Our referral was officially received on Monday, January 9th!
To be honest, we had found out their names and ages on December 23rd. You should have seen me - I was almost doing cartwheels in our livingroom after that phone call. What a wonderful Christmas gift! We celebrated by going to a Wisconsin style Friday night fish fry.
In the referral, Rey Marvens, who will be 3 years old in March, is described as a very outgoing little boy who loves to cuddle. He is currently attending pre-school and enjoys playing with other children. His gentle smile just makes me want to hug him!
Rey's younger sister, Dorothy Leila, will be 18 months old in March. She is a little more reserved and loves her housemother. This is great news! She is walking and also loves to play with other little ones.
Both are very healthy and growing well for their age! Praise God!
We really don't know how long the process will take to complete until we can bring them home. I would hope they will be home within the next 18 months, so please hang in there with us!
I'm already dreaming of pulling up carpet, knocking down walls, painting, putting together furniture and the airplane ride home from Haiti with two beautiful children that will change our lives forever. Wow!
Takes my breath away.
Thank you for joining us in this journey of love!
Wednesday, January 18, 2012
Sunday, November 6, 2011
Orphan Sunday
My prayer today:
Abba Father, I love you and give you thanks for first loving me.
Thank you for adopting me into your family as your child.
My heart cries out to you on behalf of all the chidren that remain without families to love and care for them. Keep them safe - physically, emotionally, and spiritually. Show yourself as Father to them. Hold them close and speak into their spirits that they are loved and wanted. Give them hope for a future.
Continue to give us strength as we walk out the adoption of our children and bring many more families along with us.
Show me how to love more fully.
Show me how to demonstrate this love to others.
I open my heart to you Lord. Speak to me. Guide me.
Thank you Jesus!
Tuesday, November 1, 2011
National Adoption Month!
Have you ever celebrated adoption?
Through the years I have observed several families be transformed by adoption. I have seen their minds, hearts, lives, marriages, & families embrace the life adoption offers.
I still need to ask myself, 'Have I ever truly celebrated? Have I honored adoption in a way that marks it as special? Have I allowed the spirit of adoption to transform me?'
As my husband and I have started our walk through the adoption process, I have realized that I have much to learn about how I represent adoption & celebrate it with others. One way that we can honor all those involved in creating a forever family is to use appropriate terms when talking about adoption issues.
I always want to honor my children's birth parents and using the terms birth mother & birth father instead of 'real' honors the relationship that they will always have with my children - this is true even if the birth parents are no longer living or we do not know who they are. I desire to celebrate my children's beginnings!
Another way that I can honor our children & their journey through adoption is to honor their birth country. Haiti is rich in history, art, & culture. The people are hard working, generous, & they have persevered through many trials.
During my first trip to Haiti, back in the summer of 1996, I fell in love. I remember looking out the airplane window as we made our approach into Port au Prince. WOW! In that moment I felt at home. Haiti and its' people are a treasure that the Lord has given to us. When I contemplate the magnitude of this gift, I can't help but to celebrate!
How will you honor & celebrate adoption this month???
Through the years I have observed several families be transformed by adoption. I have seen their minds, hearts, lives, marriages, & families embrace the life adoption offers.
I still need to ask myself, 'Have I ever truly celebrated? Have I honored adoption in a way that marks it as special? Have I allowed the spirit of adoption to transform me?'
As my husband and I have started our walk through the adoption process, I have realized that I have much to learn about how I represent adoption & celebrate it with others. One way that we can honor all those involved in creating a forever family is to use appropriate terms when talking about adoption issues.
I always want to honor my children's birth parents and using the terms birth mother & birth father instead of 'real' honors the relationship that they will always have with my children - this is true even if the birth parents are no longer living or we do not know who they are. I desire to celebrate my children's beginnings!
Another way that I can honor our children & their journey through adoption is to honor their birth country. Haiti is rich in history, art, & culture. The people are hard working, generous, & they have persevered through many trials.
During my first trip to Haiti, back in the summer of 1996, I fell in love. I remember looking out the airplane window as we made our approach into Port au Prince. WOW! In that moment I felt at home. Haiti and its' people are a treasure that the Lord has given to us. When I contemplate the magnitude of this gift, I can't help but to celebrate!
How will you honor & celebrate adoption this month???
Thursday, October 27, 2011
Why Adoption? Plan A or Plan B?
Simply, adoption has always been God's plan A for our family.
That's not to say that we pursued adoption from day 1, but to acknowledge that the Lord's plans for our lives are perfect. We did 'try' for biological children without success. Part of me always knew that adoption was going to be God's way of forming our forever family. Because of this, we did not pursue any fertility treatments after our first year of this 'trying'.
For those of you who have been through this initial phase, you are familiar with all of the feelings that accompany these efforts. Even though we immediately turned our hearts towards adoption, we still needed some time to solidify our relationship & heal before moving forward.
Admittedly, I was ready long before my husband to leap into the world of adoption. He is much more methodical & introspective and God bless him for this. I believe we are moving with the exact timing the Lord has for our family.
Through the preparation time, I have done a lot of research. Of course, I hit the Internet pretty hard looking through numerous adoption agencies and all the specifics about the process. In retrospect, nothing prepares you for the ups and downs of living through the process itself.
One source that has given me the resolve to continue on this daily walk is the word of God. Have you ever looked up how many times the word 'orphan' is referenced in the Bible?? Wow. In the beginning of this journey I wanted to search out the Biblical foundation for adoption and discovered that someone else had already done a great Bible study on this very topic.
Imagine . . . God had spoken to someone else on a topic that is so close to His heart!!!! I'm chuckling at this point because of course He had. Adoption is so close to His heart because our adoption into the Kingdom of God as His children was His plan.
