Almost There

Well, it has been a whirlwind of a holiday season and new year. We got our initial approval through the Thai government over the season and about two weeks ago we had our travel plans approved and I am currently writing this in Khon Kaen Thailand!!!!!!!

This has been a whirlwind to be sure. With the need for speed required to get all the logistics accomplished: plane flights, government visas, etc. We have hardly been able to even think about the reality of what’s going on until now, having an entire day without anything to do in the very city where our daughter is. It is surreal for sure, exciting and terrifying all at the same time. this 3-4 year process will finally come to fruition as we meet our daughter for the first time tomorrow.

This journey has been a miraculous occurance we could not have done on our own and so many things fell into place in just the right way and usually at the eleventh hour, but that seems to be the way God works with us. It is a time of praise for His faithfullness and reflexion of the changing season in our lives. We will now be a family of four and we cannot wait to usher in that season.

My aunt was amazing to accompany us and Jacob to help with all the things that are required traveling with 1 and then 2 kids almost half way around the world and especially the initial transition of our daughter to a strange family and a total upside down flip of her life. I have posted a couple pictures of our journey here. Jacob began quite excited at Sky Harbor, making sure we had th best seat in the house to view the planes. We stopped off in Japan to allow ourselves a little reprieve from the travel as well as seeing my longtime friend Dave who was willing to make the drive and pick us up with all our luggage in tow. I am happy to announce that we didn’t even need to break out the tie downs, all hail to the Honda Fit. The next leg of the trip went from cold and rain to hot and humid as we embarked to Bangkok and finally a one hour flight to Khon Kaen.

We thank you all for your prayers and support. More updates to come although as most of you know we will not be able to post any pictures of her due to Thailand’s identity rules.

Thanks again,

Blessings,

Caleb, Emillie and Jacob

“The Cost”

Well… it’s been a while since we’ve posted anything!

We’ve been waiting… and waiting…. and waiting…

and did I mention.. waiting?

It’s been almost a full year now since we’ve been matched to our sweet girl and we’re hoping we are very close now to receiving what they call “First Approval” from the Thai government. Once we have this we have one step left in the process (filing her immigration paperwork) and we will FINALLY receive travel dates and be able to meet and bring home our precious girl.

 

Boy, has this season taught us patience! (and that might be an understatement)

 

As we enter the holiday season, it’s a bit bitter sweet…

There’s the usual joy of the season and reliving it through the eyes of your child with all the anticipation and festivities. But this year there’s also an ache, a sting, as we know we’re not all together.

And we long to be.

so much.

December 13th is our daughter’s birthday. She’ll be 3.

We would so have loved to celebrate it WITH her, and it hurts that we can’t.

We DO know and trust that the Lord’s timing is truly perfect though. We’ve been praying and asking that the paperwork would speed up and we could get to her by her birthday or the end of the year.

We still hold out hope. But, we know He’s perfect in His timing, and we can trust Him.

The adoption process is beautiful. It’s the heart of the Lord toward us lived out. There’s so much beauty. The intertwining of people’s lives and stories in a way only the Lord could orchestrate.

We know though, that like with most really profound, amazing journeys or callings, that there is also sacrifice, loss and perseverance required. There’s a deep anchoring that takes place in all of the emotional and circumstantial ups and downs that we can’t control.

It’s good to be reminded of these realities as we keep walking on this path.

There is a cost. It hurts sometimes.

The intimate and intricate details are too profound and deep to really completely express.  We are just so thankful that the Lord goes before us. He knows what we will encounter and He remains steadfast for us, through us, and in us.

He comforts, releases hope, lightens burdens and brings us into deeper waters than we would go on our own.

He’s been so faithful in this whole process. And we know He will continue to be. So as we come into the final stretch, we would love your continued prayers for our hearts, travel, and all the details to come together.

 

We can’t wait to cross that ocean, swing open that door, look into our daughter’s eyes for the first time and know that we’re all

home.

 

Praying you have a blessed holiday season,

More updates to come as we get them!

 

Love,

The Lionbergers

Matched!

We are excited to announce that we have been matched!

Unfortunately we cannot post any pictures on social media, but we have been matched with a little girl who just turned 2 years old this December. After a long wait, this match actually comes about 10 months sooner than we were projected to be matched! It seems very surreal at this point, but we are so excited to move forward with our little girl! Currently we are waiting for our first approval through the Thai government. We are also able at this time to send photos and small items to her. In total, we are projected to be able to travel sometime in the fall to go get her.

We have been showing pictures to Jacob who has been getting even more excited. He keeps asking when he will be 5 because he knows we will travel around the time he turns 5. One of the cutest stories this month is as Emillie was standing in line to send paperwork to our adoption agency that would then go to Thailand, Jacob pointed to a card on a rack and said, “Can we send this to baby sister?”

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We are thrilled that this has happened much sooner than we expected. However, this also means we have to move much faster than we planned with paperwork and fundraising. We currently need funds to finish up the Adoption fee and then for travel later in the year and are in the process of applying for multiple grants. Thankfully our agency is allowing us to make payments toward our Adoption fee over the next 4 months. We will be putting together another fundraiser in the next month or two.

We want to thank everyone for their support over the past 2 years or so, we have been so blessed by so many people and God has done so much over this process thus far. Prayer is so powerful and we do ask for your prayers as we press on through this last lap.

Thank you Everyone!

