t-shirt fundraiser!

As another way to raise funds for our adoption, we are doing a t-shirt fundraiser!

These shirts are not your average group t-shirts... they are super soft and comfy and are a cotton/polyester blend. And they are for a good cause! 

To order a shirt, go to this link: https://www.bonfirefunds.com/meiklejohn-adoption

and buy as many as you need in your sizes. Then, once the fund is over, the shirts ship to your door, and we get part of the profits! Easy as that! 

The more shirts we sell, the more profit we get per shirt, so order away! Grab an extra as a Christmas gift for a friend or coworker. ;) 

Thank you for your support in bringing our littles home from Africa!

home study update & Jinja gift shop

This weekend, we had our adoption home study visits! If you haven't read the story about how God worked out this home study so quickly and perfectly, you can read about it here.

Marcus and I were nervous for our home study visits because we hadn't ever done a home study before but things went great!

When I called on October 12th to schedule our home visit and was told I had 12 days to get as many of the 26 separate things checked off our list as possible (preferably all of them) I went into beast mode. Each of the 26 steps required several signatures and included dozens of forms to fill out per step, and we also had to get physicals, fingerprints, background checks, and more. The reason that home studies usually take 3-6 months is because there's so much paper work. Thanks to my type-A get-it-done-now personality, we completed everything just in time for our home visit yesterday (Saturday, October 24th) including 16 hours of adoption education! Boom. We rewarded ourselves with some of our kids' Halloween candy that they got at our church's fall festival. (Don't tell them.)

fingerprints: check

physicals: check

education and all paperwork: check

reward = chocolate & Netflix

And for reference, here's a before and after our faces pre- and post-home study:

In my heart, I knew we'd be approved for our home study because God ordained this whole process and we knew we were called by Him to adopt. But my flesh had doubts and I was nervous.

Thank you to everyone who prayed for us during this time! We were told that there's no reason we won't be approved. Right now we just have to wait for our case worker to get all the papers signed, organized & notarized.

As far as our home visits the past two days, everything went perfectly and our case worker was very impressed with how fast we got all our forms done and how organized we were. She also loved the story of how our international adoption process came to be, and she was very interested in our love story. We were able to witness to her about why we thought our marriage would last when about half of marriages fail (this was one of the interview questions she asked us) and we had a chance to share our faith, how involved we are in our church, and the ministries we participate and volunteer in. She loved listening to how God has orchestrated everything in our lives. We are so thankful that He is using us for His glory!

We also told our case worker about a shop here in Janesville that we just discovered ourselves. It's called Jinja Fair Trade Gift Shop and it's just a couple of minutes down the road from us! We heard about this store in our local newspaper last weekend and just had to check it out. It's a fair trade shop, and the items for sale in it were handmade in Uganda (mostly in Jinja, Uganda) and the profits from the sales of these items goes right back to Uganda to help their organization which is called the Hope Institute of Uganda. They provide education, health care, and economic opportunities for young men and women in Uganda. The Jijna Gift Shop has been in our town for a few years and somehow we never knew about it, but it just happened to be featured in our newspaper right around the time when we decided to adopt from Uganda! How cool is that?

Marcus and I checked out this shop on Friday, and we told our case worker about it, and she went after our visit on Saturday to look around. While we were there on Friday, we were able to talk to the owner (who is from Uganda himself) about our plans to adopt from there. He gave us some travel tips and information. The kids got to play some Ugandan instruments, hear some African music and play with some handmade toys.

We ended up buying Ezra a cool metal car, and we got Selah a big doll that had a baby doll tied on the back (yay for babywearing!) and I got a keychain and a bracelet.

So awesome that this Jinja shop has basically been in our backyard all this time!

Our next step is to wait for our home study to be approved. In the meantime, we need to file our I-600A (which is a bunch more paperwork!) and then do more fingerprinting, and wait for approval for that which will state that we are approved to adopt internationally. From there, we assemble our dossier, which is all the paperwork and files that we send to Uganda. 

