No new news to share. We're still waiting on a travel date. I did want to share something I read in a devotional provided by Shaohannah's Hope foundation. They are short devotions, but very powerful. I think if you inquire on their website, they will send you one. This is from Scott Hasenbalg:
"Adoption is costly. Whether in the realm of finances, emotions, relationships, time, or effort, adoption will cost. But think of what it cost God, and yet He was willing to undergo that cost. And not simply undergo it, but to undergo it with joy! It gave Him pleasure!...In our world of risk-averse, safety-first, immediate gratification, we often lose sight of the truth that some endeavors are worth the cost...Jesus came to be a ransom for many (Matt 20:28) and if God was willing to pay that ransom for us, how much more will He be willing to lead us in ransoming His beloved children form their state as orphans? And it is His love that compels us onward in obedience whatever the cost, for He who calls us is faithful."
Ephesians 1:5,7 "God decided in advance to adopt us into His own family by bringing us to Himself through Jesus Christ...and it gave Him great pleasure...He is so rich in kindness and grace that He purchased our freedom with the blood of His Son."
love, Jenny
Thursday, March 26, 2009
Wednesday, March 18, 2009
Dossier Officially Submitted
Wanted to share a quick update:
Our dossier was officially submitted yesterday. They had no problems with it at this point. Hallelujah! This means by their law they will issue us a travel date within the next 20 days. So, we don't know when that date will be, but at least we know we will have a date soon.
Please pray:
--That nothing or no one will hold up the travel date for us.
--Our minds and hearts will stay focused on the TRUTH, and not let fear, doubt, the world have any place in this.
--Good friends are traveling to adopt Friday. Please be in prayer for them and their adoption.
--All praise to God who so marvelously shows His glory! We talked to the kids Saturday through a translator. Of course they want to know when we're coming. We told them it could be soon, maybe even April or May. Alona was like, "ugh, that's forever!" They are so anxious. The great thing was that Makc seems to be finally letting himself believe we are really coming.
--God continues to provide--make no mistake, there are still some VERY generous people in this world. We are only $13k away from having the adoption covered. That is a HUGE hallelujah! David's company is being absolutely fantastic and supportive of this whole undertaking. Again, all praise to God who does provide! This whole experience makes me sorry for the many times I've said, "I can't, or we can't, or we would but..." God is Jehovah-Jireh, our Provider! There is no room for excuses in faith-filled living.
Finally, I wanted to share this verse with you that the Lord placed smack-dab in front of me in my Bible study. It's particularly meaningful as I think of traveling and being away from my three precious ones here. "Don't be afraid of them. Remember the great and awe-inspiring LORD, and fight for your countrymen, your sons and daughters, your wives and homes." Nehemiah 4:14b Love, Jenny
Our dossier was officially submitted yesterday. They had no problems with it at this point. Hallelujah! This means by their law they will issue us a travel date within the next 20 days. So, we don't know when that date will be, but at least we know we will have a date soon.
Please pray:
--That nothing or no one will hold up the travel date for us.
--Our minds and hearts will stay focused on the TRUTH, and not let fear, doubt, the world have any place in this.
--Good friends are traveling to adopt Friday. Please be in prayer for them and their adoption.
--All praise to God who so marvelously shows His glory! We talked to the kids Saturday through a translator. Of course they want to know when we're coming. We told them it could be soon, maybe even April or May. Alona was like, "ugh, that's forever!" They are so anxious. The great thing was that Makc seems to be finally letting himself believe we are really coming.
--God continues to provide--make no mistake, there are still some VERY generous people in this world. We are only $13k away from having the adoption covered. That is a HUGE hallelujah! David's company is being absolutely fantastic and supportive of this whole undertaking. Again, all praise to God who does provide! This whole experience makes me sorry for the many times I've said, "I can't, or we can't, or we would but..." God is Jehovah-Jireh, our Provider! There is no room for excuses in faith-filled living.
