Tonight, it is started to sink in that we are REALLY FINALLY going to be bringing HOME to our country, our state, our city, our neighborhood, our family, our church.....our son!!! He is going to be running through our house, sitting at our table, reading our books, sleeping in his bed, using our bathroom (hee hee....a BOY!!!!), falling asleep in my arms, playing in our yard, sitting in "our row" at church, throwing balls, playing with our cat, meeting his aunts/uncles/ grandparents, SISTERS/BROTHER-in-law/cousins/great aunts & uncles/great grandma, meeting new friends, eating our popcorn, wearing his fleecy pj's, roasting marshmallows for S'mores, sitting on squishy couches, watching his relationship with Sophina grow as they age, watching his sisters with him...watching them all fall in love with each other, seeing him at our church service....singing with all of our hearts, hearing Pastor Matthew Molesky's sermon being preached with such passion, meeting Twila Pulford-whom i KNOW will weep with joy, meeting oh my....so MANY MANY MANY of you come to mind!!!! Seeing our first family picture, my first Mother's Day as a mother of a son for the very first time, his first family reunion-THIS summer, his first Christmas/Thanksgiving/4th of July, his first time seeing Lake Superior up in Grand Marais, his first trip to the different Grandparents houses, his dedication service at our church, his first time realizing that he is my son/our son/a brother, his first time in our home, his first time in a bathtub, his first time playing a game with us, his first EVERYTHING!!!! I just am overwhelmed and so blessed! Oh and all of those "ours" will be "his" and THAT i can't wait for!!!!
ALWAYS BLESSED, Connie for the crew
Wednesday, March 28, 2012
DO WHAT YOU CAN
I just thought that i could share some of the writings that i have written on FB and a few more thoughts.
I'm only one. But still, I am one.
I cannot do everything, but still, I can do something.
And because I cannot do everything,I will not refuse to do the something that I CAN do.~ Edward Everett HaleTHIS is EXACTLY what i have been trying to say (not always in the most beautiful ways but THIS way is so perfectly said!)
It is like i was telling a worker at a store that i have continued to small talk with over the years BUT got pretty deep this last visit!!! (so cool) I would rather obey God and have others be upset then to go by other people's (even godly people's) opinions and listen to them and thus disobey God. Does that mean that it feels good when the people are CLEARLY not behind your decisions....NOPE BUT that does not matter when you are obeying the ONE who has asked you to do what HE has asked YOU to do!!! (pass the offering plate)
OK....NOW, for some more meat! Do you think that God only asks of us the measly life? NO! Have you looked through the Bible lately? What about asking Gideon to only have 300 soldiers against a mighty army....does that make logical sense??? What about when God asks His disciples to let out their nets on the other side of the boat after they had been fishing all night? NO!!! ALL throughout Scripture the Lord asks UNlogical things of His people!!! SO why do we NOT support those who DO the HARD things and obey when God asks the illogical!?!?!?!
Some other stories of illogical things that God asked....David, who was a young boy, slaying a MONSTER of a man named Goliath with only a sling and a stone. Noah to build a boat that was HUGE and took YEARS to build. Have you ever taken the time to really stop and think about what Noah went through for all of those years...YEARS of boat building when there had yet to have been rain? What would we followers of Christ be telling him if we lived back then? "Noah, there is SO much more that you could be doing instead of wasting your time building a boat"
Abraham being asked to sacrifice his son...his ONLY son when God had told him that that was the son that there would be so many offspring from that they would be unable to be counted! What would we have told HIM as 'advisors'!?!?! "There is no way that you heard God correctly! This is not what God would ask of you NOW....you only have Isaac, you should wait and make sure that you heard right"
Or how about Sara being told that she was going to have a baby!!!! WOW! Have you all thought about that one and what we would say to her??? "Do you not know how you make babies? Don't you know that you are too old for this! What were you two thinking? How are you ever going to play ball with him or be able to keep up with him!?!? That was so irresponsible"
I think that we want the outcomes of these stories without the hardship of the stories! Do you not remember the taunting that Noah went through? Abraham actually GOING up the mountain and actually putting him ON the altar in COMPLETE FAITH! He OBEYED without knowing what we get to read happened next! Sara LOVING having a baby in her old age....she was OLD and had a baby! Seriously, i swear, i wish we would take time to just chew on these amazing FACTS!!!
SO....why is it that we think that those stories in the Bible are so incredible and wonderful and we wonder why that doesn't happen anymore? Maybe it is because we are not willing to DO what we CAN? Maybe it is because we aren't willing to go out in the fight with only 300!There are so many different things that God asks of people...that God asks of me and i am sure that i have had things that i have ignored.One person may be struggling with something that would be simple for someone else to do BUT it has been asked of that person and when they do that thing that is super hard for them...it is more meaningful than if God had asked the person who was fully capable of doing that with ease. MAYBE God asks something so simple of you that you just take it for granted and think it is so little that you don't do it BUT it would have been a REALLY big deal if only you would have obeyed.
The older i get the more I just want to live a life that is full and rich. Man, i fail just like the men and women of old and what is amazing is that God forgives and loves me and says to try again! i want to obey in the little things and the big so that my life won't be all about the "stuff i have" but instead will be about a legacy i leave...of integrity, passion and faithfulness to the God of my fathers Abraham, Isaac and Jacob!
ALWAYS BLESSED, Connie for the crew
I'm only one. But still, I am one.
I cannot do everything, but still, I can do something.
And because I cannot do everything,I will not refuse to do the something that I CAN do.~ Edward Everett HaleTHIS is EXACTLY what i have been trying to say (not always in the most beautiful ways but THIS way is so perfectly said!)
It is like i was telling a worker at a store that i have continued to small talk with over the years BUT got pretty deep this last visit!!! (so cool) I would rather obey God and have others be upset then to go by other people's (even godly people's) opinions and listen to them and thus disobey God. Does that mean that it feels good when the people are CLEARLY not behind your decisions....NOPE BUT that does not matter when you are obeying the ONE who has asked you to do what HE has asked YOU to do!!! (pass the offering plate)
OK....NOW, for some more meat! Do you think that God only asks of us the measly life? NO! Have you looked through the Bible lately? What about asking Gideon to only have 300 soldiers against a mighty army....does that make logical sense??? What about when God asks His disciples to let out their nets on the other side of the boat after they had been fishing all night? NO!!! ALL throughout Scripture the Lord asks UNlogical things of His people!!! SO why do we NOT support those who DO the HARD things and obey when God asks the illogical!?!?!?!
Some other stories of illogical things that God asked....David, who was a young boy, slaying a MONSTER of a man named Goliath with only a sling and a stone. Noah to build a boat that was HUGE and took YEARS to build. Have you ever taken the time to really stop and think about what Noah went through for all of those years...YEARS of boat building when there had yet to have been rain? What would we followers of Christ be telling him if we lived back then? "Noah, there is SO much more that you could be doing instead of wasting your time building a boat"
Abraham being asked to sacrifice his son...his ONLY son when God had told him that that was the son that there would be so many offspring from that they would be unable to be counted! What would we have told HIM as 'advisors'!?!?! "There is no way that you heard God correctly! This is not what God would ask of you NOW....you only have Isaac, you should wait and make sure that you heard right"
Or how about Sara being told that she was going to have a baby!!!! WOW! Have you all thought about that one and what we would say to her??? "Do you not know how you make babies? Don't you know that you are too old for this! What were you two thinking? How are you ever going to play ball with him or be able to keep up with him!?!? That was so irresponsible"
I think that we want the outcomes of these stories without the hardship of the stories! Do you not remember the taunting that Noah went through? Abraham actually GOING up the mountain and actually putting him ON the altar in COMPLETE FAITH! He OBEYED without knowing what we get to read happened next! Sara LOVING having a baby in her old age....she was OLD and had a baby! Seriously, i swear, i wish we would take time to just chew on these amazing FACTS!!!
SO....why is it that we think that those stories in the Bible are so incredible and wonderful and we wonder why that doesn't happen anymore? Maybe it is because we are not willing to DO what we CAN? Maybe it is because we aren't willing to go out in the fight with only 300!There are so many different things that God asks of people...that God asks of me and i am sure that i have had things that i have ignored.One person may be struggling with something that would be simple for someone else to do BUT it has been asked of that person and when they do that thing that is super hard for them...it is more meaningful than if God had asked the person who was fully capable of doing that with ease. MAYBE God asks something so simple of you that you just take it for granted and think it is so little that you don't do it BUT it would have been a REALLY big deal if only you would have obeyed.
The older i get the more I just want to live a life that is full and rich. Man, i fail just like the men and women of old and what is amazing is that God forgives and loves me and says to try again! i want to obey in the little things and the big so that my life won't be all about the "stuff i have" but instead will be about a legacy i leave...of integrity, passion and faithfulness to the God of my fathers Abraham, Isaac and Jacob!
