Current Financial Goal: We were praying for $3,563 by Sunday, August 19th to be able to pay our second Agency Fee. Praise God that because of several generous donors, we have now met this second financial goal!! Woohoo!!
There I sat, propped up on the couch in our sun-filled living room, journal flipped open and pen freely filling the empty page before me. It was a Friday afternoon in April, and I was taking some intentional time to pray and fast, seeking God’s direction and guidance over a few specific areas in my life. Our adoption was high on the list, as my mind had become pretty consumed with the thought of it. We had just sat down a few days prior to discuss “what country” we were interested in pursuing with our Adoption Agency, and the choices were overwhelming. How are we supposed to know which country to choose? The advice of our agency was to first take a look at the requirements for each country, and if there are any that you don’t meet their requirements, you can cross them off. They also suggested that we look at each country and decide together if we were interested in one or not, and then narrow down the list to what we agree on together. Well, for me and Steven, as we looked at the list, we each had strong yes’s, no’s, and maybe’s for each country (for various reasons) but when we looked at India, we both looked at each other and said,
Once we had made a decision on India, a few things happened:
I got a phone call from our Agency, and the phone call went a little something like this,
My heart sank. I was anticipating disappointing news to come next.
My heart rejoiced! These were all the things I could’ve possibly wanted to hear! The India program is a special needs program, and that was one factor that we both felt a little bit nervous and unsure about. We knew that we still had a lot of education and research ahead of us before knowing fully what we would be able to take on. Her phone call reassured my heart that we were headed in the right direction, though, and that we might just possibly have a Little Link in our home in a year’s time! With this being our first child, too, we are hoping for him or her to be as young as possible. The youngest ages they are seeing families bring home are around 10 months old to one year. And this would be perfectly fine with us.
(Disclaimer: All the info they gave us is based on trends so far, so there are no guarantees for anything related to our process or journey!)
Fast forward to that Friday that I’m sitting at home praying, laying my heart open before the Lord, asking Him for confirmation about the Adoption, and specifically about our decision of choosing India.
I didn’t get any kind of answers that particular afternoon, but it was just a couple of days later…
That Sunday morning, a sweet college student friend of mine walks into the lobby of our church with a large gift bag. She is headed straight towards me, and excitedly hands me the bag. It’s not a special date or occasion or anything, so I don’t know exactly what she is giving me or why! But I sure am curious to find out!
I open the bag and see an original hand painting looking back at me. I’m locked in on the images before me. How could she possibly know?
Staring back at me is the half face of a lion; the same lion that looks back at me from my mirror each morning when I’m getting ready in my bathroom. In fact, it’s the exact half face of a lion on the left side of the painting that is on my little scripture card in my bathroom! This lion image and verse have come to mean so much to me in recent months, a card that my best friend gave me as an encouragement to my heart and strength to my faith.
On the right side of the painting is an image just as shocking. Is this my sign? There as plain as day are a mother elephant and a baby elephant. I immediately decide that this is the symbol of our India child. My young friend explains, “I have no idea what it all means, but when I saw these images I knew they were meant for you.” I was overwhelmed with God’s grace and goodness toward me through the painting. I looked up the word “earnest” and these striking words jumped off the page and right into my desperate heart:
Well, before I know it our friend is looking up the difference between African and Asian elephants, and lo and behold! There is a difference. Significant enough that we could confirm that indeed the elephants in my painting were Indian Elephants! A mama and baby one! (Check out the larger hump on the Asian elephant's head and its smaller ears.)
The Indian elephant has become a very personal image and symbol for this adoption as it has served as a sweet reminder of the confirmation that God gave us on that tender Sunday morning.
And I told my talented painter friend when she gave it to me that day that I couldn’t wait to share with her in time what the significance of her painted images meant to me. It was such a joy to explain to her just a couple months later (once we were ready to go public with our announcement) that her painting served as an encouragement and personal message to me and Steven from the Lord that we were headed down the right path with our India Adoption. And there’s just no way she could’ve known our plans that early on. The Holy Spirit revealed to her these images as a way to encourage us and answer our prayers. He didn’t have to. But He chose to. And her step of faith and courage to share with us the images God had revealed to her were spot on with His plans and desires for us.
Next Financial Goal: We have Psychological Evaluations (required by country of India) on Monday, August 6th that cost $900 Total, and that will need to be paid in cash. We are praying that God will provide the exact amount by that appointment.
SAVE THE DATE: We are planning to host a Yard Sale on Friday & Saturday, September 21-22. Please let us know if you would like to donate items to our Yard Sale! And makes plans to come out & join us as you "SHOP to ADOPT!"
Current Prayer Requests: We have our Psychological Evaluations on Monday, August 6th and our next Home Study Interviews on Friday, August 10th! We are working on our medical appointments within these next two weeks, as well. Please pray along with us for these appointments, interviews and for all the paperwork we are working on!
