End of our Blog

I have been thinking about closing out our blog for some time now.  It has become more of a have to than a get to.  Life is very satisfying, full of joy, and yes very busy again with yet another West baby in the family.  With tonight being the eve of baby dedication at our church, where we will give our precious new daughter back to God who gave her to us, I think this is the appropriate moment.  The West Family Adoption Journey is over.  God has fully grafted her into our family now, she is not our adopted daughter, she is simply our daughter.  We are still amazed at every chance we have when pondering these past 2 plus years at all the wonders God has shown us.  God is truly love.  I can not find the words to express his glory.  We hope that somewhere along the way you have seen God, please know that it was truly his great work that he has done.  Our prayer is that you all will come to know him as we know him, seek him, he will be found if you do.

And so we have come to the end of our journey.  I think the best way to end it is to simply add one last photo.  Its image and its message was in the heart of God long before we ever knew where he would lead us.

Poem

I saw this poem on the Ethiopian adoption group we are members of.  I thought it very good and wanted to share it.

We witness a miracle every time a child enters into life.

But those who make their journey home across time and miles,

growing within the hearts of those who wait to love them.

Are carried on the wings of destiny and placed among us

by God's very own hands.

More pics

Three month in home meeting with our home study agency

Last week we had our 3 month meeting, we had one at 1 month and will have one at 6 months also.  We will also be doing annual reports until our little bundle of joy is 18.  Our social worker said she has obviously attached to us and is doing well.  One interesting bit of information we learned is it takes about 1/2 of the time your child was alive before they entered your home, to become completely safe and secure with their new family.  Our daughter was 13 months, so half of that is 6.5 months so we are about 1/2 way there.  This is just a rough guide they use.  It breaks our heart sometimes when we dwell on how she may be feeling when she has a bad time or a bad day or night.  Its difficult for others to understand all of this, but we just have to keep on loving her and showing her we will always come back to her.  We are just crazy in love with her and cant wait to see what God is going to do in her life.

Pics

Recent photos

An Easter homecoming for Lillebit-Joy Serkalem - Akron, OH - The Suburbanite

An Easter homecoming for Lillebit-Joy Serkalem - Akron, OH - The Suburbanite

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God at work

My best friend goes to church with a man who is a grandfather to a young girl who has moved to Ethiopia on a mission for one year.  I believe she has been there for just over 6 months now.  Recently on her blog she posted about seeing God at work.  How often we miss it because we either dont ask God to open our eyes to see it, or we simply arent looking.  As I watch my daughter each day, I know that God is at work.  His amazing love, and his faithfullness is a daily reminder to me when I simply hold her in my arms, watch her kissing Lisa, or playing with my other children.  Know this, God is always at work!

If you would like to check out the blog I mentioned go to:

http://anyroadanycost.wordpress.com/

Security tank / Love tank

Since our daughter has been home we have discovered something about her, something she is lacking and she needs desperately.  Security, or maybe its just good old fashioned love.  Lisa tells me almost every day as I am away at work, how Lillibet will cry even if Lisa goes into the other room for but a brief moment.  Lisa loves that she needs her so desperately, of course at times it makes it very difficult to do anything much at all, and Lisa can get mildly frustrated.  Mostly though Lisa patiently loves her.  I told Lisa a few weeks ago to think of it as just filling her love tank that needs filling.  I have been staying with Lillibet on Wednesdays when Lisa and the girls are at church, this past Wednesday I experienced the same thing. Lillibet would cry loudly and come crawling towards me desperately trying to find me.  I took her for a walk in her stroller, I noticed about half way through the walk she began looking up to see my face every few seconds, she wanted to know I was still there and had not left her.  Sometimes its difficult to even think about all the transitions she has had in her short life.  She is only 15 months old, but she was with her mother for 6 months, at an orphanage in Southern Ethiopia for 4 months, and in the Care Center in the capital city for 3 months before coming home with us these past 2 months.