Finally, I wanted to share this verse with you that the Lord placed smack-dab in front of me in my Bible study. It's particularly meaningful as I think of traveling and being away from my three precious ones here. "Don't be afraid of them. Remember the great and awe-inspiring LORD, and fight for your countrymen, your sons and daughters, your wives and homes." Nehemiah 4:14b Love, Jenny
Thursday, March 5, 2009
Notes from Makc and Natasha
This is the most recent picture we have of the kids. Natasha (5) on the left, Alona (8) in the middle and Makc (10)
Picture we sent over email to kids this week! These are our bio children: Isabelle (5), Keely (13) and Max (8). They really are so excited and eager for the kids to be with us.Since the blog is private now, I feel comfortable sharing these pictures and notes with you. The notes came through email from a great family that's been in the Ukraine adopting a little boy they hosted this summer. They have had mountain after mountain to climb over, but sweet victory, as of today they have their boy now! One of the blessings in their struggles and long time there was their influence on the orphans, particularly Makc. It seems Makc has had a hard time believing we are really coming for him. We've sent him letters, and this family has been great to tell the kids we are coming for them. Makc still had a hard time believing. Praise the Lord it seems Sunday it finally settled in his bones. David got to talk over the phone with the kids on Monday. Here's some of the email the family sent us:
"So, we were able to reassure him that your paperwork has already been sent to Kiev and that you will come for them and it won't be long! He kept asking how we know and we told him that we had talked to the agency director and that we email you guys and that you have sent us many emails while we've been here. We told him that he could write you a letter and that we'd send it to you today and he got really excited and ran for the paper and sat down and wrote this all by himself:
Hi Jenny and David,
This is Makc. I want you to come to us. Natasha sends you a big 'Hi!' We miss you very much. I study well. How are you? We miss you very much. We want to live with you. We love you! From Makc"
This is from Alona who has seemed quite confident we're coming! (The doll she talks about is a Barbie we sent through the mail recently. Not sure about the Women's Day--I'm thinking a Ukrainian holiday coming up :))
And Alona wrote this:
Mother and Father,
I love you very much. I am waiting for you! I liked you very much. I miss you very much. I like dolls in pink dresses like a princess. We have winter right now. We have 2 parrots. We can skate. I love you very much and Natasha loves you very much too and Makc. Congratulations with the Women's Day on the 8th of March.
Love,
Alona
The mountain has moved!
Praise God! There was a real potential issue that came about Monday. It's just too long to tell on the blog, but the great thing is the issue was lifted up in some bold prayer and it is an official NON-ISSUE now. Oh, I'm so amazed by God! How He works, how He loves, all of it! The thing is we've got to trust Him to then see His Hand. I suppose sometimes we can see a situation and recognize that God was in it, but how sweet the victory when we see it in faith (1 John 5:4 "Every God-begotten person conquers the world's ways. The conquering power that brings the world to its knees is our faith.").
God asks us to actively believe Him and come before Him with praying boldly.
I thought of this verse when I was praying this week: Matthew 17:20 "For truly I say to you, if you have faith [that is living] like a grain of mustard seed, you can say to this mountain, Move from here to yonder place, and it will move; and nothing will be impossible to you." I'm so thankful I claimed God's Word for what it is--the Truth! For those of you who knew the situation and prayed in faith thank you.
Let's take God at His Word, amen?! Jenny
God asks us to actively believe Him and come before Him with praying boldly.
I thought of this verse when I was praying this week: Matthew 17:20 "For truly I say to you, if you have faith [that is living] like a grain of mustard seed, you can say to this mountain, Move from here to yonder place, and it will move; and nothing will be impossible to you." I'm so thankful I claimed God's Word for what it is--the Truth! For those of you who knew the situation and prayed in faith thank you.
Let's take God at His Word, amen?! Jenny
Wednesday, March 4, 2009
Blog going Private
For the best interest of the adoption, we're going to make our blog private by the end of this week. I tried to send an email to all the email addresses in my Outlook. If I don't have your email and/or if I missed you, and you want to continue to view the blog please leave a comment with your name and email address. Thanks so much for praying.
