Quite a week....

I am a child of the 80s, and I love Ferris Bueller! My favorite quote from the movie is, “Life moves pretty fast. If you don't stop and look around once in a while, you could miss it.” well, this was one of those fast moving weeks in our lives.

Our adoption dossier was submitted in Ukraine on Tuesday!!!! That means we are a giant step closer to travelling to get our kids. Unfortunately, we found out yesterday that our medical paperwork has to be redone. Apparently (as is quite common in Ukraine), the requirements for the paperwork had changed, but those changes we not communicated well. We had to wait until we submitted the paperwork, and then, they told us after a review that it was wrong. Urrrgh!!! One step forward and two steps back. We hope that this still means that we will get an appointment within twenty business days from Tuesday. Pray with us that is the case. We are anxious to travel.

The renovation to our home to accommodate the new arrivals is shaping up nicely. Nana and Papaw are here this weekend, and we are nearing completion. I am so thankful for them! We are down to trim work and drywall. Then it will be on to getting carpet laid and paint. Then, Erick can move into his new little room, and we’ll be ready for our girls to come home.

We are still waiting and trusting.

Gospel implications for the disappearance of physical books?

Nicholas Negroponte, founder of One Laptop per Child, thinks so. In a recent interview on CNN (http://bit.ly/bbZg78), Negroponte projects that like the adoption of cell phones, the developing world will drive the adoption of e-books. This makes for interesting implications for the spread of the Scriptures and Gospel related “print” materials. I wonder if the church, missions organizations, and the Christian publishing community is at the leading edge of this coming revolution. I fear we are not. For the sake of the advance of the Kingdom, I perceive that we must be. One more area of technology that the Church must gain ground quickly if we are to be missional into a rapidly changing world!

Adoption Update

Here is a quick update about where things stand as of tonight on our adoption.

1. We had a little hiccup on our paperwork. Not a big deal. Just a little inconvenience. We misunderstood about the number of copies of one document and the requirements of a couple of others. We think we have it worked out. Everthing is done, notarized, and Denise will be off to get them authenticated at the Secretary of State's office in the morning. Lord willing, that paperwork will arrive in Ukraine by Monday and our dossier will be submitted Tuesday.
2. Our dear friends, Barbara and Lee Drake, are in Ukraine adopting from where we are planning to adopt from if all goes according to the plan. They are doing well, and we would ask that you pray for them as they progress thorugh the adoption of 3 boys. The news they are sending us is great, but there are some surprises as well. We really can't share anything, but we would just ask you to pray. We feel like we are living with our feet planted firmly in mid air right now. There is a lot of uncertainty swirling. It is at times like this that we are confident that we can be certainof God and His soverignty and little else. God has a plan, and in that we are supremely confident, but in us we are not. I wish I xould be more transperent, but right now is not the time. Thanks for your intercession on our behalf. God knows our circumstances and our needs better than we do and He provides better then we can ask. So thanks for laboring in prayer with us.

If our dossier get submitted Tuesday, we should get an appointment for travel in 20 business days from next Tuesday. From there God knows and we trust, and that is always a good place to be....

Blessings,

Rick

Our Book's Website is Up

The Book

The website for my upcoming book with Tony Merida called Orphanology: Gospel Centered Adoption and Orphan Care is up. The book is a call to the Church to rise up and respond to the cause of the fatherless. The book will be available in April 2011 locally through:

The Oasis

and nationally through:

LifeWay Christian Stores
Family Christian Stores
Mardel
Christian Book Distributors
Barnes and Noble
WMUStore.com
Amazon

Adoption Update and Stuff

This morning I am on an early morning flight headed for Memphis. My final destination is Newark and then on the Staten Island to meet up with Pastor Ray Parascondo and the folks from Crossroads church to take part in the process of ordaining their first pastoral candidate. Our church, Temple has had an on going partnership with them for years, it is very special to be able to be part of this occasion with them. It will be a quick trip, and I’ll be back in the ‘Burg by mid-morning tomorrow, but what a cool opportunity!

So, on to the adoption stuff! As many of you know who have followed our journey for very long, international adoption can be a lot like begin in the military, it is a lot of hurry up and wait. Well we are in a hurry up phase right now for sure! As of Friday, we received our approval from USCIS (The Department of Homeland Security) for advanced processing of immigrant visas of up to 3 (no our plans have not changed—but you never can be sure) orphaned children to become US citizens. Wooo Hooo! That is a big hurdle cleared. Not that we expected not to be cleared, but it takes time, and time is not on our side.

With that approval, we are assembling our dossier with the goal of having it FedExed to Ukraine by Friday! We will fax copies of the notarized documents to Ukraine tomorrow for translations to begin even before the documents arrive. There are several things that we are praying for in particular:

1. That our documents are right the first time and able to be submitted without incident at the earliest possible date.
2. That we find favor in the eyes of the Ukrainian SDA and get a quick appointment. There is a new wrinkle in the law that an Interpol clearance has to be run on adoptive couples that slows things down by 40-days. Please pray that they will run the check while we are in process for the appointment and not make us wait for the check to be the appointment
3. For N & K’s encouragement. Two of our dear friends, Lee and Barbara Drake and in Ukraine right now pursuing the adoption of 3 boys from the same orphanage. N & K don’t know we are coming. K has never met us. N desperately wants to be adopted. Pay that they make good choices, and that they hang on just a little longer. We are on the way!
4. Pray for things on the home front too! We are definitely seeing the stress in both Erick and Nicholas and it isn’t pretty. Lot’s of bad behavior. They aren’t dealing well with the immediacy of the change or the prospect of momma and daddy being gone for 6 weeks, Adoption ain’t a fairy tale! :)
   

That’s a lot, and it’s enough for now.

Thanks for loving us and for praying!

Blessings,

Rick