ALWAYS BLESSED, Connie for the crew
Tuesday, March 27, 2012
An incredible "GOD" story!
God's timing is always amazing but i will not say that it always FEELS best! The waiting was SO hard...no matter which time it was throughout this adoption. WAIT on the Lord....yep, it is in the Bible and there are great verses that talk about it BUT....WOW! Have you ever tried it lately??? REALLY had to try it....where you feel like your waiting is as if you are about to drown from exhaustion, the beating of the waves against you are too much, and the waiting is just not worth the pain? Waiting is NOT fun! Yet, it is one of the tools that God seems to use most often for training us to be more like Him!
I don't know why another sermon just came out me but it did.....and yet, i DO know.
You see, today was the day that our family found out that we have a little boy who TODAY received our last name and is living his last few weeks in an orphanage across the ocean. Today is a day that we will never forget! Today is a day that a miracle happened....i received news that i have a son!!! I never thought that it would ever happen in my life when i miscarried our son four years ago!
I also need to tell you something else though....today is a day that is very bittersweet because my heart is so heavy for another family. A family whom i care about very much. A CHILD that i careD about so much that we called the agency to say that we wanted him to be our son. What was amazing was that that little boy had just been accepted for another family the night before we asked to adopt him! Scott and the girls and i had spent MANY days bantering back and forth and then we finally decided FOR SURE...YES!!!!
He was gone! Too late! (God is so amazing in that his mother later asked me to be her friend without even knowing that our family had thought that we were going to be her little boy's family- she since knows the blessing that her son was in guiding us toward Ethan)
We went back to looking at children again while still getting our home study set up. That family started paperwork for adopting their son.
The Lord was SO in control but i just couldn't believe that we were ever going to be able to find a child who we were SUPPOSED to have! How could we choose?!!?!?!?! First, there were all of the ridiculous rules and different countries had different rules! Those rules ruled us out for Russia. THEN, they had different schedules of visits that parents had to do for different countries. SO that meant that Ukraine was out as there was no way that we could leave Sophina and even the other girls for five weeks again (we had already done that when Sophina had had her open heart surgery and it was NOT good for our family to be apart for that long PLUS now Scott had a job). Ukraine was out. (i have since been told that a family could break up the visit for Ukraine and we may have been able to have done Ukraine after all....but God) Bulgaria looked like the best option for our family. At the beginning though i wanted a girl......but then i saw Robert and the whole family ADORED him and he DID melt my heart. OK, maybe boys aren't so bad but still....no, i can't imagine. THEN, i saw this little boy and he broke down ALL of my reasons to not allow us to be looking at the boys. This boy with his beautiful brown hair, his gorgeous deep brown eyes, and his lips and cheeks were so precious! He was a little boy who tore down all of my fears in adopting a boy. Now, we had lost him! How in the world would we ever be able to find OUR son or daughter?
PLUS! We were getting close to our home study coming and we still didn't have a child picked!!!
We did finally find him (in time...the week of our home study) and Ethan is so perfect for our family that it still overwhelms me with his 'fit'! God has blessed us so!
SO, Connie, you are thinking...."WHY IN THE WORLD ARE YOU TELLING US THIS!?!?!?!" You see the family who is adopting Danny has still not heard THEIR court dates yet. Remember how i have asked us all to be praying for this family in the past? THE WAITING IS OVERWHELMINGLY painful and hard! God's timing is best is TRUE BUT it is HARD!!!! Jessica and Wes need our prayers and Danny needs his day in court....BUT the reason why i am writing this on THIS particular day is another reason that this day is amazing.
One year ago today, it is written in our prayer book that we prayed for.......Danny to have a family! Remember at this point the children that i am writing in our prayer book are the ones that i fell in love with....the ones who grabbed my heart and then later...we actually pursued! One year ago, Danny did NOT have a family! One year ago, there were women (maybe even some men) who stopped what they were doing that day or the next day and prayed for little Danny in his orphanage and his parents that we prayed would come!
Today, i am asking that you pray .....yes, right now, would you PLEASE STOP right now what you are doing and pray for Danny again? Will you pray again for his family....and now you can use his family's name, Wes and Jessica! Will you pray that they also will be able to skip the stage that we did and that their court date will be here quickly? Pray for all to go smoothly and whatever else you want to pray for! Here is their link if you would like to follow their new lives.....at the-white-acres.blogspot.com
Thank you to all who have been prayer warriors over this year....just look at the outcome of the prayers! AMAZING! ALWAYS BLESSED, Connie for the crew
COURT OUTCOME
We have a son!!!!!!!!!! His name is Ethan Scott Andrew Lindquist!!! The court decree was officially granted!
In seven calendar days it will be legal and binding. About three days later we will be given our dates for when we will be going to be bringing OUR SON HOME!!!!
ALWAYS BLESSED, Connie - ETHAN'S MOMMY
In seven calendar days it will be legal and binding. About three days later we will be given our dates for when we will be going to be bringing OUR SON HOME!!!!
ALWAYS BLESSED, Connie - ETHAN'S MOMMY
Monday, March 26, 2012
HOW MUCH WE NEED???
Just found out EXACT numbers for how much we REALLY have in Ethan's grant fund. REMEMBER, they do not show how much we have taken out from the first trip costs and for using to help with the costs of our dossier. SO that means that there is a LOT less in there. What exactly? We have $786 for this last trip!
We have to cover two airplane tickets round trip, one one-way, hotel costs and food expenses and are trying to get things that are needed for when he gets home.....HOME!!!! Whatever you are able to do, we will appreciate! Thank you so much!
We are doing the quilt for Ethan THIS WEEK!!! SO, if you haven't gotten your name to be embroidered on his quilt PLEASE PLEASE let us know ASAP!!! ALWAYS BLESSED, Connie
We have to cover two airplane tickets round trip, one one-way, hotel costs and food expenses and are trying to get things that are needed for when he gets home.....HOME!!!! Whatever you are able to do, we will appreciate! Thank you so much!
We are doing the quilt for Ethan THIS WEEK!!! SO, if you haven't gotten your name to be embroidered on his quilt PLEASE PLEASE let us know ASAP!!! ALWAYS BLESSED, Connie
Thursday, March 22, 2012
Apology #2
My passion... well, i think that it is a rare thing SO therefore it is scary to a lot of people. I have been this way since i was a young child. There are some positives...i could sell candy bars to ANYONE when i was a kid! I am good at sales! I have been offered jobs on the spot because when i believe in something...i go all out. There are also negatives. I have been called many many things with the tones not being the greatest when spoken...different, unique, special, pushy, know it all and many more.
I have tried over the years to soften the edges but i have failed MANY times. Many times over the years i have been harsh when someone doesn't believe the same way that i do. I have prayed that i have grown and i KNOW that i have, YET...my passion gets so frustrated when it isn't understood and then my passion gets desperate. Tears... THEN my passion turns people off.
I have some explaining and i also have some clarifying BUT i also need to apologize.
I could go to the line with SO MANY things but the things...well, the list of things is getting less as my perspective has changed SO dramatically. My focus has been forever changed. LIFE is SO important! My STUFF is so NOT important!!!
Explaining... this is the part that is going to be the hardest...because to make someone understand something that they have NEVER experienced themselves is SO hard to make clear. Four years ago, i had never known what it was like to ACTUALLY have a baby with DS (the reason i capitalized the word ACTUALLY is because i was told with our Ally that she more than likely had DS when i took what is now called the "Quad" test...they had to do testing to confirm when she was born that she did not have DS...she didn't) Anyway, in those four years...LOTS has changed. I have had a miscarriage. I have had a daughter with DS who has had MULTIPLE issues, surgeries and procedures and STILL has major issues with food aversion. My life view has been changed. How does one explain that?
Then enter March 21, 2011 and the change is even MORE drastic. I saw a site called Reece's Rainbow http://reecesrainbow.org/. I saw children who looked just like our sweet Sophina except i was reading what their lives were like. I hardly slept those first three days. I SOBBED! Heaving sobs when i read about children's lives in some of these orphanages. I saw that children had actually DIED because no one had ever come for them and they didn't get the medical care that they needed that is RARE in their country but here is BASIC!
I would be up MULTIPLE times at night with our Sophina who at that time would gag at night. MANY times i would go to sleep wondering what would happen if one time i didn't hear her and that time she wasn't able to clear her airway without my help! It was not rare to be up 4/5 times a night. At the time of our getting more serious about not just praying and giving to these children but actually thinking of trying to bring one child home to be ours was happening...Sophina was VERY sick. Scott was not home at this time and i would walk her for literally HOURS due to needing her to be in the upright position. I would be holding her and praying for Constance who i knew was over in Rus*ia NOT being held when she was sick...no one was whispering loving words into her ears, no one was feeling her heart beat next to theirs...no one was praying over her to be well...and i would weep for these children as i cared for our own. My heart would literally hurt!