Check out our ongoing fundraiser here:
(or you can give directly to us to avoid a 5% deduction taken from our fundraiser by our PureCharity account)
For the Love of an Indian Orphan
There I sat, propped up on the couch in our sun-filled living room, journal flipped open and pen freely filling the empty page before me. It was a Friday afternoon in April, and I was taking some intentional time to pray and fast, seeking God’s direction and guidance over a few specific areas in my life. Our adoption was high on the list, as my mind had become pretty consumed with the thought of it. We had just sat down a few days prior to discuss “what country” we were interested in pursuing with our Adoption Agency, and the choices were overwhelming. How are we supposed to know which country to choose? The advice of our agency was to first take a look at the requirements for each country, and if there are any that you don’t meet their requirements, you can cross them off. They also suggested that we look at each country and decide together if we were interested in one or not, and then narrow down the list to what we agree on together. Well, for me and Steven, as we looked at the list, we each had strong yes’s, no’s, and maybe’s for each country (for various reasons) but when we looked at India, we both looked at each other and said,
“Yep.”
It was quick, easy, and we felt 100% agreement on that option.
See the complete list of International Adoption countries that our Agency offers here: https://lifelinechild.org/international-adoption/
Once we had made a decision on India, a few things happened:
I got a phone call from our Agency, and the phone call went a little something like this,
“Mrs. Link, we got your pre-application for our India program, and I just wanted to let you and your husband know of a few unique factors regarding our India program that you should be aware of.”
My heart sank. I was anticipating disappointing news to come next.
“Based on the trends of families who have recently been matched with their child through our India program, we are seeing families get through the entire process in less than a year, bringing home younger children, and we’re seeing more moderate to correctable special needs.”
My heart rejoiced! These were all the things I could’ve possibly wanted to hear! The India program is a special needs program, and that was one factor that we both felt a little bit nervous and unsure about. We knew that we still had a lot of education and research ahead of us before knowing fully what we would be able to take on. Her phone call reassured my heart that we were headed in the right direction, though, and that we might just possibly have a Little Link in our home in a year’s time! With this being our first child, too, we are hoping for him or her to be as young as possible. The youngest ages they are seeing families bring home are around 10 months old to one year. And this would be perfectly fine with us.
(Disclaimer: All the info they gave us is based on trends so far, so there are no guarantees for anything related to our process or journey!)
Fast forward to that Friday that I’m sitting at home praying, laying my heart open before the Lord, asking Him for confirmation about the Adoption, and specifically about our decision of choosing India.
I didn’t get any kind of answers that particular afternoon, but it was just a couple of days later…
That Sunday morning, a sweet college student friend of mine walks into the lobby of our church with a large gift bag. She is headed straight towards me, and excitedly hands me the bag. It’s not a special date or occasion or anything, so I don’t know exactly what she is giving me or why! But I sure am curious to find out!
I open the bag and see an original hand painting looking back at me. I’m locked in on the images before me. How could she possibly know?
Staring back at me is the half face of a lion; the same lion that looks back at me from my mirror each morning when I’m getting ready in my bathroom. In fact, it’s the exact half face of a lion on the left side of the painting that is on my little scripture card in my bathroom! This lion image and verse have come to mean so much to me in recent months, a card that my best friend gave me as an encouragement to my heart and strength to my faith.
On the right side of the painting is an image just as shocking. Is this my sign? There as plain as day are a mother elephant and a baby elephant. I immediately decide that this is the symbol of our India child. My young friend explains, “I have no idea what it all means, but when I saw these images I knew they were meant for you.” I was overwhelmed with God’s grace and goodness toward me through the painting. I looked up the word “earnest” and these striking words jumped off the page and right into my desperate heart:
“resulting from or showing sincere and intense conviction”
And it was just a short hour later that Steven and I sat with our best friends showing them the incredible paintings (Steven received a really cool one from her, too!) and as we pondered the elephants in the photo, wondering if they represented India like my heart so badly wanted them to. What if they represent Africa? The colors in the painting seem more African, right?Well, before I know it our friend is looking up the difference between African and Asian elephants, and lo and behold! There is a difference. Significant enough that we could confirm that indeed the elephants in my painting were Indian Elephants! A mama and baby one! (Check out the larger hump on the Asian elephant's head and its smaller ears.)
The Indian elephant has become a very personal image and symbol for this adoption as it has served as a sweet reminder of the confirmation that God gave us on that tender Sunday morning.
And I told my talented painter friend when she gave it to me that day that I couldn’t wait to share with her in time what the significance of her painted images meant to me. It was such a joy to explain to her just a couple months later (once we were ready to go public with our announcement) that her painting served as an encouragement and personal message to me and Steven from the Lord that we were headed down the right path with our India Adoption. And there’s just no way she could’ve known our plans that early on. The Holy Spirit revealed to her these images as a way to encourage us and answer our prayers. He didn’t have to. But He chose to. And her step of faith and courage to share with us the images God had revealed to her were spot on with His plans and desires for us.
Factors in Why we Chose India:
-India has the highest number of orphans & street children in the world!
-We have both been to India. Steven has been 3 times now, and we got to go together on a trip with a small team in October 2017. Because of these trips over the last couple of years, we have developed relationships in-country and have fallen in love with this beautiful place & the people. We have seen firsthand the poverty and the living conditions, too. We have held orphaned Indian children in our arms.
-God has confirmed our desire to move forward with India in personal ways and revelations
-The program timelines and age of Waiting children match our desires
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