In Case You Were Wondering...

Here is the latest on Christine's adoption:  a week and a half ago we went into the government office to check on the status and they told us there is another family who is in the exact situation as us (wanting to adopt a known, older child) and that she wants to "advocate" for us both at the same time, so she is waiting to get that child's letter- just like the one Christine had to write.  Then she also told us that they need a document stating she is a genocide survivor. These come from the village/area you were born in, which meant a town 3 hours away from us.  Grandma Julia (my mom) was flying in the next day for a visit, so without much choice because we didn't want more delay, the day after Grandma arrived we took a family trip for a few days.

Miraculously we were able to get the document we needed within just two days time.  Thank God for that- especially because we needed to get back to Kigali to get ready for a mission team that arrived last Saturday.  We took the document in on Friday and were told, Oh, there's more documents you need.  A letter from her orphanage, a letter from a doctor, and a letter from her (consenting to the adoption).  So, now we are working on those.  And the clock keeps ticking away the days until we leave...  Only 5 weeks!?

On Monday our son Michael went in to the US Embassy for his visa application to come with us to the US this summer.  We were all heart broken when they denied the request.  They place a great burden of proof on applicants: you must prove that you have undeniable ties to your home country that will compel you to return & not immigrate to the US.  Yup, that's how it is & the letter we presented was not enough to convince them.  I keep thinking about it everyday, all day, I think about how could we write them a letter to help them understand that he is our son & the reason he will return to Rwanda is because we are returning to Rwanda.  If we reapply we have to pay the visa fee all over again.  Please pray for us all with wisdom in this & faith to believe that God can make a way where there seems to be no way.

Mike (Sr.) has been sick with a nasty chest cough for over 2 weeks now.  It's one of those things were you keep expecting it to get better the next day, but it never does.  He gave up today & went to get some antibiotic from the pharmacy.  I thank God that our family has been relatively sickness free in our time here.

It's been nice to have my mom here, though she leaves tomorrow after only a 9 day visit.  Time has gone by so fast.  I can't believe it's almost Easter too.  Again, as with other holidays, it doesn't "feel" like it, but I did bring Easter baskets and an egg dye kit with us, so we will keep a little tradition with us here (and Grandma did bring some Easter candy too- he he!)

After 2 frustrating weeks of "it'll be fixed tomorrow" our Suzuki (the small blue car) is finally seeming to run fine, and we hope that the person who expressed interest in buying it will follow through with some money soon!  We have been renting a styling ride while the team is here though--  Nate loves the blue color, Michael (Jr.) loves the sound system, Christine thinks it's cool, while KaLia & I just cringed & said "noooooooo!" when it showed up in our driveway.  And I think Mike (Sr.) and I just laughed too.  Yeah, it's pretty funny.  ;)

Aw, yeah, dat's how we roll!  (It says "Jabez's Prayer" on the mirror & mud flap, by the way.)

Thank you for keeping us in your prayers.  Things are really busy right now with the team, but great things are going on.  I will post more on the TTI blog soon I hope-- oh yeah, my computer crashed too.  Not sure if my data or programs will be able to be recovered, and a little scared to have it worked on here...  (where people profess to know what they're doing but sometimes they don't- case in point would be the Suzuki....)

That's our crazy life right now- God bless it!

Lisa

 

Keep Praying...

Christine & I went to the government office where adoptions are handled today.  We had hoped they had discussed her case at their meeting last Friday & we would have a positive answer.  When we got there we were informed that the meeting was not held last Friday, but she said they would have their meeting this Friday.  Then she asked that Christine write a letter explaining her whole life story and why it is that she should be adopted, so this could be added to her case.

This is not an easy thing to ask of her.  Some of her past is painful & she is reticent to revisit it, even in writing.  Please pray for Christine to be able to write this letter that has been asked of her, and for God to give her the strength & wisdom to write what needs to be said.

Please also pray that they would indeed have the meeting this Friday & discuss this case, and that God would give us favor & a favorable answer from them.  After this Friday the country will be getting ready to go into a time of Remembrance, as the anniversary of the beginning of the 1994 genocide is April 7th.  I am sure they will not be having meetings during the days before and after that.

