MIRACLES!!

Monday was a very, very sad day. It was supposed to be happy and exiting!  We were so thrilled to be featured on Give1 Save1 [that was the good news of the day].  On a sidenote, thank-you so mucn for sharing and giving!  We are almost halfway there!!  Ok, now back to the bad news...it was an email and it said...

"Dear Mr. and Mrs. Hopkins,

 

Please be advised that your visa interview appointments were missed today, and that we have rescheduled the interviews forAugust 21, 2013 at 9:00 am."

We had no idea what this meant or why the girls appointment was missed so I forwarded it to our case manager and waited for an email or a phone call. I sobbed all day!  I didn't know for sure what had happened but I was certain it was a setback. Finally, that evening, I got a call from our case manager, she explained there had been some miscommunication between the incountry staff and that the girls did not get taken to their appointment. 

As devastated as I was to hear the news, I was SO impressed with our agency!  That may sound strange but our amazing case manager thoroughly explained the whole situation to me.  She shared how devastated she was that they could make an error like that. I sobbed and listened and then she paused and waited. Finally she said "ok, let me have it"  I actually giggled through my tears. This amazing lady was wanting me to yell at her for something she had absolutely no control over!!!  There was no way I was going to yell at her and I told her as much. I told her if I were a perfect human being that had never made any mistakes or if I had never had anyone working for me that had made mistakes, I think I would have let her have it! :) However, neither are true so instead I told her how amazing she was and that I knew for certain none of the staff here and none of the in country staff would ever do anything like this on purpose. I sincerely believe they love our girls and I believe with all of me they want to see them home in our family almost as much as we do!!

So, we have spent the last few days trying to decide if we should postpone our trip or go ahead and go, knowing we could be in country much longer than we had planned.  I also learned that changeable tickets are way more expensive than just the fee that you pay to change each ticket. If there is a price increase, you also pay the difference. Changing our tickets would pretty much be flushing a couple thousand dollars down the toilet. So, we prayed and asked for godly counsel and we decided to go ahead and go. Would you PLEASE PRAY that God will miraculously redeem this whole situation?!?  And if He chooses not to, that He will coordinate all the other details for our kids here starting school and all of Brian's work trips. Please continue to pray for our finances, if we don't come home on the planned date, we will have to pay to change tickets AND several more nights in the hotel and food. I believe that God is going to do something very cool, and that is our prayer, that HE will be glorified!!!

 

Give 1 Save 1 Africa!!

We are so excited to share that Give 1 Save 1 is featuring us this week!  Here is the link, if you have a couple minutes, please watch the video.  If God leads you to give (even just $1) or share, please do!  To give, click on our picture or where it says "Hopkins adoption" below the video, it will take you to our Pure Charity site. From there you click Back this Fundraiser in the upper left hand corner. 

http://give1save1africa.blogspot.com/2013_08_01_archive.html

PACKING!

We can hardly believe that we leave for the Democratic Republic of Congo just one week from today!!!!  The days are ticking down to try and get our kids ready for school, which is not an easy task, especially considering that they don't have things like school supply lists for elementary school out yet!  We will do our best and my sweet Mom and Brian's sweet parents will help pick up what we've missed (we're SO thankful for them!).  I am working on gathering up everything we need to pack for us and the girls for what may be a 2 week trip, but could stretch longer. 

Which leads me to the reason for my post today.  We have a few very specific prayer requests that we would be SO grateful if you would join us in praying over. 

The first is, Monday is our girls VISA appointment (this is actually while we sleep tomorrow night)!  Our U.S. Embassy in Kinshasa usually issue VISA's on Tuesdays, but we understand that it would be a miracle for the girls to actually get their VISA's the very next day.  Which means they wouldn't get them until the next Tuesday (the 13th).  We arrive the day before (the 12th) which would mean that we wouldn't be able to start the "exit" process until Weds. the 14th.  So, please pray for a miracle, that our girls will get their VISAS issued that very next day (the 6th)!

The next prayer request is that God would perform yet another miracle and allow us ALL to return home on Aug. 26th.  I know I have asked for prayer for this before, but here it is again.  Brian HAS to be home on the 26th and if our "exit letter" is not ready, I will need to stay in the DRC with the girls and bring them home myself (unless I can recruit one of my friends to fly over and help me bring them back)  Jazzy's 8th birthday is the 27th and school starts the 28th, both things my heart aches to miss.  So, we are asking God to allow us all to be home, together, on the 26th.

