We are overwhelmed with joy!!!  Thank you for all you are doing for us to help bring our little boy home to his Forever Family!  The pictures and information and updates you send fill us with joy and hope for him.  It’s fantastic to finally have a face to put with our prayers.  We also wanted to thank you for the amount of medical information that was included in his referral.  Our adoption specialist pediatrician was thrilled with all the information she received to review his file.  She told us that she had never seen so much information included in a referral.  She was not only impressed with the amount of medical information but also all we have on his life up to now.  Of course this made her job easier and hopes to see this in referrals more often.  Hearing her say all this was so reassuring to Travis and I.  This process is a topsy-turvey one at best and it’s such a blessing to know that we have you at CWA in our corner at every step along this journey.  From the bottom of our hearts…THANK YOU!!

With Joy,

Cris and Travis Remick

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We feel so blessed that CWA allowed us to be one of the first families to participate in the Documentary program. The film crew and their CWA counterparts were wonderful people. When they were filming our first introduction to Urgee during our court trip as well as when we took custody of her they were unobtrussive kind and very helpful. They did go to the town that Urgee is from and interviewed the people who originally took custody of her and brought her to the police station. There was unfortunately not a significant amount of footage of her life before the transition home. It is not the most sophisticated or “slick” presentation, but the love for the child comes through and the genuine care for her future is very apparent from the narrator to the people interviewed. This video will help fill an information gap in our daughter’s past that we otherwise would not be able to begin to fill. We thank CWA and their partners for providing this service to our family and recommend it to any family going through this process.

Matthew VanDyke

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Jared and I (Emily) knew that we wanted to adopt even before I gave birth to our two biological kids.

So, in September of 2006 we started our adoption process through Christian World Adoption.

It was easy to choose Ethiopia! My (Emily’s) parents were missionaries there for three years, including the year I was born, 1976. We fled the country in early 1977 when I was only six months old because of the communist revolution. When we were picking a country, we knew we wanted somewhere in Africa, and so Ethiopia just seemed right. We never wavered on this.

Our whole process took almost three years , which is not normal. We had an interesting time with our social worker getting our home study done. Also, Jared changed careers and started his own photography business during this time, which slowed things down while we were trying to prove our income for our home study. For about a year of those three years, we really were not moving forward or working on our adoption. This was a very difficult time, and it seemed as though there was no light at the end of the tunnel.

When we finally got moving again and our home study was complete, we didn’t have the money we needed to continue. This is when we applied for a grant from Show Hope. We were so grateful for their positive response, and this enabled us to keep moving forward.

When we received our referral of a little boy in April of 2009, it finally felt like this was real and really going to happen! We were able to pass court the first time and travel to get him in August of 2009. It was wonderful to visit Ethiopia and see some of the culture and beauty of the land our son is from. So now we have been home with him for just over a year and things are going great! Our older two children, Ireland (8) and Zion (6), have done so well with this and were a huge part of the adoption. They were excited right along with us when we passed court or when anything big happened that got us one step closer to bringing Judah home.

We, of course, would recommend adoption to everyone and understand the fears and things that get in the way of actually doing it.

The financial part is hard! It is heartbreaking to me when families say no to adoption because of a lack of funds.

You can do it!! God will provide if you are willing!!

Thank you Christian World Adoption for your support and help during our adoption process.

Although long and tedious, we are also thankful for our three year journey that brought us to Judah Cefas Wilson!

“Your life is like the morning fog—it’s here a little while, then it’s gone.”  -James 4:14b

Emily Beddingfield/Administrative Assistant-Ethiopia Team

Working with a waiting children’s program has its joys and its challenges, as I’m sure you would imagine!  The joy of seeing children finding families… the struggle of heartache for those who still wait.  The only peace is knowing that God is in control of each one of their lives.  He knows the plans that he has for each child—whether their future will be in America, or if they are to remain in Ethiopia.

