Our Family

I cant believe its October. I have been here since May. I don't know when we are coming home. Sometimes that can be a terrifying and suffocating feeling. Not only can we not leave until the Tanzanian process is over but then we have to go up against the laws and regulations of my own country! I recently learned visitor visas are not often granted to adopted children, which means that either I go through a lengthy process of applications, interviews, fingerprints, and lots and lots of $$$ or stay here for 2 years until at which point I guess I will be seen as a fit parent and can then return to the United States with my baby. This may help explain why there are 147 MILLION orphans around the world because its like everyone wants to make it as difficult as possible! 

I miss my family and friends so much and its so incredibly hard to not have people know Neema. She is so much a part of me and has helped change me so much and I want people to know us...the people we are and the people God is molding us to be. I was recently reading about Naomi and Ruth and how they were not biologically mother and daughter but about how they loved each other. How when Naomi told Ruth and Orpah to turn around, Ruth would not leave her. Neema and I have this ongoing dialogue with each other where one of us says to the other "Don't leave me...." and the other says "EVER!" Its so precious. But ever since falling in love with someone so much I have started relating my every feeling for her to how Jesus loves me. And how he won't leave me....EVER! (Reference from Ruth 1:16-18)

So when I get sad and lonely for my parents, and my Will and Sims, and my wonderful

 friends....I cling to this amazing life God has provided for me here. We are incredibly blessed. Just last Sunday I was overtaken by the love and community of our church. Such diversity....different nationalities, different languages, different skin colors but all loving Jesus and all loving Neema and me. It is truly the body. We have people checking in on us, asking about the court process, feeding my soul when im tired or need prayer, holding Neema, people speaking to her in english and swahili! It is so amazing to be able to walk alongside others who are in their own valleys and peaks! There is such a spirit of humility and vulnerability among the members of our church and it encourages and gives me hope and strength. When God created families, he had a much bigger vision than just our own mothers, fathers, brothers and sisters. Of course he did, his thoughts are always bigger than our thoughts. He has designed it that we would have mothers, fathers, brothers, and sisters all over the world. And I am t

ruly thankful for that.

Neema just being cute! :)