THEN there was one day when i had talked about a child to our children. I had shown them his picture and we had talked about him....and the next day he was gone...i couldn't find him...tears....they had just found out that he had passed away and no one had adopted him yet. I sobbed again! My justice and sense of RIGHT was so stretched!!! HOW can i sit here in a home where our pantry is full and our fridge and our freezer and this child DIES!?!?! How is what we are doing enough? We are only adopting one!
We had both felt strongly that we were supposed to only be adopting ONE child but let me tell you there were many times that that decision was questioned. God let us know many times that it was just one. From the beginning, we told the Lord that we were open to two (even making sure it was on our paperwork that way) if He chose that but we only had until our dossier was sent over and God never led us to more. My hubby was actually questioning that decision just last night!!! God answered again...just one for you. I DO have to tell you that it delighted me to hear my husband who STRUGGLED greatly with the very idea of adopting a year ago to sound excited to try to add another though.
We as parents of a child with DS will never be able to explain the passion that we feel with what we are doing now as adoptive parents fully enough that people will get it...but i pray that this will help.
I have realized that i have felt desperate as i keep realizing that people are getting sick of my sharing adoptive family's fund raisers, showing such sad and horrible situations that these individual children are in when there are things that are more pleasant to think about and games to play. It is REALLY hard to keep putting it out there as i have felt more and more that people are seeing my desperation as pushy and cold and condemning. How can i explain the desire i have for all of these children to be adopted without losing the very people that can help? How do i share the TRUTH without making people turn their heads?
I don't know.
All i know...i am crying....i know that there is a HUGE need for people to PRAY, to SHARE the children's stories, to GIVE to these precious families, and to adopt. I WANT everyone to DO WHAT THEY CAN.
All i know is....i know that there are SO many places where there are HUGE needs that are just as worthy as bringing home these children that people pray about with as much passion as i do for these children, BUT sometimes in my passion...i forget that i am not praying for the 4000 people who are still missing from the tsunami in Japan...i forget that i don't pray for our military men and women by name, and the list could be LITERALLY MILES long here. I don't SHARE EVERY fund raiser...i actually only share about 2% of them. I can't ....as much as we would LOVE to...give to every child that has a family let alone every child AND then i can't give to every organization that i love either! Not every family is to adopt....and i think that in this ONE area i have been fine.
SO....HOW do i do the mixing of both!? PLEASE do not give me the answers...
I am going to tell you that i have FAILED at remembering this last paragraph. In my overwhelming passion....i forget that there are people who are just as passionate about THEIR godly calling and they feel just as frustrated as to why people aren't responding to them. I have condemned instead of just prayed. I have guilted. I have failed at keeping a balance. I apologize for those times when i have come across as haughty or proud or better than 'all of the rest of the world'.
I am going to tell you though that on the outside of my life....my FB wall is not going to look that different. I will tell you about my dear friends who are trying to bring home children with as little debt as possible. I will tell you DAILY about children who are in need of a family, prayer, etc.... I just pray that i will do it with more honey and less judgment. I pray that you will forgive me for the harshness.
I want to clarify though.....i am NOT apologizing for the sharing, for the prayer requests, for the passion, for the knowledge that i am giving out, for the fact that i have made people feel uncomfortable or bored or the "have you got it out of your system yet' attitude...my purpose of this apology is NOT to say that what i was doing was too much....BUT HOW my tone ...was sometimes wrong and THAT part needs to change.
I don't know....maybe this will not make sense to anyone but i pray that wouldn't be true. I pray that you will see my heart...my heart wants children to have families, lives to see more of the eternal matters than the STUFF as being important, and children and adults to see others with a sense of -"if that was my child what would i do?"
Always blessed, Connie....as just me
I have tried over the years to soften the edges but i have failed MANY times. Many times over the years i have been harsh when someone doesn't believe the same way that i do. I have prayed that i have grown and i KNOW that i have, YET...my passion gets so frustrated when it isn't understood and then my passion gets desperate. Tears... THEN my passion turns people off.
I have some explaining and i also have some clarifying BUT i also need to apologize.
I could go to the line with SO MANY things but the things...well, the list of things is getting less as my perspective has changed SO dramatically. My focus has been forever changed. LIFE is SO important! My STUFF is so NOT important!!!
Explaining... this is the part that is going to be the hardest...because to make someone understand something that they have NEVER experienced themselves is SO hard to make clear. Four years ago, i had never known what it was like to ACTUALLY have a baby with DS (the reason i capitalized the word ACTUALLY is because i was told with our Ally that she more than likely had DS when i took what is now called the "Quad" test...they had to do testing to confirm when she was born that she did not have DS...she didn't) Anyway, in those four years...LOTS has changed. I have had a miscarriage. I have had a daughter with DS who has had MULTIPLE issues, surgeries and procedures and STILL has major issues with food aversion. My life view has been changed. How does one explain that?
Then enter March 21, 2011 and the change is even MORE drastic. I saw a site called Reece's Rainbow http://reecesrainbow.org/. I saw children who looked just like our sweet Sophina except i was reading what their lives were like. I hardly slept those first three days. I SOBBED! Heaving sobs when i read about children's lives in some of these orphanages. I saw that children had actually DIED because no one had ever come for them and they didn't get the medical care that they needed that is RARE in their country but here is BASIC!
I would be up MULTIPLE times at night with our Sophina who at that time would gag at night. MANY times i would go to sleep wondering what would happen if one time i didn't hear her and that time she wasn't able to clear her airway without my help! It was not rare to be up 4/5 times a night. At the time of our getting more serious about not just praying and giving to these children but actually thinking of trying to bring one child home to be ours was happening...Sophina was VERY sick. Scott was not home at this time and i would walk her for literally HOURS due to needing her to be in the upright position. I would be holding her and praying for Constance who i knew was over in Rus*ia NOT being held when she was sick...no one was whispering loving words into her ears, no one was feeling her heart beat next to theirs...no one was praying over her to be well...and i would weep for these children as i cared for our own. My heart would literally hurt!
THEN there was one day when i had talked about a child to our children. I had shown them his picture and we had talked about him....and the next day he was gone...i couldn't find him...tears....they had just found out that he had passed away and no one had adopted him yet. I sobbed again! My justice and sense of RIGHT was so stretched!!! HOW can i sit here in a home where our pantry is full and our fridge and our freezer and this child DIES!?!?! How is what we are doing enough? We are only adopting one!
We had both felt strongly that we were supposed to only be adopting ONE child but let me tell you there were many times that that decision was questioned. God let us know many times that it was just one. From the beginning, we told the Lord that we were open to two (even making sure it was on our paperwork that way) if He chose that but we only had until our dossier was sent over and God never led us to more. My hubby was actually questioning that decision just last night!!! God answered again...just one for you. I DO have to tell you that it delighted me to hear my husband who STRUGGLED greatly with the very idea of adopting a year ago to sound excited to try to add another though.
We as parents of a child with DS will never be able to explain the passion that we feel with what we are doing now as adoptive parents fully enough that people will get it...but i pray that this will help.
I have realized that i have felt desperate as i keep realizing that people are getting sick of my sharing adoptive family's fund raisers, showing such sad and horrible situations that these individual children are in when there are things that are more pleasant to think about and games to play. It is REALLY hard to keep putting it out there as i have felt more and more that people are seeing my desperation as pushy and cold and condemning. How can i explain the desire i have for all of these children to be adopted without losing the very people that can help? How do i share the TRUTH without making people turn their heads?
I don't know.
All i know...i am crying....i know that there is a HUGE need for people to PRAY, to SHARE the children's stories, to GIVE to these precious families, and to adopt. I WANT everyone to DO WHAT THEY CAN.
All i know is....i know that there are SO many places where there are HUGE needs that are just as worthy as bringing home these children that people pray about with as much passion as i do for these children, BUT sometimes in my passion...i forget that i am not praying for the 4000 people who are still missing from the tsunami in Japan...i forget that i don't pray for our military men and women by name, and the list could be LITERALLY MILES long here. I don't SHARE EVERY fund raiser...i actually only share about 2% of them. I can't ....as much as we would LOVE to...give to every child that has a family let alone every child AND then i can't give to every organization that i love either! Not every family is to adopt....and i think that in this ONE area i have been fine.
SO....HOW do i do the mixing of both!? PLEASE do not give me the answers...
I am going to tell you that i have FAILED at remembering this last paragraph. In my overwhelming passion....i forget that there are people who are just as passionate about THEIR godly calling and they feel just as frustrated as to why people aren't responding to them. I have condemned instead of just prayed. I have guilted. I have failed at keeping a balance. I apologize for those times when i have come across as haughty or proud or better than 'all of the rest of the world'.
