Checking off the list

I am a list maker. I have many lists. Though, The enjoyment is not in making the list. It's the checking it off that gives me a thrill! Let me just tell you that when this adoption process started February 2012, there were loooong lists involved. And it's down to about 4 things on the list as of this morning. This week We got our Indian visas and this morning got the Article 5!!!!! 

And the official article 5 letter says:

Legal custody of Simran to be granted to Ernest & Nikki Quinley. 

Thats right!! If that's not clear, I don't know what is. 

But I have a confession to make: The last few weeks have been rough. We've had delays & frustrations with the adoption galore! I have been a stressed mess! And let's just say, the momma bear came out of me! My friends at work know first hand, we've been calling and on hold for hours, emailing, calling india in the wee hours of daylight, mailing documents and tears have been shed!!! But I realized that, this is what momma's do! We fight for our kids! We listen to our spider senses ( I mean mommy senses) until we figure out the problem. Simran Neena has never had a mom & dad to fight for her!! But she does now! And I'm so thankful for friends and family who are encouraging us and excited about this! Prayers are needed right now to get us across the finish line!

So we hope that Gods perfect plan keeps this train moving quickly over the next few weeks and that a court date will be in the works very soon! 

God the Farmer

I've had a lot of people ask why we chose to adopt or why we chose india? This particular post is to share how our family was called to adopt.

so why would we adopt and why, of all places, India?? The truth is, I don't have a great logical explanation. That's just the seed God planted! 

 I have always heard about God the Father, but God the farmer is a new realization for me. Actually, I just kind of realized it about 2 days ago.  Many of my family & friends already know that Erin & I are high school sweethearts and always wanted to adopt "in theory", since we were teenagers. Well In 2002, we were engaged to marry and we felt led to sponsor a child through compassion international. So we chose a 5 year old girl from Bolivia South America named Celina! Now I've never really thought this was significant with adoption but it absolutely is! Our Neena is almost 5 and the names are pretty similar Celina, Neena! But the main thing is the seed! The seed God planted for adoption & orphans started long ago. The past 12 years we've written to Celina, sent gifts, and even went to Bolivia to visit her & her family in 2009 (which happens to be when Neena was born in India- it's blowing my mind!!). That seed God planted was growing! He was watering and nurturing that seed to grow! Now Celina is almost 17 & will graduate from compassion program this year. And as our precious Celina leaves our nest, Neena will enter! 

God is the Farmer who plants seeds, causes them to grow & germinate at just the right time. Then before you realize it, you start to see a bloom! That thing you've always felt deep inside, that God dream you've been longing for, the thing you've been waiting and waiting and waiting for...... it will bloom!

One thing we have always prayed for, not knowing how it would play into the new seed analogy, is that God would plant a seed in Neena's heart for a family! all this time waiting for her, I have no doubt the farmer has been diligently planting and grooming that seed in her own heart! 

I don't have much of a green thumb but hopefully my life is fertile soil for the Farmer to grow many more things. But for today I am thankful for the blooms I see through this adoption! 

I would encourage you that if you have a heart for orphans or adoption, to think about supporting an orphanage or volunteering at a local orphanage OR sponsor a child! I have personal experience with compassion international and it has been wonderful! 

Feed the seed God planted in you!