Thank you for believing with us.  I know our God is great & he can do anything!  I have great news to post on the Ten Talents blog today too...

God Bless You,
Lisa

So Close

Last Thursday we visited the office of the person who makes the decisions in regards to adoptions here in Rwanda.  I'm talking about the person who can say "yes, you can adopt" or "no, you can't".  She told us that our paperwork had been reviewed & they thought it was OK, but it "was not official yet".  Christine was with us & the woman asked Christine all about her life story.  When our time there was done she told us that she wants to approve the adoption, but this is outside of how things are normally done in Rwanda, and she would need to take it to her colleagues for approval as a "special case".

You see, normally Rwanda does not allow parents to choose the child they will adopt.  It is a safeguard for the children that the government picks the child for the parents.  While we understand this, we also know that God can bring a child together with parents sometimes as well.

Please be praying for us to receive the approval for Christine's adoption soon.  We are hoping she will present it to her colleagues this Friday.  We would just like to have it done, so we can move forward with the other necessary paperwork to make this all official.

Thank You!
Lisa

A Unique Family

I've been thinking about this blog post for some time (and now I realize it is quite some time as I see how long it's been since I posted an update here- yikes)!  Some of you have wondered about Michael, our son, how did he become a part of our family?
Last year when we were submitting our adoption paperwork to Rwanda I shared with you the background story on our daughter Christine.  (Update:  our paperwork is still waiting in the processing office here.  I have heard that a dossier a few files back from ours was being handled recently, so someone should have ours in their hand.  Please pray for this to get finished & approved quickly as it's less than three months now until we head back to the US)!

Woven into Christine's story are the details about our son Michael as well.  By the time we were able to get the adoption process started for Michael he was already too old (16 years) to be considered eligible for adoption by the US government.  But, our history with Michael starts long before he was 16 years old.

My husband first met this young boy in Rwanda in 2004.  He was 10 years old and his given name was not Michael, but Melkiolo.  If you listen to someone in Rwanda pronounce that name, you might not have any idea what name they were actually trying to tell you.  (Have you ever met anyone named Melkiolo, especially when the k is prounounced "ch" and the l like "r"?)  Mike could not get his name after several attempts, but the name sounded similar enough to Michael that he just decided he would call this boy Michael.  All the kids loved Michael (McColm) so you can imagine that Melkiolo was proud to take on the name of Michael, and that is what he has been called ever since.

Now, let me fill in some of this with an excerpt from Christine's story: Our first desires to adopt Christine began when KaLia made her first trip to Rwanda in 2006 at the age of 8. She bonded with Christine & they loved each other enough to call each other "sister". When they returned and I heard the stores and saw the pictures, the thought began to enter my head, should we adopt Christine?
When Mike and I started to talk about this adoption, he shared with me that he had also thought about adopting Michael.  He told me how in all his trips there Michael was always helpful, pleasant, hard working, and smart.  An all around sweet boy.

Mike, KaLia, & Michael (he is next to them in the red & blue jacket) 2006

To continue: In 2007 the whole family went to Rwanda for 2 weeks. Again KaLia & Christine held fast to each other, and again we wondered, should we adopt her?  This was the first chance for myself and Nate to go to Rwanda.  From the moment we got to Kayonza (where Michael lived) Nate was surrounded by all the children there & completely overwhelmed (he was only 3 1/2 at the time).  He immediately found Michael to be his safe place: he was held by him, played with him, and stuck with him no matter what!  I felt like this was God's confirmation that Michael was meant to be a part of our family...  At the end of our two weeks I cried and cried about having to leave, and part of that was having to leave behind our kids: Christine & Michael.  When we got home we actually began to find out information about international adoption and were ready to begin, but then suddenly the door closed and we felt like we didn't have a clear "go ahead" from God. So we waited.

One year later:  In 2008 we spent 3 months in Rwanda. When Christine [and Michael] were on break from school they stayed with us in a rented home.  They called me mom, Mike dad, and KaLia and Nate were their sister and brother.

Our last day in Rwanda, 2008.

Six months later: we were back in Rwanda for another three months, but before we left [the US] I had filed applications to be approved by our government to adopt internationally.

