He knew what He was getting into

I won't be going into much detail about last Wednesday.

But it will be a day I will never forget.

Our little foster peanut had a visit with her grandma and birth mother.

They haven't seen her since her birth.

There's not a part of my brain that understands that. 

But what I do know is that we live in a broken world.

What I also know is when we spoke up for the orphan,

We knew it would not be simple. 

When we chose to stand up for the fatherless,

There would be pain. 

But He set the example.

He saw our brokenness and how ugly we were covered in our sin,

And He still chose to love us.

He saw how we would fail Him,

And He still pursued us.

I sat knee to knee with a broken momma that day for two hours.

Every part of ME wanted to go the other way. 

But I committed to Him as I walked down that hall,

That this meeting was NOT about me.

He had to take over every part of my selfish nature and take over.

I could not have done this with out Him!

But who am I?

Am I better than her?

Am I worth more than her?

Did He do more for me than He did for her?

Her pain was real.

He knew her pain.

He is right there, waiting for her to let Him in. 

He gave His Son's life for HER!

He knew what He was getting in to. 

His pursuit of our adoption was painful. 

But He knew what He was getting in to.

1 John 4:9-10

"God showed us how much He us by sending His one and only son

into the world so that we might have eternal life through Him.

This is real love ~ not that we loved God,

but that He loved us and sent His son as a sacrifice to take away our sins."

I recently was encouraged by this song.

As a adopting and fostering momma,

I'm seeing what we are getting into,

and we are doing it because of everything He did for us!

Check out this song, read these lyrics....think of HIM and His crazy love for you!

I Knew What  I Was Getting Into ~ Misty Edwards

I knew what I was getting into when I called you

I knew what I was getting into whenI said  your name,

but I said it just the same

I knew what I was getting into and I still want you

I knew what I was getting into and I still chose you

I knew what I was getting into and I still want you

And I am not shocked by your weakness

And I am not shocked even by your sin

And I am not shocked by your brokenness

I knew what I was getting into and I still want you

I knew what I was getting into and I still like you

I knew what I was getting into and I still chose you 

Cause only I can see the end from the beginning

And only I can see where this is going

And I see in you the seeds of love

And I see in you strength when all you see is your failure 

and all you feel is ashamed

I can see deeper than that

I know you better than that

I knew what I was getting into when I called you 

I knew what I was getting into and I still like you 

I knew what I was getting into and I still chose you

You are only at the beginning

You've only just begun and I know where you are going

And all you can see in the moment is that you are hurting

And all you see in the moment is that you are aching

I knew what I was getting into when I called you

I knew what I was getting into and I still want you

Just don't give up

And don't give in

If you don't quit, you win. You win.

Everything is in my hands

It's going to be alright

And you don't have to pretend to be something or someone you are not 

Cause I know you better than that, even better than that

Listen my Beloved...

I knew what I was getting into...  

You can listen to this beautiful song here

THE Call !!!!!

Sometimes calls are expected.

Often calls are unexpected.

It can be scary when calls are intimidating...

 When they lead you to something bigger than you ever thought you could do...

that is a VERY GOOD CALL.

 

Is it all about answering the call at just the right time?

Maybe a bit.

Although, I think we miss out on something amazing if we push the call away until later,

when it's more convenient.

Sometimes we are really quite sure the call is for someone else, surely not me.

 

I know you've heard it...

"we've been called to adopt"

"we've been called to foster"

 

It's funny.

I don't know that is what we "heard".

A call.  THE call.

 

I know for me, it was a 'desire of my heart'.

To adopt.

And because my heart is sold out to Jesus my Lord,

I hung on to the verse,

Psalms 37:4 "Take delight in the Lord, and He will give you your heart's desires."

 

I will be honest, that verse was hard to hold on to when before God gave us healthy children, He allowed for us to go through loss. That sure wasn't my desire.

 

But I clung to Him, still trusted Him, trusted His plan for our family, no matter what it looked like, no matter what His timing might be.

 

Back to that call.

For me, it was a given.  I knew that one day, in His perfect time, we would adopt.

The need was and is SO GREAT! 

We will open our hearts and home to whomever He had planned.

 

BUT...

Our home, our marriage does not have me at the head of it.

