The Post Wherein We Celebrate 6 Months DTE

Yesterday was March 6, 2013. It was a time to reminisce. It was the fourth anniversary of Larry's father's passing. As the time has passed, it is becoming easier to focus on the fun and lovely and silly memories than on the struggle of his last few months. So, much of yesterday we thought about "Grandfather" and what his take would be on some of the issues we have faced and are currently facing.

One thing that we know...Grandfather was excited about the idea of us adopting. Caleb was born just a few months before Larry's dad died. Just prior to finding out that I was pregnant with Caleb, we had filled out initial paperwork to adopt a girl from China. Our pregnancy put that process on hold...Really, it wiped the idea of adopting out of sight for quite a while. However, before Caleb came rolling down the pike, we had shared with Larry's dad our plans to adopt.

"Let's go get her!" 

An unabashed, unwavering, uninhibited, unhesitating endorsement of the Daigle family adopting.

It is a priceless memory.

It wasn't "Are you sure?"

Not, "Have you considered ______?"

Not even, "Well, if it makes you happy."

There have been so many supportive, encouraging, loving words spoken over us during this process so far. So many that I can't begin to count them.

Still, we miss his words. But, we know that he was for our adoption. And, that is so very fortifying.

Fast forward four years...

Today is March 7, 2013. We have been officially waiting on a referral for 6 months.

I mentioned in an earlier post, that I planned on making a different type of cookies each month on the 7th to try to make our wait a celebration and not a dreadful date on the calendar.

This month the boys requested Peanut Butter Cookies. Strange, I thought that a new type each month would be fun...they want a 20 minute, whip 'em up, standby. Oh, well. Easier for me!

Caleb was my helper and we worked to have warm cookies on the table when the boys got off the bus.

He had fun helping make the criss-cross pattern with the tines of a fork. However, his favorite part was sprinkling sugar.

This next one is an awful picture, but I had to put it in there to show my family that I am a carrier of the gene for the Burns' Chin!

Peanut Butter Cookies...great choice, boys!

While the first batch was in the oven, a delivery fan pulled into our driveway. Since Larry's been working from the house, we receive packages pretty frequently. However, this was from a local florist! What?!?!?! Did Larry send me flowers while he was out of town?!?!?! Alas, no. (No pressure, Babe!)

Another source of constant encouragement has been my sweet friend, Regan. I don't deserve her friendship! She sent our family a Happy 6 Months DTE balloon bouquet!

The boys were so excited! It was the perfect celebration, complete with balloons and cookies!

Even more reason to celebrate, there was a referral ahead of us in the unofficial waiting list. From what I can tell, this moves us to #19! We are out of the 20's! Yay!

Today is March 7, 2013 and...

"since my youth, God, You have taught me, and to this day, I declare Your marvelous deeds." Psalm 71:17

Dear Micah, Melkam Ganna!

Dear Micah,

Today is January 7, 2013. Ethiopian Christians are celebrating the birth of our Savior on this very day. They call it Ganna. And, little boy, you have been on my mind, my heart, all day.

Today, I wore all white because that’s what mommas in Ethiopia do when they celebrate Ganna. It was a white shirt, white pants…even white shoes and socks. I don’t know if anyone noticed, but I did it for you. I did it for you and your momma. 

Today, I prayed that someone was telling you what happened in a Bethlehem stable so many years ago. I prayed that someone would read Luke 2 to you. I prayed for your momma and daddy, that they know or knew Jesus.

Today, I prayed that you were already in the Transition Home. I prayed that you were eating injera and wat. I prayed that you were playing with the children there and that some other American momma would be picking up or meeting her new child. I prayed that she would see you and give you a hug. 

Today, I thought about all that I have learned about adoption through these past two years. I thought I knew a lot. I didn’t.

Today, I thanked God for adopting me.

Today, I thought about how we have been waiting on the list for 4 months. Yep. Today marked our 4^th month on the DTE (Dossier To Ethiopia) List. We are number 20 on the Older Child list, but only 5 families ahead of us will accept a little 6-year old boy. So, we are hoping that it won’t be too much longer. Still, we feel like waiting is the worst part.

