Update

Today is a day of celebration here in the Ruppel household! We celebrate Cole's 9th birthday and we celebrate our submission to the US Embassy, last Wednesday! That is right, I said last Wednesday! We received an email this morning notifying us of the submission which means the Embassy has had our case in its entirety for 6 business days now. We should hear word from the Embassy sometime in the next week in regards to what further information they are requiring for our case. Interviews with birth families and documentation are the two most common requests before they will clear a case but in 5% to 10% of cases they require nothing and approve immediately. You can imagine that we are praying to be part of that 5 to 10%, please pray with us. There was no real explanation given on how they resolved the issue with the death certificate, but I already know the explanation ~ we serve a wonder - working God who moves on behalf of His people. That is all the explanation I need; that is the only explanation that can explain how we have come to this beautiful place that He has brought us.

I have to say though that while the last month has been painful and we have had very low moments I would not change it; even if I could, I would not go back and alter the course He has taken us on to avoid the pain and the disappointment. The last month has been truly amazing here in our home and God is teaching us many priceless lessons and the reality is that pain and joy always intermingle. Tremendous joy is always birthed out of tremendous pain. The greatest joy of my life, my salvation, was birthed out of the greatest pain a father could ever face and a man could ever endure. But my Heavenly Father in His infinite love and mercy saw fit to sacrifice His Son and the single greatest act of pain, resulted in joy unspeakable. So, I gladly accept the painful to experience His joy and His joy is so deep and consuming that the pain is lost in it.

Another amazing part of this story is that Will (BJ) and I broke a fast on the same day that our miracle submission took place. We have NEVER fasted and prayed and not seen God move, never. There is a post coming on fasting, I feel very passionately about the role that fasting should play in a believer's life so I hope to write something soon and go into this further. But, just briefly, if you have anything in your life where you need a miracle, a breakthrough, a place in your life that seems dark and lost then you need to fast. If you have family or friends who do not know the love of Christ, then you need to fast. If you are struggling from addictions, broken relationships, financial chaos, then you need to fast. If you want to experience Jesus Christ and the Spirit of the Living God that indwells in your innermost being, then you need to fast. I assume that everyone is covered somewhere in there, fasting is a beautiful Christian discipline that will change your walk with Christ forever (and it will very likely change the eternity of those that you fast and pray for).

So, please celebrate with us in the miracle that God has bestowed on us this day ~ Cole and taking us one HUGE step closer to bringing our two new girls home. You all are going to love them!!

Mark 9:29
"... This kind can come out by nothing but prayer and fasting."

Ezra 8:21 ~ BJ and I claimed this verse for our fast!
" Then I proclaimed a fast there at the river of Ahava, that we might humble ourselves before our God, to seek from Him the right way for us and our little ones and all our possessions."

Embassy Update

We were not submitted to the US Embassy today. In fact after 3 phone calls made by Will directly to ET we are not even sure if their uncle has the document in his possession yet. We followed our phone calls to ET with calls to our agency here in WA state who were unable to take our phone calls due to a snowstorm.

BUT ... we are praising God because He is faithful and He carries our burdens each and everyday. And He sits on His throne regardless of delays in paperwork and we trust Him, completely, with our lives and the lives of our children.

Please continue to pray with us for breakthrough.

Last night my youngest sat on my lap, "Mom, why doesn't everyone follow Jesus so that they can go to heaven?" she asks. "I don't know Gracie, we will have to pray for them," I say. She is quiet for a minute and then says,"That is why we are adopting Eyerus and Tsinat, because if we did not, they might not be able to hear about Jesus."

It is so clear to her ~ in her simple yet deeply truthful and profound way she sums up in one sentence what we as Christ followers (adult Christ followers) can spend years wrestling with God over. If we don't... then they won't know... so we must, very sound Biblical doctrine from a six year old. You don't need to go to Bible college to know truth when you hear it. Fill in the dots for your life, what do those dots represent to you? What is He asking you, calling you to do? If you don't... then they won't... It looks different for each of us as Christ followers but the end result is always the same goal ~ an eternity spent with their Creator.

Matthew 18:3-5

"Truly I say to you, unless you repent and become like little children, you can never enter the kingdom of heaven. So anyone who becomes as humble as this little child is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven. And anyone who welcomes a little child like this on my behalf is welcoming Me."

Embassy Update

We were not submitted to the US Embassy today and we were not told anything beyond that.

Sometimes life is so heavy ...

Yet, I was never intended to carry this burden alone.