Nate had a slower journey.

But when the time was right, and when He broke his heart, He did it BIG TIME!!!

 

SO we knew we needed to foster locally.

And you can read below how He brought into our home our little peanut.

We are so in love with her!!!

 

You probably already know that over a year ago, He made it clear to Nate

that there is a little girl

on the other side of the world

WAITING.

She was waiting for her forever family to answer that call.

She was waiting for her forever family to NOT WAIT any longer.

They needed to hurry up.

 

A year ago, we didn't know that our miracle girl was still recovering from her recent

heart surgery.

But she has a unseen heart that still needs to be healed.

He asked us to be a part of that healing.

 

We knew of her over a year ago!!!! 

We prayed for her and the little one that we call her BFF, that we sponsor.

We were broken!

I have pictures from over a year ago saved on my phone!

At times it was hard to tell the two of them apart!

We prayed for their forever families.

We prayed for our daughter....whoever she was.

 

We prayed that she might know love.

We prayed that she would learn to bond.

We prayed that her medical needs would be cared for.

 

We prayed for our Tessa Joy!!!

Only HE KNEW WHO SHE WAS!

 

It was clear to us many months ago that both girls were not ready (by paper) to be adopted.

It took some time.

But I came to a place to let go.

Honestly, what we REALLY WANT, is for them to KNOW JESUS!

It's eternity that we want to spend with them!!!

 

We waited.

and

waited.

 

The call that we were now waiting for was gonna be THE CALL.

The call where they say

 "it's time! It's your time! Your daughter is ready! Do you want to see who she is?!"

 

I caught myself dreaming about it.

Sometimes I would call Nate and he would say

"Did they call?  Are you calling to tell me this is it?!"

 

Nope.

Months and months

I've done that before.

Feels a lot like the months and months and months and months

of infertility.

 

On January 8th

I wanted to make a "checking in" call to our agency

Not that it makes things go any faster.

It is what it is.

Electronically when our special needs list that we submitted AND our wanted age AND girl

comes up matched, it's the next family chronologically that will get the call.

THAT IS HOW IT WORKS.

This is REALLY IMPORTANT!!!

Read that again if you need to.

Its in a computer data base.  Electronic. ( I will go back to this in a minute)

 

That morning, the call I made to see how it was going, well it didn't go so well 

(from my perspective at that moment)

I was told 2-3 more months is very possible.

It's just the way it's going right now.

ALOT OF BOYS (could that be your son waiting?)

But it is just going to depend what files we get in, it changes everyday sometimes.

 

2-3 MORE MONTHS.

I just wanted to know who our daughter was!!!

2-3 MORE MONTHS???!!!

 

I called a couple friends who had asked if I had any update.

Both friends were so encouraging.

BOTH friends challenged me, THAT DAY, to ASK GOD FOR BIG THINGS!!!

THE DAY BEFORE a friend posted on FB...

"When you believe BIG - He answers BIG"

(well that was timely)

That same friend posted this day Proverbs 3:5&6....TRUST HIM!!

then a couple hours later.. she posted "God is AWESOMELY faithful! Stay faithful and

watch your dreams come true!"

Well that sounds a whole lot like  Psalms 37:4....Hmmmm.

 

This was all happening.

THAT DAY.

One of my sweet friends challenged me

BIG TIME

Just about an hour after I had called our agency...

that I got the stinky news or more waiting...

she said to me...

"Have you asked about AnnaRose recently? ASK!!!"

 

I heard this answer once already.

I knew that is was soooooooooooooooooooooooooooo

oooooooooooooooooo

UNLIKELY

that they would know anything about her.

 

So for me to contact them right back

and

ask....

well it was kinda nuts for me to do that.

 

BUT...

the peace that over took my heart

I can't really explain

At the time

I thought it was just a numb feeling

to get me ready for the "we know nothing"

 

So I sent a one line email.

I knew it was a shot in the dark.

But I had to check on that closed door.

Was it REALLY closed?

 

After I hit send, that peace was still there...this was real peace that it's so out of my hands.

Ha!!

It always has been!!!  Out of my hands, and COMPLETELY IN HIS!!!

 

That's what this CALL DOES!