Today, I wondered if God felt like this: if He felt like He might never get to adopt me, like it couldn’t come soon enough. I wonder how He felt while I made Him wait.

Today, I made a cake. At dinner, we ate and then read Luke 2. We talked about Christmas and how we don’t really know what day it happened, what day Jesus was born. We talked about the Christians in Ethiopia and what they were doing today. We talked about you. We sang Happy Birthday to Jesus and ate cake. 

Today, just like every day, Daddy and I prayed for you.

Melkam Ganna, Micah. (Merry Christmas!)

We love you so,

Daddy and Momma

The Post Where I Pick One Word

Mom and Dad usually give me a devotional in my Christmas presents. And, this year, just like in those past, I received Jesus Calling for Kids. I suppose they were trying to match my mental level. ***Grin*** 

They also gave me Ann Voskamp’s book, One Thousand Gifts. Since I spend nearly every waking moment with kids, I skipped the devotional and dove straight into the book written by an adult. Another mother. One who also spends most moments with her kids. 

 

You can read the first chapter here…

I didn’t get far into the book until I had made up my mind to select a word to set my heart on for the course of the coming new year. I read of how her eyes had caught on a certain word and how it began to take root and change her perspective, her heart. I want that. New perspective. New awareness of what God is doing in my heart.

I began thinking of what word I could choose.

It had already been chosen for me.

The Sunday before Christmas, Larry and I settled into our Sunday classroom at the church and listened to our teachers, Wayne and Deb, speak of the angels and the shepherds. Our class just finished a series of lessons on different individuals in the Christmas story. It was the final lesson. I loved it.

Reading through Luke 2, in the class, I saw something in verse 15 that bugged me, intrigued me, distracted me for the next 10 minutes of the lesson.

“When the angels had left them and gone into heaven, the shepherds said to one another, ‘Let’s go to Bethlehem and see this thing that has happened, which the Lord has told us about.’”

I don’t know if this has ever bugged you before, but “this thing”? Thing? Really? I couldn’t stand it when someone called one of my boys “it”, as if he was some inanimate object.   

Why not say, “Let’s go see this King” or “this baby” or “this miracle?” Why “this thing?”

I really try to not get distracted in lessons or sermons. I’ve been informed by my husband that it’s dreadfully distracting to be teaching/preaching and to look out at your spouse, who sits with her brow furrowed momentarily and then plows through the back of her Bible…frantically looking up Greek and Hebrew words. It’s even more distracting when she digs in her purse for a highlighter and starts flipping back and forth between verses and a notepad, scribbling wildly. I try not to do it. I usually do okay. That Sunday, I did wait until after the lesson to go flipping through the references in the back of my Bible.

What made me so curious? I had also noted during the lesson that the same word translated as “thing” was used in verse 17, but translated differently.

“When they had seen him, they spread the word concerning what had been told them about this child,”

The noun used in both verses is the Greek word, rhema. In verse 15, rhema is translated into “thing.” In verse 17, rhema is translated as “word.”

We see “word” in John 1:1, but that is translated from logos. Logos is typically indicative of the written word or the physical word, as in “the Word became flesh.” However, rhema seems to indicate the spoken word and specifically, words spoken to someone. It’s often used in such situations as “the word of the Lord came to…so and so.”

I spent another day pondering the difference between logos and rhema. I know that I’ve heard the differences discussed before, but it hadn’t been important to me at that point. I’ll admittingly chalk that up to a hard, unwilling heart.

From what I’ve been able to scratch up in the last week, God’s Word…the Bible…is the logos that I have access to in the written form.  It’s the Hebrews 4:12 word. The logos that is living and active. Sharper than any sword, it cuts down to the division of my soul and spirit and judges my heart and attitude.  It is of utmost importance. I need to be hiding it in my heart.

