In the desert

Adoption is hard. Waiting is difficult. Seeing your child and then leaving them for an undetermined amount of time is excruciating. But I believe that she is ours. Not because I created this story but because I FIRMLY believe God did. And if He wrote it then I can trust Him to bring it to completion. I LOVE the lyrics to this song. While we sang them last night I could see myself in each verse. In the desert, the trials, the battle and the harvest.

Also, click HERE to read what Jamie Ivey has to say about meeting your children and then having to leave them. OH, how I needed this TODAY! Tough day....so thankful God used her in this exact moment. She said it beautifully. Thanks Jamie!!!!


The Desert Song by Hillsong

This is my prayer in the desert
When all that's within me feels dry
This is my prayer in my hunger and need
My God is the God who provides

This is my prayer in the fire
In weakness, or trial, or pain
There is a faith proved of more worth than gold
So refine me Lord through the flame

I will bring praise
I will bring praise
No weapon formed against me shall remain
I will rejoice
I will declare
God is my victory and He is here

This is my prayer in the battle
When triumph is still on it's way
I am a conquerer and co-heir with Christ
So firm on His promise I'll stand

I will bring praise
I will bring praise
No weapon formed against me shall remain
I will rejoice
I will declare
God is my victory and He is here

All of my life in every season
You are still God
I have a reason to sing
I have a reason to worship

I will bring praise
I will bring praise
No weapon formed against me shall remain
I will rejoice
I will declare
God is my victory and He is here

This is my prayer in the harvest
Where favour and providence flow
I know I'm filled to be emptied again
The seed I've recieved I will sow

Amsterdam

Hey Friends! I am going to try and re-cap our days in Ethiopia. I will do a post a day, sharing pics and entries from my journal for that day....sorry if this is boring...just want to have a record of our time :)

January 29, 2011

We spent a day in Amsterdam on our way to Addis Ababa. In my journal I had written these highlights of Amsterdam.

- Small hotel room- 2 twin beds pushed together

- frites with cheese ( Cheese sauce was NASTY)

-canal tour- being so sleepy I could barely keep my eyes open

- Rembrandt museum - prodigal son drawings

- scones and coffee at cafe

- going to lobby for Internet to email to let everyone know we had made it

- being so excited but so nervous about arriving in Ethiopia

- sitting in the oldest pub in Holland- with an overwhelming awareness of being gone- the unknown we were about to experience

CHEESE...... my favorite food!!!

Rembrandt Museum

We had a wonderful day and night in Amsterdam. But the entire time I was so aware of the fact that this was not a normal vacation. Our purpose was different. We would meet our daughter in 2 days. We didn't know how long we would be in Ethiopia. The details of our journey were unknown. We prayed for a miracle...that God would move our case quickly so that we could take placement of our daughter in Ethiopia.

****Happy 8th month anniversary to our sweet daughter. We never dreamed we would be apart from you when you turned this age but we will be together soon. We love you!!!

longing

We have been home almost a week....and we are missing our sweet girl! We will eventually blog about our time in Ethiopia....this week we have been battling jet-lag! Getting on the plane in Ethiopia without her was so hard. But, we know she is in good hands....hoping the day we go back to get her will be very soon.

Back Home

A couple nights ago, Anna and I landed back in Memphis. Just the two of us.

It's obviously not ideal, but there's a little bit of gladness that things have returned to normalcy. After much prayer and some good advice, we thought being home would make the waiting process a little easier for us and for Lucy. So we wait here.

The good news is we are every day one step closer to when "normalcy" will have a entirely different meaning for us. We are closer than we have ever been. Now we wait and pray with great expectation that the God who started this process is out to finish it.

Thanks guys. For everything.

Russ and Anna are coming home for a little while.

We will be flying back in to Memphis Sunday night. We won't have Lucy with us this time.

Nothing has changed here in Ethiopia regarding our adoption so we feel (and have been advised) to travel back home for a bit. We are so sad to leave Lucy, but we were not getting to see her very much and the short times we were sometimes made it even a little harder.

So, we will get into Memphis Sunday night. We still believe that God will work this out....and that the next time we travel to Addis we will bring her home with us. We are uncertain of the timeframe for that happening but praying it will be quick. We are trusting in God to complete this work He started so long ago. Thanks so much for all of your prayers and support. We have had a wonderful time...and love this country very much. We had hoped things would have moved along by now but that is not the case. This story is bigger than us and we have learned so much. Lucy is in good hands here but we can't wait to have her with us. Thanks again for loving us.

