Adoption Shower

Our family had the priviledge of attending our first  "Adoption Shower" last night.  As many of you already know, we have received a matching funds grant of $5000 dollars from Micah's Hope.  Many of Rod's co-workers from the Alabama Baptist Children's Home gave our family a shower and made donations toward our adoption!  It was such a blessing to share our adoption journey thus far with our friends and receive their encouragement and support.  I was humbled by their outpouring of love!  We enjoyed Ethiopian food and Rod was able to give our adoption testimony.  Thanks to everyone involved for making it such a special evening!

We appreciate your continued prayers as we wait for our referral.  If anyone is willing and able to help us out financially, you can double your donation by sending it to Lifesong for Orphans (the administrators of our matching grant from Micah's Hope).  Our goal is to try to raise as much of the $5,000 as possible by October 18th.  This is a tax deductible contribution.  Just click on the donation link on this blog page and you can make a donation electronically. 

If you would rather write a check, you can mail it to :

Lifesong for Orphans
P.O. Box 40
Gridley, IL 61744. 
*In the memo section please write: Preference: Campbell, Rod/2166 Adoption.

Prayer Requests

We've been asked a number of times lately for specific prayer requests concerning the adoption process.  we are so thankful to have friends and family who care enough to proactively ask and then to follow up with Prayer!  Here are the specific ways you can pray for us at this time:

1- Pray for our little boy. We do not have a referral yet. This means that we do not know his name, age, or anything else about him specifically. But we know he has needs. Because we will likely adopt a boy of around 3-4 years old, we know he is already born, is living somewhere in Ethiopia, possibly in an orphanage. Foreign orphanages vary widely in how they provide care to the children in their charge. Please pray that he will find favor in the eyes of his caregivers, and someone there will love him, smile at him, sing to him, hold him, and nurture his little heart.

2-  Pray for our family as we prepare our hearts and home for his arrival. There is no doubt that this will be a big adjustment for us all. We are so excited about how Ellen, Liv, and Cash have responded to the idea of adoption. We talk about it almost every day in some way. But the idea of adoption will eventually give way to the reality of adoption. Pray that our hearts will be prepared for the multitude of changes coming our way.

3- We thought the paperwork portion of the process was tough, but in many ways this current phase is tougher.  We are now  – WAITING! Ethiopia recently made drastic cuts in the number of adoptions it is processing each day. This means we may still yet be a year or more from having our little one at home with us. Pray that we would wait well; that we will trust God in the waiting.

I just can't say enough about the importance of the first prayer request.  I've spent the majority of the past year studying about attachment in children, receiving specialized training in working with children with attachment issues, and then putting that training into practice as a counselor.  The more I work with these wonderful, wounded children, the more it drives me to pray for my little boy.  Please join us in lifting him up before the Father. 

So.....it turns out that Rod and I (Jenn) are quite possibly the worst bloggers in the history of the world. I could offer multiple excuses for this, but the truth is I don't really enjoy blogging. However, I have come to the realization that I have to get past this because (and this does come as somewhat of a surprise to me) some of you are actually interested in our adoption process. I tend to think that most people ask to be polite - and that's nice too. Afterall, I can't expect everybody to be as excited and wound up about adoption as I am. My 13 year old Ellen put it this way...."Mom, when anything about adoption comes up, you become like a teen-age girl who just had a Jonas Brother's sighting." Never have truer words been spoken. But a couple of you have said you wished we would blog more about our process, so here is where we are......





We are currently finished with all our paper work (that had become like a small part-time job!) and as of a couple of weeks ago we are number 66 on the boy waiting list at our adoption agency. It is wonderful to be done with the paperwork - but now the hard work of waiting has begun. When people ask where we are in the process, I reply, "We're waiting." When someone asks next month, and the month after that, and the one after that, my reply will most likely be the same. Don't get me wrong, expecting a child through adoption is great in that there is no nausea (except when you have to revise some document for the third time) and no significant weight gain. But at least with pregnancy, I know that I will give birth in approximately 9 months. There is an end in sight. I have no idea how long I will wait to bring my son home from Ethiopia. We spent nearly a year just doing paper work before we could even be put on the waiting list! As it turns out, this adoption process has become more than giving a little boy a home. It has become a tool in the hand of God to mold us and make us more like Him. It's easy to talk about the soveriegnty of God when my life is running fairly smoothly - but when I'm ready to have my son at home with the rest of our family (right now!) it becomes much more difficult- I still believe it though. God is so wonderful! Not only is he working on our behalf to bring our boy home at the perfect time, but he is also sanctifying us in the process. I only know a tiny part of God's plan in our adoption process - but the reality of all He is accomplishing is bigger than I can imagine.





So thank you for coming along with us on this crazy journey! We will try to do a better job of keeping all of you updated as we wait. The next time you hear a crazy woman screaming, don't worry....it's probably only me experiencing some adoption related moment. :)

One realizes when one is already neck deep in the adoption process that it is scary business. In the beginning, I (Jenn) thought a lot about the good parts of adoption - the parts that gave me "warm fuzzies". Now, after much "adoption education", my response seems to be more along the lines of "oh crap!" You see, my heart has been set on a little boy in Ethiopia for quite some time now. I already love him, I am planning for him, I am asking my children to make sacrifices in order to bring him home, I'm spending a lot of money in different adoption related fees. He,on the other hand, has no idea I'm coming for him. He has likely been traumatized in some way. He has probably been living in poverty. His life is not great - but it is the only life he has ever known. He most likely will not walk into our home and think, "I'm such a fortunate kid. I was living in poverty with no family and now I get to live here!" No. He will be scared. He will be unsure of our love. He will be overwhelmed with new sights, smells, tastes, people. He will very likely act out. He will not immediatly understand that adoption is for his good.

Now people who are adopting are all about adoption. We are an annoying group sometimes. Everything we read, watch, etc. seems related to adoption. So please indulge me once again....I have just finished reading Surprised by Joy (by C.S. Lewis). It is a wonderful book about Lewis' journey to Christ. The following is a quote from that book:

"I did not then see what is now the most shining and obvious thing; the Divine humility which will accept a convert even on such terms. The Prodigal Son at least walked home on his own feet. But who can duly adore that Love which will open the high gates to a prodigal who is brought in kicking, struggling, resentful, and darting his eyes in every direction for a chance of escape? The words compelle intrare, compel them to come in, have been so abused by wicked men that we shudder at them: but, properly understood, they plumb the depth of the Divine mercy. The hardness of God is kinder than the softness of men, and His compulsion is our liberation.".

It's not a perfect analogy. But there are so many similarities between earthly adoption and spiritual adoption. God pursued me relentlessly, for His glory and my good. I did not initially welcome this. But His compulsion was my liberation! Praise God!