It empties out your heart and lets him totally take over!!!

 

So my day went on...

Homeschool...

Laundry...

Loving on our 5.

Thinking quietly about our 6th.

 

About 4:00 ish

Just 5 hours after I talked with our agency...

I got a call from them.

Hmmm....

I'm sure it's about my crazy email.

I was ready to apologize for asking.

But her words quickly trumped mine.

"Amber, I know we JUST talked this morning...and I know I told you 2-3 more months..."

Um yea...I remember that part clearly

 

"do you have a minute to talk?"

Yep.  Again I was about to apologize...

"well I'm just going to say it, Amber you have a file that has been matched to you!"

HUH?????

"this is a little girl who will soon turn 2, and her special needs match what you have on your list, and YOU AND NATE WERE THE NEXT IN LINE!"

 

What???  Ok, at this point I didn't really know what to say!

I just spoke to her hours earlier and it was looking like

2-3 more MONTHS!!!!

We seem to have skipped months,

we seemed to have skipped weeks,

we seemed to have skipped days.

WE WENT STRAIGHT TO HOURS.

well alright then!

 

THIS WAS THE CALL!!!!

 

How funny, it's not at all like I thought it would be (the part where you see their number come up and year heart skips a beat)

 

But this was IT!!

 

Then she said...

"Amber....are you sitting down?"

I am now!!!

"you know that email you sent me this morning"

Oh yea...that crazy email

"well you are not going to believe this....and I'm still shocked... but guess who's file you have been matched with?"

 

(ok, remember that electronic part I mentioned above?  That database matching via queries, well THAT is how we were matched!!!!!)

 

"Amber this file is AnnaRose's!"

 

Words were gone.

There were only tears.

 

I know that our agency uses a computer to match up their incoming files of children ready with the families in their system.

 

But it wasn't a COMPUTER SYSTEM that matched our daughter to us that day.

IT WAS CLEARLY AND UNDENEYABLY

THE HAND OF GOD
THAT DID THE MATCHING.

 

And you know what?

HE DOES ALL THE MATCHING.

WITH EACH CHILD
EACH FAMILY.

That I know!

 

So moments later

we received THE email

it made it real

There she was

 

We are still all in awe.

It's still hard to understand this is real.

She is our daughter!!

And HE KNEW all along!!!!!

He chose us for her.

He chose her for us.

 

And all we really want...still... is for her to come to know Him.

 

Thank you for joining us in our journey to bring Tessa Joy home.

We are so honored to have join us in praying her home!

 

~Amber

http://adopttogether.org/therohrers



 

 



Whispers in her ear

It wasn't necessarily part of OUR plan

but for now, it is part of HIS plan

and that makes it PERFECT!

 

I can't go into detail how she came into our lives

but we are over the moon excited that she's here!

 

We don't know how long she will be with us

But we are praying that it will be for a LONG, LONG time!

She has stolen all our hearts!

 

Is it all part of His plan that we will have TWO little ones????

That our little one in China will come home to FIVE siblings???

Oh how I hope so!

 

But for now, we don't know all the answers.

But HE DOES.

And we trust Him!

 

So how do I pray?

 

When it's time for bed,

I give her blanket to her, she snuggles in and puts her two little fingers in her mouth.

And then I pray with her.

out loud...whispers in her ear...

 

"Lord, we are so very thankful for another day with her,

thank You for entrusting her to us.

We trust You.

We know You have a plan for her life.

You love her!

Lord you say in your Word, You are her Advocate.

Lord, You are her Redeemer...."

 

I recently read in Proverbs 23:10 & 11

Basically... Don't Mess With the Orphan!  Because The Lord is their Strong Redeemer!

Go read it!

 

I LOVE THIS!!!!

I hold on to this Truth every day!

 

 

And today, it became even more meaningful!

 

As a precious friend asked me how things were going...

I shared.

I shared what I pray about.

I shared about the verse.

That HE IS HER REDEEMER.

And that is what I hold on to!

 

Then...

With tears in both of our eyes,

she shared what the Lord prompted her to share with her daughter.

Her curious daughter asked about the word "redeemer"

and what does that mean?

 

She shared that clearly the Lord gave her the words to say to her,

to help her truly understand this character of God.

