It's a bedtime tradition that began with Little Nutbrown Hare, and each night we try to outdo the last...I love you to the moon and back...to the beach and back...to the mountians...and one of my favorites, "to Jesus and the angels" and back...We never imagined we would be saying, I love you to Africa and back...it seems like the furthest imaginable place, but yet in God's perfect timing, we plan to go.... to Africa and back!!! And when we get back, we will have another little cheek to kiss goodnight...please keep us in your prayers and enjoy this journey with us!

Sunday, September 29, 2013

God is Bigger than the Boogie Man


For any of you with kids or anyone ever around kids, I'm going to go out on a limb and assume you are familiar with Veggie Tales. This being said, I'm also going to assume you are familiar with "Junior". In one episode, Junior is dealing with facing his fear of the dark and being alone. Yesterday morning I awoke to the little voice of Junior playing over & over in my head "God is bigger than the boogie man..." Let me tell you, the boogie man seems really big right now. The boogie man is manifesting himself as a government who has said "No" to processing all international adoptions and allowing orphans to leave the country with their adoptive parents. The boogie man is making it look very likely that our babies will spend at least an extra year of their lives living as orphans in the orphanage, regardless of the fact that we are already declared to be their parents. The boogie man is making everything feel really bleak for us and our hopes of having our family together anytime soon. But, praise God that "God is BIGGER than the boogie man"!!! It's time again not only for prayers but for BIG prayers...we will not sit back and allow our children to be stuck in the middle of this! We know that the Congolese government has issued this suspension with the intentions of protecting "their" children. We pray that their eyes will be opened to the reality that the vast majority of adoptive parents truly want the best for their children. We ask you to specifically pray for the officials who are making decisions within the government. That this suspension will be only temporary and that they will at least proceed with processing cases like ours, in which our adoptions have been already completed in Congo. Pray that although Satan is working hard to keep our children in the orphanage, that God will use this opportunity to once again show Himself in a big way. We believe in miracles, and right now, our babies need a miracle. God is so much bigger than the boogie man and we know that God hears our prayers...

"And whatever things you ask in prayer, believing, you will receive" Matthew 21:22

I read this last week having no idea how much I would need to hear this...yep this is going on my mirror...

"Get your "YES" straight at the very beginning. Decide on it. Roll around in it. Put it on the table and shellack it. Because you cannot let every delay and snag derail your certainty about adoption. When you say YES, you are saying YES to enter the suffering of the orphan, and that suffering includes WAITING FOR YOU TO GET TO THEM. I promise you, their suffering is worse than yours. We say YES to the tears, YES to the longing, YES to the maddening process, YES to the money, YES to hope, YES to the screaming frustration of it all, YES to going the distance through every unforeseen discouragement and delay. Do not imagine that something outside of "your perfect plan" means you heard God wrong. There is NO perfect adoption. EVERY adoption has snags. We Americans invented the "show me a sign" or "this is a sign" or "this must mean God is closing a door" or "God must not be in this because it is hard," but all that is garbage. You know what's hard? Being an orphan. They need us to be champions and heroes for them, fighting like hell to get them home. So we will. We may cry and rage and scream and wail in the process, but get them home we will." --Jen Hatmaker


Official statement about DRC adoption suspension


Thank you for your prayers and please share this with friends and family...we will trust, and we won't be shaken!

Listen to this inspiring song: We Won't Be Shaken

And just so you can have this stuck in your head too! You really should watch this :-)
God is Bigger that the Boogie Man

View Jen Hatmaker's Blog here