OSWALD

You’re probably wondering...what the heck...."Oswald"...
Well, I'll tell ya all. Every morn I wake up, walk straight to the coffee maker where a freshly brewed pot of coffee sits, thanks to my loving and amazing husband. I grab a cup of good ole' java and sit down, anticipating what Oswald Chambers will say to me....of course what I mean is what God will speak to me through "Utmost for His Highest". My grandfather gave me this devotion book, in fact I think by now he has given me 5 of them. (He's almost 90...and a little forgetful :) I've probably read it all the way through five times already.

So I read this morning entitled The unsurpassed Intimacy of tested Faith. "As soon as I say, My God shall supply all my need, the testing of my faith begins (Philippians 4:19). When my strength runs dry and my vision is blinded, (or when there is an issue with your kids visa), will I endure this trial of my faith victoriously or will I turn back in defeat?...Faith is absolute trust in God. "

God, help me trust you. Help me to have an even stronger and deeper faith in you in these hard times. You know all things Lord. You know the exact day we will meet our children. Fatu and Osobie are YOUR kids you've entrusted to us. You are in charge. Help me surrender my worry, fears and anxiety to you God!!!!

So, as I am writing this blog I reopen Oswald to quote him correctly on my blog and I begin to write this next one thinking this is the one I read this morning and then I realize this is the wrong one....and GOD continues to speak to me!!!!

"God does not keep His child immune from trouble; He promises, "I will be with him in trouble...." Psalm 91:15. Then on to read, "In all these things we are more than conquerors". Tribulation is never a grand, highly welcomed event: but whatever it may be-whether exhausting, irritating, or simply causing some weakness- it is not able to "separate us from the love of Christ". Never allow tribulations or the "cares of this world" to separate you from remembering that God Loves YOU!!!! (Matt 13:22)


Oh, and no word on the visa or travel time...
We could continue to use your prayers that Grandpa is found, that we can raise some more funds for our tickets that are extremely expensive with such short notice, that our travel agent can keep our reservations, and for Jeff and I. It is our 5 year anniversary on Sept. 1 and we SO want to be able to enjoy eachother without the worry, wonder and unknown of "Are we're traveling in 7 days ? "!!
Love ya all so so much!!

PRAYER WOULD JUST ROCK !!!

Hi all.....sorry, no Internet still so this will be brief.
We still have no travel dates! I have not heard anything until tonight and it's been an extremely difficult week of the unknown. What I've been told is the US Embassy consulate told AOH they did not need to make a personal interview with the grandpa in order to receive their visa, and today that changed. AOH is now required to bring the grandpa in for an interview.

PLEASE PRAY FOR THE GRANDPA TO BE FOUND!!!!!

PLEASE PRAY THAT THE VISA ISSUE IS FIGURED OUT!!!

We are supposed to travel very soon....maybe in 1 week if this can all get figured out...and if we'll figure this out in time for Jeff to get time off work.
This is extremely stressful for us...it just feels like we keep getting blasted at every point in this adoption!!!!! We're pretty much undone...please pray for us!!!
we love you loads!!

OH, wow....here I am at the Lorenzens and....Thank you Jesus!!!
Dono just got our computer and Internet fixed!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! thanks Dono!!!

NO NEWS!!!

Okay,

so...our Internet is down, or should we say our "our friendly neighbor's Internet" is not working....

Anyway, we have not heard a peep about the visa appointment or how it went. Donna, the orphanage director had trouble with the flights, was stranded in Brussels for 2 days, so she just landed in Liberia tonight! I am PRAYING we hear something soon!! Although with no Internet, I have been depending on Charity, another mother traveling soon, to keep me posted if she hears anything!!! I can't believe I haven't been visiting every coffee shop in town to check email everyday! It's probably a good thing, it can be quite addictive! In fact there is a joke my hubby, Jeff, Dono and other hubbies have made about their wives having an "affair with the computer"!!! I figure I'll hear something soon!!!! We just want to get rocking on booking our tickets!!!

