Our adoption journey...

If you watched our last post (the smile box video) you heard the great news.... 11/1/11 was our Gotcha Day!  We  have been blessed to be able to raise this sweet little girl from the time she was just a week old.    There were times when it wasn't easy, but as with all of our children there are days both good and bad!   Thankfully God is gracious and never gives us more than we can handle!

  And wonderfully God's grace is sufficient for all! 

  I want to share a few photos and stories with you....the day we took her home from the hospital one of our children, having just had a foster placement abruptly end, said they would help care for this child but could not commit to LOVING her.After about 6 weeks the child said "Mom, I am starting to fall in love with her".  This was true of all of our hearts, you love knowing that it may hurt if the child is reunified or placed elsewhere. We pondered the truth, that really each of our children is not our own but God's whom HE loves and desires the best for even more than we do!   (Jer 29:11)    

As sweet as that is, the journey of fostering has reminded us so often of God's love for us, no matter what.  He loves us no matter where we are.  He is always there waiting for us whatever choices we or others make.   He calls us to love even if its not easy!  That is a hard thing to allow your children to learn~ our instinct is to protect them from hurt, but in doing so we often prevent them from the deeper love that God desires to pour out!

 We are reminded that all of us have been adopted, into Christ's family! (Rom 8:15)  We are his children whom he loves very much!  People have asked us how can you love a child that isn't your "own" (meaning biological)  well since this is our first adoption, our other 5 children are biological, so I didn't know.  God has poured such peace (I Tim 1:14) over my heart this week and we prayed during this journey that God would grow children he desired to be in our family in our hearts (instead of my womb) and we truly feel that  this little one is loved just as much as all of our other children.
When asked if we were willing to adopt her at one of the meetings last year, one of our children with great concern worried it would be too expensive.  The child firmly stated that all the money the children had been saving to purchase a wii should be spent on Grace instead!  WOW what a blessing to know the children love this little one so much they are willing to put aside their own desires!  She has a special place in each of our hearts.  As thrilled as we are to know she is now ours, we know that her biological family misses her and loves her and we pray that God will pour out his compassion on them.  We are so thankful for her mom's gift of life for this precious child. The whole family (including both sets of grandparents) were able to be in court and witness the welcoming of this child into our forever family!

 Each of the children have grown to love her and are wonderful big brothers and sisters! They each got a sibling bracelet to commemorate this special day of welcoming their little sister :)

We were honored to have our adoption on the first day of November, 

National adoption month,

   we were even more honored to have good friends the Quittshcreibers join us as they celebrated their one year anniversary that day of being in a Russian court for the adoption of 2 of their children!   A special day indeed!

 Grandma K "Gigi" was a huge help being here for this busy weekend!

 And Grandpa K "Papa" too!  What a blessing to have them be a part of this special day!

 Grandpa and Grandma Q (who were foster parents while Steve was growing up) were here too (it worked out great that they are staying in the area so they could be here!)  God is so good to work out even those details!

 Sisters are special, as her 2 older sisters help love, train, and care for her she is very blessed to have such wonderful role models to look up too! 

We are so thrilled that we are able to officially welcome the "little sister" into our family!!!

Thanks for all your prayers and support through the last 2 years!   If you have any questions on fostering or adoption we would LOVE to talk to you!  please pass this information onto anyone who maybe interested along with our email moquak@gmail.com and we look forward to helping the 140,000,000 orphans of of the world find forever families too! (James 1:27)

As the starfish story goes ~ we can't take care of all of them by ourselves ~ but we can take care of this one, with God's love and pray others will answer his call too!  

Steve and Amy Q and family

www.quakflock.blogspot.com

To the courthouse...

Life with foster children is an adventure in more ways than one!
From welcoming a child into your home (and life) to all the "stuff" that comes with them.
There is paperwork -- enough to deplete way too many forests I fear!
And meetings.... (just so we all feel BUSY I think) and visits (with LOTS of people)... and Dr appointments.....you get the idea.
Well today we had court again for our foster baby. We don't HAVE to go, but it sure helps to know what is going on with your case from all perspectives. Being in a small town the way they work court has been an adjustment from "big" city court. First of all Juvenile court is only once a week. You are put in either morning or afternoon "docket" so your case will be heard sometime between 9 and 12 or 1 and 4. Then you sit and listen to all the cases until your is called. It's a great lesson in government, I guess.
So as I sit there reading "Lies homeschooling moms believe" by Todd Wilson (a wonderfully encouraging book by the way!) really I am trying not to listen to how sad life is for so many families. Makes me so thankful for a life of HOPE in Christ!!! Our family has plenty of shortcomings please don't hear me saying we are perfect but our faith and desire to try to love each other, forgiving when we fall short is a drastically different picture then most of the cases heard. I am so thankful for children who are willing to love even though it hurts to let go.
All that said I found myself praying for the children and their parents in each case -- that they would come to know the Lord. Thanking God for foster families who love these children for this time. And especially wisdom for the judge as the decisions made are life impacting for all involved.

We are so thankful for your prayers for our family as we love this little one. We pray for her family to come to saving GRACE in Christ Jesus and for wisdom in the judge's decisions for this case. Today was just a "check up" we continue another 3 months until the next hearing. Most of all we thank God for giving our family willing hearts, energy and love to enfold this little one.

If you want to help the many orphans of America you don't have to be a foster parent -- call your local foster care agency -- see if they need respite providers (to give foster families a weekend off!) or if you could be a CASA (court appointed special advocate) to speak on behalf of the child. And please keep praying for these children and their families! THANKS!

Today's FEAST on God's Word:
Isaiah 55:10-11

¹⁰ As the rain and the snow
come down from heaven,
and do not return to it
without watering the earth
and making it bud and flourish,
so that it yields seed for the sower and bread for the eater,

¹¹ so is my word that goes out from my mouth:
It will not return to me empty,
but will accomplish what I desire
and achieve the purpose for which I sent it.

Matthew 6:7-15

⁷And when you pray, do not keep on babbling like pagans, for they think they will be heard because of their many words. ⁸Do not be like them, for your Father knows what you need before you ask him.

⁹"This, then, is how you should pray:
" 'Our Father in heaven,
hallowed be your name,
¹⁰your kingdom come,
your will be done
on earth as it is in heaven.
¹¹Give us today our daily bread.
¹²Forgive us our debts,
as we also have forgiven our debtors.
¹³And lead us not into temptation,
but deliver us from the evil one.^a]">[a]' ¹⁴For if you forgive men when they sin against you, your heavenly Father will also forgive you. ¹⁵But if you do not forgive men their sins, your Father will not forgive your sins.