

If you know anything about Toby Mac, you know that his band is called "Diverse City" partly because of the beautiful diversity of races represented by those in his band. When I looked at the band on stage - it was gorgeous! And, it made me eager for heaven, for it is then that I believe that all colors and races will be truly at peace and we will all be colorblind - won't that be so awesome? I long for that day.

I've been much more aware of the need for us to be colorblind lately. I was loaned a book to read called "The Help" recently. It is placed about the years when Martin Luther King Jr and his mission was starting to affect our nation. The book is from the perspective of black maids and the struggles they went through. "The Help" is a work of fiction, but I know that some of the stories are probably very true as to what people experienced. And, unfortunately, I know that some of those prejudices that we all wish to believe are gone, are still around in some ways and lived out by some people. And, now, as I prepare to bring my child from Ethiopia home, I worry about how they might be treated by someone who doesn't value them as I do or as God, their Heavenly Father values them. That scares me and hurts me already, even before I have met my child.

So, as I wait for our referral, I become more acutely aware of the prejudices that still happen these days in so many different ways.....and I challenge myself to be more aware and more proactive so that we can all be colorblind and celebrate the beauty and diversity of all God's people!

Keeping up with the Joneses?

As we wait, we are learning more and more about poverty, orphans, drinking water around the world (or lack thereof) and a myriad of other facts. As we learn, we feel that we must share what we learn, so that others will also realize how blessed they are and how GREAT the needs are around the world. Please take some time to visit this website and learn some amazing information. www.whoarethejoneses.org Ask God to open your eyes as to how you can help those who can't even imagine keeping up with the Joneses.

Thank you.

It's Official

We heard from our Agency this week....It's Official! We are officially on their waiting list.....we are expecting.....we are in process.....this is really happening! We are THRILLED!!!!

Now, we wait for a phone call from them when they have our referral ready - this may be the hardest part of this journey.

Please pray for patience, preparation of hearts, minds and home, for the child we have yet to meet and for some great family time as we currently remain a family of six. We want to cherish these days as we continue to look to the future.

Thank You!

Pinch me!

I (Vicki) have been trying to write this post for almost 24 hours.....but I have had a hard time wrapping my head around all that I'd like to say. Yesterday was a very, very big day in the journey of the Jansen Expansion - so big, that I'm still in awe that it has actually happened - and yesterday told Dave that I thought he should pinch me, because I needed to know this was real!

Yesterday, we stood in the Pak Mail store, looking at the Dossier checklist for the hundredth time, making sure the checks and money orders were made out correctly, putting papers in the right order and triple checking addresses and tracking numbers......then, at almost 4:30 p.m., we sent our Dossier to the Assistant Stork in Virginia!

Now, you may ask, what in the world does that mean? That means we have just taken a HUGE step closer to having our child come home! This bundle of very important documents ( which has taken a long time to put together due to all sorts of bumps and hurdles) arrived at the Assistant Stork today (I know because I have been tracking the package). :-) The Assistant Stork will look over our very important documents and will take them to the U.S. Department of State and then the Ethiopian Embassy. They will then be mailed back to Adoption Associates (our very wonderful adoption agency) and will be on their way to Ethiopia soon.

The next part of this journey will be the referral of our child.......when we find out who God has chosen for us. We are so excited, that it is hard to express and explain!

Over the last few days we really wrestled with the fact that this is the last point where we can give more indicators about our child.....we pondered picking a boy or a girl and giving more specifics about this child (the only specific we have given is a 4-6 year old). But, what we kept coming back to was that God has ordained and chosen this child before they were even born to be a part of our family and we are going to wait and see who He has chosen. On Sunday morning, we sang a song in church called "He Knows My Name"......and it talks about how God Knows our names, He knows each tear that falls......and I was overwhelmed by the fact that on the other side of the world, He knows who our family member is. Isn't that amazing and so fantastic and cool?

Now, I am sure you are asking when we will know who our child is and when we'll travel.......we're not really sure. We have hope that we will be home (after 2 trips to Ethiopia) with our child sometime this summer. But, we keep learning that this is all in God's hands and timeline, not ours......so, we will try to wait patiently - a lesson that is so hard to learn.

During this waiting time, please pray:
*For our child to be healthy, loved and protected, as well as prepared for coming to our family
*For our family to be prepared for the changes in store in our future, and for us to celebrate the family that we currently are as we wait
*For God's provision in all areas of this adoption
*For others to open their hearts to the call of adoption
*For others to hear about our journey and know that Jesus has adopted all of us into His family by His pure grace and love

Thanks for your prayers and support.....we have been overwhelmed by those who are sharing in our joy!

Oh - I need to give a special Thank You to my wonderful husband - he has been so patient and encouraging these past few weeks....I think it must feel like he's really living with an emotional, pregnant woman again - the poor man! You're awesome David - I love you!

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!