I am going to tell you though that on the outside of my life....my FB wall is not going to look that different. I will tell you about my dear friends who are trying to bring home children with as little debt as possible. I will tell you DAILY about children who are in need of a family, prayer, etc.... I just pray that i will do it with more honey and less judgment. I pray that you will forgive me for the harshness.
I want to clarify though.....i am NOT apologizing for the sharing, for the prayer requests, for the passion, for the knowledge that i am giving out, for the fact that i have made people feel uncomfortable or bored or the "have you got it out of your system yet' attitude...my purpose of this apology is NOT to say that what i was doing was too much....BUT HOW my tone ...was sometimes wrong and THAT part needs to change.
I don't know....maybe this will not make sense to anyone but i pray that wouldn't be true. I pray that you will see my heart...my heart wants children to have families, lives to see more of the eternal matters than the STUFF as being important, and children and adults to see others with a sense of -"if that was my child what would i do?"
Always blessed, Connie....as just me
Apology #1
I am feeling like i need to explain some things. Not because anyone has said anything...just feeling like it is needed. I am asking that you read this post. (and now the next one too)
This adoption has been a LONG LONG journey. One that i NEVER dreamed that we would EVER be on! Especially at the age that we are! (we have since found out that we are actually some of the YOUNG ones!!!! SO if you are thinking that our age is old to be doing this...you haven't met a lot of my new friends....many of them are in their 50's AND LOVING these children immensely!) It has been ONE YEAR since MY life was changed. I know that i will NEVER EVER be able to explain it to anyone who has never experienced it but i am going to try.
When i first saw the children that we have advocated, prayed, and given to since March 21st, 2011...my life was FOREVER changed. Have you ever experienced a time in your life like it-where a moment changed your life? I saw children that were JUST LIKE OUR SOPHINA whose only problem was that they were born on the 'wrong side of the world'!!!
I want you to know a few things. My heart is NOT angry with MOST of the orphanages that are in these other countries. (DISCLAIMER: My heart IS JUSTLY angry at orphanages that treat their children the way that some have been shown to do and my heart is feeling hopeful that changes are slowly being made in some places!) My heart is actually compassionate. You can ask my girls. I have tried many times to explain to them that YEARS ago...OUR country was the same way. NOTHING made it more clear than the story that we read last week of a fellow-adopting-lady who shared her story of going into one of these places when she was a teen. When our Victoria read it, she looked up at me and said, "But Mom, it sounds just like Russia or Ukraine!" We FINALLY had a connection where it was REAL....what we are seeing in these countries WOULD HAVE happened to me had i been born with DS. You see i was the SAME AGE as the little girl in the story who the teen visited for three years as often as she possibly could! (just ONE of the MANY things that struck me when i read this story was the response of the workers when the teenager asked if her parents could adopt the little girl.....)You can read this incredible story at http://theblessingofverity.com/2012/03/love-never-fails/ and you won't be sorry. I agree with many that it would make a wonderful movie! (it is VERY VERY long but i really think that it is on my top three favorite of all times blog posts that i have ever read)
ANYWAY, i want my children to know that a lot of times it really is because people have no idea. My goodness, do YOU know that March 21st every year is World Down Syndrome Day? Highly doubtful, unless you have a friend who has a child with DS. SO, the question should have been...before you met our family did you know this info??? THIS is in a country that HAS children, in school systems now even, WITH DS in the REAL world...they aren't being hidden away somewhere. We have such a long way to go in OUR OWN country. MANY MANY people have no idea about details of DS and what it would mean if their child in their womb had it. Would an average pregnant woman know to believe what the Dr. suggests when it is said, "My advice is that you could have an abortion now as this child's life will only be a harsh struggle. Your child will have a very high chance of needing an open heart surgery. Your child will NEVER be "typical" and do what your "typical" child would do." Would she have met someone with DS where she could answer with some facts from that family that she knows? As an overall nation we abort our children with DS at astronomical rates. Do you know what the rate is? Check it out. SO please don't say that a Dr wouldn't say that. MANY people in our country do not know what they are missing!
SO, may i tell you that there is empathy with these families who may never know what they missed out on. I think that our girls are 'getting it' as they asked just this past week (after reading the above blogpost)... "Mom, what happens when Ethan's parents DO find out what Ethan could have been?" I said that i didn't know. I pray in forty years that these countries will have learned that children with DS ARE different BUT they are SO worth that difference because they are a HUGE blessing! (i didn't say that they were EASY remember)
SO....if you have read anything where it seems that i am condemning these countries for the way that they treat their children OVERALL....i am truly sorry. Again, outraged when there is obvious abuse in its truest form and yes, you can make the claim that that is what it is BUT MANY of them it is just lack of knowledge, finances, information to even start to do things differently, etc....
My apology however does NOT change the FACT that there are children who are DYING because of that lack of information, finances and knowledge. That apology however does NOT take away the sting of what i saw on that FIRST day to what i have seen friends go through throughout this past year. It does NOT take away the PASSION that i feel when i talk about it.....BUT this is already long....SO there will be an apology #2. THAT ONE....is the reason i started this particular blogpost.
SO this apology is for if i have come across as condemning the countries and peoples of these countries.
I am STILL ALWAYS BLESSED, Connie for the crew
PS. In case you didn't know...a reminder is....our court date is in on the 27th of THIS month!
This adoption has been a LONG LONG journey. One that i NEVER dreamed that we would EVER be on! Especially at the age that we are! (we have since found out that we are actually some of the YOUNG ones!!!! SO if you are thinking that our age is old to be doing this...you haven't met a lot of my new friends....many of them are in their 50's AND LOVING these children immensely!) It has been ONE YEAR since MY life was changed. I know that i will NEVER EVER be able to explain it to anyone who has never experienced it but i am going to try.
When i first saw the children that we have advocated, prayed, and given to since March 21st, 2011...my life was FOREVER changed. Have you ever experienced a time in your life like it-where a moment changed your life? I saw children that were JUST LIKE OUR SOPHINA whose only problem was that they were born on the 'wrong side of the world'!!!
I want you to know a few things. My heart is NOT angry with MOST of the orphanages that are in these other countries. (DISCLAIMER: My heart IS JUSTLY angry at orphanages that treat their children the way that some have been shown to do and my heart is feeling hopeful that changes are slowly being made in some places!) My heart is actually compassionate. You can ask my girls. I have tried many times to explain to them that YEARS ago...OUR country was the same way. NOTHING made it more clear than the story that we read last week of a fellow-adopting-lady who shared her story of going into one of these places when she was a teen. When our Victoria read it, she looked up at me and said, "But Mom, it sounds just like Russia or Ukraine!" We FINALLY had a connection where it was REAL....what we are seeing in these countries WOULD HAVE happened to me had i been born with DS. You see i was the SAME AGE as the little girl in the story who the teen visited for three years as often as she possibly could! (just ONE of the MANY things that struck me when i read this story was the response of the workers when the teenager asked if her parents could adopt the little girl.....)You can read this incredible story at http://theblessingofverity.com/2012/03/love-never-fails/ and you won't be sorry. I agree with many that it would make a wonderful movie! (it is VERY VERY long but i really think that it is on my top three favorite of all times blog posts that i have ever read)
ANYWAY, i want my children to know that a lot of times it really is because people have no idea. My goodness, do YOU know that March 21st every year is World Down Syndrome Day? Highly doubtful, unless you have a friend who has a child with DS. SO, the question should have been...before you met our family did you know this info??? THIS is in a country that HAS children, in school systems now even, WITH DS in the REAL world...they aren't being hidden away somewhere. We have such a long way to go in OUR OWN country. MANY MANY people have no idea about details of DS and what it would mean if their child in their womb had it. Would an average pregnant woman know to believe what the Dr. suggests when it is said, "My advice is that you could have an abortion now as this child's life will only be a harsh struggle. Your child will have a very high chance of needing an open heart surgery. Your child will NEVER be "typical" and do what your "typical" child would do." Would she have met someone with DS where she could answer with some facts from that family that she knows? As an overall nation we abort our children with DS at astronomical rates. Do you know what the rate is? Check it out. SO please don't say that a Dr wouldn't say that. MANY people in our country do not know what they are missing!
SO, may i tell you that there is empathy with these families who may never know what they missed out on. I think that our girls are 'getting it' as they asked just this past week (after reading the above blogpost)... "Mom, what happens when Ethan's parents DO find out what Ethan could have been?" I said that i didn't know. I pray in forty years that these countries will have learned that children with DS ARE different BUT they are SO worth that difference because they are a HUGE blessing! (i didn't say that they were EASY remember)
SO....if you have read anything where it seems that i am condemning these countries for the way that they treat their children OVERALL....i am truly sorry. Again, outraged when there is obvious abuse in its truest form and yes, you can make the claim that that is what it is BUT MANY of them it is just lack of knowledge, finances, information to even start to do things differently, etc....