God never ceases to amaze me in the way He’s always working “behind the scenes!”   Last year, I had a family accept three older children—children who I was beginning to despair of ever finding a home for.  One of the children was not even siblings with the other two—but they were best friends.  It was amazing to me that a family wanted all three kids and that the kids would remain together even though they did not legally have to go to the same family.  Then, all of a sudden, the family stopped the adoption process.  I was devastated and just lost all hope for these children.  Silly me!  Shortly thereafter, these children were accepted by another family—All three together again!!  The children are now home with this family and doing great in their new family.

This story is such an inspiration to me and confirms my belief that God is always in control!  He had a special plan for these children that went above and beyond all my earthly expectations.  He loves these children even more than I do and He knows best.  I rejoice for each life and encourage others to consider adopting a waiting child or children, and to pray for those who wait.  If God calls you to it, He will get you through it!

Visit the CWA Ethiopia Hope Project site for more information.

Our journey of adoption began in an unlikely place – the plains of Dire Dawa Kezira in Ethiopia.  In February 2005, we began sponsoring a child named Henok from Ethiopia through Compassion International.  Compassion is a wonderful ministy that has the mission of “Releasing children from poverty in Jesus’ name.”  At the time, Henok was 5 years old.  On August 17 of this year, he will turn 10.  This will be the 5th birthday we get to celebrate for Henok!  At that time, we were pregnant with our second child.  I thought great – all we need now is a dog and we’re done.

We received periodic magazines from Compassion International.  Through learning more about the state of the rest of the world—poverty, orphans and sickness—our hearts began to dwell on adoption.

We began to talk about adoption with our children.  Our son was hoping for several brothers.  Our daughter just wanted to make sure she got a little sister out of the deal.  We would go weeks without discussing adoption, and one of them would bring it up… wanting to know when they would be here.  It took us a season to pray about it, but ultimately we knew this was a precious path we should head down.  In the summer of 2008 while on a business trip with my husband in Huntsville, AL, we met with another CWA Family.  This family has adopted nine children – two from Texas and seven from Russia.  After meeting with this family, we felt both a peace about using CWA as our agency and selecting Russia as our country.

On October 26, 2008, as a family of 4 at Pizza Hut, we decided to become a family of 6 – well, 7 if you count our dog Major and they always do.  That night we submitted our application online to CWA and by the next night I had our neighbor and friend notarizing documents.

On Thanksgiving, our six year old son surprised the family by telling them he was thankful for his new brother and sister from Russia.  By Christmas, we had finished our home study.  By January, our initial Dossier was complete.  As of April 3, 2009, our documents are in Krasnoyarsk, Russia and have been translated and given to the Russian authorities.  For now, we are just waiting patiently (most of the time) to meet and bring home our children.

]]> http://www.cwa.org/blog/index.php/357/feed/ 1 http://www.cwa.org/blog/index.php/god-is-in-control/ http://www.cwa.org/blog/index.php/god-is-in-control/#comments Mon, 20 Jul 2009 19:15:52 +0000 admin http://www.cwa.org/blog/?p=98 Here at CWA we believe God is in control of our agency and your adoption (before, during, and after.)  That’s why no matter how the devil tries to derail our work through economic uncertainty, delays, or fluctuation in the international adoption climate,  we continue to trust in the Lord.  Adoption is God’s idea and therefore worth pursuing!

Everyday we work with families  struggling with financial fears, timing, discouragement, family dynamics, and more.  Yet for every story of struggle, we  hear two examples of how God uses these same struggles to help families grow in their faith and trust in Him.  It is not unusual to hear about donations for the exact amount  needed arriving at the just the right time.  We  hear how God uses a document or travel delay to ensure a families are available for a high school graduation, better ticket prices, family emergency or other important event that may otherwise have been missed.

The Lord has chosen you to embark on a journey of blessings and personal and family growth.  Are you trusting Him, His perfect timing, and His provision; or are you fretting, worrying or otherwise allowing the devil to distract you from God’s joy in adoption?  When you are feeling discouraged, turn to Proverbs 3:5-6 for encouragement:

Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding; in all your ways acknowledge him and he will make your paths straight.

Have a great Monday!