Our final request is for our last chunk of travel money.  We are still around $15K short of having all the money we need for this trip.  God has done AMAZING things on this front already, and we know that He's not going to leave us hanging now.  For example, we are being featured on Give 1 Save 1 Africa Monday, so stay tuned for that.  Some amazingly talented friends, lead by Scott Chestnut, created a very powerful video for us that we could not be more excited to share.  If you aren't familiar with Give 1 Save 1, please check out their blog at: http://give1save1africa.blogspot.com/  The idea is, if we give $1, we can save 1 child.  I think so often people think that what they have to give isn't enough to make a real difference, but the point these awesome ladies who run the blog are making is, if you have $1 and you pass along these family's stories and more people give $1, it adds up very quickly and everyone gets to be a part of caring for orphans!  We are super excited they were willing to share our story right before we leave!!

Of course, "thank-you" from the depths of our hearts to all of you who have been part of supporting us financially and/or praying for our family up to this point!  Thank you SO much and way to go for being a part of caring for orphans!

WE BELIEVE WE CAN ALL DO SOMETHING!

What we do will look different for every one of us…but each of us can and should do something.

For us, it is to bring home four more little girls.  We realize this is small in relation to the world and all the thousands of orphans in it–but it will be big for us, for our family, and for their future. It will not be easy…and the world may look at us like we are crazy…again. :)

We do not believe everyone's calling is to adopt but that God does have a part for all of us to play in caring for orphans and widows.  Your calling will most likely not be easy, either... ours, sometimes, seems overwhelming . But Mother Teresa said it best when she spoke about giving–that we must give until it hurts…

...all parents know how much it hurts to be apart from our kids.  I have spent the last eight months (since we found out about our girls) thinking about the girls day and night.  Wondering if they are healthy and what they might be doing.  Wondering if someone has held them and loved them that day.  This month, I have been praising Jesus that in just a few short days, when our girls cry out at night–they will  have a mama and a papa rushing in to hold them…to sing to them…to remind them that they are safe.  They are home.

When they are home, we will have a new form of "giving until it hurts".  That in my opinion is the most beautiful part of the entire journey.  Katie Davis wrote this on her blog this week and it is beautiful and so true!

"Watching them grow in their knowledge and love of the Lord is by far the best part of parenting. Without a doubt, parenting reveals to me more of my own depravity and more of my loving Father’s heart than anything else ever could. I am humbled and grateful."

We too are humbled and grateful that God would allow us to witness His work in healing and redeeming these little hearts.  It is truly a miracle!

Thank you in advance for your prayers.  Of course, we will keep you posted on how all of this unfolds and how God answers our prayers as we lift them to Him together.

We love you all.

PLANE TICKETS ARE BOOKED!!!

We are SO excited that our plane tickets are booked!  Three weeks from tomorrow, Brian and I will be boarding a plane to BRING OUR GIRLS HOME!!!!!!  Looking back, it's hard to believe it was just 7 months ago that we first saw their sweet faces.  God has accomplished AMAZING things and we are blown away that our precious little girls will soon be home!  I lay awake at night thinking of their sweet little faces and what they might be doing.  I am so thrilled that in just a few short days, I will get to hold them in my arms and never have to leave them again.  To tell them how much our family loves them and to watch the delight in their eyes (or hold them close if they are afraid) as they experience so many "firsts" in this new world.
I am writing today to ask for some specific prayers.  As mentioned in a previous post, the girls VISA appt is Aug 5.  Please pray that they are granted VISA's (it is extremely rare but kids have been denied before) and that they would be returned to our attorney quickly so they are ready for us to pick up once we arrive.  Once we are there, we will start the Exit Letter process.  We will report to the DGM (Director General of Migration) with our attorney and four little girls and request that he sign a letter allowing our girls to exit.  This letter sometimes takes him days, sometimes weeks.  We would ask for your prayers that it would be days.  Ideally, that it would be ready before the 26th of Aug when we booked our tickets to return.  If we don't have the letter that day, Brian will more than likely still have to return (because of some work trips he has scheduled) and I will stay there with the girls (5 tickets changed + more nights at the guest house = lots more money).  We also would love your prayers for these last funds...  We thought we had most of our travel money saved but when we had to travel to file our paper work, we depleted most of it. The tickets we just booked (Brian and I round trip, 4 girls one way) were over $10,000.  If we can leave on the 26th, our Guest house total will be over $2,000, then we will still have to pay for food and taxi's for anywhere we go over those couple of weeks...I think I mentioned on a previous post, but the cost of food and travel there is crazy!  We know God has brought us this far and that HE WILL PROVIDE for the remainder!  We still have quite a few necklaces if you know anyone who might be interested please pass this along, they are shown on the fundraising tab! 
We are SO grateful for your continued support and prayers!!  I CANNOT wait until you all get to meet them.  And YES, we are going to be having one, BIG airport party and you are all invited! 