While we were in Rwanda in early 2009 we worked on getting documents like the children's birth certificates (not an easy task when their births were never registered to begin with, which is common). While doing this we found out through Michael's extended family that, although he thought he was 15, he was actually 16. The US government will not let you adopt an international orphan who is over the age of 15. Suddenly, we would not be able to adopt Michael after all. My heart was broken, but it was during this trip that God had been teaching me to praise him in all circumstances and to trust in his goodness. Here was some real "field application" for those truths and although I had to cry through it, I surrendered it all to God and just asked him to use us to do His good will for Michael & Christine.

April 2009, Michael is on the far right.

Since we left Rwanda in May 2009, it has been our family prayer every night for God to help us with Christine's adoption and to somehow make a way for Michael to be a more permanent part of our family as well.  Not too long after we came back to Rwanda last August, Christine decided to leave her boarding school and begin to do online high school.  During a visit with us Michael found out about it and began to want to do the same thing.  Some other things you should know about Michael: he is very computer savy and has always been an excellent student.  In 2008 I gave him the name Kumaramaza (in the Kinyarwanda language this means "determination" or something close to that) because once he sets his mind to learning something (i.e. computers, music, swimming) he doesn't give up!  (He has shortened it to the nickname "Kumacs", pronounced "coo-max", fyi.)

Michael was able to receive permission to leave his boarding school and to come live with us so he can do online school full time.  Both Michael and Christine plan to use the accelerated study option in order to move forward in their grade levels beyond what they could do otherwise.  Both also hope to go to school in the US someday and this is a good preparation for that.  Having them both with us right now is a huge blessing and answer to prayer!

However, even as we pray for Christine's adoption to be finalized so she can go with us to the US on June 2nd, there is a prayer request for Michael as well.  We don't want to have to leave our son here when we go back to the US, even for a few months.  And he doesn't want us to leave him as well.  We are praying that God will make a way for Michael to come to the US with us this summer.  This will require miracles on two levels: getting the US to give him permission to come (they don't just hand out these kind of visas, I'm telling you it's difficult) and also being able to afford the cost of the plane ticket, visa applications, passport, etc.



Michael & Nate, 2011

Will you agree in prayer with our family for both Michael & Christine to be able to come to the US this summer?  God has done so much for us already, we know he can do anything!

God  Bless You,
Lisa

and that's the way they became the McColm bunch....  :)

P.S.  still praying for that Suzuki to sell so we can get a more reliable vehicle & one that's big enough for a family of 6!



Help!

And this too, is life in Rwanda...

We have two vehicles here in Rwanda, and this is not an uncommon sight.  Both of them having issues, pieces of them scattered across the driveway, our full time mechanic (yes, that's right between the two vehicles and the tractor at the Home of Innocence, we have enough to keep a man busy).  Of course, some of that "busyness" is also because when something does go wrong he has to hunt all over town for a part, sometimes for days.

The car you see in the background is a diesel Suzuki, and although it gets great gas mileage, finding parts for it here in Rwanda is nearly impossible.  It is constantly having problems.  I think this may be because we have a semi-professional mechanic using semi-adequate parts, but Mike says it's not the mechanic's fault.  Car problems (at least partly due to the reasons I just mentioned) are so common that KaLia's school has a policy that if you're having car troubles you can call the school so you have an excused tardy that day.

The Suzuki has stranded us more than once.  The ol' 1983 Toyota Landcruiser you see in the foreground is more reliable but does have it's own issues at times as well.  Since we got here in August we have spent upwards of $3000 on vehicle repair- yikes! Really, what we need is to sell at least the Suzuki and get a different vehicle that can be a reliable family vehicle- as well as one that has room for our family of 6!  Please pray for us to be able to get a new vehicle.  If God prompts you to help too, then that would be great!  (You can give through the Ten Talents website.)