Redeemer.

He is our Redeemer.

You see, YOU HAVE VALUE.

YOU HAVE WORTH.

she told her,

Because you have value, and worth, HE CAME TO REDEE

M YOU!

As only He could!

 

Yep. There were tears.

These two Mommas love the precious miracles the Lord placed in our arms. Our big ones, our little ones, they ones here on Earth and the ones He took back to be with Him.

They all have worth and value beyond what we can afford!!

They all belong to HIM!

HE IS THEIR REDEEMER!!

 

Thank you Lori for sharing your heart!  I will never forget this!

 

 

 

~ Amber

http://adopttogether.org/therohrers

 

 

 



Let Him Refinish us!

So we just may start out like this dresser

 

We may be pretty dusty and rough around the edges

 

We may have sat in a garage, un-used, un-loved, un-appreciated, un-touched for wayyyy to long

 

But when the time is JUST RIGHT...

 

We open up to Him. And He pours into us

 

There is some work to be done

 

 

 

Because He sees the potential, the finished work

 

And to get there, there is time that must pass

 

There is scrubbing, washing, sanding that is critical for the completed work to be the quality that He knows is deep down in there

 

If you don't allow Him to do this sometimes painful work, what He has planned just won't have the effect that He has in store!

 

Sometimes the sanding takes a strong tool, there are some major pieces of us that need a process to take place that brings us down to the raw

 

That way we will truly be available for the stain of HIM

 

Sometimes the sanding that takes place uses a gentle, moldable tool.  It doesn't hurt as much, but it gets into those little grooves that just can't be neglected

 

Sand. Wash. Dry.

 

Repeat

 

And when the time is right....

 

Each of the parts have to be taken out, hardware removed, insides cleaned out and THEN we are ready to be primed

 

My projects ALWAYS take longer than I know they should

Geesh, I think I (CAPITAL I) should know how long these projects should take

Isn't my timeline good enough?

Can't we speed this process along?

Is each step necessary?

 

*If* I would have skipped through this...

*If* HE would have rushed through this...

The results wouldn't be just the way He wants them to be

*I* wouldn't be WHO HE wants me to be

 

 

Looking back, I now appreciate His process

I have a glimpse of why it's all necessary

And I wouldn't have it any other way

 

 

He doesn't look past any detail

He finished even the insides to be fresh, clean and ready to be FILLED UP and spilled out!

I am so thankful of how patient He is with us!!!

And the work isn't done

There is always cleaning to be done!

Thankful that I will always NEED my Creator!

 

 

~Amber

http://adopttogether.org/therohrers

 



Could you BUY A TOY for the least of these? URGENT NEED!

Matthew 25:40 "And the King will answer them, ‘Truly, I say to you, as you did it to one of the least of these my brothers, you did it to me.’

~precious one "playing" in his metal crib~

 

 

It's that simple....we have to do SOMETHING

Let me take a moment and share about the need that YOU can help with today!

 

Often we don't really know HOW we can help, but the orphan has no means to help themselves, it's the body of Christ that must step up and meet their needs!

 

Well here is the need....

 

Our Patterson Park Church Hope 1:17 Orphan Ministry has been made aware of an URGENT need in an orphanage located in Inner Mongolia.  We have a contact there who has shared with us how difficult it is to be newly serving the precious ones there with NO TOYS or BOOKS.

 

I'm sure all of you have been blessed to spend time with a curious little baby, you may have grabbed a toy rattle out of the toy basket to watch how they reach up to grab it. 

 They are learning what their little hands are capable of doing!

The noise, they turn to. 

 The colors, they are drawn to.  

Their eyes light up as you show them how fun this simple toy can be. 

Here they have nothing but maybe just a shoe off their feet to play with and explore

This is a precious little one from the orphanage that we will be helping!

Permission to use this picture given by Hannah

 

SO HERE IS WHAT YOU CAN DO...

Below is a detailed list provided by a special education teacher who is ministering there

YOU can donate these items and bring them to PPC this Sunday or next Sunday (Aug.18th & 25th). 