We believe our facilitator is going to register our dossier in the next day or two. After that it will be officially submitted (maybe next week), and then they will give us a travel date. Please pray for God's perfect timing in this! Thanks! Jenny
We believe our facilitator is going to register our dossier in the next day or two. After that it will be officially submitted (maybe next week), and then they will give us a travel date. Please pray for God's perfect timing in this! Thanks! Jenny
Wednesday, February 25, 2009
Letter
We mailed a letter Monday to various friends. In case we missed you, a copy of the letter is at the end of this entry. If you received the letter and are just now aware of our endeavor to help the Lord rescue 3 orphans, you can read more about the initial journey by scrolling to the bottom of the page and looking on the right at "blog archive". From there you can click on the 2008 entry. That gets you started.
About the letter, we originally sent our first letter at the first of November. We felt the Lord was wanting us to do that in hopes of getting the word out for prayer and financial support. Obviously there are various ways to fund an adoption. Some can afford it, some borrow the money, some solicit individual help and others plan various fund-raising events. Again, we prayed over all of this and did feel like this letter was what we were to do. It's been really amazing to see the support and the encouraging words that have come from the first letter. Many have said that they were moved to seek the Lord themselves after reading the letter. It wasn't anything special and I'm sure many of you could write a "better" one, but I believe it is an example of the Holy Spirit's guidance and the Lord using what He wants to speak to His own. With the paperwork being finished, again we felt we needed to send a letter updating everyone. While we certainly pray that there are those who feel led to support us prayerfully and financially, I really feel that the Lord wants to use this letter to encourage others to wholeheartedly seek Him.
It is only divine providence that I'm studying Esther right now. The whole book is filled with God's providence and God-ordained destiny, though the name "God" is not once used in the book. The study has been such an encouragement to me that this whole adoption is certainly part of my destiny. I'm so thankful I said yes to God. We always have a choice. It's not always easy making the choice God has for us, but it is ever worth it! I do pray you will, as I know many of you already are, seek the Lord and ask what His plans are for you. We have to continue doing that. I know this adoption isn't "it" for us, but just a part in our destiny, the great and unimaginable plans He has for us.
I don't think there's anything I love more than witnessing and experiencing the movement of God. It's amazing to me how He changes us and grows us when we allow it.
Ephesians 2:10 (Amplified Bible)
"For we are God's [own] handiwork (His workmanship), [a]recreated in Christ Jesus, [born anew] that we may do those good works which God predestined (planned beforehand) for us [taking paths which He prepared ahead of time], that we should walk in them [living the good life which He prearranged and made ready for us to live]."
February 23, 2009
Dear Friends,
Hope all is well. We’ve hit a milestone in the adoption process, so we figured it’s a good time to update you. We have finished all the paperwork needed and it is in the Ukraine. Whoo-hoo! We are now waiting for the Ukraine government to accept the paperwork and then give us a travel date.
You may have received a letter in November sharing with you about the adoption and asking you to consider participating in this journey through prayer and/or financial help. Since then we have learned that many people we sent the letter to never received it. If you are one of those, we are sorry. Please take a moment to get a little history at our blog, www.bordenadoption.blogspot.com. If you are aware, and have been praying and supporting us we humbly and graciously thank you.
In all of this we give all and absolute praise to God. When we entered into this process it was on unsteady knees trusting that God would provide if He wanted this to happen. Ultimately, we had to trust God to do some mighty acts to get this journey started.
We are amazed, sitting back so often in tears of gratitude and wonder. Here are a few of the highlights thus far:
1. Countless people have committed in prayer for this adoption. I dare say Makc, Alona, and Natasha have never had such a crowd of saints praying for them.
2. $21,875 of the $40,000 needed to provide Makc, Alona and Natasha a family has been given.
3. Another family encouraged by what God was doing began their own adoption proceedings in the Ukraine.
4. The body of Christ has gone above and beyond in support, encouragement, and offers to serve: painting the kid’s rooms, tutoring the kids, watching Keely, Max, and Izzy while we travel, on and on.
As a result, our faith and love for the body of Christ have grown. It is an awesome sight to see the body of Christ working together to rescue the poor and oppressed. This is God’s work!