So, I see a lot more paperwork in our future, and also a lot of waiting! The I-600A approval can take 8-12 weeks. We are praying that things move faster than that, which has been how our whole process has been working so far! We know that God will ensure the perfect timing of it all.

Thank you again for all your prayers! We need continued prayers that things move quickly, that there are no delays or huge hurdles to jump, and that God continues to show favor and have His hand in it all.

a piece of our adoption puzzle

I've posted this on Facebook already, but in case you missed it...

Many people have already asked us how they can help financially on our adoption journey. International adoption is expensive, y'all. There are several reasons that we are pursuing international adoption over domestic adoption, but that's a post for a later date. We don't love asking for money, but we realize that this is much more than that; we are asking you to be a part of our journey, and a part of our children's stories!

So to help us with the funds, we are doing a PUZZLE FUNDRAISER! 

Here's how it works:

1. We bought a custom 252-piece puzzle with our adoption design on it! We are "selling" each piece.

2. To "buy" a piece, go to our You Caring page and make a donation of any amount that you choose. Here's the link: click here

(There's a button on the top of the blog for donations as well!)

*You can also donate in person! You'll notice our "goal" is $40,000. We don't expect to get $40,000 in donations right on our fundraising website, but that's our estimate of costs. We plan on doing other fun fundraisers to reach our goal!

3. Once you "purchase" a piece, we will write your name on a puzzle piece, take a picture of it, and upload it to a puzzle fundraiser album on Facebook.

4. Once all the pieces are "sold", we will assemble the puzzle and put it in a double sided glass frame for our children to see.

How cool will it be to show our future children the names of all the people who loved them and supported us/helped us bring them home before they even knew them?

*If you make an anonymous donation on our You Caring page, I will write "anonymous" on that puzzle piece unless you contact me to let me know that you'd like your family name on it.

*All donations go directly into a separate adoption savings account. We've already had to pay thousands in fees so far, so any donation at this time helps!

We will be having more fundraisers in the coming weeks and months including a yard sale, pancake fundraiser, and t-shirt fundraiser, but for now, this is a general place for you to donate. 

Thank you for having a "piece" in the journey that God has called us to!

if I didn't know Jesus...

If I didn't know Jesus, I would have a mind full of anxiety and fear.

I would worry always, constantly be on edge, and feel nauseous over the fact that I couldn't see the future.

If I didn't know Jesus, I would be have a heart full of bitterness and anger.

I would be slow to forgive, quick to anger, quick to speak, slow to listen.

I would hold grudges, be merciless and full of hate, and react with a heart of vengeance. 

If I didn't know Jesus, I would feel lost and alone.

I would often find myself feeling empty, I would question my existence.

I wouldn't know where to go or what to do.

If I didn't know Jesus, I would feel insecure and like a failure.

I would over analyze every decision I made, question my intelligence, and feel unworthy.

I would speak negativity over my life, believe I had no value, and think that I was unimportant.

If I didn't know Jesus, depression would swallow me whole.

I would feel dark, empty, worthless, annoying, stupid and pointless.

I would feel shallow, sad, quiet, anxious, down, heavy and disappointed.

If I didn't know Jesus, I would be doomed to eternity without Him.

Lost, alone, hopeless, burning in the darkness of Hell forever.

But because I know Jesus...

I feel joy. Not always happiness, but a joy that comes from the Lord.

I feel peace. God knows my future, so I don't have to.

I feel secure. God has already won my battles.

I feel important. God made me for a purpose.

I feel beautiful. God made me in His image.

I feel loved. I know that I'm never alone and that Jesus died for me.

I feel valued. I am fearfully and wonderfully made.

I feel uplifted. He is the rock on which I stand.

I feel patient. He gives me the fruit of the Spirit.

I have no fear. I will fear no evil; He has given me a spirit of peace.

I AM secure, important, beautiful, loved, valued... because He has made me this way and given me these gifts.

Because I know Jesus, I will not perish, but have eternal life in Heaven with Him.