We will have a basket located next to the Children's Welcome Desk marked HOPE 1:17 TOY DONATIONS  the basket will sit there all week, so you can drop off through out the week during business hours

OR, you can contact HOPE 1:17 by sending a message to Amber Smith Rohrer on Facebook

If you would like to help out with the large shipping cost, you can donate via cash or check to PPC, mark HOPE 1:17 in the memo line and place it in the White Box or offering at PPC.

 

We need 3-4 of each of the following items listed....

 

age 0-12mo.

Rattle toy that cannot come apart (bright colors)

Activity Mat like THIS ONE

Squeaking Toy ( easy for an infant to make noise with)

Bucket with Blocks

Sippy Cup (some with sucking action needed, some with out)

Infant Board Books (with pics of family people)

Infant Board Books (with pics of toys)

Safe Baby floor mirrors like THIS ONE

 

age 1-2 years

 

Bucket with Blocks (block size 1.5-2 inches square, at least 5 blocks)

Magnadoodle

Large Crayons

Package of straws

Cups

Jacket with front zipper

Toy cat, dog, cow, lamb (unbreakable plastic type)

Toy car that cannot lose wheels or other parts(bigger than Matchbox size)

Books as listed above

Toddler book listing eyes, nose, mouth etc

Small doll with hair (no breakable parts)

Doll hairbrush, doll bowl, spoon, cup (plastic)

Toy airplane (no breakable parts)

Rhino Toys Oball like THIS ONE

 

Ages 2-3 years

 

chalkboard eraser

nesting or stacking cups (play)

8 2inch blocks

crayons

child scissors ( left and right handed)

doll or book that has laces, ties, buttons, zippers

Childrens board books (shows pics of home life, family life)

hand puppets

dress up clothing (doctor, nurse, police, firefighter etc)

plastic kitchen set

 

Ages 3-5 years

 

playground ball

child scissors (left and right handed)

12 blocks 1.5-2inches

toys with buttons, laces, snaps, zippers

lacing cards

duplos

paperclips

spoons

simple card games (GoFish etc)

 

LOOKING AHEAD AT WHAT GOD WILL DO AS YOU GIVE!!!!!

 

 

 

~Amber

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 



I Had a Talk With Him 'Bout Some Stuff

What is YOUR relationship with God like?

Do you talk with Him alot?

Do you read what He wrote for you?

He's your Dad.

If you have accepted Jesus's gift of salvation, repented and acknowledged your need for Him alone to forgive and bridge the gap sin created between you and God, then at that point...

God ADOPTED YOU!

He's your Daddy.

He has a character like no one else.

I'm still learning about WHO He is, His character.

In our adoption, there was a pursuit. 

He pursued me, He pursued you.

Galatians 4:4-6 ~

⁴ But when the fullness of time had come, God sent forth his Son, born of woman, born under the law, ⁵ to redeem those who were under the law, so that we might receive adoption as sons. ⁶ And because you are sons, God has sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts, crying, “Abba! Father!”

Romans 8:23~

 ...even we ourselves groan within ourselves, waiting eagerly for our adoption as sons

What was His pursuit like to adopt us?

Were there mountains that had to be moved?

YES!!!

There was pain.  There was His sacrifice.  His own perfect Son had to be sacrificed just to have a relationship with US.  To become our adopted Father!

It's hard to wrap my head around how much had to be done, just to be able to become our Father!

THAT IS LOVE!

So.......

In our family's pursuit to adopt our daughter, there are mountains, there are BIG things that look impossible!!

BUT GOD...

And here is where we have a choice in this journey.

THIS is what my conversations with God have consisted of lately. (being transparent here)

"Ok, I trust You. I know You have a perfect plan, the timing is Yours, our daughter is Yours. So do I then just sit back and wait and see what You will do?"

So what would YOU do?

Just keep moving forward, smile and wait and see what He will do? Trusting that He's got this.

That's totally an option.  It's SAFE (ish).

I like SAFE.

Well......

Yesterday morning during my walk, I made a choice to not just take the "safe way".

When I walk, I pray.  So I was talking to God and decided again to ask for MOUNTAINS TO BE MOVED!!!

I asked for BIG things.  RISKY things. BOLD things.

I asked these things for the many sweet friends of ours who are also in their journey to adopt.

I specifically talked to God about His character, who He is and what He does.