Someone recently commented, after watching Lillibet for just an hour or so, that you can tell she really gets a lot of attention.  Lisa said that yes she has 4 siblings and a mommy and a daddy, plus her doggie at home to take care of her.  As we thought of that comment, we thought of how misunderstood Lillibet was by this person.  How her deep need was not clear to this person, this person was not aware of her brief history here on Gods Earth.  At first it upset me and I wanted to say something, try to explain how deep her need is and what has happened to her in her life, to share her deep need.  Then I began to think of how much I misunderstand when I look around at others.  Had I not walked this adoption path for over 2 years now, read all the books and other information that I have, how I would have had the same perception.  I wonder how much we all misunderstand?  Who do we judge based upon our experiences not understanding the deep needs of those around us.  Maybe, just maybe we all should take a deep breath, stop assuming we understand what others have gone through in life, and just simply try to fill their love tanks.  Let them know we will just be there for them, no matter what.  So that when they look up from that stroller every few moments, they see that were still there, still walking with them.

Blessed with a burden

My wife and I today watched the movie "Freedom Writers" which is a story about a teacher who helps change the lives of many inner city kids who live in a area where gangs and violence are part of everyday life.  It was a touching story of how one person really impacts the world.  There is a part in the movie where her father and she are talking.  Earlier he had told her that her work at the school as a teacher was just a job.  After seeing the changes in her kids over a 2 year period, he tells her a different story.  At one point he tells her that she has been blessed with a burden.  A burden that kept her inspired through all of the tough times during the 2 years she was teaching her kids.  As I heard him share those words, my mind shifted to the burden Lisa and I have for the children of the world.  How it kept us inspired through all the ups and downs during our adoption journey.  There is just something about an inspired passion, a burden, that keeps you pushing forward.  As I type this my mind now wonders to those of you reading these words.  What burden has God blessed you with?  What need has he called you to meet that he made you and planned for you to meet before you were ever born.  I cant answer that question for anyone other than myself, but what I can say, without hesitation, is that while the burden he gives you will at times seem overwhelming, the blessing you will feel, the joy you will experience, while you are in the work he called you to, will far outweigh cost of the burden you will pay.  The best analogy I can think of is labor pains during child birth.  Once that child is in your arms, all the pain is long forgotten and only the joy remains.  So let me ask you, what burden has God blessed you with?

New procedure to adopt in Ethiopia

We just heard today from our agency that Ethiopia has changed their procedure.  Families now have to travel twice to Ethiopia before they can take their child home.  We are members of a Yahoo group and we are seeing many families really in turmoil over this.  Many of them are so close to seeing their sons or daughters and now they will have this delay, and also obviously a greater expense involved.  Please pray for all of them that the money will be there and the delays wont be too long.  Its a shame the kids will have to wait longer now to come home.

OUR JOURNEY TO JOY at OneTrueMedia.com

Make video montages at www.OneTrueMedia.com

There is no me without you

I  recently finished reading a book titled "There is no me without you" by Melissa Fay Greene.  Its a book about a woman who ends up starting on her own an orphanage for kids in Ethiopia.  Perhaps because we just returned home from over there, and we now are the parents of a blessed gift from God, who was born in Ethiopia, the book overwhelmed me.  I actually told Lisa I found myself grieving the closer I came to the end of the book.  It truly moved me.  I would like to encourage everyone who reads these words to get the book.  I checked it out of the local library.

Slideshsow

A story of adoption from the Haitian Earthquake

This story is from Dr. Albert Mohler's blog...

Arno was inseparable from Mr. Penguin. The little Haitian boy was almost three years old, and the plush penguin with the word "love" inscribed upon it was his most treasured object. The orphan and his penguin were always seen together.

The boy had been given the penguin just after his birth. A Dutch couple was in the process of adopting him almost from the start of his life -- they had been matched to him when he was only two months old. The penguin represented a promise.

The process of adoption took two years -- the length of time considered adequate to determine that no living relatives might claim him. According to official estimates, there were over 50,000 parentless orphans in Haiti before the earthquake came and orphaned many thousands more.

