How exciting to be granted permission from the Chinese government to post photos of our Rosalie on the blog! Isn't she just precious? Oh, we can't wait to meet her and tell her in our newly acquired Mandarin phrase, "We love you and we are your forever Daddy and Mommy!" We are going to have the opportunity to meet her very soon!
Do you ever wait and wait on the Lord and then when He starts moving you want to yell, "WAIT?" Well, as much as we are eager to bring home our daughter, Rosalie, we are reeling in a recent call we received from our agency. Due to US Immigration regulations, we were told we still had significant home study updates to do before traveling and that we could expect travel to be close to the end of September. God, however, has other plans. These regulations literally were lifted right before our very eyes and we no longer have to update our home study. We are being told to be ready for travel by the first of September. We are awaiting our travel itinerary and will keep you updated. Peter and I are the first applicants to be free from this regulation and we are so grateful to our Lord, Jesus that paperwork is just about complete. We are in the process of applying for visas and finalizing Rosalie's paperwork with US Immigration.
It feels like a dream but we are really going!! There is still a lot to do and we are asking for a few very specific prayers for our family:
Please pray for the safety of us as well as the safety of our 4 children , Kathleen, Genevieve, Margaret Ann, and Sam, who will be staying behind here in Florence. The swine flu is causing MANY quarantines throughout every province in China. If in the event our hotel is quarantined, we will be forced to remain as long as the government tells us we will have to stay- all at our expense! I refuse to think about this too much as Satan brings fear and uneasiness. I am simply reminded to "cast our cares upon the Lord for He cares for us" and to give Him our burdens for His "yoke is easy and His burden is light!" Pray that we will not get any symptoms and will stay hydrated and healthy throughout the three provinces we will be visiting.
Please pray for our finances! The recent government and orphanage increase in fees is adding up to $7000 OVER what we were told would be the maximum funding we would need to secure. God owns ALL we have so we have committed this entire situation to HIM. We refuse to let this hold us back from answering the clear call God has made for us to bring Rosalie to America. This is a faith walk and we are excited to see how God will meet our need! Our trust is in Him and Him alone!
Please pray for Rosalie! She is 5 years old and is going to be taken away from all she has ever known as normal. We have counseled with many families who have adopted older children and the transition is really not as bad as some may think. The orphanages and foster families do a wonderful job of preparing the children for their new family and home but there is only so much you can tell a 5 year old to prepare her for a new family, language, and culture. Please pray for God to give her absolute trust in us from the start. Pray for us to release any pre-conceived ideas of what she is like or what the experience will be like and allow God to show us clearly how we can best meet her needs and love her unconditionally.
Last, please pray for us to have opportunities to share the gospel of Christ. We will take along some Jesus films with us and have been told that we are free to hand those out as long as we say "this is a famous American film." Chinese love American movies (sad to say!) and long for as many as they can see. With an estimated 100 million Christians in China and 1 billion, 200 million unbelievers, there WILL be interest in these videos. I simply can not say how much my heart is burdened for the gospel in Southeast Asia!
We will keep you updated as we hear more. Thank you for being a part of our prayer team and for supporting us with your prayers and encouragement!
In the joy of the Lord as our strength,
Nancy, for the Kennebecks
2 comments:
Yeah!!!! I am going to commit to you and to the Lord to pray these things for you everyday until she is in your arms. Thank you so much for sharing your journey with us!
I was THRILLED to find an update about Rosalie! I check the blog daily but today almost skipped over it figuring there wasn't anything new...what an AWESOME suprise to see her beautiful face! Next month!?! YAY! Please Please Please let me know what I can do to help, other than being on my knees in prayer for you all, which I am...if I can help at all with the girls, and Sam...watering the plants, taking out the trash...whatever, let me know! Thank you for your willingness and faithfulness...I love you and yours!
REJOICING IN HIM!!!
Post a Comment