My apology however does NOT change the FACT that there are children who are DYING because of that lack of information, finances and knowledge. That apology however does NOT take away the sting of what i saw on that FIRST day to what i have seen friends go through throughout this past year. It does NOT take away the PASSION that i feel when i talk about it.....BUT this is already long....SO there will be an apology #2. THAT ONE....is the reason i started this particular blogpost.
SO this apology is for if i have come across as condemning the countries and peoples of these countries.
I am STILL ALWAYS BLESSED, Connie for the crew
PS. In case you didn't know...a reminder is....our court date is in on the 27th of THIS month!
Tuesday, March 20, 2012
PART two-answering questions
SO....if you did not read part one....you may do so now ;) Ok, i will wait :)
Welcome back! We left you off with an incredible story of how a stranger became a friend and how God used her to come into our lives at the most wonderful time and how God's timing is perfect;) THEN we also talked about the incredible miracle that happened with our court date. SO, i am sure that you have MANY questions! I will give the answers that i will be expecting to hear in these next days.
#1) No, Scott and i do NOT need to be at court. Our attorney was given Power of Attorney from us in January.
#2) No, it will not be FINAL until seven calendar days after the court date.
#3) No, we do NOT have his room ready, his clothes ready, his quilt ready, his bed ready
#4) Yes, the house is completely utterly trashed even though this morning it was beautifully clean
#5) Yes, nesting HAS happened!!!
#6) Yes, Scott and i will be going together!!!!
#7) Yes, we would LOVE to have people meet us at the airport when we bring him HOME
#8) Yes, we will now be needing to raise funds for our final trip as this is WAY sooner than expected BUT DELIGHTED to be in this situation!
#9) Yes, our amazing church DOES have an orphan ministry that has an incredible program where if it becomes necessary, we can borrow the needed funds to get us there and then pay it back with a ZERO percent interest rate SO
#10) No, money will NOT stop us from bringing him home!
#11) Yes, a garage sale is going to happen!!! OH MY WORD! THAT was decided TODAY!!! To say that today was busy is a MAJOR understatement! We are going to DO WHAT WE CAN to raise the money ourselves. We are going to be selling things that three years ago, i would have NEVER dreamed of selling! We have been gathering LOTS of things for some reason that i was waiting on God to tell us what for.....yep, THIS would be IT!
#12) Yes, my heart has been hurting ALL DAY LONG for my friend, Jessica who has also been waiting to hear of her court dates....IN FACT, the first thing i did when i went to put it onto FB that we had our court date...i checked her wall first and prayed that she was just waiting to share for some reason.
#13) YES!!!! PLEASE PRAY for them to hear GREAT news too!!! Pray for miracles for them also!
#14) Yes, we are SO grateful to God for this amazing miracle of answered pleadings of my heart to the Lord, yearnings of your hearts of YOUR prayers on our behalf, and ALL that SO MANY OF YOU have done on our son's behalf!
#15) No, i still cannot believe that it will be even BETTER than what we had prayed for
#16) No, i will never learn to have COMPLETE faith....just the other day i was asking the Lord to forgive me for my doubtings, for being like Peter SO often and for my unbelief and lack of HOPE that had been happening during a 7-10 day period just last week!
#17) Oh SORRY...yes, so court happens, then the seven calendar days until it is FINAL THEN about three days of our attorney doing some paperwork, then she gives us our LAST travel dates!!!
#18) No, but then again i didn't feel ready when i was about to have our first child.....then also didn't know how i would do with our fifth child....such a new experience.....YET, God has been so faithful to a servant who fails so stinkin' often!!! (choked up) I was telling the Lord that i don't deserve such a blessing as this answered prayer that went SO FAR BEYOND MY WILDEST DREAMS (tears) I am so very very grateful!
#19) (clearing throat and fluttering eyelashes and wiping eyes) YES, IF you have become a part of this whole adventure and you had not given the $20 to have your name on Ethan's treasured quilt...we WILL let you do so but it will not be for very long as we are now FRANTICALLY trying to get it all figured out. We would love to add more names of people who are close to Ethan's adoption to be added on so we can tell him about you or your family and how you have prayed and what YOUR story has been in bringing him home. I would really prefer that this donation would be of people who know our family (through FB even). We have names of people that HAVE given that i don't even know and i can't wait to tell him about them..."even people who had never met us, or you, or would know us if we passed them on the street, CARED enough to give". I would just love this to be a quilt of MOSTLY people that i can tell him stories of. This is going to be a VERY special quilt as it will have SO many meanings!!! CANNOT WAIT FOR CUDDLE TIME WITH THE QUILT AND OUR BOY!
#20) YES! IF you would like to otherwise donate to help us on these last trip costs, you may just give to our RR account that is on our blog. I think that we have $800 in the account to help us with these last costs... SO a great start!!!
#21) I know! It IS hard to be able to tell what we have in the account BUT it is showing the total amount that has been raised through RR's grant for Ethan so far. SO we will be starting with the amount SHOWING in our grant at $5071 which is really @$800. If you would like, i could get you an exact as to what is in there.
#22) No, we have NO IDEA as to how much we will need right now....two round trip airplane tickets to Ethan, one one way ticket ;), hotel costs for the three of us for a full week, plus food
#23) YES, there ARE prayer requests for our family!
1) First pray for Jessica and Wes so they can get their court dates SOON
2) THEN please pray that the paperwork that our strict but friendly-to-adoption judge has asked for would be ready in time (it is NOT from us but rather from the Social Services for Ethan in his country and ONE WEEK to get that in)
3) PLEASE pray for energy, peace, physical health, mental/spiritual/mind health would be great too;), that we would be able to get finances raised quickly, focused on what needs to get done & prioritize correctly, uniting of our family as one....the whole transition, all of the changes that will happen for not only us BUT especially for our precious Ethan!
4) We would be FAITHFUL!
#24) Yes, we are still ALWAYS BLESSED!!!
#25) Yes, loving and thanking Jesus, loving each other, beyond belief grateful and thankful
Connie for the crew
Welcome back! We left you off with an incredible story of how a stranger became a friend and how God used her to come into our lives at the most wonderful time and how God's timing is perfect;) THEN we also talked about the incredible miracle that happened with our court date. SO, i am sure that you have MANY questions! I will give the answers that i will be expecting to hear in these next days.
#1) No, Scott and i do NOT need to be at court. Our attorney was given Power of Attorney from us in January.
#2) No, it will not be FINAL until seven calendar days after the court date.
#3) No, we do NOT have his room ready, his clothes ready, his quilt ready, his bed ready
#4) Yes, the house is completely utterly trashed even though this morning it was beautifully clean
#5) Yes, nesting HAS happened!!!
#6) Yes, Scott and i will be going together!!!!
#7) Yes, we would LOVE to have people meet us at the airport when we bring him HOME
#8) Yes, we will now be needing to raise funds for our final trip as this is WAY sooner than expected BUT DELIGHTED to be in this situation!
#9) Yes, our amazing church DOES have an orphan ministry that has an incredible program where if it becomes necessary, we can borrow the needed funds to get us there and then pay it back with a ZERO percent interest rate SO
#10) No, money will NOT stop us from bringing him home!
#11) Yes, a garage sale is going to happen!!! OH MY WORD! THAT was decided TODAY!!! To say that today was busy is a MAJOR understatement! We are going to DO WHAT WE CAN to raise the money ourselves. We are going to be selling things that three years ago, i would have NEVER dreamed of selling! We have been gathering LOTS of things for some reason that i was waiting on God to tell us what for.....yep, THIS would be IT!
#12) Yes, my heart has been hurting ALL DAY LONG for my friend, Jessica who has also been waiting to hear of her court dates....IN FACT, the first thing i did when i went to put it onto FB that we had our court date...i checked her wall first and prayed that she was just waiting to share for some reason.
#13) YES!!!! PLEASE PRAY for them to hear GREAT news too!!! Pray for miracles for them also!
#14) Yes, we are SO grateful to God for this amazing miracle of answered pleadings of my heart to the Lord, yearnings of your hearts of YOUR prayers on our behalf, and ALL that SO MANY OF YOU have done on our son's behalf!
#15) No, i still cannot believe that it will be even BETTER than what we had prayed for
#16) No, i will never learn to have COMPLETE faith....just the other day i was asking the Lord to forgive me for my doubtings, for being like Peter SO often and for my unbelief and lack of HOPE that had been happening during a 7-10 day period just last week!
#17) Oh SORRY...yes, so court happens, then the seven calendar days until it is FINAL THEN about three days of our attorney doing some paperwork, then she gives us our LAST travel dates!!!