Richard and Rowena Pet were the young Dutch couple who wanted so badly to be Arno's mother and father. They had struggled with infertility for years before deciding to adopt. As they awaited the adoption of Arno, Rowena became pregnant. Last August she gave birth to Jim, who was left in the care of relatives as Richard and Rowena flew to Haiti in January to claim Arno and complete the adoption process.

The story of Arno's adoption is movingly told by reporter David Charter of The Times [London]. As he reported, "Arno was shy at first but within 30 minutes of meeting his adoptive parents he reached for Rowena’s hand and took the Dutch couple on a tour of the orphanage in Port-au-Prince where he had spent most of his short life. He began to call them Mummy and Daddy."

Richard had shared their joy with a friend in an e-mail:

“We got to the orphanage feeling a bit strange. We went around a corner and immediately saw Arno walking towards us. He was OK until he was about half a meter away, but then he panicked. The woman from the orphanage helped out and half an hour later he took Rowena’s hand for the first time. I’m sorry but I can’t help crying at the moment as I type this. Arno has been showing us everything in the orphanage. He showed us an old car they have for the children to play on. He was holding a birthday card we sent for his second birthday.”

According to Charter, adoptive parents often stay at the Hotel Villa Therese in the Pétionville district of Port-au-Prince. That is where Richard and Rowena took Arno. That is where they were when the earthquake came. And that is where they died together.

David Charter tells the story, with comments by Chris Spaansen, the friend to whom Richard had sent the e-mail:

Dutch TV cameras were on hand during the frantic search by an international rescue team with members from the Netherlands, Britain and Canada. . . . Lying there amid the rubble was the unmistakable blue and yellow toy bird, Mr Penguin, marked with the word “Love”, that went everywhere with Arno. “That toy helped them to make their first contact with the little boy. It had a really special place in the family. It was a very emotional moment for all of us,” Spaansen says.

Then this:

What the cameras did not show were the three bodies, found intertwined together, as if Rowena and Richard had tried to put protective arms around Arno as the masonry began to fall. The disaster cruelly destroyed the new family, creating its own orphan back in the Netherlands. Jim, just five months old, will be brought up by Rowena’s sister, who already has her own three-year-old boy.

The bodies of Richard and Rowena and Arno Pet were taken to the Netherlands together, just as they had been found together in the rubble of the Hotel Villa Therese. They had been a family for a few hours, but a family all the same. Arno had a tragically short life, but he ended that life in the arms of a mother and a father.

Who can read this account without heartbreak . . . and a heart warmed? Is there a heart so cold that it does not feel the pathos of this report, and sense the sentiment of this family's tragedy? At the same time, this is not a tragedy in the classic sense. The love of Richard and Rowena and Arno Pet transcends tragedy. That is why The Times published this report, and why it stays with you so long after you read it.

Recent photos

There is no me without you

I am reading a book by the author Melissa Fay Greene titled "There is no me without you". It is a true story of a woman who lived in Ethiopia, still does I believe, and who lost her husband to a heart attack then one of her daughters to AIDS. She ends up starting a orphanage for kids and its an amazing amazing story. I am about 60% of the way through the book. Today at lunch the story begins to speak of adoption and how she began working with agencies to have some of her kids adopted out. She ends up traveling to the U.S. to receive an award she won and gets to visit many of the children she took care of that were now in the states living with their adopted families. The book tells of a time when she was staying with one of the families and the mother overheard her daughter praying one night. This is the prayer she prayed-

" Thank you, God, for my mom. She's a good, mom. She knows how to be a good mom. Even when I mad, she love me. Even when I sad, she love me. Even when I do bad thing, she love me. My mom, she so cute. My mom, she not ugly. But she ugly, I still love her. Even if she ugly, I love her. Even if she really, really ugly, I love her. And she love me, if she ugly. But she not, she cute. Thank you, thank you, God, for good and cute mom."

