Wednesday, November 10, 2010

Tomorrow is the Big Day ....& God's Redeeming Love!

Well, tomorrow is the big day. Tomorrow we will find out if we will be able to travel this weekend to bring Noah Nigus home. If we are given approval, we will actually be leaving Friday! Good thing I never unpacked our suitcases :) The emotions I am experiencing right now are all too familiar. Yep, I had those same feelings almost two years ago, as we waited to hear if we had passed court for the second time and would be able to travel to bring home Caleb. They are hard feelings to describe, but basically are a mixture of excitement, anxiousness, nervousness and fear. That about sums it up :)


In the most recent turn of events, the embassy again rejected our case "as is" and asked for the judge to basically "re-approve" our case, which she did today. Though initially there was a paperwork mistake made, the most recent delays have been because of more stringent investigations by the embassy. They are really going over everything with a fine tooth comb, it seems. This isn't necessarily a bad thing, but it inevitably will cause delays.

In Noah Nigus' case, the circumstances surrounding how he came into orphanage care complicated his case. Often times, adoptive parents do not feel that they should share the details of their child's history, and I very much respect that decision. We have always been open to sharing about our son' history, for whatever reason. Maybe it has something to do with me being adopted, and always knowing about my birthparents, and being okay with that? I am not sure. Anyway, we know nothing about Caleb's first 6 months of life, other than he was abandoned at around 6 months of age and found by a police officer. To be honest, we did not know many details at all about Noah's history until just recently when all the paperwork issues arose.

Now that we know more, it makes this incredible opportunity for us to bring this child into our lives even more special ( I really don't think that word can adequately describe how we feel about it). What we do know is that Noah Nigus was living on the streets with his mother before she died. This alone is heartbreaking, to think that this family had no home, no where for them to rest, to be warm and safe. No where for his birthmother to even die. I wonder, often, if he watched his birthmother die. The Bible study group I am in is currently doing a 6 week study with the Book, The Hole In Our Gospel by Richard Stearns. I have mentioned this book before, and I will take just a moment to mention it again- it is incredible, and you really just need to read it. Seriously. In the book, Rich Stearns visits with a family of three boys in Uganda who had to bury their own parents who died of AIDS. They also cared for them before and during their death. While Rich Stearns is meeting with these three precious boys, he asks one of the boys if he has a Bible, to which they boy responds by running and getting his Bible. Rich then asks him if he can read it, to which the boy responds, "I love to read the book of John, because it says that Jesus loves the children". At this point, Rich can do nothing but weep at hearing this boy who has lost so much speak with joy about Jesus' love for him, and at the same time realizing, how he, Rich Stearns, had pretended not to know about the suffering that exists in the world. Every time I read this part, I weep too. And then I think about Noah Nigus, and I can do nothing but cry more, as I think about what he has endured in his 4 short years on this earth. But joy comes shortly after my sadness, because despite all his losses and all the grief this boy has experienced, soon and very soon, God's redeeming love is going to allow him to have a family here on this earth, and to one day have a heavenly family for all eternity.

And it is only because of God's redeeming love that in our darkest times, in the midst of our sin, our despair, our loneliness, that God sent his son to redeem us, to bring us into his family and to call us sons and daughters! To show us the unconditional love of a perfect heavenly father. Praise God! You see, that is what is at the core of adoption- redeeming love.

Prayerfully tomorrow I will post an update that we will be leaving very soon!

2 comments:

Nina said...

Well, I cried through this post. :) I am overwhelmed by God's goodness, and how He makes all things beautiful. I love it. Oh how I hope for good news tomorrow!

Darlene said...

hoping to hear good news. i've been praying daily that the "tie ups" would dissolve and you can go get little Noah and that God is keeping Him well in His care. Please post the current status and I continue to join with you in prayer. blessings, darlene grieco from Gabrielle's Gift