#18) No, but then again i didn't feel ready when i was about to have our first child.....then also didn't know how i would do with our fifth child....such a new experience.....YET, God has been so faithful to a servant who fails so stinkin' often!!! (choked up) I was telling the Lord that i don't deserve such a blessing as this answered prayer that went SO FAR BEYOND MY WILDEST DREAMS (tears) I am so very very grateful!
#19) (clearing throat and fluttering eyelashes and wiping eyes) YES, IF you have become a part of this whole adventure and you had not given the $20 to have your name on Ethan's treasured quilt...we WILL let you do so but it will not be for very long as we are now FRANTICALLY trying to get it all figured out. We would love to add more names of people who are close to Ethan's adoption to be added on so we can tell him about you or your family and how you have prayed and what YOUR story has been in bringing him home. I would really prefer that this donation would be of people who know our family (through FB even). We have names of people that HAVE given that i don't even know and i can't wait to tell him about them..."even people who had never met us, or you, or would know us if we passed them on the street, CARED enough to give". I would just love this to be a quilt of MOSTLY people that i can tell him stories of. This is going to be a VERY special quilt as it will have SO many meanings!!! CANNOT WAIT FOR CUDDLE TIME WITH THE QUILT AND OUR BOY!
#20) YES! IF you would like to otherwise donate to help us on these last trip costs, you may just give to our RR account that is on our blog. I think that we have $800 in the account to help us with these last costs... SO a great start!!!
#21) I know! It IS hard to be able to tell what we have in the account BUT it is showing the total amount that has been raised through RR's grant for Ethan so far. SO we will be starting with the amount SHOWING in our grant at $5071 which is really @$800. If you would like, i could get you an exact as to what is in there.
#22) No, we have NO IDEA as to how much we will need right now....two round trip airplane tickets to Ethan, one one way ticket ;), hotel costs for the three of us for a full week, plus food
#23) YES, there ARE prayer requests for our family!
1) First pray for Jessica and Wes so they can get their court dates SOON
2) THEN please pray that the paperwork that our strict but friendly-to-adoption judge has asked for would be ready in time (it is NOT from us but rather from the Social Services for Ethan in his country and ONE WEEK to get that in)
3) PLEASE pray for energy, peace, physical health, mental/spiritual/mind health would be great too;), that we would be able to get finances raised quickly, focused on what needs to get done & prioritize correctly, uniting of our family as one....the whole transition, all of the changes that will happen for not only us BUT especially for our precious Ethan!
4) We would be FAITHFUL!
#24) Yes, we are still ALWAYS BLESSED!!!
#25) Yes, loving and thanking Jesus, loving each other, beyond belief grateful and thankful
Connie for the crew
An AMAZING miracle! PART ONE
Awhile back there was a woman named Cynthia who let me know that she lived in my city, that she had a son with DS and that she related deeply to my life stories. She said that she would love to meet some time. SO i looked up her name in the phone book and called her! ME! Connie, CALLED someone! (NOT a phone person am i!) Anyway, for the two days prior to Cynthia's comment i was trying to figure out how i was going to be able to gather some women to get started on Ethan's TREASURE of a quilt. Cynthia and i talked for awhile. At the end of the conversation she said that she was feeling very strongly that she was supposed to be DOING something to help us bring home Ethan. She mentioned a few things BUT the last thing she said almost gave me goosebumps!!! She said,"........or i could make a quilt for you to sell or..." as i interrupted with an "are you kidding me?" She then let me know that she LOVES to quilt and that she has an embroidery machine even!!! I let her know that i would love to talk more.
Well, we were going to get together but then Sophina got sick, then Scott had things for us to do while he was able, THEN something else happened but over this time we learned a few more things about each other. I told her the story about how we were having our clothes from the past twenty years (that i have been saving for each of the girls to have special quilts made out of their favorite clothes that they wore) be made into a special quilt for Ethan from people who have been involved in the process of his adoption. How it is going to be a quilt with people's names that love him, have prayed for him, have donated money for him to come HOME. I let her know that i was way behind on it as i was waiting until we got closer to the end to do it and then all of that "stuff" happened. She said that she would LOVE to help do the quilt!!!
SO FINALLY, this morning, i had Cynthia over. I just wanted to have her see all of the clothing items i had to choose from and see what she thought would be best. We all visited for almost two hours before Catherine and i started with Cynthia down to the basement to see what we could find, as Sophina's therapist had driven up to have PT with Sophina (our PCA, Becky, was with Sophina). We had hardly been down there when i heard Victoria VERY excitedly say, "MaaaaaaaaauuuUUM........ MAAAAAAUUM"......and then again (that is the way she was saying MOM...just in case you didn't get that :)) I told Cynthia that either something very exciting happened OR something terrible. ( it sounded like wonderful) SO we started for the stairs but before i could even get to the second step Victoria met me and was trying to scream something about an email from Toni (our attorney) and she choked out "court date" so hard that i couldn't tell if she was meaning that there WAS a court date or that she was hoping for it or what! She almost threw the computer at me and i went running up with it SCREAMING as i saw that it SAID "COURT DATE ;)" BUT that was not all! At this point we were ALL VERY LOUD and had COMPLETELY interrupted the PT's therapy that had just gotten started. Janine was trying to tell us to settle down....i heard her the second time and saw that Sophina was totally scared! I had just sat down on the couch to read the email out loud and before i could get up Catherine grabbed Sophina and gave her to me so i could hold her! THEN I READ THE EMAIL!!!! I don't remember anything else except the date. When i read it though, it didn't sink in. I didn't see it as what it really was. OH WAIT!
Back up, now remember that i let you know in one of my last blog posts that we had something else that had to happen and then it seemed to be three weeks from that next step to hearing about court dates and then it seemed that once you heard your court dates that the court dates were also about three weeks away? ALSO remember how we prayed that there would be a miracle and we could just jump right to hearing the court dates so instead of having to wait six weeks for court, we would only have to wait THREE weeks? Just wanted to make sure that you remembered this ;) OK...back to TODAY!
All of a sudden, let's just say that our therapist had to take Becky and Sophina into the kitchen and shut the doors. ALL of us females were talking at once as the girls were all asking questions and i was reading it again out loud and THEN it hit me......it isn't a month away...it is in exactly ONE WEEK!!!!! ONE WEEK from TODAY!! Our court date where our Ethan will be named Ethan Scott Andrew Lindquist!!!!
Yes, there is going to have to be a part two! I know people don't like these posts to be too long ;)))
ALWAYS BLESSED, Connie
Well, we were going to get together but then Sophina got sick, then Scott had things for us to do while he was able, THEN something else happened but over this time we learned a few more things about each other. I told her the story about how we were having our clothes from the past twenty years (that i have been saving for each of the girls to have special quilts made out of their favorite clothes that they wore) be made into a special quilt for Ethan from people who have been involved in the process of his adoption. How it is going to be a quilt with people's names that love him, have prayed for him, have donated money for him to come HOME. I let her know that i was way behind on it as i was waiting until we got closer to the end to do it and then all of that "stuff" happened. She said that she would LOVE to help do the quilt!!!
SO FINALLY, this morning, i had Cynthia over. I just wanted to have her see all of the clothing items i had to choose from and see what she thought would be best. We all visited for almost two hours before Catherine and i started with Cynthia down to the basement to see what we could find, as Sophina's therapist had driven up to have PT with Sophina (our PCA, Becky, was with Sophina). We had hardly been down there when i heard Victoria VERY excitedly say, "MaaaaaaaaauuuUUM........ MAAAAAAUUM"......and then again (that is the way she was saying MOM...just in case you didn't get that :)) I told Cynthia that either something very exciting happened OR something terrible. ( it sounded like wonderful) SO we started for the stairs but before i could even get to the second step Victoria met me and was trying to scream something about an email from Toni (our attorney) and she choked out "court date" so hard that i couldn't tell if she was meaning that there WAS a court date or that she was hoping for it or what! She almost threw the computer at me and i went running up with it SCREAMING as i saw that it SAID "COURT DATE ;)" BUT that was not all! At this point we were ALL VERY LOUD and had COMPLETELY interrupted the PT's therapy that had just gotten started. Janine was trying to tell us to settle down....i heard her the second time and saw that Sophina was totally scared! I had just sat down on the couch to read the email out loud and before i could get up Catherine grabbed Sophina and gave her to me so i could hold her! THEN I READ THE EMAIL!!!! I don't remember anything else except the date. When i read it though, it didn't sink in. I didn't see it as what it really was. OH WAIT!
Back up, now remember that i let you know in one of my last blog posts that we had something else that had to happen and then it seemed to be three weeks from that next step to hearing about court dates and then it seemed that once you heard your court dates that the court dates were also about three weeks away? ALSO remember how we prayed that there would be a miracle and we could just jump right to hearing the court dates so instead of having to wait six weeks for court, we would only have to wait THREE weeks? Just wanted to make sure that you remembered this ;) OK...back to TODAY!