From another adopted families blog

I saw this on a blog from another family who is adopting from Ethiopia.  Lisa really loved it, I want to share it with you all now.


Sunday, February 14, 2010
Real Love
This is an article I just wrote for my local MOPS newsletter. I had a really hard time writing it and I'm still not certain that I said what I was trying to say and that I even agree with everything I said. It's a complicated topic laid out by my less than fluid ability, which makes it rocky all the way around. Be that as it may, here it is. I'd also like to give a shout out to Chrissy for helping me through the process! Don't forget to check out my giveaway!

The United States Postal Service has a good motto, but their dedication cannot compare to the power of a mother’s love-- neither spit up, nor blow-out diapers, nor vomit, nor middle-school-drama can stop us from loving our children. Because of our great love we would do anything to protect our children. We live for them. We would die for them. It’s not about convenience, it’s not about us anymore, it’s about love.

Love like that has a price though. In this country, we say “I love her and so I had to let her go” and we mean that we watched her ride the bus for the first time to school like a big girl. Sometimes the price is higher than that.

Could you kiss your child goodbye for the last time? Do you have the love that would allow you to hand your child to a stranger and walk away forever because that is how much you love her and that’s the price you are willing to pay? Such is the legacy of love my daughter has.

My family is adopting a toddler from Ethiopia. She will become our daughter through the greatest gift and the greatest sacrifice that a parent can make. I don’t know if I have that depth of love, but my daughter will know that her first mother did, that she ended up in our family, because of a love that refused to see her suffer, left hungry, or uneducated. Her first mother had a love that knew no bounds and didn’t stop in Ethiopia, but reached around the world and is changing my life.
Love is not about flowers, chocolates, cards, and candlelight. Love is about giving of yourself until it hurts, until you’ve reached the bottom of what you have the capability to give, and then finding more.

The Bible says that “perfect love casts out fear”. It’s true, but that’s big stuff that’s not something we can do on our own. Perfect love is what God offers us through the gift of his son, redemption from death and suffering, and a place in his family. When you’re enveloped in that perfect love you don’t fear because you know that the One who loves you like that has nothing but good in store for your life.
Throughout this adoption process I’ve been given glimpses of God’s perfect love and my own well-intentioned but far inferior version of love. My best efforts to love leave me riddled with fears…will we get the money we need in time? will my boys be okay while I’m so far away? will I be okay so far away from my boys? will this daughter that I love but have never seen be terrified of me? am I ruining my family? will we have trouble bonding? do I really have to drive a minivan? … It turns out that on my own I am not very brave and I am a slow student when it comes to trusting that perfect love. And just like a loving parent God always calms my fears from my ridiculous phobia of driving a minivan before I’m thirty to the mundane fears about money (which I never seem to get over) to the more serious fears about bonding. He doesn’t shame, humiliate, or punish. He wraps me in his perfect love and soothes. He shows me how his hand has guided our story. He reminds me that his checkbook is bigger than mine and points my memory back to the ways that he’s provided for us so far. He puts levelheaded friends in my path when I want to panic. He continues to show me that each time a fear comes up that I have trust more in his love that only wants the best for me as his child.

God is patient with me through this process and doesn’t rush me, doesn’t try and force me to trust his love. He accepts my trembling steps of faith as I grow and together through the redemption of adoption, we’re bringing home my sweet little girl. And she will know, as I know, that she is loved not only by two mothers on opposite sides of the world, but with the perfect love that only comes from God. Loved. Redeemed. Adopted.

More pics

Pictures from Celeste

On our trip to Ethiopia we were blessed to have 2 social workers from Holt travel with our group.  We were the first travel group of the year and Holt likes to send their workers to experience the country and evaluate the program as well.  One of the workers names was Celeste.  She had a nice digital 35 mm camera and she was taking photos all the time it seemed.  She said she would send us all a cd of the pics when she returned.  Ours came in the mail on Saturday so I thought I would share a few pics.