I need to be hiding into my heart and pondering these “things” in my heart. By the way, in Luke 2:19 all of those “things” that Mary pondered in her heart, were the rhema…spoken words of her son, The Son, The One and Only…The (Logos) Word became flesh.

I have the written word. I have a Bible in nearly every room of my home. I have it on my phone. I have portions of it on plagues and paintings. I am surrounded by the written word.

However, I don’t know that I give the Spirit the time and attention to listen to His rhema word. I don’t slow down and listen as He reminds me of the logos, just as Romans 8 and John 14 say He will. 

The shepherds had received a word from God. This "thing" that happened was worth spreading the "word." Rhema. 

Rhema.

This year, my one “word” is rhema.

I want to hear what God speaks to me. I want it to be so real that I'm stopped in my tracks. So real that I have to immediately share the thing and spread the word.

12/14/2012 - My Devotional from that Awful Day

I can't even begin to make sense or have the right wisdom to share regarding Friday's terrible tragedy. But, I wanted to just pass along what my daily devotional brought to my heart that morning. How could I know what God was preparing my heart to be exposed to that day?

Search My Heart, O God

by Kay Arthur

December 14

"Is there no balm in Gilead? Is there no physician there? Why then has not the health of the daughter of my people been restored?"

Beloved, those words are from Jeremiah 8:22. Gilead was a city in Israel known for its healing ointment. They soothing salve of Gilead brought both healing and beauty. But Jeremiah knew his nation needed more than a topical salve, more than a bandage. Judah's wounds went all the way to the soul. 

There was only One who could heal, only One who could restore health and beauty to a sin-sick nation. God's people learned there is a Physician, One who could bring refreshement, One who could take the bitterness of life and make it sweet. 

Do you know Him today, dear friend, as Jehovah-rapha--the Lord Who Heals?

Your Word says that You heal the brokenhearted and bind up their wounds. You support the afflicted. Thank You for being my Physician today, dear God. I need Your tender mercies and healing touch. Restore my soul to health and bring refreshment to my spirit. 

I love this devotional. My mom put it in my stocking last year. What a treasure it has been!

So, how about a give away?

Leave a comment by December 23rd and I will choose two people at random to receive a copy of Kay Arthur's Search My Heart, O God: 365 Appointments with God.

Don't forget to comment with your name so that I can contact you for shipping information!

I will announce the winners on Christmas Eve!

***Lindsey and Brettney win!!!***

Brettney wins for retweeting the link to the blog!
Lindsey wins for being the ONLY comment!!!
Give away...Fail!

Oh, well. I'll just say that it's because my tens of readers were all so busy being super moms for the week of Christmas! Yeah, that's what I'll say!

While I'm Waiting (Part 1) - Matt 6:25-34

It’s funny how a song takes on new meaning in different seasons of my life. 

Scripture doesn’t really do that…take on new meaning. It seems to mean the same thing but pokes me in a different spot. Scripture stays the same but attacks a different infection in my life, binds up a different wound.

In the last several weeks, I have heard the song While I’m Waiting by John Waller a bazillion times. Not really, of course. But, it’s been often enough to force me to ponder the fact that I am waiting.

Right now, I am waiting for our family to receive a referral from America World AdoptionAssociates. By a referral, I mean the phone call from our Family Coordinator telling us that we have the option to adopt a specific child. At that time, we will be able to view a picture of the child, medical evaluations, any known background information and social assessments that have been made or gathered by the staff.

So, we wait. We are waiting for a referral for a boy, from Ethiopia, between the ages of 2 and 6. If you would like to know why this is the child we are requesting, just ask us. It’s a long discussion, best suited to relaxed conversation over a steaming cup of tea.

We have only been waiting a short while. December 7^th, a date which will live in infamy, marked our 3^rd month of being DTE. DTE stands for Dossier To Ethiopia. This hurdle means that all of our paperwork is done and we are officially on the list to adopt a child in Ethiopia. On the unofficial list, we are #21 in line for a child over the age of 4. However, there are only 10 families on the list ahead of us that are requesting a boy or are open to either gender. Also, only 5 of those families are open to a boy over the age of 5.

