A Fall Weekend

What a great day! It is so beautiful outside. I love it when it is 60 degrees and sunny outside; I think fall is my favorite season.

Not much has changed since last week as far as adoption goes. We are still waiting on our U.S. immigration papers, but that is okay because we aren't ready to send everything over to Zambia yet anyways. Mark and I have been talking a lot about how this is all going to work out; we aren't sure yet, but we know God knows and we are trying to trust Him. We are still asking a lot of questions to people who have been to Zambia so we can try to get a better picture of what our stay there will look like.

Other than that, one of Mark's best friends from MN, Scott Schnyders, is here with his girlfriend for the weekend. It has been fun to hang out with them and catch up. We are celebrating Mark's 26th birthday with my family on Sunday which is always a fun time. Work is keeping us both busy, but we are blessed to both have jobs that we love so that makes it easier to be busy. It is good for me to stay busy because then I don't think about adoption stuff so much :)

Your support means the world to us! We will keep you posted.

Trusting

After a week of reflection, praying and discussion, Mark and I still feel very called to pursue an adoption in Zambia. Even though the news about having to stay in Zambia for three months was unexpected and maybe a little disappointing, we both feel a strange calm about the whole thing. We believe that God has this adoption in His plans for us and we are trusting Him to help us work out the details of staying for three months.


A few prayer requests:
-Pray for God's will to be done in all the questions about timing. It is so easy for us to try to take that in our own hands and attempt to figure it all out, but we are learning quickly that it doesn't work that way :)
-Pray that God will allow the 3 month stay to work out. We are worried about the extra travel costs and having to be separated from each other for 2 months.
-Pray for the health of our future child. We don't know if she is born yet or not, but we believe God has someone picked out for us to add to our family.

God is good. I found myself thinking about Proverbs 3:5-6 this week:

" Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding; in all your ways acknowledge Him and He will make your paths straight."

Thanks again for your prayer and support; we couldn't do this without you all.

Bumps in the Road

We found out some news from Zambia that we wanted to share
with all of you.

There was a team from Bethany in Zambia recently, checking
out some social service opportunities and asking questions
about adoptions. We were anxious to hear what they had to
say when they got back because we knew they were going to
learn more information.  Monday, I talked to our social worker
and she told me that the trip had gone well and adoptions are
going through in Zambia.  

Unfortunately, she did let us know that the government in
Zambia is being very insistent that adoptive couples (or at
least one spouse) stay in Zambia for 3 months to foster the
child before the adoption is finalized.  This was frustrating
for us.Staying for 3 months instead of 1 triples our travel
costs.We thought we had figured out how we could pay for this
and now we need to look at other options because we can't
afford it on our own.  Also, Mark would not be able to take
three months off work so I would have to stay for at least
two months by myself.  There may be some neat mission type
opportunities for me while I am down there, but I would
still be apart from Mark for at least 60 days.

So, we are not sure what to do with all of this. We have some
time to decide and we are looking at different options and
praying hard for clarity.  We have Zambia on our hearts so
it is hard to think about not doing this. Right now we are
seeking out God's will and we are not ruling Zambia out at
all.We want to be cautious about this and try to make the
best decision. 

This is getting long so I will quit. If you could pray for us
and our decision we would appreciate it. We will keep you
informed;Thanks for your support!

Baskets and Katumbas

Today I explained the "Change 4 Children" project that gives my 8th graders the opportunity to raise change for kids in Zambia. Each students received a "katumba" (a little bag to collect coins in) and each class has a basket to store the coins. The katumbas and the baskets were hand made by women in Zambia.

I am very excited about my students helping the kids in Zambia with their change. It is so neat to think they might be helping the little girl we will be adopting!

Change 4 Children

Starting this week, my students will be participating in a project called "Change 4 Children". This is a program where students learn about AIDS and poverty in Zambia and then bring in change to raise money for the orphans. This program is run by the organization "The Alliance for Children Everywhere" which founded the orphanage we will be getting our daughter from. I am so excited to get my students involved in helping kids in Zambia with their loose change. It will also be neat because when we go to Zambia we should be able to see the kids that were helped with the change we sent!

If you are interested in helping out with this project, let me know. I would love to collect as much change as possible to send to Zambia. I also may have a few more African coin purses left after this week that you can use to store the change in. I am excited that our change will make a difference across the world!

Your prayers for this project would be appreciated. If you would like more information, go to www.childreneverywhere.org and click on the link "change 4 children". Email me at kelli10haken@yahoo.com if you have any questions. Thanks in advance for your support!

Feels Like Fall

It is starting to cool down and I love it when it starts to feel more like fall! The trees we just planted in our backyard are already turning bright red (probably from the stress of being planted :) but it just reminds me God's beauty in the fall.

We are expecting our paperwork back from U.S. immigration in the next couple of weeks. After that we have to make a decision about when to send our dossier (our paperwork) over to Zambia. If we send it right away there is a chance that we could get called to go to Africa before the school year is done. Yet, if we wait awhile and things don't go as planned in Zambia, then we could be waiting a lot longer to go than we anticipated. It is a tough call for us. Please pray that God will give us clarity as we seek His will in the timing of all of this. We want to be open to doing what He wants us to do.

Thanks for your prayers! We will keep you posted.