I am nothing

While in Ethiopia at the welcome center there was an older girl there.  She was probably 7, 8 or 9 maybe.  She was very active and vocal and would roam from family to family exploring.  She would get right in everyones bags and look through things as she pleased.  We discovered one day back at the hotel that Lisas contact solution had disappeared and one of the other families told us they saw one of the kids with it back at the center.  So the next few times we were there we were very aware and cautious with our things.  We were especially worried about the camcorder and the digital camera as we had pictures and videos that were of course priceless to us.  Well one time while we were at the center playing with Lillibet-Joy, I was sitting and this one vivacious girl came exploring.  I kindly pulled back my camera case and told her no very gently.  There were several kids all around us playing.  She looked right at me, and with a mean expression on her face she told me in clear English, " I am nothing".  Her words startled me and I realized what she must be thinking and feeling about herself.  I was holding Lillibet who is of course a baby, she was not getting a new family and I am sure was feeling left behind and forgotten.  When I did not allow her to go through my things it only further validated how she was feeling about herself.  As I was processing this I decided to offer her a tic tac that I had.  She came over to me, smiled and took it.  She smiled when she tasted its sweet taste.  I had redirected her and I think but for a brief moment, she felt as if she was something, and no longer nothing.

Cant wait to get home

Everyone that knows me understands how much I love my wife and kids.  They are my world.  My friend and my King, Jesus, is number one in my life but they are next in line.  Now that God has grafted in another child into my life, I find that I just cant wait to get home each day.  I smile at work just thinking about getting home.  God is so good I just cant believe all that he has done in our lives.  I have never loved him more than I do now.  Seeing his work in this adoption, for it has been his work, knowing how much he loves everyone, everywhere, just blows my mind.  I find myself so overjoyed at times its funny.  Like I said I just cant wait to get home.  Of course it helps that a tiny little person, comes crawling my way, tugging on my leg and holding her arms up to reach me.  Did I mention that melts my heart...

In the middle of the night

Last night around 330am Lillibet-Joy woke up crying, she had fallen to sleep on our ride home from the concert at our church last night.  The roads were horrible, overall I think we have 16 inches of snow.  It took my son and I about 3.5 hours of shoveling today to dig us out.  Anyway, the ride home was very slow and so she fell to sleep.  We put her to bed for the night but then at 330 she was up.  Lisa usually is the one who gets up but since I was off Friday on a vacation day to take Lillibet for some tests, and since its now Saturday and I am off work I went and checked on her to let Lisa sleep.  I was up for about 1.5 hours with her to finally get her back to sleep.  I tried rocking her in the glider we were given from a family that had adopted previously, in her room, but it did not work.  Then I took her to the living room to lay with her in my big comfortable recliner and after about an hour there it worked.  As I layed there wanting to get back to sleep and wishing she would just fall to sleep, I began thinking what it would have been like laying on the ground in a hut trying to comfort her in the middle of the night.  I began to be very grateful for the comfortable recliner I was lounging in with her.  Its amazing how perspective can really change the way you are thinking or feeling about something.  We, no let me say I have so much, so many conveniences so many things to make like easier, and yet we, no I still complain.  I can see already how God is using Lillibet and what he allowed us to see while in Ethiopia to change us.  I only hope he never stops working on me.

So much more work to do

I thought I would share some statistics I found on adoptions from Ethiopia by U.S. families.  While it is on the rise, it is still so small.

1999- 42
2000- 95
2001- 165
2002- 105
2003- 165
2004- 284
2005- 442
2006- 731
2007- 1254
2008- 1724

While this is a good trend, it makes me wonder why cant we do more.  So many millions of kids just wanting a mommy and a daddy.  What can you do?  Can you financially help another family?  Can you pray?  Can you encourage others?  Maybe, just maybe, God is calling you to adopt?  Just think about it please, for the sake of the children.