Do you know Jesus?

perfect provision - an adoption update

I am just in awe of God's provision, wisdom, and direct, specific, immediate answers to prayer!

Let me share with you.

Three days ago, I blogged about how God had answered our prayers and we had found a placement agency! The reason I write down the specific details of everything is mostly so that I can look back some day and see how God was right in the middle of everything, making a way and answering prayers. I also write it all down because I believe God will use our adoption journey as a powerful testimony of His love for His children, His will being worked out in the lives of those who love Him, and to hopefully encourage others and lead them to the Lord.

In that blog post, I asked for more prayers, specifically that we would find a home study agency in our state that met all the qualifications we needed for an agency, and quickly. That was on a weekend day, so I knew I had to sit patiently and wait until Monday to make some phone calls to home study agencies. 

Monday came around and as soon as 8:00 AM hit, I called some home study agencies. I left messages at a couple places, got a "disconnected line" message at another place, and talked to someone for a good five minutes at another place, until she told me they don't even work with international adoptions, so that was a waste of a phone call. I had called all the places I had down to call, so I put my phone down and prayed.

Just half an hour later, I got a call back from a home study agency less than two hours away from us. I asked her all the questions I had, and her agency met all the requirements we needed for an agency and she told me she wanted to come start our home study in less than two weeks! She said after her home visits with us, should could have our home study completed and turned around in two weeks. !!! Home studies are usually a 3-6 month process, people! I was shaking so hard with excitement that I could barely hold the phone up to my ear! She gave me all the info I needed, told me what to print and fill out and mail to her, and what to do next. We already have our first two home visits set up and scheduled (for 11 and 12 days from now!) and we have our list of other paperwork we need filled out, copied, signed, checked off, etc.

It's a bit overwhelming! Last night, I stayed up until past midnight (which I never do - I'm usually out like a light by 9:30 pm!) and filled out all the paper work that I possibly could on our list of 30+ items to get completed. When I have something to get done, I want it done yesterday. Some of the forms have to be signed by employers, we have to make copies of all our birth certificates and other documents, we need proof of income and employment, fingerprints and background checks... the list goes on and on!

I didn't think we'd have a problem getting any of the forms filled out by our first home visit on October 24th... until I got to the medical form. Marcus and I both need full physicals as well as lab work, done and signed by a physician (not a nurse). We were told that the number one reason for a home study delay is the parents' medical forms/examinations, because it's usually hard to schedule an appointment quickly. 

Well, up to this point, God has been working things out pretty quickly and answering our prayers specifically and immediately, and I had no doubts that He could do it again. Marcus and I prayed, and then I called our clinic this morning to schedule our physicals. I explained that the physicals were needed for an adoption home study and that we really would like them scheduled in the next two weeks, and I was told that the soonest openings for physicals (because we would both be new patients with new doctors - neither of us have primary care physicians currently) were in February. Meaning four months away. Meaning our home study would be delayed four months. This was the one thing we realized would hold us back from the two-week turn around that our home study case worker had in mind. I was disappointed, but the receptionist at the clinic gave me the number to a clinic in a different city that I could try to get in to. 

So, I called. They weren't open yet. So I prayed some more. I told God that He had come through for us so far, and that I really needed Him to come through for us again. I prayed for a miracle and I specifically prayed that Marcus and I could both get physicals before our October 24th home visit, and that Marcus wouldn't have to take off work for his appointment.

Then, I called back. No answer. I left a voice mail and went to a play group. 

Less than two hours later, I got a call back. The woman at the clinic understood my situation and told me, "I have two openings for physicals and I hope you can fill the them because otherwise we don't have any more openings for a while." I held my breath and asked her what the dates were.

"Thursday October 22, and Friday October 23."

HOLD THE PHONE. Those two dates are both before our home visit and Marcus just requested those two days off of work to prepare for our home visit so he won't have to miss work to go. 

SHUT THE FRONT DOOR!

Thank you Jesus!