These scriptures are only a glimmer of the Father's heart for adoption. I'm sure I'll sprinkle in more as this journey continues, but if you are interested in searching this out for yourself I would encourage you to visit the Home for Good Foundation website @ www.hfgf.org. The bible study is a free download and is sure to encourage and deepen your understanding of the Father's heart for you and the children of this world without a family.
Be prepared - it may also change your life for the good!
God bless you as you continue your own personal journey in life. Thank you again for joining us in ours.
That's not to say that we pursued adoption from day 1, but to acknowledge that the Lord's plans for our lives are perfect. We did 'try' for biological children without success. Part of me always knew that adoption was going to be God's way of forming our forever family. Because of this, we did not pursue any fertility treatments after our first year of this 'trying'.
For those of you who have been through this initial phase, you are familiar with all of the feelings that accompany these efforts. Even though we immediately turned our hearts towards adoption, we still needed some time to solidify our relationship & heal before moving forward.
Admittedly, I was ready long before my husband to leap into the world of adoption. He is much more methodical & introspective and God bless him for this. I believe we are moving with the exact timing the Lord has for our family.
Through the preparation time, I have done a lot of research. Of course, I hit the Internet pretty hard looking through numerous adoption agencies and all the specifics about the process. In retrospect, nothing prepares you for the ups and downs of living through the process itself.
One source that has given me the resolve to continue on this daily walk is the word of God. Have you ever looked up how many times the word 'orphan' is referenced in the Bible?? Wow. In the beginning of this journey I wanted to search out the Biblical foundation for adoption and discovered that someone else had already done a great Bible study on this very topic.
Imagine . . . God had spoken to someone else on a topic that is so close to His heart!!!! I'm chuckling at this point because of course He had. Adoption is so close to His heart because our adoption into the Kingdom of God as His children was His plan.
Yet to all who received Him, to those who believed in His name, He gave the right to become children of God - children born not of natural descent, nor of human decision or a husband's will, but born of God. John 1:12-13
How great is the love the Father has lavished on us, that we should be called children of God! And that is what we are! 1 John 3:1
These scriptures are only a glimmer of the Father's heart for adoption. I'm sure I'll sprinkle in more as this journey continues, but if you are interested in searching this out for yourself I would encourage you to visit the Home for Good Foundation website @ www.hfgf.org. The bible study is a free download and is sure to encourage and deepen your understanding of the Father's heart for you and the children of this world without a family.
Be prepared - it may also change your life for the good!
God bless you as you continue your own personal journey in life. Thank you again for joining us in ours.
Wednesday, October 26, 2011
Welcome
Hello All! Welcome to the Magner Family adoption journey!
I hope that this blog will serve to keep all of our family & friends up to date on our adoption status and enable everyone to engage with us as we journey to bring our children home.
The BIG update is that our dossier was sent to Haiti on September 22nd! Yeah God! The dossier is the finished product of over a year of our "paperwork pregnancy". This is certainly cause for celebration.
We are now officially waiting for our referral. This is when we will hear the details about our children for the first time. Hang on to your chairs if you haven't heard - we may be adopting up to three children (all siblings)! Yes, at the same time.
At this point, we do not know how long it may take to receive our referral. You may hear the cries of rejoicing all over the world when we receive this news!!!!
For now, I am busying myself with beginning to learn Haitian Creole. I have always struggled with language learning, but think I'm doing pretty well. I'm using Pimsleur audio system. I am very impressed with my language acquisition at this point and I'm actually having fun. I can now successfully ask myself , 'Are you an American?' and also tell myself, 'I understand Haitian Creole a little'. Aren't you impressed?
I think Mocha, my beloved pooch, is learning along with me since I listen to the Cd's on the computer & walk around carrying on conversations with myself in Creole. I wonder if dog commands are part of the "Basic Haitian Creole" first 10 lessons??
My goal for learning the language is to be able to understand the needs of our children both physically and emotionally and then be able to respond with the support they need from a parent. I want to be able to understand their heart. It makes me cry already to think of how much it is possible to love children I don't even know yet.
Please join in prayer with us that our children would remain safe and healthy during this entire process.
Thank you for joining us on this journey of faith and hope for the future!
I hope that this blog will serve to keep all of our family & friends up to date on our adoption status and enable everyone to engage with us as we journey to bring our children home.
The BIG update is that our dossier was sent to Haiti on September 22nd! Yeah God! The dossier is the finished product of over a year of our "paperwork pregnancy". This is certainly cause for celebration.
We are now officially waiting for our referral. This is when we will hear the details about our children for the first time. Hang on to your chairs if you haven't heard - we may be adopting up to three children (all siblings)! Yes, at the same time.
At this point, we do not know how long it may take to receive our referral. You may hear the cries of rejoicing all over the world when we receive this news!!!!
For now, I am busying myself with beginning to learn Haitian Creole. I have always struggled with language learning, but think I'm doing pretty well. I'm using Pimsleur audio system. I am very impressed with my language acquisition at this point and I'm actually having fun. I can now successfully ask myself , 'Are you an American?' and also tell myself, 'I understand Haitian Creole a little'. Aren't you impressed?
I think Mocha, my beloved pooch, is learning along with me since I listen to the Cd's on the computer & walk around carrying on conversations with myself in Creole. I wonder if dog commands are part of the "Basic Haitian Creole" first 10 lessons??
My goal for learning the language is to be able to understand the needs of our children both physically and emotionally and then be able to respond with the support they need from a parent. I want to be able to understand their heart. It makes me cry already to think of how much it is possible to love children I don't even know yet.
Please join in prayer with us that our children would remain safe and healthy during this entire process.
Thank you for joining us on this journey of faith and hope for the future!
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)