(as if He doesn't know these things about Himself :)

Here's what I know... (and I reminded Him about these things :)

God "places the lonely in families" ~ Psalms 68:6

God "defends the fatherless" ~ Psalms 10:18, Deut. 10:17-18

God "helps the fatherless" ~ Psalms 10:14

God "rescues the weak and needy" ~ Psalms 82:3-4

God shows mercy to the orphan ~ Hosea 14:3

God "hears their cry" ~ Ex. 22:22-23

Because I know the above to be TRUE about the character of God...

Then I asked Him to MOVE on the behalf of our children waiting!

I asked Him to move QUICKLY, please don't make them wait any longer!

I asked for our daughter to know love, to bond with her caregiver.

I asked for processes and paperwork to move along quickly!

I asked for the offices and governments involved to get their acts together!

I asked that He bind the enemy from our adoption processes!

I asked Him to match us with our daughter in a way that ONLY HE would get the Glory for! 

(there's ALOT in the above statement)

There's some "impossible" stuff here. And THIS is where He loves to work!!! WAHOOOO!!

I asked for this process to move along in a way that would ONLY be explained by Him and His Hand.

I could have kept quiet about my prayers to Him.

But He asks us to "come together".  He's not just MY Father.

He is OUR Daddy, He wants us to ASK Him, so He can SHOW us His love by what He does for His children!!!!!

I don't think He wants me to sit back and just see what will happens.  Where's the growth in that?

I want my faith in Him to grow big!

 I think He WANTED me to ask Him all these things!!!

I'm soooooo looking forward to sharing with you WHAT HE DOES in answering our prayers!!!

OH...and....then I "happen" to read a fav blogger/adoptive momma's post today...check it out!

HERE 

 

~Amber

http://adopttogether.org/therohrers

  

 

 

 

Becoming a professtional Waiter...I'm not talking food service

Yep it feels like I've been training for this wait for years.  So for that, I am thankful that I feel like I have done this before.

WAITING

and

WAITING

and WAITING!!!

Let me take a moment and share with you "where" we are currently at in our process to bring our daughter home....

As a part of our Dossier (see here to see what a Dossier is), we have a stack of paperwork that goes to Immigration here in the US to get approved to be an adoptive family to a child from Ch.

Well, that's the step that we are in.

Isn't it thrilling?

(eyeroll)

There are professional adoptive families who post on trends on this step and how long it's been taking.

Who wants to guess how long?

30 days?

NOPE

40 days?

NOPE

50 days?

NOPE

Here it is folks.... it's now taking about 60 days!!!!!!!!!!!

Don't you love it?!!

Will you join me in prayer that this step MOVES FASTER!!! For us and several close families heading to this step in a matter of days and weeks!

 

So what do we do in the meantime??

Oh yea... WAIT!!

And one more thing.... raise funds.

This is where my heart flutters. (maybe stops on occasion)

There are some big fees coming up after that 60 days, I mean less than 60 days, is up.

We will be sending our docs to the Ch. Emb. in NYC for authentication

So there are fees that go along with that.

Then we send everything (the Dossier) to our agency with $2,350 

and then fees to Ch, about $1,000

then another fee to our agency $1,950.

and it goes on

and on

and

on.

The farther we get in the journey the more $$$$ is necessary.  YIKES!!!

 

We just completed our 2nd and final Adoption Fundraiser Yard Sale

STILL RECOVERING FROM THAT MADNESS!!

So thankful for the generosity of strangers

blessed by the prayers, donations and support of dear ones

This sale brought in around $1,700!

OVERWHELMED!!!

 

Our next big fundraiser event is really something Nate has been dreaming about for months...

POKER PARTY!!!

Let me just say here...

He's good

He's really, really good at playing games.

Those of you that have had played with him, you know how much he loves to play...and WIN.

But THIS game isn't about WINNING.

It's about sharing our journey

Many of you joining in this opportunity may have never heard our story

We can't wait to share it with you!

Oh man, there it is again...that "wait" word.

The game is soon though (a SUPER FUN thing to do while we WAIT)

Just weeks away, and soooooooo much planning to do!

We hope you join us!!!!



 

~Amber

http://adopttogether.org/therohrers