I am PRAYING it happens quickly!! I'm ready to go now...well, not really, we're still packing, but it would be great to go the first week of September! That is our prayer!!! So, that's it for now!!
Thanks for your continued prayers and support!! Hope to post some good news like..."We're headed to Liberia!!!"

OH, and here is the latest pic of Osobie!!! He has lost his front teeth!!! Oh my...looks like we'll be visiting the dentist asap when he gets home!! Don't ya just love his big eyes with those loong eyelashes!! I can't believe we'll be with him and Fatu any time now!!

WE GOT OUR PRE VISA INTERVIEW SCHEDULED!!!!!!

OH YEAH GOD!!!!
WE WERE HOLDING OUR BREATH...&
JUST GOT WORD THAT OSOBIE & FATU
HAVE THEIR PRE-VISA INTERVIEW ON TUESDAY!!
THANK YOU JESUS!!! THANK YOU SO MUCH
I have butterflies in my stomach!!
what does this mean?
We will hopefully travel to pick up our children the 1st or 2nd week of September!!!!!!!!!!!!
Your friends are finally coming home Kojo Lorenzen!!!!
Now we pray that they find their Grandpa and get
the interview completed!!
wow....thank you all for your prayers on this issue, it's obvious that God is moving and people are praying!!!
We are so grateful for you!!!

now off to pack, send for our travel visas, and celebrate with my hubby!!!

Fair warning...long one!!

So…it’s been awhile since my last post. Last week a pretty stressful situation arose regarding travel visas (which all children need in order to leave Liberia and come home). We heard from our director of AOH that there were some new steps added to the U.S. Embassy visa process that would cause a HUGE set back for the adoption process. It was quite a crazy stressful few days thinking about what this would mean for us. Fatu and Osobie are SOO close to coming home. We got their passports in July so now we are only waiting for the travel visa (of all things)!! Anyway, I was a whirlwind of emotion and didn’t want to post anything until things settled. Plus, my wonderful husband is very much the practical, logical, think-through-it kind of guy. I love him for that!! He jumped on the research bandwagon to find out exactly what was going on. He even called the U.S. Embassy in Liberia and spoke to a woman directly!!! I can’t say we completely understand what’s happening, but from what we gathered, the U.S. Embassy in Liberia is cracking down on the issue of child trafficking. There seems to have been several problems with orphanages in Liberia being untruthful and corrupt. There were several stories on the news about these horrible situations. So, of course, they wanted to implement stricter rules for adoption processes for ALL orphanages, even though AOH has NEVER had a problem or a complaint EVER!!...The “new” requests were as follows:

1. The consular wants to meet the parent or relative who relinquished the child to AOH to be certain they want to do this and the child is theirs. This meant finding parents who are hours and many miles away, some even in the bush. (Requiring AOH staff to travel in dangerous places to bring parents in!)
2. The consular could request a DNA test if they felt uncertain about the relation of child to parent.
3. They (U.S. Embassy in Liberia) were only allowing adoption appts and paperwork to be processed one day a week.
4. Requiring adoptive families to stay in country with an open ended ticket in case they could not get their visa and would need to stay for several weeks.

Luckily, Patty, the founder of AOH, is in Liberia and had a chance to meet the visa woman at the Embassy and got some clarity on these new requirements. She also was able to share what AOH is all about. AOH is the only orphanage that takes in special needs children, is involved in feeding programs as well as many other humanitarian programs, and is committed to serving all the children of Liberia. So, today things are looking more positive!! Patty was encouraged by her meeting and relayed her optimism in an email to all the adoptive families. She was able to negotiate an extra day for visa processing, discussed changing the visa process and parental relinquishment, and received special concern for children with medical needs!!!

CELEBRATING this good news today!! WOW!! What an amazing time of prayer, fasting and crying out to God. THANK YOU GOD!! Thank you Patty for fighting for our kids, and thanks to all of our friends and strangers for praying with us!!