All together

At church our family is always spread out all over the church.  Some of our kids go to the Contemporary service, we usually go to the traditional one, and our son Christian is usually serving using his musical talent somewhere.  So needless to say we dont typically all sit together as we did for so many years when they were younger.  However, now that there is a new kid in town, haha, we have been sitting in the cry room which is a sound proof room so the babies dont disturb the service and they can be more comfortable.  Well, this past Sunday, all 4 of our kids found their way into the cry room to sit with us and to hold and play with her.  Lisa and I just smiled at each other.  We were all together again.

Be still and know that I am God

I was just sitting in my living room watching my kids play with Lillibet-Joy, we were playing a cd of kids music, songs like Lion King, Chitty chitty bang bang, This little light of mine etc etc.  My oldest son Joshua who is 19 was dancing for her, she had her on his shoulders, then my youngest Hope who is 11 was doing the same.  Lisa was there and Charity also, it was so funny watching them all playing.  Lillibet was giggling and just loving all of them.  I began pondering all that we have gone through these almost past 2 years raising funds, mounds of paperwork, doubting at times if we would ever get there.  My eyes began to peruse my living room where my wife has hung many inspirational plaques, they kind of make up a border of sorts.  My eyes fell on one plaque in particular, its message brought me into a moment of worship.  A time to thank God and praise him.  The plaque simply said, " Be still and know that I am God".

Video of Mommy making Lillibet-Joy laugh at Hotel in Ethiopia

This is so funny, it was only after being with her a few hours over a few days, we really started to see her personality as she began to feel safe with us.  It was priceless and very precious to both of us. Just click on the link below.



you tube- Lillibet laughing with Mommy

Da da da da

This is a video of something amazing. This was taken in our hotel room in Ethiopia. We had only been with her a few hours over a few days when this happened. It was a gift from God. You can hear Lisa and I in the background laughing/crying. It was such a sweet moment we were both laughing and crying at the same time. Up to this point she had hardly verbalized any sounds at all let alone words. WOW!

Transformed

As I have thought about all that our daughter has seen, experienced, felt, tasted, smelled and lived through these past few weeks, I was struck with how this for her is very similar to something else. She has traveled over half of the world to find her home. Her life is completely transformed. She now lives in a home large enough to offer her her very own bedroom. She has food anytime she wants or needs it. All of her physical needs are met. She is loved wildly by so many I am excited just to type these words. The weather is completely different than what she is used to. The clothes she wears, the places she goes, just everything is completely different. She has been planted into a family and is now a part of it as if she had always been a part of it. This is exactly what God does for those who have accepted him. Those who have yielded their lives and humbled themselves, realizing that like every other soul on the planet, they have sinned (missed the target). They need a Savior and they accept Jesus and what he willingly gave up for them. In this acceptance of this free gift, they find their lives transformed. They find that they have been grafted into a new family, Gods family. They have a loving Father who takes care of them and cares for them. They find themselves surrounded by loving brothers and sisters who love them fully. I think this picture of adoption, and how it compares to how God adopted us, is so beautiful, I can only smile when I ponder it.

Few more pics

The room we met her

This is the sacred place where God brought together a little girl and her parents for the very first time. There are no words eloquent enough to express the amazing time that it was. God is so good!

I will never leave you

This week as life has started to return to normal, all of our kids off to school, I off to work, Lisa has shared how Lillibet has been very clingy to her. When she leaves the room even for a brief moment Lillibet begins to cry for her. When we are all home and the normal West house craziness is going on, drums playing in the background, dog barking at people coming in, video games playing, parents sharing their day etc etc, she seems to be ok. But those moments when the house is quiet and it is only her and Lisa, its then that her fear comes out. I can only imagine what she has gone through in her short life. Too many farewells for one so young. As I have thought about this these past few days, I have been reminded of how God has said he will never leave us or forsake us. What a loving and merciful Father we have. Remember that today.

More photos

A sign over the Docters office at the center in Ethiopia

Lisa and beautiful Ethiopian landscape

Daddy with his gorgeous daughter

What a smile