So, we wait. And, we will probably be waiting for a long time. 

It's not the first time that we've had to wait. 

We’ve had to wait for direction.

We’ve had to wait for deliverance.

We’ve had to wait for healing. 

We’ve had to wait for provision.

However, none of those waits had a list, a day on the calendar to count from, a Facebook page and Yahoo group of others waiting alongside of us. None of those waits left a little boy as an orphan on the other side of the earth.

Larry was asked to speak in a senior adult Sunday school class a few weeks back and in their curriculum, I was struck by this quote regarding Acts 1, when the disciples were waiting for the Holy Spirit.

“The key to waiting is to wait with purpose. The disciples did not accidently wait. They obediently waited. The obedience was not only THAT they waited but HOW they waited.” – Jesse Rincones, pastor of AllianceChurch in Lubbock, Texas and President of the Hispanic Baptist Convention of Texas

The reason that this quote gave me such a jolt was that we had just been asked to consider serving in a new way. And, of course, I had immediate reservations because WE ARE WAITING. What if we start serving and then we get a referral? That means that we will have to find someone to cover in this new area while we travel to Ethiopia…twice! What if the transition is awful and we drop the ball? What if we all end up with giardia? What if? What if? What if?

This song was so convicting this week because I have been waiting, not just on a referral, but on a lot of What Ifs. Ugh…I stink at this.

Do you know what? Matthew 6:25-34 did not change this week. It just poked me in a different place this week. It poked me where I trusted myself and my planning and my spreadsheets and my pile of adoption/attachment/trans-racial parenting books.

So, we wait.

But, we will serve Him while we are waiting.

 

Need Something to Celebrate?

We woke up this morning with the statistics shouting that we are a divided country. Check out the eloquent way our friend, Brandy, tied it into her life on her blog --> here.

So, I want to explain why yesterday was a day to celebrate at the Daigle house. In fact, today is a day to celebrate as well!

Thirteen years ago, today, I was boarding a plane at IAH to fly away to my honeymoon. Larry and I had walked into Mims Baptist Church, the day before, as single sweethearts and walked out as man and wife, bound by a covenant made before God and our families and friends.

That day started the greatest adventure of our lives.

We have had a lot of low times. We have lost all of Larry’s grandparents. We have lost three babies through miscarriage. We have lost his father to Leukemia. We have fought with each other, with all of our siblings, with all of our parents and most of our friends. We have overspent, overeaten and overslept. We have had hard heads and hard hearts.  

Thankfully and only through the grace of a merciful and redemptive God, we have had some good times. We have four healthy boys. We have always had a home, a job and a church family that we love. We have come through a cancer scare with no reason to worry. We have a son, somewhere in Ethiopia, waiting for clearances allowing him to be adopted.

We have a God, Who saves, redeems, restores, provides, heals, corrects, rebukes and guides. Who is like Him?

So, yesterday, we celebrated our 13^th anniversary.

Today, we celebrate our 2^nd month on the DTE (Dossier to Ethiopia) list. As of today, we are still number 24 on the unofficial list. There was not a lot of movement during the month of October. However, the rainy season is over in Ethiopia and our prayers are that the process will soon begin moving quickly and efficiently.

We are trusting that the same God that has carried us through 13 years of marriage will carry us through this adoption process as well.

And that is something to celebrate!

 

***Pictures of some of the days that we celebrated will be posted tomorrow!***

1 Chronicles 16:23 - Let All Things Now Living

He's alive. Yes, Larry is alive!

In the very basic nature of this statement, I am truly glad. But, I'm also glad in ways I never knew I'd be glad.

Let's go back a little over a year.

Larry and I were sitting in a car dealership. We waited at the saleswoman's desk as the finance department ran some numbers for us.