This we know, God is faithful. He will continue to provide for the needs throughout this journey. Please know whether you’ve given $20.00 or $10,000 or anything in between, we appreciate and value your support so very much. If you are led to help, we still need $18,125 before we travel which could be as soon as the end of March! If you would like to send a tax-deductible donation, please mail it to: God’s Waiting Children, 1865 Herndon Ave, Suite K-125, Clovis, CA 93611. Please note “Borden adoption” in the memo of your check. To make sure we receive your gift, it needs to be there by March 15th. Once we travel, our agency is not allowed to send us that money.
Finally, as we are learning to embrace the calling God has before us, we encourage you to seek God with your whole heart as to what He is calling you to. The past few months have required sacrifice, but we are experiencing an exciting journey that we never could have dreamt for ourselves! In Beth Moore’s Esther study, she wrote “In the times of greatest struggle when you make the Godward decision over convenience, earthly comfort, or carnal pleasure, you too have come to a critical moment in the fulfillment of your destiny. A defining moment. A war is being waged over your head in the unseen realm, and a great cloud of witnesses is cheering you on. You have no idea what’s at stake.”
Dear friends, “who knows, perhaps you have come to the kingdom for such a time as this.” Esther 4:14
About the letter, we originally sent our first letter at the first of November. We felt the Lord was wanting us to do that in hopes of getting the word out for prayer and financial support. Obviously there are various ways to fund an adoption. Some can afford it, some borrow the money, some solicit individual help and others plan various fund-raising events. Again, we prayed over all of this and did feel like this letter was what we were to do. It's been really amazing to see the support and the encouraging words that have come from the first letter. Many have said that they were moved to seek the Lord themselves after reading the letter. It wasn't anything special and I'm sure many of you could write a "better" one, but I believe it is an example of the Holy Spirit's guidance and the Lord using what He wants to speak to His own. With the paperwork being finished, again we felt we needed to send a letter updating everyone. While we certainly pray that there are those who feel led to support us prayerfully and financially, I really feel that the Lord wants to use this letter to encourage others to wholeheartedly seek Him.
It is only divine providence that I'm studying Esther right now. The whole book is filled with God's providence and God-ordained destiny, though the name "God" is not once used in the book. The study has been such an encouragement to me that this whole adoption is certainly part of my destiny. I'm so thankful I said yes to God. We always have a choice. It's not always easy making the choice God has for us, but it is ever worth it! I do pray you will, as I know many of you already are, seek the Lord and ask what His plans are for you. We have to continue doing that. I know this adoption isn't "it" for us, but just a part in our destiny, the great and unimaginable plans He has for us.
I don't think there's anything I love more than witnessing and experiencing the movement of God. It's amazing to me how He changes us and grows us when we allow it.
Ephesians 2:10 (Amplified Bible)
"For we are God's [own] handiwork (His workmanship), [a]recreated in Christ Jesus, [born anew] that we may do those good works which God predestined (planned beforehand) for us [taking paths which He prepared ahead of time], that we should walk in them [living the good life which He prearranged and made ready for us to live]."
February 23, 2009
Dear Friends,
Hope all is well. We’ve hit a milestone in the adoption process, so we figured it’s a good time to update you. We have finished all the paperwork needed and it is in the Ukraine. Whoo-hoo! We are now waiting for the Ukraine government to accept the paperwork and then give us a travel date.
You may have received a letter in November sharing with you about the adoption and asking you to consider participating in this journey through prayer and/or financial help. Since then we have learned that many people we sent the letter to never received it. If you are one of those, we are sorry. Please take a moment to get a little history at our blog, www.bordenadoption.blogspot.com. If you are aware, and have been praying and supporting us we humbly and graciously thank you.
In all of this we give all and absolute praise to God. When we entered into this process it was on unsteady knees trusting that God would provide if He wanted this to happen. Ultimately, we had to trust God to do some mighty acts to get this journey started.
We are amazed, sitting back so often in tears of gratitude and wonder. Here are a few of the highlights thus far:
1. Countless people have committed in prayer for this adoption. I dare say Makc, Alona, and Natasha have never had such a crowd of saints praying for them.
2. $21,875 of the $40,000 needed to provide Makc, Alona and Natasha a family has been given.