VISA APPOINTMENT!!!

I have been waiting and waiting for today. So much so that I honestly have been waking up almost every hour in the middle of the night checking my email. No, I am not proud that I am so impatient but I am missing my four little girls so much it has been so hard to enjoy life without them. For those of you who haven't adopted, it's similar to when you are pregnant and everyone keeps telling you to enjoy your current children and the "easy life as you know it". However, you have prepared and are preparing your heart for your new child/children. Therefore, it is much easier said than done. I would add that it is even more difficult when we know our girls are in an orphanage in an unsafe, third world country. So...here is what the email said:

Dear Hopkins family, 

The Immigrant Visa Unit at the U.S. Embassy in Kinshasa has concluded our initial field investigation and is ready to schedule a visa interview for your adopted children....

          Your children’s visa interview is scheduled on August 5, 2013 at 9:00am.

There were more details but I included what's important!  So, that means a) I can start sleeping through the night again-at least until we pick up the girls ;) -  things are a little different in the Congo than Ethiopia.  Our agency's attorney actually takes our girls to that appointment and we will travel around a week after that to pick up our girls. When we get there, we will then apply for exit letters for the girls from the Congolese government.  The DGM (Director General of Migration) issues these letters and it can take up to 2 weeks for them to get the letters prepared.   There has been some talk of them not issuing these letters for kids from the region where our girls are from so please pray that is untrue and that things keep moving forward!

Thank you for your continued prayers!  We have a lot to do to finish getting our house ready for 4 little girls!!

POSITIVE INVESTIGATION!!!!!

We got word from our agency yesterday that the investigations in Mbuji Mayi went well and that the families with our agency that filed in-country WERE investigated!!!  Praise Jesus!!!  Thank you for your prayers!!!!!

The next step is, we will receive an email from the U.S. Embassy in the DR Congo, telling us that the interview with our girls is scheduled.  Our agency staff will take our children to the embassy for the interview for their Visas.  Once that is completed, the Embassy will issue their Visas and the letter confirming our girls can enter the U.S.

Once the girls Congolese passports contain their U.S. Visas, we will be notified to book our tickets.  We will more than likely have a weeks notice...

We could get the first email as soon as this week or it could be several more...it is likely that we will  travel about a month after the first email...it's a guess but probably 4-8 weeks at this point until we go get our baby girls!!!!

Obviously, there are still several hurdles to overcome but as I've said before, we know God has perfect timing for all of this.  Please continue to pray for our girls and that all of these steps are completed without any issues.  Thank you SO much for journeying with us!!!

NEW YORK TIMES ARTICLE

A few weeks back, I received an email from one of the religion reporters for the New York Times.  He said he had found our blog and that he was interested in talking to me/us.  I forwarded the email to Brian and asked what he thought.  He said that we should talk to him, so I wrote him back and explained a bit more about our process and that several families in our church were also in the process of adopting.  He immediately responded asking if he could come out to Bozeman and talk to us.  I/we were quite caught off guard...not exactly sure why he would be interested in our family and church.  We cautiously said "yes" to him and out he came, hiring a local photographer, asking questions and taking pictures of others who are a part of our church, friends who have adopted, and our family.

Some weeks later the reporter sent us an email letting us know that the article and photographs would be published on Saturday June 1 on page 1.  Brian and I were on our way to the Democratic Republic of Congo, so we picked up our copy of the Times at the Minneapolis airport on a long layover.  We are of the opinion that the article was very "factual" and left the reader to decide for himself/herself what he/she thought of our family's desire to adopt children.  Although Brian cautioned me against it, I insisted on reading the "comments" section of the online article. 