We waited and waited. Much longer than we had ever waited before. I began to wonder if there was a problem. We had paid down all of our debt. Perhaps, no debt made our credit score scary to lenders. I knew that could happen. We hadn't moved or changed jobs recently. We waited...I worried. Larry never worries, so he sat reading a gearhead magazine.

The saleswoman, who is a friend of my parents, approached with an odd look upon her face.

"Larry, did you know that you are dead?"

 

Silence.

 

The sound of Larry and I blinking...

 

Larry's big sigh..."Well, that makes this conversation awkward." (This is typical Larry.)

 

 

You see, Larry is the executor of his father's estate. Evidently, when he called to cancel one of his dad's credit cards, the creditor reported Larry Daigle III dead instead of Larry Daigle Jr. We aren't really certain how that happened, since my Larry didn't have an account with them. However, he was dead. Just according to one credit card company and the one credit bureau to which they report.

 

 

It's amazing that with just a few swift errant keystrokes one Sally Sue DataEntry girl could cause a problem. What's more amazing is that they will immediately take your word that someone is dead...but, they cannot under any circumstance take your word that you are alive.

 

 

Fast forward through a year's worth of long, frustrating phone calls to credit bureaus, the credit card company and an attorney. Larry is finally alive.

 

 

It wasn't the end of the world. We drove home in the vehicle Larry had chosen. Our life continued as normal. But, today, Larry is in the system and alive.

 

 

Let All Things Now Living

words by Katherine K Davis

 

Let all things now living

a song of thanksgiving

to God the Creator

triumphantly raise,

Who fashioned and made us,

protected and stayed us,

Who guideth us on

to the end of our days.

His banners are o'er us,

His light goes before us,

A pillar of fire shining forth in the night,

'til shadows have vanished

and darkness is banished,

as forward we travel from light into light.

 

His law He enforces,

the stars in their courses,

the sun in His orbit,

obediently shine.

The hills and the mountains,

the rivers and fountains,

the deeps of the ocean

proclaim Him Divine.

We too, should be voicing

our love and rejoicing,

with glad adoration a song let us raise,

'til all things now living

unite in thanksgiving

to God in the highest, hosanna and praise!

Kings & Queens - Matt. 25:40&45/Matt 18:5

I have been sporadically sharing what I've gleaned by going through the hymns during my quiet time.

Today, we'll take a modern spin on the same idea.

I saw the video (brand-spanking new, by the way) by Audio Adrenaline for Kings & Queens and my heart was devastated by the lyrics. It must have broken 255 times while I watched and listened. That's a heartbreaking rate of 1 break per second.

I've been checking iTunes to see if the single is available yet. Nope. Dern. But, I will let you know when it is available. In the meantime, watch the video, read the lyrics, crack your Bible to Matthew 25, visit the Hands And Feet Project, and love the least of these.

Kings & Queens

Audio Adrenaline for Hands & Feet Project

 

Little hands

Shoeless feet

Lonely eyes looking back at me

Will we leave behind the innocent to grieve?

On their own

On the run

 

When their lives have only begun

 

These could be our daughters and our sons

And just like a drum

I can hear their hearts beating

I know my God won’t let them be defeated

Every child has a dream to belong and to be loved

 

Boys become kings

Girls will be queens

Wrapped in Your majesty

When we love

When we love the least of these

Then they will be

Brave and free

Shout Your name in victory

When we love

When we love the least of these

Break our hearts

 

Once again

Help us to remember when

We were only children hoping for a friend

Won’t you look around

These are the lives that the world has forgotten

Waiting for doors of our hearts and our homes to open

Boys become kings

Girls will be queens

Wrapped in Your majesty

When we love

When we love the least of these

Then they will be

Brave and free

Shout Your name in victory

When we love

When we love the least of these

When we love the least of these

 

If not us

Who will be

Like Jesus

To the least of these

If not us

Tell me who will be like Jesus

Like Jesus to the least of these

Boys become kings

Girls will be queens

Wrapped in Your majesty

When we love

When we love the least of these

Then they will be

Brave and free

Shout Your name in victory

We will love

We will love the least of these (6x)