So now, our physicals are scheduled just in time for our home visit!

We still have lots left to do before our home visit. If we can get all of our paper work done and hand it to our case worker in person on October 24, that makes her job go a lot faster and we can get our home study approved in hopefully less than two weeks after that!

Which means our adoption can move forward that much faster.

We know that there is a reason that God is opening doors and moving this along quickly: we found our placement agency, home study agency, and got our physicals scheduled all in less than a week. Three huge prayers answered. I am completely confident that there is a purpose to our home study being scheduled and working out so soon. This is not typical for an international adoption case, but with God, anything is possible. He has His hand in all of this, and I can't help but think that our children are in Africa, waiting for us, and God gave us the nudge, and once we finally stepped out, He had us dive right in head first and get the ball rolling! I have a feeling that the Lord wants us to welcome those children into our home soon, and He's making a way for it. 

God is good. God is almighty. God is faithful.

Thank you for your continued prayers! We have a lot left to do before our home visit and lots of paperwork and forms to complete. It's slightly stressful and very overwhelming, but we know God is holding us. Prayer is powerful - keep interceding for us if you would! We appreciate all the love and support.

only through Him

On Wednesday, I posted asking for prayers that Marcus and I would find the right adoption agency for our family. 

Let me back up a bit...

Last weekend (October 2nd), I watched a documentary on Netflix called The Drop Box about a man in South Korea who rescues abandoned babies (I highly recommend this film!). There was a line in the movie that I loved but I couldn't remember it word for word. So I turned to Google and searched the part of the quote that I remembered, and came across the full quote on a Facebook page. After further investigating, I found out that this Facebook page (completely unrelated to The Drop Box) was for an organization that helps couples with airfare for international adoptions - how cool! I looked around the page for a bit and came across two families who had recently adopted two children each from Uganda (what we want - two children from Uganda!) so I turned back to my friend Google to creep on these families and found blogs for both of them. I fell in love with the blog of one of the families and spent over an hour reading her posts. She sounded a lot like me, from the way she wrote to the way her mind worked, to her personality and desires. She had posted in one of her blogs about their adoption story that if anyone was interested in the agency she used to complete her adoption, they could contact her personally. Her most recent blog post was 4 months ago, so I didn't know if I'd have any luck contacting her on there. So, I turned back to Google yet again (can you say creeper?) and tried to find another way to contact this awesome gal. I found her Facebook page and thought, why not message her? Facebook informed me that my message would go to her "other" folder and she wouldn't be alerted of the message because we had no mutual Facebook friends. I had no idea why I was compelled to even message this girl just to ask which adoption agency she used because I could go to my trusty friend Google and find about 1,000 adoption agencies in a matter of seconds! But, I messaged her anyway, expecting nothing to come of it. 

Well what do you know... the very next day, she messaged me back! She gave me the info of the agency she used and even said she works part-time there as a case manager now! I checked out the website and told her I'd talk to my husband and let her know if I had any questions. So, we looked at the website a little bit, but we knew we had lots of agency options and we had a super busy week. 

Fast forward to Wednesday, October 7, when I asked you to pray that we'd find an agency. About a dozen different agencies were swimming around in our minds because we had been researching our butts off to make sure we knew all our options. 

And that same day, this girl messaged me again saying that she'd love to answer any questions I had about their agency, website, or Ugandan adoption in general, because she had been through it. She also said she could give me the phone number for the agency's director. So, I figured that since she was offering, I would ask her some general questions I had. She quickly responded via email and CC'd her director in to the email. 

These ladies were so helpful answering Marcus' and my general questions about choosing an agency and adopting from Uganda. All day, I prayed that if this was the agency God wanted us to use, that Marcus would be 100% on board with this agency and have no doubts or reservations, and that if this was not the agency for us, that God would make that clear by Marcus' reaction. I really liked the agency and the info I had learned from these ladies, but I had to get Marcus' opinion. That evening after the kids were in bed, I read him the emails and showed him the website and asked what he thought, and he was super excited and thought that this agency was a perfect match for us and said we should move forward with the next step! Remember, this is all still October 7, the same day I blogged asking (and asked my church mama friends) for prayer regarding picking the right agency. Only through Him. God works fast! 