Yes, many of the comments people left behind were hurtful, but as I have processed them over the last couple of weeks I have asked myself one question "Are we adopting kids to be featured in the NY Times and to have the world sing our praises?"  In case you're wondering, the answer is absolutely "NO!"  Brian and I both feel strongly that God has led us to each and every one of our kids.  For those of you who haven't followed our story over the last 4 1/2 years, Brian met Silas, Josh and Mahlea in their orphanage when he was in Ethiopia trying to figure out how our church could help make positive change in Ethiopia.  We were not planning on adopting at the time.  Almost 2 years ago, we met our sweet Kenzie, who was here for a summer hosting program.  Again, we were not pursuing  adopting at the time but we felt God nudging us to make her part of our family.  Last December, we were at a Christmas concert and a friend showed us a picture of our four little girls...we were actually on the waiting list for a baby girl from the DRC at the time but after many conversations and much prayer, we knew we were supposed to adopt our four little girls.

Part of me has wanted to respond to many of the comments on the NY Times page but I have refrained, knowing that, for the most part, my words would land on deaf ears.  Most commentators are not interested in who we really are or how we are raising our children.  They do not know that we have tried hard to encourage our children to keep their Ethiopian language nor that we have taken our kids back to Ethiopia and were able to spend time with Josh and Mahlea's birth mom and give Silas space to see many of his close friends and caretakers.  The critics do not care that we love ALL our children as our own and would do anything for them.  Which, after much reflection, is what hurts most about what the Times commentators said.  I am not a perfect mom, far, far from it.  I do know how amazingly special and unique God created each of my children and I believe that I am blessed beyond imagination that I get to be a part of their lives, even if it is for a few short years.  One of my favorite things that Brian has told our kids is that if they want to "squeeze us for every opportunity possible and go back to their country, we will always love them and will support them doing so."

After being in the Congo with our girls for a week, and watching their very visible need for love and affection I would boldly say to any of the NY Times critics that they have NO IDEA what that looks like.  I don't care if the child is here in the US or on the moon.  EVERY, SINGLE child that God created in HIS image is deserving of the love and adoration that only a parent can give.  After just 7 short days, I watched each of our four amazing and beautiful girls begin to rest and trust us.  In everything from the amount of food they would be given to the space on my lap being enough for four sweet girls at once.  I love each of them so much that it hurts and I know that it is only because of Jesus' love for me that I am able to love them in that way.  So, what I must conclude is that each of the often-angry commentators has not allowed Jesus Christ to love them and love others through them and so, instead of being hurt by their comments, I must pray for them, that their hearts would soften and be open to Jesus and His redeeming love and power.

My Wisdom Hunters Devotional this week said this:

 "Yes, be shameless and humble to declare your focused allegiance to your Heavenly Father and no one else. Take your marching orders from your Master Jesus. Let the Lord define your lifestyle, not those whose style of life tip God and flirt with sin. Culture and less honorable friends and family will attempt to mold you into their definition of a meaningful life. But, you look to heaven for your standard of living on earth. Embrace by grace an uncompromising lifestyle.

Above all, accept and enjoy your identity  in Christ alone. Yes, rest in the way your Creator has created you. Be who you were made to be. Be content with the lot in life the Lord has given you. If you strive to be someone you’re not, you will have an inner knot of anxiety that haunts you. However, you enjoy peace when you accept yourself for who you are in Christ. Indeed, you are loved and forgiven by your Heavenly Father. His Spirit strengthens your uncompromising life!

He [Job] is blameless and upright, a man who fears God and shuns evil. And he still maintains his integrity, though you [Satan] incited me against him to ruin him without any reason. Job 2:3

Prayer: Heavenly Father give me the righteous resolve to stand uncompromising for Christ."

It has been an excruciatingly painful week for me.  Overcoming jet-lag and a broken heart at the same time has been much, much tougher than I imagined.  We are praying that our girl's case does get investigated while the US Embassy Staff is in Mbuji Mayi (where the girls are from) but at the same time we are trusting that God will unfold HIS perfect plan in HIS perfect timing.  Thank you for your prayers for us and our girls as we are apart from one another.

COUNT DOWN TO MEET OUR GIRLS!!!