All of a sudden, let's just say that our therapist had to take Becky and Sophina into the kitchen and shut the doors. ALL of us females were talking at once as the girls were all asking questions and i was reading it again out loud and THEN it hit me......it isn't a month away...it is in exactly ONE WEEK!!!!! ONE WEEK from TODAY!! Our court date where our Ethan will be named Ethan Scott Andrew Lindquist!!!!
Yes, there is going to have to be a part two! I know people don't like these posts to be too long ;)))
ALWAYS BLESSED, Connie
Sunday, March 18, 2012
PRAYERS NEEDED
It has been such a long wait for hearing any news of our son, Ethan and this adventure of making him a part of our family!!! Would you PLEASE do us a favor and take two minutes right NOW to pray- yes PLEASE PRAY that we will have court dates THIS WEEK (that would mean that the next step that we are waiting on would be bypassed and we would go right to the next step).
PLEASE PRAY and even fast (for a morning or even a full day) for the dates to start moving in his country as SO MANY of our friends are also waiting on their news, of anything from their first trips to their article 5's to like us, our court dates. PLEASE PRAY for hearts to be strengthened and encouraged and for peace.
We are so grateful to those of you who have continued to lift our family and Ethan in prayer as wait to become one family! PLEASE continue to pray also for Sophina's eating as she continues to struggle in this area!
We are remembering that we are ALWAYS BLESSED (even in the long waiting), Connie for the crew
PLEASE PRAY and even fast (for a morning or even a full day) for the dates to start moving in his country as SO MANY of our friends are also waiting on their news, of anything from their first trips to their article 5's to like us, our court dates. PLEASE PRAY for hearts to be strengthened and encouraged and for peace.
We are so grateful to those of you who have continued to lift our family and Ethan in prayer as wait to become one family! PLEASE continue to pray also for Sophina's eating as she continues to struggle in this area!
We are remembering that we are ALWAYS BLESSED (even in the long waiting), Connie for the crew
Wednesday, March 14, 2012
Being taught to give sacrificially from 2 young teens
I teach a class at our home school group called Life Stories. Life Stories is a class that i LOVE and will teach as long as i possibly can. I LOVE biographies and so this class fits perfectly with my passions.... missions, adoption, and in general...people coming in and sharing their LIFE STORY!
Well, every time for the first class of the semester, i tell a part of MY life story. Obviously, our Ethan's story has kind of been pretty up front in importance and so the students have learned about Ethan's country, orphanage life, and such. I tried to teach the kids in the class that we can ALL do something. I again did this with this year's spring class quite a few weeks ago. (i forgot to let you know that the kids in the class are aged 12-16).
This time the kids in the class actually got to see pictures of children in orphanages AND children who have come home AND the changes that happened. They also got to see pictures of our trip to finally meet our Ethan. The kids in the class LOVED Ethan...more than i even realized!
I have just wanted to plant a seed into these kids' lives. I have wanted to stretch their minds into realizing that there are children out in this world who just want a mom and dad to love them. There are kids in this world who are starving. There are kids in this world who are being treated poorly and that WE CAN ALL DO SOMETHING!!! Well, this past Monday, i was blown away by just how amazingly the kids GOT it!!!
I came into class and it was so sweet in that the kids asked me about Ethan! They wanted updates! They wanted to know when he was coming home. It was such a joy to have people that CARED about our son in such a passionate way....but that was just the beginning. The eldest in the class is a young man named, Ty. Ty has Cerebral Palsy and is a dear! This is his second time taking my class as he LOVES hearing the stories of different people and i bring in different people each semester so it is like a new class each time. He quietly handed me some money telling me to count it because he thought that it was around $30. I started to count it....money that he made by making and selling Angel Food Cake just for Ethan's adoption fund....it was over $135!!! This was the SECOND time that Ty has done this!!! He just blew me away! He wants Ethan HOME SOON!!! He was so full of joy!!!
We had class and then i was about to go onto the next class when i saw that one of my students was staying in the room. I remember something about knitting being talked about for the next class....but i went on my way to the next class. I went by the front desk where i saw a grocery bag with my name written in big letters across it. The lady at the desk nonchalantly said that there was something for me. I was so confused because i knew that i had all of my Shotsibaby fundraiser items. I went to the next class where it took a LONG time to undo the ribbons but i finally opened it (with a couple of the children gathering around) and sucked in my breath. There in the bag was a huge and beautiful prayer shawl and i knew IMMEDIATELY who did it (there was no signature...just a note that said it was for my prayers for Ethan)! I told the teacher that i had to go and that i would be back and i walked right back to where my last class had been.
Let me back up. A few weeks ago, i received a card in the mail with an address that i didn't know. It was a card from one of the girls in my first class. She wrote me a sweet note letting me know that she is praying for our Ethan and that she appreciates my class. It was a good length note and a cute card and it made me happy! Her mother is the teacher in the second class that was teaching how to make a prayer shawl!!! It all came together!
I went into that classroom and had my eyes locked onto that girl's eyes the whole way across the big youth room. She knew by the look in my face that she couldn't talk her way out of it...i KNEW it had been her! She is a young teenager. She has hand made a prayer shawl for me so i could have it to pray for Ethan!!! I lifted her out of her chair and went to hold her and started to quietly weep as i heard her mother say behind me...."Oh Phoebe, so THAT is who you made that for!" Her mother then prayed for our adoption process, for our family, and for Ethan (whom i shared that my heart is yearning so hard for).
These two young teens showed my world that giving can be given from anyone. It made me think of the widow's mite from the Bible. It then made me think of the first time when we were able to give to something when my hubby was out of work for eighteen months...... there is SUCH JOY in giving when you have so little!!! It is such a BLESSING when it is a sacrifice!!! Do you know someone who has given from their very little....doesn't it mean SO MUCH more than if it was given from an abundance? A sacrificial gift is priceless and will never be forgotten! Ty and Phoebe have taught me once again how incredible it is to give and to do so sacrificially and with FAITH!!! SO proud of how they are learning this at a young age and i pray that it will continue through their whole lives....where they will DO WHAT THEY CAN!!!
ALWAYS BLESSED, Connie for the crew
Well, every time for the first class of the semester, i tell a part of MY life story. Obviously, our Ethan's story has kind of been pretty up front in importance and so the students have learned about Ethan's country, orphanage life, and such. I tried to teach the kids in the class that we can ALL do something. I again did this with this year's spring class quite a few weeks ago. (i forgot to let you know that the kids in the class are aged 12-16).
This time the kids in the class actually got to see pictures of children in orphanages AND children who have come home AND the changes that happened. They also got to see pictures of our trip to finally meet our Ethan. The kids in the class LOVED Ethan...more than i even realized!
I have just wanted to plant a seed into these kids' lives. I have wanted to stretch their minds into realizing that there are children out in this world who just want a mom and dad to love them. There are kids in this world who are starving. There are kids in this world who are being treated poorly and that WE CAN ALL DO SOMETHING!!! Well, this past Monday, i was blown away by just how amazingly the kids GOT it!!!
I came into class and it was so sweet in that the kids asked me about Ethan! They wanted updates! They wanted to know when he was coming home. It was such a joy to have people that CARED about our son in such a passionate way....but that was just the beginning. The eldest in the class is a young man named, Ty. Ty has Cerebral Palsy and is a dear! This is his second time taking my class as he LOVES hearing the stories of different people and i bring in different people each semester so it is like a new class each time. He quietly handed me some money telling me to count it because he thought that it was around $30. I started to count it....money that he made by making and selling Angel Food Cake just for Ethan's adoption fund....it was over $135!!! This was the SECOND time that Ty has done this!!! He just blew me away! He wants Ethan HOME SOON!!! He was so full of joy!!!
We had class and then i was about to go onto the next class when i saw that one of my students was staying in the room. I remember something about knitting being talked about for the next class....but i went on my way to the next class. I went by the front desk where i saw a grocery bag with my name written in big letters across it. The lady at the desk nonchalantly said that there was something for me. I was so confused because i knew that i had all of my Shotsibaby fundraiser items. I went to the next class where it took a LONG time to undo the ribbons but i finally opened it (with a couple of the children gathering around) and sucked in my breath. There in the bag was a huge and beautiful prayer shawl and i knew IMMEDIATELY who did it (there was no signature...just a note that said it was for my prayers for Ethan)! I told the teacher that i had to go and that i would be back and i walked right back to where my last class had been.
Let me back up. A few weeks ago, i received a card in the mail with an address that i didn't know. It was a card from one of the girls in my first class. She wrote me a sweet note letting me know that she is praying for our Ethan and that she appreciates my class. It was a good length note and a cute card and it made me happy! Her mother is the teacher in the second class that was teaching how to make a prayer shawl!!! It all came together!
