"Let us hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering, for He who promised is faithful" Hebrews 10:23
It's now been over a year since we saw two beaming grins that we thought we would call Schwochs. A year of loss, grieving, hope and trust. We knew a referral would be coming soon, our case worker had been giving us play by plays as much as she could from not being on the ground in Ethiopia. I woke up on a Wednesday morning to prepare for a day long continuing education course and Luke woke up earlier than normal to drop our sweet pup off at his parents for a stay. We woke with excitement that day with a trip to Seattle and Portland just a workday away. Summer didn't really include travel as we thought we would be traveling to Ethiopia so our little getaway was something we had been looking forward to. Little did we know we would also be getting an email from our case worker letting us know to call her ASAP.
September 21, 2016. The day we were matched with two little ladies! It was hard to imagine bringing one child home now that we had begun preparing for two, but we were open to what the Lord had for us and knew the chances of two were slim to none. Sally & Sadie opened the door for two and we are overwhelmed and joyful to have accepted a new referral within the last couple of months. Our little getaway turned into a true "babymoon" and we spent it in awe of God's faithfulness. He walked with us every step up the way and carried us when we didn't think we could take another step. "But I will sing of Your strength; I will sing aloud of Your steadfast love in the morning. For You have been to me a fortress and a refuge in the day of my distress. O, my strength, I will sing praises to You, for You, O God, are my fortress, the God who shows me steadfast love." Psalm 59:16-17
- a trust without borders
- pray for Ethiopia as a whole which has been under a state of emergency for about a month due to anti-government protests that will last for 6 months total which you can read more about here:
- pray for the girls physical bodies that they remain healthy and grow to the best of their ability considering their current state
- pray for all of those caring for them for the time being
- pray for all of those that will be involved in our case that they work with urgency and have the girls and our best interest at heart
- pray for our hearts that we continue to be faithful and trusting in our waiting. At this point we are almost all waited out!
- pray for girls that they prepare to become Schwochs, and that even now they know how loved and adored they are by their creator and us
- finally pray for Sally, Sadie & their mama Birkutan who will forever be in our hearts and our prayers
November is national adoption month. When we made the choice over four years ago to initially grow our family through adoption and step into its realms we had no idea what this journey would look like. We knew it would be long and we knew it would be hard, but honestly not this long or this hard. The longer I walk with Christ the more I am in awe of how our spiritual adoption is knitted into the gospel. "He predestined us to adoption as sons through Jesus Christ to Himself according to the purpose of His will "Ephesians 1:5 Our call to advocate for the fatherless has been a compilation of beauty, pain, joy, loss and redemption and we know He is nowhere close to done with it. We are still walking through the fire and we know once home our journey has really just begun but are celebrating each step of the way. Thanks for all of you who have loved us, walked with us and prayed for us on our rollercoaster of a journey, especially when it got hard and those who will continue to.
All our love,
Luke & Jen Schwoch
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