The next morning, we let the agency know that we wanted to take the next step and apply, and we sent our application in online that afternoon (which was free - lots of agencies charge a non-refundable fee for this; a huge blessing!) and have been in contact with them since. Since this agency is out-of-state, we have to find a separate "coordinating agency" to perform our home study and post-adoption reports. This second agency will be the people who give us the green light and approve us for who we can adopt - age, siblings, two unrelated children, etc. - so choosing them is important! Some agencies out there won't approve you for simultaneous adoptions of unrelated children no matter who you are, so we have to be careful and particular with the home study agency we choose. 

This is where we need prayer again! We will be signing a service agreement with the first agency (our international/placement agency) that we already have applied for early next week. Once that is done and that fee is paid, we will choose our coordinating home study agency to start that 3-ish month process of our home study, interviews, meetings, approval, etc. Please pray that we find the perfect second agency for us! God was so quick to answer our first prayer of finding a placement agency and we know He will answer this prayer, too. We would appreciate continued prayers for a smooth, quick (ha!) adoption process for everyone involved, including the fundraising, the orphanage in Africa and our future children. God is already moving in amazing ways that can only be explained through His mighty hand in our situation. These things have happened quickly and seamlessly already only through Him. 

We can not thank our family, friends, and blog followers enough for your prayers during our journey! 

For His glory, not mine; His will, not mine. 

little ones to Him belong...

One of Ezra's favorite songs right now is "Jesus Loves Me". He'll randomly come up to me and say, "Mama, watch this! 'Jesus loves me THIS I KNOW! For the Bible TELLS ME SO! Little ones to Him belong, they are weak and HE IS STRONG! YEEEESSSSS JESUS LOVES ME!'" as loudly as he can. 

My mom found this adorable little shirt and had to get it for Ezra. "Little ones to Him belong"... such a good reminder.

My little ones, Ezra & Selah, don't belong to me. They belong to God. They are His children first, and God gave them to me so that I could look after them and raise them to love the Lord. When I think about adoption, I have to remember that, too. The little ones that Marcus and I will some day welcome into our family belong to Jesus. They are His children. I love the idea of adopting children into our family, because God adopted all of us into His family. 

I love this quote by Max Lucado:

And this quote from Steven Curtis Chapman:

We pray daily for the children that we will someday adopt - that God would prepare their hearts right now, and if they aren't on this earth yet, that God would prepare the hearts of their families. God already knows who the children that we will someday call ours are. And I'm so thankful that God has called us to adoption. 

While we've been researching international adoption for what feels like a long time, God only strongly put adoption on our hearts less than a year and a half ago. Lately, as in the past couple of months, we really feel that God is pushing us to start now! There's a lot of steps in this lengthy process. Our next step in the adoption process is to find an agency! This is proving to be an overwhelming task. We really have a heart for Uganda and would love to adopt from there, possibly even two siblings! We have to pick an agency that works in Uganda, but it seems that there are a huge number of options for us. Please pray with us that God will lead us to the right agency for us and that He will guide us every step of the way. We also ask for your prayers in regards to the financial side of international adoption. Obviously, most families don't have $40,000 just sitting around to put towards an adoption, but we know that God will provide for what He has called us to do in His name, for His glory, like He has done for so many other adoptive families. We are looking forward to fundraising - garage sales, bake sales, t-shirt sales, etc. but we know that so much more can be accomplished through praying for God's blessing over this area! 

I'm excited to continue blogging and sharing our journey with you all! Thank you for your prayers.

greatness and goodness.

"What comes into our minds when we think about God is the most important thing about us."
- A. W. Tozer

This quote has popped up a few times in the last couple of weeks for me.

