Save the Date

Please mark your Calendars for our next Fund Raiser - on Friday, October 7th. More details to come.....thanks for your support!

Until then -don't forget how good the "Just Love Coffee" is (top right of the blog). :-)

We got our referral!!

Well, the day finally arrived! Not exactly how we planned.....we always thought that we would receive our referral call and be given all the information in one well placed conversation. But, of course, this whole adoption is out of our hands......

In mid July, on a Saturday afternoon, our Social Worker emailed us - a sibling group had come through which had 2 children within our age requests. She stated that she knew we had always said that we were ready to adopt one - but for some reason, she felt these children were worth mentioning to us. She wondered if we would at all be interested in considering TWO children. Wow. Vicki quickly contacted Dave (who was at Joshua's baseball game) and told him about the email - his response was "yes". We continued to spend the day quietly talking and praying and agreed to sleep on it. On Sunday, we got together with trusted friends to get their insights (we wanted to see if this was a "crazy God thing" or just "plain crazy"). Then we presented this possibility to all four of the current Jansen kids and all four of them agreed that this was what we should do. We shared possible changes that it would bring, sacrifices, as many unknowns as we could imagine - and they remained strong in believing that this is what we should do (we must tell you how very PROUD we are of each of them!!). So, that Monday we told our Agency that we wanted to pursue the adoption of these two kiddos and we had an addendum put on our Home Study to change it to be for TWO children.

Since then we were sent pictures, birth certificates, medical exam results, and an adoption profile. Usually, all of these items are provided when an Official Referral is given - because this situation was a little different, it all came to us a little bit at a time. But, this past Friday, the final bit of information came through to officially declare that WE HAVE A REFERRAL!!

And, we have accepted this referral of TWO beautiful children.....one handsome little boy who is almost 6 years old and a beautiful little girl who is 3 years old. We love them already - they are children of our hearts and even more importantly, they are children of God's heart.

(Due to international adoption laws, we can not share pictures or names via the Web).

Please join us in rejoicing in this wonderful news!

Please pray for their safety, nutritional needs, emotional health and that their hearts, minds and bodies are being prepared for all that will be happening during this adoption journey.

Please pray for our current household as we try to prepare for travel, physical and emotional changes in our home, the finances needed to cover adoption costs (at least $8000.00 higher due to another child) decisions about bathrooms, bedrooms, vehicles (we don't have one that seats 8!) and for all of us to be as prepared as possible for the changes ahead. We are so excited, but we know that this could be a long journey full of bumps and curves in the road.

Our Crazy Big prayer is that we might ALL be able to be Home in America to celebrate Christmas together - would you add that to your prayer list too? PRAY BIG!

"To the only God our Savior be glory, majesty, power and authority through Jesus Christ our Lord, before all ages, now and forevermore! Amen."

Jude 25

With much joy,

The Jansen Family~

Hunger Crisis in Africa

Dear Friends,

Please remember in prayer all those in the Horn of Africa, currently affected by the Hunger Crisis there. The situation right now if not "officially" a famine, but people are increasingly experiencing malnourishment and starvation, and it is expected to increase. Pray for those families who have to make difficult decisions - how to feed their children, their livestock, find food and water, etc.

And then, walk to your cupboards and try to decide what to snack on between the many choices you have today......walk to the kitchen sink and get yourself a fresh, cold cup of water......and realize just how very blessed we are.

God is good.

Holdin' on to Hope

Wow! How fast the month of July has gone - we just realized that it'll be a month tomorrow since we've posted on the blog. We've been enjoying the summer and can't believe that in a month, we will be back in school! (Vicki returns to school August 22, the kids start back on August 24). Unfortunately, we don't have any big news to share about our adoption....but, we are excited that we seem to have some signs of hope.....and our prayer request now is that we might be able to share Christmas together fully "expanded" as the Jansen's.

Please join us as we try to continue this journey ~ "Being joyful in hope, patient in affliction, faithful in prayer" Romans 12:12

We continue finding great comfort in knowing that God is in control of all the details - big and little. God is good - all the time!!