Matthew 11:28-30

"Come to Me, all you who are weary and heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take My yoke upon you and learn from Me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For My yoke is easy and My burden is light."

See, I have this Friend and His shoulders are broad enough to stretch the expanse of man kind, shoulders immense enough to bear the burden of the entire human race and our fall. And this Friend cares deeply and passionately about the burden I carry ... "How precious also are your thoughts to me, O God! How great is the sum of them!" (Ps. 139:17)

So, I ask this Friend of mine, "Will you put Your shoulder to the plow because I am weary and heavy laden." And He says, "I already have."

And I trust my Friend to do far more then I could imagine.

And I rest in my Friend because He has proven Himself faithful, even when I have not.

Embassy Update

Here is where we stood - our entire case needs to be submitted to the US Embassy for its approval, gaining their approval has proved very challenging for some families and relatively easy for others. We will not know anything until 10 working days after we are submitted. Also, the Embassy only does intake for adoption cases on Wednesday afternoons so if you are unprepared this Wednesday, you wait another week. Two weeks ago we were notified that our agency had made some serious changes to their in-country staffing which could cause some delays in the cases that are waiting for court or to be submitted to Embassy. Then last Wednesday we were not submitted because of an error on the girls' father's death certificate. We were praying we would be submitted this week, tomorrow.

That is where we stood last night when we went to bed.

This is where we stood this morning when my alarm went off.

"Jennie, you awake?" Yes. Then he says, "We will not be submitted to Embassy this week, their uncle has to take the death certificate out to the local area where their father died to have the correction made. I thought you should know right away so you would not be wondering." Silence. What is there to say? We both know that "their uncle taking it to the local police" is not the same as Will and I hopping in our mini-van and heading out to Bluffton or Charleston to have a correction made to a document. Travel can be difficult, time off work (if there is work) can be impossible, the funds to make travel possible if there is a vehicle are often non-existent, etc. These are the things running through both our minds; we may have just hit a time consuming snag. What do you say? You can only pray (and cry, maybe just a little.)

Will got up and began to get ready for work. I did not. I stayed in bed, buried under the covers because I could feel the frustration, the discontentment, the angry just a few feet away from me. And I knew if I dared to sit up it would smash me in the face like a ton of bricks. And I don't want to be angry and frustrated anymore; I have battled that off and on for the last few months. One moment my mind is full of thanksgiving and hopeful prayers and the next moment I am in turmoil, questioning God. I could not face the disappoint this morning so I stayed buried, praying God would make it go away.

If I am being perfectly honest though the real reason I allow myself to wallow in the frustration is because the alternative is heart-breaking pain that seems just one thought away. One thought about my little girls on the other side of the world sharing a tiny bed in an overcrowded orphanage. One thought about the things that orphans so often have to endure because they do not have a parent there standing guard. One thought that they may cry themselves to sleep because we have not come back to get them. One thought like that and the pain is too much, too overwhelming. So, sometimes in my weakness I put that energy it takes to carry that pain into obsessing about dates and paperwork, that is easier. But, this morning I did not want to wear this frustration like a coat anymore, I did not want to hang it around my neck any longer and allow it to take the breathe away from the wonderful moments I have here with my other four children, with my husband, with my God.

So, my only alternative is to face the pain, to admit that it makes me sick to my stomach to have left two of my children thousands of miles away from home. So, I laid there sick of the frustration but terrified of the pain. Asking Him why and how? How will I stand up under this pain?

And then He quietly reminds me that I asked for this pain. What? I don't think I remember that. Yes, remember you asked Me to show you My heart towards the orphan, the widow, the lost, the hurting, the broken. Remember? Yes, Lord, I remember, I have actually asked that many times especially in regards to orphans. Part of me was screaming, what were you thinking?! The realization sets in that I did in fact ask for this. I asked to understand how His heart breaks for the orphan and now my heart is breaking for my two little orphans. And yet my two little orphans are living in far better circumstances that millions of God's other orphans. Millions will sleep on the street tonight, thousands will die on those streets tonight, many will be kidnapped and sold into the sex trade, millions will die of HIV/Aids, millions will die from starvation. His pain is far greater then I could possibly imagine. The intensity of His pain for all His orphans is more then I could withstand. He has allowed me to feel the pain of separation from our girls to show me just a sliver of His pain due to His separation from the lost. He allows me to see just a glimpse of what He endures for His orphans that are suffering all over the world.

I asked for this, He gave it to me, He will sustain me through it.

I breathe one last prayer before I through back the covers, "Please God, give me Your strength to stand up under this pain." And He does.