I went into that classroom and had my eyes locked onto that girl's eyes the whole way across the big youth room. She knew by the look in my face that she couldn't talk her way out of it...i KNEW it had been her! She is a young teenager. She has hand made a prayer shawl for me so i could have it to pray for Ethan!!! I lifted her out of her chair and went to hold her and started to quietly weep as i heard her mother say behind me...."Oh Phoebe, so THAT is who you made that for!" Her mother then prayed for our adoption process, for our family, and for Ethan (whom i shared that my heart is yearning so hard for).
These two young teens showed my world that giving can be given from anyone. It made me think of the widow's mite from the Bible. It then made me think of the first time when we were able to give to something when my hubby was out of work for eighteen months...... there is SUCH JOY in giving when you have so little!!! It is such a BLESSING when it is a sacrifice!!! Do you know someone who has given from their very little....doesn't it mean SO MUCH more than if it was given from an abundance? A sacrificial gift is priceless and will never be forgotten! Ty and Phoebe have taught me once again how incredible it is to give and to do so sacrificially and with FAITH!!! SO proud of how they are learning this at a young age and i pray that it will continue through their whole lives....where they will DO WHAT THEY CAN!!!
ALWAYS BLESSED, Connie for the crew
Tuesday, March 13, 2012
Update on our adoption
We have been waiting for such a very long time for our dossier to be processed that i can't even remember what happened last in our process. It seems to be taking a LOT longer than we ever dreamed (or nightmared if it could be such a word). I asked a dear friend to help explain what all we were waiting for and this is a summary of what a couple of ladies answered for me.
The Lindquist Family is waiting on their dossier to be processed and then signed by the Minister of Justice (MOJ) in B. After she signs it is sent to the B. court system to be assigned a judge. The judge sets a court date. I think it's normally about a week between the MOJ signature (this is true but it has been lasting over three weeks for people lately) and the court date. 3-5 weeks after court takes place, Connie can travel back to B. to pick Ethan up. During that 3-5 weeks, Toni (our attorney) will pick up the court documents and have them translated and a new birth certificate is made. Upon arrival in B (which will be on a Saturday) will stay one night in Sofia, then Connie and (a person yet to be determined....prayers for this decision are most appreciated) will travel to Ethan's region on Sunday & spend the night at Gabrovo, pick him up on Monday(which is called Gotcha Day), come back to Sofia and request his visa/passport. Tuesday will be a free day. Wednesday - passport ready in late afternoon for pick up. Thursday- medical exam and visa interiew. Friday- pick up visa. Saturday- fly home!
I wish that i were here to tell you that our dossier has been processed but it STILL has NOT!!! We are having a hard time not being disappointed but we know that it is all in God's timing and that He knows WAY more than we do as to what is best! SO that is all we know right now!
PRAYER REQUESTS
#1) That our paperwork (and MANY others) would get to their next steps quickly....as it has been VERY VERY slow and disheartening for many of us!
#2) That the paperwork will CONTINUE to move quickly AND efficiently through the rest of the process
#3) That the money for our last trip will be there when we need it (with the gas prices going up so quickly it will more than likely NOT be great prices for our airplane tickets)
#4) That we will have wisdom in our choice of the second person going with to pick up Ethan (much prayer here is needed) (Scott will not be going with this time as he can't take off for that long)
ALWAYS BLESSED, Connie for the crew
PS Well, that was FAST!!! The friend who had answered my questions JUST GOT HER COURT DATES WHILE I WAS WRITING THIS!!! It is later than i am sure she was hoping BUT SHE GOT HER DATE for court. Would you do me a favor and pray that her GOTCHA day will be in April as her heart was to be bringing them home then? Her name is Mandy and her boys names are Samuel and Joseph. PLEASE PRAY FOR THIS FAMILY!!!
THEN please pray for our Ethan and Jessica with her Danny...both of our families have been waiting a VERY long time. (not as long as Mandy and praying that it does NOT). I had been praying that we would be able to bring home Ethan before his birthday or at least Sophina's which is fifteen days later (when we first started out) then i was praying that we would be able to get him home by Easter (but saw that Mandy's dates have taken WAY longer than we imagined) and now it seems like it will be a miracle if we get him home by Mother's Day! I am asking that you pray with me for the week before Mother's Day would be the latest! Then it will be Liz's b-day the 17th of May but our PCA is leaving for five weeks starting the 19th of May.....so this prayer request is a big one!!! God's timing!
The Lindquist Family is waiting on their dossier to be processed and then signed by the Minister of Justice (MOJ) in B. After she signs it is sent to the B. court system to be assigned a judge. The judge sets a court date. I think it's normally about a week between the MOJ signature (this is true but it has been lasting over three weeks for people lately) and the court date. 3-5 weeks after court takes place, Connie can travel back to B. to pick Ethan up. During that 3-5 weeks, Toni (our attorney) will pick up the court documents and have them translated and a new birth certificate is made. Upon arrival in B (which will be on a Saturday) will stay one night in Sofia, then Connie and (a person yet to be determined....prayers for this decision are most appreciated) will travel to Ethan's region on Sunday & spend the night at Gabrovo, pick him up on Monday(which is called Gotcha Day), come back to Sofia and request his visa/passport. Tuesday will be a free day. Wednesday - passport ready in late afternoon for pick up. Thursday- medical exam and visa interiew. Friday- pick up visa. Saturday- fly home!
I wish that i were here to tell you that our dossier has been processed but it STILL has NOT!!! We are having a hard time not being disappointed but we know that it is all in God's timing and that He knows WAY more than we do as to what is best! SO that is all we know right now!
PRAYER REQUESTS
#1) That our paperwork (and MANY others) would get to their next steps quickly....as it has been VERY VERY slow and disheartening for many of us!
#2) That the paperwork will CONTINUE to move quickly AND efficiently through the rest of the process
#3) That the money for our last trip will be there when we need it (with the gas prices going up so quickly it will more than likely NOT be great prices for our airplane tickets)
#4) That we will have wisdom in our choice of the second person going with to pick up Ethan (much prayer here is needed) (Scott will not be going with this time as he can't take off for that long)
ALWAYS BLESSED, Connie for the crew
PS Well, that was FAST!!! The friend who had answered my questions JUST GOT HER COURT DATES WHILE I WAS WRITING THIS!!! It is later than i am sure she was hoping BUT SHE GOT HER DATE for court. Would you do me a favor and pray that her GOTCHA day will be in April as her heart was to be bringing them home then? Her name is Mandy and her boys names are Samuel and Joseph. PLEASE PRAY FOR THIS FAMILY!!!
THEN please pray for our Ethan and Jessica with her Danny...both of our families have been waiting a VERY long time. (not as long as Mandy and praying that it does NOT). I had been praying that we would be able to bring home Ethan before his birthday or at least Sophina's which is fifteen days later (when we first started out) then i was praying that we would be able to get him home by Easter (but saw that Mandy's dates have taken WAY longer than we imagined) and now it seems like it will be a miracle if we get him home by Mother's Day! I am asking that you pray with me for the week before Mother's Day would be the latest! Then it will be Liz's b-day the 17th of May but our PCA is leaving for five weeks starting the 19th of May.....so this prayer request is a big one!!! God's timing!
Thursday, March 1, 2012
UPDATE
A few minutes before midnight a dear friend from our college days messaged me on FB to say that she "hoped it was enough"....i kept going back and forth and would wait a minute and try the blog again....it hadn't changed....it was TWENTY minutes....and then five minutes to midnight when the total changed! IT WAS ENOUGH!!!! We will be able to send the check....the LAST ONE for our adoption fees!!!!
SO very very grateful for ALL of YOU who DID WHAT YOU COULD and PRAYED (please please do not stop!!!!), who encouraged, who wrote, who SHARED with others, who WORKED HARD, who GAVE....THANK YOU!!!!!!!
I am praying that we will be hearing news soon that our paperwork will have moved to the next stage! Will you please PRAY for our paperwork, for our family, for our health, for the children who need homes and for those whose families are waiting!!!!
WILL YOU JOIN ME IN PRAISING THE LORD WITH ME!?!?!?!!
ALWAYS BLESSED, Connie for the crew
SO very very grateful for ALL of YOU who DID WHAT YOU COULD and PRAYED (please please do not stop!!!!), who encouraged, who wrote, who SHARED with others, who WORKED HARD, who GAVE....THANK YOU!!!!!!!
I am praying that we will be hearing news soon that our paperwork will have moved to the next stage! Will you please PRAY for our paperwork, for our family, for our health, for the children who need homes and for those whose families are waiting!!!!
WILL YOU JOIN ME IN PRAISING THE LORD WITH ME!?!?!?!!
ALWAYS BLESSED, Connie for the crew
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