Did you hear me say family of 6?  That's right, we have our (unofficial) son Michael living with us full time now as well.  He is 17 years old & is also going to be doing the online US school we have been doing with Christine.  He too wants the option of completing his studies at an accelerated pace.  He was getting ready to go into 8th grade so he will begin there & hopefully progress steadily.  He has always been a quick learner, his English is excellent, and he is very driven, so we believe this will be a good option for him.  Michael is a joy to have in our home and we are blessed to call him our son.

the Michaels & Nate in the front of the boat during our vacation

Pray for me as I try to homeschool Nate (always a struggle), Christine (pray for her to be diligent through this year of homeschool & moving forward in her studies), and Michael (he has big goals as well), so please pray for us all!  KaLia is doing well at her school ("All A's & B's!" she would proudly announce to you) and I thank God for that.  You can also pray for God's provision in our finances, we need to be able to pay for the online school classes as well as KaLia's school tuition.

We continue to remain very busy with administering the Home of Innocence and the sponsorship program here.  We've added many new children (most siblings of children already in the program) and meeting with all the families in the program (and hearing of so many needs, only some of which we can help with) each week, can leave us exhausted from "need overload".  I continually pray for God to guide us in what we do.  I don't want to be just "doing" but being obedient to His calling & His will.

God is good and he has taken care of us well.  We have all been healthy and we always have enough for what we really need.  Thank you for praying for us and for being a part of this amazing journey with us.  Why us?  I don't know, but He asked, we said yes, and here we are!

God Bless You,
Lisa

Merry Christmas

Sending out warm (yeah, it's warm here) Christmas wishes to you all.  We just got back yesterday from a 3 day vacation on the lake here in Rwanda.  It was very nice & everyone had lots of fun.  We got some amazing pictures...  and now I can't find my camera!  :(  Please pray that I find it & that it's not lost forever-- I was so happy to have pictures of our first family vacation together (with both of our Rwandan kids with us).

Our kids threw an anniversary party for us the night before we left. 19 years- wow!  It was a fun night and very sweet of the kids to work so hard (they did everything) to show love to their parents.  Now we have lots of work to do to get ready for the Christmas party for sponsored children on January 1st.  Lots of clothes and shoes to buy & food to prepare!

Have a wonderful Christmas full of Christ's love & may your heart adore him.
Blessings,
Lisa

The Season?

This is not the first time I have been in a warm climate during Christmas time ('89 I was in Hawaii doing my Discipleship Training School after graduating high school).  I think it was different then because I was in the US where you see Christmas decorations and hear Christmas music.  Santa & palm trees was pretty strange but it was nothing like this.  I keep telling myself that I should get out the Christmas lights I brought with us (where am I going to hang them?) and hang up our stockings (really?  now?) but so far I have not been able to convince myself.  Is Christmas really only 3 weeks away?  So strange.

I think we are going to take the kids away on a little vacation somewhere for Christmas.  It will be their Christmas gift & make it more special, instead of just staying here & being like any other day.   It will be nice to have a get away together.

The girls have been busy.  Christine is trying to get her online studies done, but it's very difficult because it takes a long time & she gets bored or frustrated with it sometimes.  She also has joined the dance team at church & is leading as well.  KaLia is dancing with them too.  KaLia and some of her friends had initiated a bake sale at her school.  Together they raised $600 that will be given as a Christmas gift to the Home of Innocence and the Home of Hope (a Mother Theresa orphanage in Kigali).  Christine also is brainstorming some way that she can raise money to buy clothes for the children who live on the streets.  Very proud of our girls!

Of course proud of our boys too.  Our Rwandan son (no, not officially, but our son none the less) Michael gets to come home from boarding school this week.  We are all so very excited.  He's a great boy, so smart, and we all love him very much.  We all love Nate too, even if he does toss baby kittens in the air, or sneak big glasses of water right before bed, or cry and fuss when it's time to do school work-- he's our Nate!  We love him and we also know the sweet, tender, loving side of him.

Thank you for your prayers for us.  We would appreciate your prayers for our family's financial needs as in January we are going to need to pay several months rent, and it will be a financially strained month for TTI as well with school fees, rent, Christmas party, etc.  We've got to go shopping & buy full outfits for 40 kids!  I have a feeling my Christmas shopping is going to be a little different than yours- probably most of you will not be shopping at an open market and bartering for best prices on pairs of shoes... 

I pray your Christmas time is filled with reflections on Christ and what it means to receive the greatest gift of all time.  For many of you this is a busy, busy time of year filled with activities and to-do lists.  I pray you find time to stop and rest and thank God for all the gifts he's given you.

God Bless You,
Lisa