Showing posts with label adoption. Show all posts
Showing posts with label adoption. Show all posts

Walking and Sinking

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Peter. In the church we sometimes like to use his character to edify our situation. "At least I didn't put my foot in my mouth like that...or I can't believe he cut a guy's ear off...." Yeah, Peter was tops at blowing it. His comments when Jesus is transfigured, his sword move, the call to be totally washed, and the list goes on. Peter...speaks up. acts out. misses the point. The great thing about Peter is that he was chosen by Jesus. A quote from Matt Chandler that I have enjoyed lately, "The future is not something God knows about; it's a place that He is." So in considering the pick of Peter, they knew what they were getting. He had future Peter covered and still could love the liability Peter.. That is great news for people like me. I am so far from being there.

The highlight of Peter for me is getting out of the boat. What a crazy bold move to ask Jesus if he could walk to Him. You think after all the other things (keep still and quiet), but for those of us who can't sit still, we Tigger hop at the idea. I find my faith being much like Peter. It is bold and causes me to move toward Jesus with an awesome passion. It is also a faith that leads me to situations I can make a mess of. You see in chasing God's heart for adoption I am sometimes walking on the water and sometimes I am sinking. I trust... I move on the waves like Kelly Slater... I lose my focus...I sink like a guy that wronged the mafia. How easy it is to doubt and get our eyes on the wrong things!

Please continue to pray for us. Life can be distracting from God's purposes for us. We are chasing after Jesus buy sometimes that means to places we have never been. When you find yourself on unfamiliar ground reach for Him. He beckoned you here. He's got you.

Follow our Facebook group. Snyder Adoption Shoe Drive.

We also have a fundraising site at AdoptTogether.

We Are Back

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God has a way to keeping us moving. The movement allows us to come closer and closer to His heart. We believed we are called to adopt. We are not out to satisfy a longing for children. Yes, we love kids and want to fill our house, but more importantly we want to be about HIS THINGS. Recognizing the work that was done to adopt us into His family, we believe our response is to show the same love to those that need a loving family. 

For The Snyders, we say Yes. When God asks if we will move and stretch to follow His will. We are about saying Yes. 

This will be our 3rd adoption, and we have learned so much each process. Our lesson for this time seems so clear to me. DO NOT LIMIT ME. In the past, we have enjoyed watching God's hand more quietly behind the scenes to orchestrate our adoption funding. With the adoption of Avarie, we were led to use a home equity loan. With this adoption, God seems to be shouting ever louder to me. "Open your mouth wide, and I will fill it." -Psalms 81:10. We are excited to share the opportunity for others to join us. Will you jump on board and join us in what God is doing? 

You may not be called to adopt children. But you may be a prayer warrior. You might be praying over how to use some money. You may have connections to resources. We want to see Jesus be lifted high. Move closer to the heart of God. Join our journey to adopt.

Day 3: Part 2- Gotcha

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Day three was about so much more than seeing the sights and experiencing the culture. It was the culmination of nearly a year of waiting. From the time we left the meeting everyone was a bit hurried to get to Hannah's Hope. Our knees knocked on the ride, and thankfully it was only about 2 miles from our hotel. As we made the turn on to the bumpy dirt road leading to the gate, reality sat like a lump in our throats. A thousand thoughts and questions began to race through my head, but all thoughts fled when that gate was opened wide.

After a few moments inside the gate, we were motioned by Almaz. She led us to where she thought Landon was, but it turns out he was somewhere else. We were led all over the complex until finally we found out he was in his room. It was then a race to change our shoes at the door (small yellow crocs for me, green for Amy) and race up the marble stairs. Our awesome friend, Kathleen agreed to shoot our video for us. Up the stairs we made a dash for the door. Inside the pink and flower printed room was our beautiful boy waiting expectantly for us in his bouncy seat. He was the most amazing thing we had ever seen, and for a few seconds we just smiled and touched his hands. We couldn't wait long though before we picked him up and held him close in our arms. His first reaction was a huge smile and a few giggles. It was as if he was saying, "I knew you'd come."

Here is our Gotcha Day Video:



We stayed around Hannah's Hope for a time while some of the older children got used to their new families. Landon chose to take a nap on me the first time I held him, and continued that nap all the way back to our hotel. It was so humbling to be holding our son for the first time knowing our missing piece was now found.

Our first night together in the hotel was like this: Landon slept great, and we barely slept a wink. We mostly just watched him in the crib at the base of our bed. We kept whispering to each other all night long about how beautiful he was and making comments on any little movement he made in his sleep. Sleep deprivation was a theme through our whole trip.... more on that later.

Enjoy some pictures from the day:

Day 2: Dubai to Ethiopia

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We got to Ethiopia in four hours. At the airport we met another couple, Aaron and Michelle, who were also adopting through All God's Children. We hit it off right away. They were equally excited to get their son. This is a short clip of the ride from the airport to our hotel, The Riviera.



The hotel turned out to be much more extravagant than what we were expecting.
Here are some shots of our room:


That evening we meet two other couples, Johnny and Amy, and Bret and Kathleen. We had quite the group building! We were amazed that they had already picked up their children. I guess a simple call to the Almaz, and they hopped a ride to the orphange. Amy's response at around 9pm, "I want to go over and just look in the windows!" We also learned about getting a tour with a taxi driver, and that would lead to some awesome times the next day.

Obviously we were jealous and much too excited to sleep.
It was a bit of a shock that we were less than 24 hrs away from the culmination of what God had called us to almost a year ago.

*Anyone who is planning to go, please ask for Solomon! We will be posting his picture and phone number. More to come on that soon...
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