Caleb, Emillie and Jacob

 

Prayer Requests:

Strength to keep pressing into the paperwork, applications and the other million things that need doing before we travel.

Prayer for both Jacob and baby girl for this major transition in their lives.

Favor in our grant applications and continued provision financially going forward.

The Heart of the Father

“What lead you to adopt from Thailand?”

A common question we get as we share with people what’s going on in our lives these days!

I love that question.

The answer is so simple, and yet for us so deep.

The Father lead us to.

When the Lord quite literally swung open the doors of our hearts and poured His affection, ache and love for the orphan into it, it moved us to a place of intimacy with Him that we hadn’t been before. I can hardly think about it without tearing up every time. For both Caleb and I, connecting with God as our Father individually has been a huge theme in both of our lives. In this connection we find identity, unconditional love, acceptance, counsel, and everything in between. It’s a vast ocean that we have an eternity to explore. He’s our Everlasting Father. Never going away, no shadow of turning. Father forever.

 

When we began to explore more the vast need for families for children all over the world, we were moved to feel the heart of the Father.

 

It’s His heart I feel within me when I see their faces and often times maltreatment and neglect. It’s His pain I feel for them that makes me want to take in every single one. It’s His arms I feel stretching out saying “Come here, and let me bring you to the Father, let me show you His never fading love for you. Let me introduce you to the One who sees you, knows you and places immeasurable worth on your life. He will be your forever Father, He can heal your wounds and show you your true identity and purpose”.

We love Him so, and we want to love His kids with His tangible love.

We have a heart for children really anywhere, and Father told us to go to Thailand this time. So we’re obeying and walking with Him. There’s a girl there who He sees and He’s melding her life with ours…

and we feel so honored.

Thank you for all of you who are supporting us as we walk out the call the Lord has given us. It means so much.

All our Love,

The Lionbergers

“A Father to the Fatherless, and a defender of widows, is God in His Holy habitation” -Psalm 68:5

 

 

 

Update!

Hey everyone!

Hope all is well in your world! Here’s a little of what we’ve been up to! This summer was the home stretch of getting our dossier, which is basically the documentation of our whole lives 🙂

done and…. SENT OFF TO THAILIAND!!! WOO HOO!

We are thrilled to be moving forward in the process!

In doing so, we visited the Capitol building with some friends to get the official Seal of the State put on our notarized paperwork.IMG_0289IMG_0285  Jacob was pretty excited about that! He got a little tour of the building and got to be a part of the journey to bring home his sister, which he is SUPER excited about. We talk about going to Thailand to bring her home on the weekly. Super cute.

And… This is us not looking quite as cute fillin’ out some paperwork in the night hours after he’s gone to bed. 🙂

 

 

 

We felt like this at times…IMG_0012

 

 

But Jacob of course remained strong.IMG_0026

And… We know it is ALL worth it! Because we cannot wait to be matched and finally know more of the story of our girl! To be able to picture her sweet face as we pray for her. In our hearts, she is already a part of our family, just waiting to be revealed! Our agency estimates that we will be matched next year sometime, maybe late summer.

So, what do we do while we wait? Well, there is of course doing life and all the things… but we will especially be turning our focus to fund-raising to help cover the cost of adopting.

I recently read a quote that said “We have to stop talking about the cost of adopting… and consider what it will cost these kids if we don’t”. I thought that was powerful and so true. These kids are worth it. Their lives are worth it.

God makes a way.  We just step out.

 

Thank you to all of you who have supported us prayerfully, financially,and with words of encouragement. We feel honored to have you all walking along side us as we answer the Lord’s call. Love you all!

 

 

Love,

The Lionbergers

The Journey Begins

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Thanks for following our journey to adoption!

We started this blog so friends and family could keep up to date on our adoption process and learn a little more about orphans/adoption in general. We are very excited to see how our own story continues to unfold. We started considering and praying about adopting in 2015. Emillie sat down to pray one day and simply asked the Lord “What’s on your heart Lord, what can I pray for”? and He said “the orphans of this world”. She was deeply moved by this answer, to feel His heartache,  and so our hearts too began to break and to deepen towards the reality facing SO MANY children around the world. Hearing their stories and reading the statistics about these vulnerable children deeply  drew our hearts toward adopting, specifically from Asia. The Lord lead us to the organization Holt International. They were established in 1956 and not only offer domestic and international adoption services, but focus on family strengthening, preservation and sponsorship in the 13 countries they work in. As we looked into each of their programs, made phone calls, and inquired about each countries specific criteria to adopt, we discovered we were a perfect match to adopt form Thailand. So, after more prayer, a year after this idea was birthed sitting on the couch in prayer, we started the lengthy process of international adoption. The process for adopting from Thailand is estimated to take 2-3 years to complete from application to travel. We started in March of 2017 and have gone through the required Arizona home study process and will soon send off our dossier to Thailand to be matched with a child. We will be adopting a little girl age 1-3 who will have been living in foster care in Thailand.  This journey is a complete walk of faith as both private domestic and International adoption require a significant amount of funding. Still, we know and believe that the Lord is faithful to provide where He calls and leads. So, if the Lord lays it on your heart, we so covet your prayers and support as we follow Him to the other side of the world to bring home our daughter! We will keep you updated on our progress as we post more.  Thanks so much for following!

7 Pure and undefiled religion in the sight of our God and Father is this: to visit orphans and widows in their distress, and to keep oneself unstained [a]by the world. James 1:27