3. Another family encouraged by what God was doing began their own adoption proceedings in the Ukraine.
4. The body of Christ has gone above and beyond in support, encouragement, and offers to serve: painting the kid’s rooms, tutoring the kids, watching Keely, Max, and Izzy while we travel, on and on.
As a result, our faith and love for the body of Christ have grown. It is an awesome sight to see the body of Christ working together to rescue the poor and oppressed. This is God’s work!
This we know, God is faithful. He will continue to provide for the needs throughout this journey. Please know whether you’ve given $20.00 or $10,000 or anything in between, we appreciate and value your support so very much. If you are led to help, we still need $18,125 before we travel which could be as soon as the end of March! If you would like to send a tax-deductible donation, please mail it to: God’s Waiting Children, 1865 Herndon Ave, Suite K-125, Clovis, CA 93611. Please note “Borden adoption” in the memo of your check. To make sure we receive your gift, it needs to be there by March 15th. Once we travel, our agency is not allowed to send us that money.
Finally, as we are learning to embrace the calling God has before us, we encourage you to seek God with your whole heart as to what He is calling you to. The past few months have required sacrifice, but we are experiencing an exciting journey that we never could have dreamt for ourselves! In Beth Moore’s Esther study, she wrote “In the times of greatest struggle when you make the Godward decision over convenience, earthly comfort, or carnal pleasure, you too have come to a critical moment in the fulfillment of your destiny. A defining moment. A war is being waged over your head in the unseen realm, and a great cloud of witnesses is cheering you on. You have no idea what’s at stake.”
Dear friends, “who knows, perhaps you have come to the kingdom for such a time as this.” Esther 4:14
Tuesday, February 17, 2009
It's all here!
I was beginning to think the day would never get here, but we received the immigration approval form Friday! Tomorrow I'm going to pick up the last form needed, get them all notarized, get the notary approval, then get them apostilled...all to say it's a lot of signatures and driving around, but then it's done! After the driving around, I'll make 2 copies of the whole kit-and-kaboodle and the dossier (or mound of paperwork) will be off to be translated and on to the Ukraine.
I hope the dossier will be in the Ukraine next week. At that point, it's up to the Ukrainian government (and I know, ultimately God) to give us a travel date. We have no idea when the travel date will be. It could be March or it could be October! Of course, I'm hoping it's as quick as can be. We've gotten a few reports from a family adopting at the kid's orphanage that the kids seem to be getting a little anxious and discouraged. Please pray for them to continue to have hope! I can't imagine how slow these past 5+ months have gone for them. Through a translator that sweet family adopting emailed me little notes from Alona and Natasha. Here they are:Dear Mother,
I would like you to come to me very much. I love you and Father very much. I love all the family!
Love,
Alona
Dear Mother,
Come and visit me. I want to see you very much. I will write a letter for you. Father, how are you doing? I want to see you very much. I love all of you!
Love,
Natasha
We are continuing to be amazed at how God is providing and showing Himself in each step of this. Oh how I love Him! We will be working on a letter to update everyone with the latest big news. Praise the Lord, the completion of this paperwork is a huge thing! With love, Jenny
I hope the dossier will be in the Ukraine next week. At that point, it's up to the Ukrainian government (and I know, ultimately God) to give us a travel date. We have no idea when the travel date will be. It could be March or it could be October! Of course, I'm hoping it's as quick as can be. We've gotten a few reports from a family adopting at the kid's orphanage that the kids seem to be getting a little anxious and discouraged. Please pray for them to continue to have hope! I can't imagine how slow these past 5+ months have gone for them. Through a translator that sweet family adopting emailed me little notes from Alona and Natasha. Here they are:Dear Mother,
I would like you to come to me very much. I love you and Father very much. I love all the family!
Love,
Alona
Dear Mother,
Come and visit me. I want to see you very much. I will write a letter for you. Father, how are you doing? I want to see you very much. I love all of you!
Love,
Natasha
We are continuing to be amazed at how God is providing and showing Himself in each step of this. Oh how I love Him! We will be working on a letter to update everyone with the latest big news. Praise the Lord, the completion of this paperwork is a huge thing! With love, Jenny
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