OH, one more thing!!!! PLEASE PRAY THAT OSOBIE & FATU GET THEIR VISA APPT TOMORROW (THURSDAY) they are supposed to get signed on!!! This would be a HUGE answer to our prayers for our family!!

and He heard thier cry!!!!

The Lord is righteous in all his ways and loving toward all he has made. The Lord is near to all who call on him, to all who call on him in truth. He fulfills the desires of those who fear him; he hears their cry and saves them. ~ps. 145

I rise before dawn and cry for help; I have put my hope in your word ~ ps. 119

ANYONE & EVERYONE...
Together we are going to be fasting and praying tomorrow (Wed) for the visa situation which is currently happening on Thursdays in Liberia. (they are 6-8 hours ahead of us) On Thursday, Patty (AoH founder) will be meeting with the visa lady to discuss and try to change the current situation. If you feel led, please join us in praying.

My last post explains briefly the situation. The U.S. Embassy has restricted AOH from making appts and receiving kids visas by only allowing them to come on Thursdays. That means one day for all adoptions out of Liberia. This is a HUGE setback!! Slowing everything down and affecting EVERY adoptive family.
There are 100 orphans alone that need to come home from AOH,
many are special needs kids who need medical attention asap
and 2 of them are Osobie & Fatu...!!
SO...what can we do hundred's of miles away???
PRAY ~PRAY ~PRAY

The righteous cry out, and the Lord hears them; he delivers them from all their troubles~ps. 34

Still Praying

No word on the Visa situation. We have our passports and now we wait again. The U.S. Embassy Visa office is still only allowing AOH to come in on Thursdays to set up appointments for children's visas. There has already been a family in Liberia right now that was unable to get their kids visas. They now have to extend their trip and remain in Liberia and hope they get their visas next Thursday. The founder of AOH and staff will be flying to Liberia next week so many of us will be fasting and praying for the Lord to move mountains through these women. Please join us!!! Through all of this, I am trying desperately to remain hopeful. I am trying not to go down that road of worry and "what ifs"(although the tears seem to roll all the time). I feel bad for those innocent strangers who have no idea why I am tearing up for no reason at all. Luckily I can hide behind my sunglasses. We are praying that God will open the visa door and allow us to travel soon!! Very soon!!!

I read good ole Oswald, Utmost for His Highest, every morning, ..well, at least I try. Today's was great. "the call of God is like the call of the sea-no one hears it except the person who has the nature of the sea in him. What God calls us to cannot be definitely stated, because His call is simply to be His friend and to accomplish His own purposes. Our real test is in truly believing that God knows what He desires. The things that happen do not happen by chance-they happen entirely by the decree of God. God is Sovereignly working out His own purposes."
God, work out your purposes in me, in us, in Liberia, in the children, in the world.

While we wait and pray, and pray... I thought I'd do a few postings of my favorite Africa shots from our trips.

Prayer Needed!!!

Please pray.....there is now an issue with recieving Visa's from the U.S. Embassy office in Liberia. I am not exactly clear on all the details but what we know is that AOH(and all other adoption agencies) is only able to make appt's for visa's one day a week. Prior to this new system, AOH could go into the office during any office hours and make appt's. Basically we need to pray that this new rule/system is changed quick. This is a HUGE BLOCK and SLOWING of the process making it very difficult for AOH to get childrens visas. Without visa's parents cannot travel and pick up their kids. Once again... We SOO need your prayers!!! We have passports but now there seems to be an even bigger problem. MANY families are in the same boat as us and this will affect ALL the families adopting from AOH.
This is way oversimplified and I will update again with clearer facts.
What I wanted to ask again, and I know we all are,....is to

PRAY..PRAY>>>> PRAY>>>> PRAY>>>>PRAY>>>>>>>>>>Pray that the Lord will do what only HE CAN DO!!!!!
thanks for journeying with us as we struggle and wait to bring our kids home!!!