(or why it seems we don’t post any updates to Litschers.com)
Good morning. I was just thinking about how much has changed in our adoption process over the last few months, and that I should really post an update here. So, I logged in and realized that the last time (and only!) time I wrote about the adoption was at Christmas. Yikes. When we initially started this website (right before we got married) we did it for two reasons: 1) to give ourselves a sweet email address that we would never have to change and, 2) to keep our family and friends updated with what was going on in our lives, since we lived so far from where we grew up. Well, I joined Facebook in 2007 (thanks, Timeline, for letting me know) and shortly after that the frequency of our posts slowed down to nil. Just about all of our family and friends have joined Facebook since then and, alas, Litschers.com has been all but abandoned.
However, where popular social media often fails is providing a place for long-form update of things that matter. So that’s what I hope to do a little more consistently here. All that to say: here’s an update of things that matter, in a little bit of a longer-form. (Yes, I’m blaming social media for my personal failure to blog.)
The biggest news is that we do have an update on our adoption journey. After much prayer and consultation, we have switched our adoptive country from Ethiopia to Uganda. The very long story short is that our adoption agency (Bethany Christian Services) has started a pilot program in Uganda and had openings for a dozen or so families to join it. We were expecting to have wait 2-3 years in Ethiopia and we will probably have our Ugandan child home by March (or even sooner)! We did have to redo all of our paperwork though, and since we did this at my busiest time of year, Renee really did it all.
So, after getting our home study amended, all of our documents re-signed, everything notarized, county authenticated, and then state sealed, we are officially waiting.
We have had to make a bit of a mind-shift as well–we had learned much about Ethiopian and its culture, had figured the child will probably be 2-3 years old when we traveled to bring him or her home, and I thought I’d be done with my Ed.D. Now we’re learning about Uganda (the Pearl of Africa), may have an infant (under 12 months), and I will be nowhere near done with school. (We’ve also formally requested a girl, and expect to get one. So weird to think about “my daughter”!!!) Since we were expecting to have 2-3 years of preparing, saving, and raising money to pay the rest of our fees, we are also trusting that the money will come through too.
We are so thankful for the support of our church. There are two other families who are in the process of adopting, and our church has rallied around us as we’ve raised money through yard sales and cookbook sales. (If you are interested in purchasing a cookbook to help us all, they are $15, $20 if it needs to be shipped, and has almost 300 fantastic recipes in it! Just send me an email at ken@litschers.com.) It has been such a blessing to have their support and love.
If you would, could you please pray for us for the following things?
- For our daughter in Uganda: that she is being cared for and protected during such a vulnerable time of life. That she will bond with and attach to us quickly.
- For our daughter’s birth family: as excited as we are to grow our family through adoption, it is a stark reminder that things are not as they should be. Her family, through death, illness, poverty, or any number of reasons, is unable to care for her, and we will always grieve for her and for them.
- For Renee and I as we prepare: 4 kids – YIKES! A daughter – YIKES! Wisdom as we walk through parenting an orphan.
- For our biological kids: as they adjust to having parents gone for a few weeks when we travel (Gabe has asked me more than once when I leave for work if I was going to Uganda). For their patience as we care for a new child. For their adjustment as we will probably have to parent (and discipline) our daughter differently.
- For our finances: we are fully trusting that God will provide – and He has so far. But we will have some big bills soon, along with our travel costs. We have applied for a matching grant (if people donate towards it, they will match the donation) and hope to hear back soon. We are also selling those cookbooks and I am making some cedar Adirondack chairs to try to sell locally.