Build Us Back

Welcome to July! For us, it meant another monthly update from our agency. There were 5 children blessed enough to be referred to their "forever families". We are so happy for those kids and share the joy of their new parents. They, too have waited long for their referrals and been dealing with the uncertainty of adoption in Ethiopia.

But, it was a downer for us at the same time. Some of these families sent in their Dossiers after we did. Some of these families have an idea of when they will go to Ethiopia to meet their child. And, we still wait. We are not trying to start a pity party - we don't want any one's pity. But, we are going to be honest again and just say that this is very, very hard. We (Dave & Vicki) are usually taking turns picking each other up when we are frustrated, tired of waiting, etc. But, more and more, we seem to be having the bad moments at the same time. The waiting just wears a person down after a while. We knew this process would be hard and still signed up. And, we KNOW that it will all be worth it. We have no doubt. The yearning in our hearts just deepens as we wait and that yearning won't be fulfilled until our family is complete here in Lewis Center, Ohio. Please pray for us and our kids here. Pray for our child in Ethiopia - that they are safe, warm, well fed, free from any sort of harm and their heart and mind are being fully prepared for the changes to come in their young life. Pray that God keeps Building Us Back.....the words of that song sung by the Newsboys has been echoing in my heart all day - only God can continue to "Build Us Back".

Build Us Back

We've been crumbled, we've been crushed
City walls have turned to dust
Broken hands and blistered feet
We walk for miles to find relief

When the thief takes, when our hopes cave
You build us back
You build us back

When the earth shakes, when the world breaks
You build us back
You build us back

We are scared, we are poor
All our safety nets are torn
We've been humbled to our knees
From these ruins, we believe

When the thief takes, when our hopes cave
You build us back
You build us back

When the earth shakes, when the world breaks
You build us back
You build us back

Redeemer, redeem us
Restorer, restore us
Oh build us back
Though the mountains be shaken, the hills be removed
Your unfailing love remains
After all that's been taken, Your promise, still sacred
You build us back with precious stones

Lord Jesus, thank you for Building Us Back each time our hopes cave. We know that you are building us into the people you want us to be and we Praise you!

Some News....

We still eagerly await our referral call (and Vicki was secretly hoping it would come in time for Dave to really celebrate Father's Day), but we thought we'd share a little bit of news. Please read the excerpt from an email we received from our agency today......at least it is movement in the right direction! :-)

Dear Families~

We are happy to report we received word that MOWYCA (Ministry of Woman's Youth and Children's Affairs) decided to increase the number of new cases they will approve to ten per day. (as opposed to the five that they were doing) They also stated that they plan to increase this number to 15 per day, over the next few months. It is our understanding that this is in addition to the backlog cases they continue to work on.

Other pieces of information that we have been told:

-The courts are opposed to a dramatic decrease in cases approved and recently demanded that MOWYCA review more than five cases per day.

-The courts are scheduling approximately 20 hearings per day.

Family and friends - please continue to pray for the children in Ethiopia and around the world who need a family! Thank You!

No News....

Well, we've come to the beginning of another month with no news....we thought we'd share the update that we rec'd from our agency today.

For the month of May, they were able to offer 9 referrals of children - most of these were infants/very young (under 3 years) kiddos. If you remember....we are waiting a preschool aged child.

The MOWYCA's long term plan is still unknown, but for now, they continue to process only 5 cases a day and are clearing the backlog of court cases. The processing of only 5 cases a day will definitely continue through September. This continues to sadden us, as there are reports of still almost 5 million orphans in Ethiopia who need homes......and still they wait.

It looks like Court Closure will begin on August 8 - September 30 (due to rainy season). Referrals can still be given during that time, but court cases will not be able to be opened during that time.

As I reflect on some of the pieces of the puzzle that brought us to Ethiopia, some of the reasons were because there seemed to be many preschool aged kiddos ready to be adopted and because the time between referral, court date and bringing our new family member home was relatively short in the big picture. But, as God does, He reminds us that He is in control and His timetable overrules any plans we can make or even hope for. And, that He is in control is what we rest in each day, even as we wait some more.