The Ultimate Gift (Daniel's first blog)

This is my, Daniel Cook, first attempt to blog.  My grammar is probably bad, but you will get the point.

Today Abby would not let me nap; she said I have done that too much the past few days.  So instead we watched the movie The Ultimate Gift.  Here is my brief overview of the movie.  A rich, billionaire grandfather dies and leaves his inheritance to his family.  His grandson must do different task before he is given the ultimate gift.  So he goes through a few tasks learning about work, money, friendship, laughter, and a few other things in life.  He meets a kid who has leukemia and she ends up benefiting from a few of his task. 

Through some of the task this guy helps out this girl and her mother.  It gave me perspective of how a child in a worst-case scenario views life and how I sometimes view life.  I know this was a movie but through this movie I saw some things that related to the adoption.  The family had medical bills that were going unpaid, but was willing to let everything go for the treatment of the child.  The girl made a Christmas wish and only wished to be around people who loved her and 90 percent of the wish was for her mom to be happy.  A pictured was painted throughout the movie on the way we value money.   The family was so worried with monetary values they missed the blessings of a family and true happiness.

Today God opened my heart and mind to see that a price tag cannot be put on the opportunity to impact a life in this magnitude.  Will I have to sacrifice “stuff” for this to happen?  Yes!  Will I have to wonder where some money will come from?  Yes!  Are the money, sacrifice, and time worth giving a child a life with a family that loves him, who will be there with him through the ups and downs of life, and a family that will introduce him to a life of surrendering to Christ?  Absolutely. 

When God placed the call to children’s ministry on my life a remember a phrase that has been in the back of my mind since then.  The phrase was, “I was going to be a father to the fatherless.”  I also had a dream of opening and running an orphanage.   As we started with this process this phrase came to mind and I believe that this is God leading me to complete something he began in me 10 years ago, to be a father to the fatherless.  Our child is worth me not eating out lunches with the staff, cutting back on non-essential bills, and making sacrifices throughout the process.  Why you may ask, because this life is more important than my stuff and me.  The ultimate gift I can give is not measured with money, but by providing a life of meaning, hope, and love.  Through this process a child will gain a family, know what it means to love and be loved, but most importantly will be raised in a Christian home and learn what it means to give his life to Christ.  He will know a Christ who has shown us what it means to make personal scarifies to give someone a new life.  God is not asking me to sacrifice my life, but I will have to let go some of my stuff for this to happen.  What a small task to make such a huge impact. 

Can't wait!!

So I have learned one thing about myself already...I AM NOT a good waiter. I have zero patience when it comes to waiting for things and the waiting has officially begun. We are waiting for fingerprints to come back from the FBI. We have to wait 6-8 weeks for them to come back and say "Ok, you're good." And we are waiting on Passports...and we are waiting on a form to be returned to us that wasn't done correctly the first time. Basically, we are just waiting.

I started this whole process praying, "Lord let this move quickly." "Let us have him home by May." and don't get me wrong, those are still the desires of my heart, but God has led me to understand that this thing is in His timing..on His plan. And I trust Him. I know he will take care of our baby until we can get to him, and He will bring him home at exactly the right time for all of us. Can't wait to see him though.

On My Mind

This week has been....consuming for me. My heart has really just been preoccupied with the fact that our baby is way over the ocean somewhere. Based on the age of child we want and the timeline we have been given for the adoption, chances are he has already been born and is in an orphanage in Russia. I haven't been able to shake the feeling of worry for him. It reminds me a lot of the way I have worried about my biological children when I left them after they were first born. Worrying about if they were crying or what they were doing at some random moment of the day. That's where my heart is now....wondering at random moments what he's doing or who's holding him or if he's warm or if he's being talked to. I just keep praying for him constantly that God has placed a caregiver in his life that has a heart for him. Someone that will love him and hold him and talk to him. I have been reminding myself though that God is the defender of the weak that "they are week, but He is strong". I have just been resting in that this week. Knowing that God has his hand on his life and that He will watch over him and be his comforter until we can get him home.

Hallelujah!!!

Hallelujah!!! Our homestudy paperwork is now officially done. You have NO idea, well some of you do, what it feels like to have that "chunk" of paperwork out of the way. We finished the packet last night and Daniel is mailing it today. It is such an awesome feeling. Now we will be waiting on the social worker to come do visits and interviews. We are 1 step closer to meeting our baby. We can't wait. We are moving on to the agency paperwork and passports. That whole sense of urgency thing is really kicking in. I'm probably driving Daniel nuts, but I just want to get all of this done so we can get him home.

We started talking about names tonight. That's always so exciting. It just makes it that much more real. Of course we didn't come up with anything really, but we got started at least. We would love to not change his name unless it's just really crazy, but we will keep his name at least as his middle name.

We also started working on fundraiser ideas. I have been asking everyone I know for ideas, and a few people (you know who you are) have been really helpful. Thank you guys so much. I have a couple of good ideas, but if anyone else has something creative, please let me know. We'll be getting more information out about those asap, I promise :)) Keep us in your prayers and pray for love, health, and safety for our baby.