The short answer is: around the world and back. :)
Next question: Where did the year go?....Isn't that something old people ask? Well, I am feeling it!
Our last post was from William's 12th birthday in 2013 with his goals for his last year as a "child". I am happy to report that he accomplished all 13 goals. I am a very proud momma. I know that the teen years are not going to be smooth sailing. The infant years, toddler years, preschool years and elementary years have all had their ups and downs; however, Matt and I are super excited to walk through this time with William (and soon Grace to follow). We are very humbled to see all the things that God is doing in his life.
All of you know by now that last fall we began an adoption journey in Ethiopia. This time last year, we had met our son, Micah, and daughter, Hope. We were busy with holiday preparations to complete the adoption within the month and head to Texas for much celebration.
Obviously, things did not go as "we" had planned. I have struggled with how to write it all out for this blog, so I decided to simply post a "summary" talk that I gave at a ladies' meeting in September regarding our adoption journey.
So Here we go:
Today I want to talk about 4 words: Adoption; Multi-Cultural; Orphan; and Trust
As a young teen I watched my aunt struggle with infertility. It was so heartbreaking to watch as we gathered Christmas after Christmas. I could see the longing in her eyes for a child. My sadness turned to fear as I too began to have medical issues. I was told very young that I would most likely never carry a baby to full-term. Enter the 1st word or seed that God placed in my heart - ADOPTION. We welcomed Andy and 2 years later Heather into our family: Cousins, not by birth, but through heartbreak, loss, desire, and grace. Adoption was one of the most beautiful things I had ever seen.
Matt and I
met at university. We were friends for 2
years before God brought us together.
One of my biggest struggles in committing to marriage was my possible
inability to have children. Matt loves
children, and I didn’t know if he could really not have biological children and
still be happy. I obviously didn’t know
my husband very well then! His love and
trust in the Lord is always an inspiration and encouragement to me.
In the early years of our marriage, Matt’s sister
welcomed to our family a child from the State of Florida. Enter the 2nd word or seed that
God placed our hearts:
Multi-Cultural. Notice I did not
say “multi-racial”. There is but one
race: God’s race or the human race. It is historically, scientifically, and
Biblically accurate to say there is only one race. Elijah is African and Porto
Rican. A few years later by the same
sister we welcomed into our family a little girl named Lydia. She is part Hispanic. As a child I learned to have friends from all
cultural backgrounds. I was taught to love
and embrace all people. How thankful we
all were to be able to expand our family to include new cultures.
In the first
4 years of our marriage we lost 4 children to early birth. As you know through the blessings of the
Father and His miraculous handiwork, I was able to carry 2 children to
full-term. Something many doctors said
was going to be impossible! The Father
gets all the praise for William and Grace.
After Grace, I was pregnant one more time, but lost the baby early in the
first trimester. At this time the first
2 words that God had been working in me came closer to the surface. Matt too was prompted by the Holy Spirit to
begin to ask and pray about the possibility of the Adoption of a multi-cultural
child.
Over the
next 9 years we followed the Lord through the journey of multi-cultural
adoption. It seemed that this was not to be HIS plan for us. Which leads us to the 3rd word ORPHAN. Wow, that seemed like a huge step of
faith. We had already experienced 5
failed adoption attempts; 4 as domestic (or in our home county the U.S.) which
are supposedly “easier” and one failed attempt in Turkey as residents. What would it look like to go to another
country and receive an orphaned child into our arms?
Many of you
have followed our journey and prayed for us this past year. "The
adoption was challenging - the LOVE arrived instantly." is a fitting quote for our experience.
In August of 2013 we were matched with 2
infants. In September we met them both and
knew instantly that our son was to be our Micah. The promised name the Lord had given us almost
2 years prior in 2012 during a time of prayer.
Four months later after naming him, we found out that Micah was born on
June 8th. Our family verse is
Micah 6:8 “And what does the Lord require of you, but to act justly and to love
mercy and to walk humbly with your God.”
Was it an accident that he was born on that date? NO – our God has perfect plans for HIS
people.
At the same time, after many weeks of prayer we
knew that our daughter with whom we were matched at that time was not the baby Joy
that we had been promised by God in 2012.
Her name was to be Hope JoAnn. Hope was a very small and very weak infant. I believe that I was her mom for 9 months so
that she could get the medical care and nutrition that she needed. I am happy to go into more details at a later
time, but through the deceit of man but not out of the sovereign plan of God we
were not able to legally adopt Hope. She
will always be in our hearts just not in our home.
Enter precious Joy into the picture: "Sosena", Joy came to the orphan home in November of
2013. She was placed in the same crib as
Micah. Why? Only God.
She and Micah were bed mates for 4 months until the home was less
crowded and Micah was given his own crib.
As people would pass by her bed they would say, “This baby is such a
joy.” When they would pass her playing they
would say, “She has so much joy.”
In the days leading up to the trail determining
who would have baby Hope, I felt the Lord tell me that I was to let her
go. Hope is loved by God more than I
could ever love her and though I do not understand now, I know as truth that HIS
plan for her is far better than mine. At
the same time, God told me that the baby "Sosena" was to be my promised daughter,
Joy. Of course, I was terrified; how was
this to happen? You can’t just pick a
baby; they are matched with you; legally it would take half a year again….it
all just seemed so out of the possible. (and I was ready to be DONE)
However, with God all things are possible. Enter the last word: TRUST! The very day, I was crying, trying to bring
out the words of goodbye, and holding my Hope for the last time. The Sister took her out of my arms, handed me
Joy and said, “Take this girl. She is
your joy.” WOW! Out of the mouth of an unbeliever...ONLY GOD!
At first in my grief I was angry.
“Give me back my child”, I wanted to scream at anyone who would
listen. But the child in my arms smiled
and told me with her eyes that she wanted me for her mom. How could I refuse? It didn’t make the pain of losing Hope
easier, but it made my arms not so cold.
Again, adoption is challenging (loss is hard) but love comes instantly.
Was the rest easy? NO! There was a mountain of legal trails to hike,
but God in only HIS awesome power made all of it come together in 3 weeks on
the American legal side and another month on the Ethiopian side. Thankfully, we were able to live in Addis Ababa from March-June; and we were able to visit the babies everyday and work in the orphan home.
We have now had the babies in our family since
June 17th. We spent 2 months
in Texas completing their citizenship, and we have been back in the UAE since the end of August.
We are often asked: Has the adoption of multi-cultural orphans
been easy on the family? Everything is perfect now right? Ummm….no – now the
work really begins. Now our trust and
dependence on the Father has to increase all the more.
Now is the real journey. Love comes instantly, but choosing to love like 1 Corinthians 13 is a daily work.
Thank you for your continued prayers and
encouragement. I hope this clears up a few questions for some of you we haven't spoken to in a while. You are welcome to write. amytravis76@gmail.com We are still planning to use this blog as a "what is God teaching us" site. It will not be solely about adoption, parenting, etc.
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