Yup!!  You read it right!  We are counting down the days until we meet our girls.  Unfortunately, this meeting will be the true definition of bitter sweet.  We are leaving on Saturday to file our I600 in country.  Our agency found out last week that the US Embassy is traveling to the region where our girls are from sometime mid to the end of June.  They told our agency that only the cases that have I600 approval (for those of you who don't know adoption paperwork lingo, this is just code for "they have all the documents they need, have looked over them and approved that they all look good") OR the families who have traveled to Kinshasa and filed your I600 in person to the US Embassy in Kinshasa.  AND, even still, they are NOT confirming that they will for sure investigate our case, they will take our paper work with and IF they have time, will investigate our case.  So, we REALLY need prayers and lots of them PLEASE!  If they do investigate our case, we could be going back to get the girls and bring them home in 4 to 12 weeks!!!!!  If they do NOT investigate our case, it could be up to 6 months before the return to the region to investigate cases :( 

So, in addition to prayers that they DO investigate our case, would you please pray for our girls.  They are about to endure a whole lot of transition and my heart is just aching for them.  They got on an airplane today and flew to the Transition house where they will remain until they are allowed to come home.  We are going to arrive on Sunday and if we want to spend time with the girls, they have to be brought to us at the hotel that we are staying at and they will stay with us there.  I am THRILLED for myself about this but so torn for them.  At their young ages they are just going to have such a hard time understanding it all.  In addition, they will then have to be taken back to the Transition house after spending the week with us.  And to top it off, they speak a tribal language called Tshiluba.  We tried to find a translation book to English, so that we could maybe be able to communicate a word or two and there is no such thing.  So, if nothing else, we should have some pretty hilarious stories to tell about trying to communicate :)  We know God is bigger than language barriers and He can give them a sense of peace with us and an assurance that WE ARE COMING BACK TO GET THEM!!!

The other piece of bad news is this trip is quite a spendy one.  We were notified on Friday and are leaving the following Saturday...incase you were wondering, those weren't exactly cheap tickets :)  We also had to express send our passports and immunization records to apply for a Visa to enter the DRC, we are praying that they get back to us Friday!!!  Our agency had to return a whole bunch of paper work back to us this week so we can take it with us!!!!!  So, you will notice that our thermometer has increased in total.  We aren't positive what this trip will cost but we are estimating at least $7k or $8k.

We will certainly keep the blog updated in the coming week and will be filling our private FB page with all the fun pictures we can--that is if the internet is good enough to :)  If you aren't added to our FB page and would like to be, let us know :)  Thank you for all your love and support, we are so grateful!!!!

 A couple of weeks ago, Donna Kelley from KZBK Bozeman (our local CBS Affiliate) called us and asked if they could do a TV news story about our family...sort of a "day in the life of" kind of feel with a "twist" of, "And they're adopting four more kids...".  Our first question was, "Does anyone care about a day in the life of our family?", but she assured us that it would make a good story, so we said, "Sure..."

SO, last week, Donna and Matt (Cameraman from KZBK) came over and spent an evening with us...and, well, here it is:

http://t.co/EDTWZDfegd

Our kids sure are great, and as for me and Danna, well, suffice it to say that we both strongly dislike seeing ourselves on-screen...I (Brian) am a geek...but at least Danna is hot...;-)

Brian

4 More Hopkins!!!

We are SO excited to share that our precious girls are legally Hopkins!!!!  It is fantastic news... although there is a bit of bad news as well.  The increase in adoptions in the Democratic Republic of Congo and the new investigation process has caused a MAJOR slow down in the process.  The US Embassy in the DR Congo is understaffed and we are told there are at least 300 families ahead of us.  So, although our girls are legally ours, we will not be able to go pick them up and bring them back to the US until the US investigation is completed and their VISA's are created.  We are told that this could still be 8 months away.  As I am sure you can imagine, this is gut wrenching.  Every day that passes is another day that our sweet girls are without a mommy and daddy and their brothers and sisters.  Living conditions in the DRC are not good.  They are currently eating 2 meals a day and more than likely have parasites and scabies.  It breaks my heart that they could potentially continue living in these conditions for another 8 months.   God has performed HUGE miracles in our adoption so far and I know He will continue to answer prayers.  So PLEASE continue praying our girls home!!!  We are SO excited to hold them, love them and get to know them!  And if any of you have connections with US leaders who may have influence in getting our girls know, please let us know!!!
We are now allowed to share pictures of them and we have some great ones!  We have decided because of some recent issues that we are only going to post them in a secret FB group.  If you are interested in being added, please message me on FB!  Thank you for being a HUGE part in bringing our sweet babies home!!!