Marcus and I started reading a new book this week called In a Pit with a Lion on a Snowy Day by Mark Batterson. This morning, we read a section called "A High View of God". It quoted A. W. Tozer from The Knowledge of the Holy: "...the most portentous fact about any man is not what he at a given time may say or do, but what he in his deep heart conceives God to be like... Were we able to extract from any man a complete answer to the question, "What comes to your mind when you think about God?" we might predict with certainty the spiritual future of that man." 

Mark Batterson says, "most of our problems are not circumstantial. Most of our problems are perceptual." Mark also said this, which blew my mind: "Astronomers have spied galaxies 12.3 billion light-years from earth. To put that distance into perspective, consider the fact that light traveling 186,000 miles per second only takes eight minutes to travel the 93 million miles between the sun and planet earth. Sunlight is only eight minutes old. But light from the furthest galaxy takes 12.3 billion years to get here. That distance is virtually incomprehensible! And God says that is about the distance between His thoughts and our thoughts. Your best though about God on your best day falls 12.3 billion light-years short of how great and how good God really is. We underestimate God's goodness and greatness by at least 12.3 billion light-years." 

I knew I had heard this Tozer quote recently, but I've read several books in the past couple of weeks so I wasn't sure where I had read it. I grabbed Sun Stand Still by Steven Furtick (which I talked about in my last post) and quickly skimmed it and found Tozer's quote on page 93, in a chapter Furtick titles, "The Simplest Systematic Theology Ever". Furtick starts the chapter by saying, "...the size of our vision [for our life] isn't even determined by who God is... Instead, the scope and impact of your vision will be determined by who you believe God is". Furtick then shares the Tozer quote that I've already shared with you and goes on to reiterate that "our view of God is the most important thing about us." 

Furtick explains that there are two things we need to know about God.

1. God is great.

2. God is good.

Batterson talks also about God's goodness and greatness in his book as I've already mentioned. 

Psalm 62:11-12: "One thing God has spoken, two things I have heard: that you, O God, are strong, and that you, O Lord, are loving."

God is great because he is strong. Furtick says, "If your problem is too big for you, it's just the right size for God." 

God is good because he is loving. Furtick says, "God's goodness means that all his greatness is meant to work in your life for your good. Not necessarily your momentary happiness. But your ultimate good." 

I don't think it's a coincidence that I've heard this quote a few times in the past two weeks. God likes to work that way when He really wants something to stick in my mind. ;) 

As Marcus and I are on this journey of following whatever God would have for our lives, I often find myself overwhelmed with the possibilities of what God will call us to do. He has already started guiding us on our way as we trust in Him, but we don't necessarily know all the specific steps. We are being obedient and following us where He leads us, but sometimes, I limit the ideas and options for us because I think, "There's no way God would ask us to do that!" I feel too small. I feel too incapable. I feel inadequate, not special enough or strong enough.

I also know that we have to be patient. I have been praying specific, bold prayers that God would show us where He wants us to go next. But I want Him to answer me now! But sometimes, God's answer is, "not yet." 

God is showing me that nothing is impossible with Him. He can call us to do great, amazing, seemingly impossible things. But nothing is impossible with Him, because He is great. And I know that God will answer our prayers and show us the way in His perfect timing because He is good. 

Sometimes, like Batterson said, I underestimate God's power; His goodness and His greatness. Sometimes I forget that He is in control. I can beg and barter with God all I want, but He is the one who will make His plans work. I have to submit to His will and follow after Him with all of my heart! And He will work all things together for good. In His timing, not mine. 

When I think about God, I want to always first remember His infinite goodness and greatness. I want to put all of my faith and trust in Him. And when He makes me wait, He is just testing and strengthening my faith. What comes to my mind when I think about God ought to be His amazing provision, love, and power over the universe. If He holds the whole world in His hands, then certainly He holds my heart and dreams and desire to follow His will.

Stepping into the unknown and giving control over to God isn't always easy. And nobody said it would be! But the Lord is strengthening me through it, and I know He's got my back.

What comes to your mind when you think about God?