Surrender

Hey friends!!! Words cannot express how thankful we are for you
praying and loving on us while we are in Ethiopia. We must say things
are not moving as quickly as we had hoped. What we are learning is to
trust God even when things are not as we would choose them. You would
think we would have learned this by now but nonetheless we are
re-learning it.. I think this is always the case for me :)

Waiting can be so hard. Monday was a hard day for both of us. We
realized we both had a little bitterness in our hearts. We truly
believed that our case would be final by now and we could take
placement with her here in Addis. We believed that God would move
mountains and this would happen. It is Wednesday here and we have not taken placement yet. BUT that does not mean that God did not move
mountains or that He isn't doing so right now.

We have spent the day in prayer and it is been a wonderful day.
Contentment and Gratitude are the two words that I have been
meditating on today. Yes, I pray that our case is final soon, that
she can stay at the guesthouse with us, and that we will get a quick
embassy date. Yes, I pray that by this weekend God will give us
direction on what to do about staying.

But today, my prayer is that I would be content. Thanking God for all
His gifts.

I am reading Calm My Anxious Heart and this prayer was in the chapter I read today.

Lord Jesus, I offer you:
All That I Am
All That I Have
All That I Do
All That I Suffer
Now and Forever

I added to that list: All That I Do Not Yet Have

Because this is His story. It has been all along. I offer this
story, her life, our lives, to Him once again.

We will make some decisions this weekend about staying or returning
home. Either way it is good and part of His plan. Thank you for
loving us. As you pray for us...pray for the other families waiting
for referrals, court, embassy appointments, etc.

We love you guys!

-Anna

Pray and Fast

Now that Russ & Anna have passed court, they have entered into a period of undetermined waiting. There are some hold ups right now with the adoption process as a whole (not related to them specifically), and they don't know when those might end.

Tomorrow, February 9th a number of us are going to fast and pray for this "obstacle" to be over soon. Many of you know the details, but I'm not supposed to put those details on the blog.

So pray...

• That the adoption process will be complete very soon
• That Lucy will bond quickly with Russ & Anna when the time comes
• That they will be well & stay well - both Russ & Anna have been sick

Fast...

• If you're not comfortable with fasting food, fast from something else that is a common part of your day....i.e., tv, internet, etc.
• Every time you get hungry, or think about watching tv, or getting on the internet, pray instead.

Let's do this as a community tomorrow!

Pictures!

In Amsterdam during their layover.

With their driver in Ethiopia.

Hearts beating, outside the orphanage, about to meet Lucy!

They passed court!

We had the joy of talking to Russ & Anna on the phone yesterday. They are doing well. They really love Addis Ababa. They said there is all kinds of great food to eat and a lot of incredibly rich history.

Visits with Lucy have been good. She is long but so tiny! They are not supposed to be bonding with her right now since the adoption is not totally complete. The hour they get to visit her at the orphanage is when the caregivers are feeding the babies and putting them down for a nap. Anna gave Lucy her bottle yesterday and put her down for a nap. Russ had the joy of doing that the day before. It is a sweet time, but hard because they still have to keep a certain distance from their beautiful daughter.

Russ and Anna went to court this morning around 11:00 their time. It went as it was supposed to, so half of the legal process is done. Anna said it was very emotional to hear that their adoption can't be reversed! They are going to tour 3 government run orphanages today which will be interesting but also hard. One of them will be the one Lucy was in for a while.

Keep praying that the obstacles blocking their path will be moved quickly!

-Merissa Rambo

Visit #2

Russ & Anna were able to see Lucy again yesterday, and she was calmer this time. Russ held her and she fell asleep in his arms. Please pray for God to calm His child, Lucy, and for her to adjust to her soon-to-be new life and parents.. She is very attached to her caregivers, which shows how good she's been taken care of as a baby! They are hoping for some positive movement in the investigation, so continue to pray that God will work out all obstacles. They had no internet for a while yesterday and electricity is sometimes sporadic. Anna's hairdryer will not work in Ethiopia and everyone that knows Anna and her hair issues, understands that she will be a tangled mess by the time she reaches the U.S.! (quoted directly from Anna's mom - I don't want to get in trouble ;)

They are very grateful for the continued prayers of all of you!