Though the wrong seems oft so strong, God is the ruler yet!

"They caught their breath. Then quietly, they tiptoed inside. They knelt on the dirt floor. They had heard about this Promised Child and now he was here. Heaven's Son. The Maker of the Stars. A baby sleeping in his mother's arms. This baby would be like that bright new star shining in the sky that night. A Light to light up the whole world. Chasing away darkness. Helping people to see. And the darker the night got, the brighter the star would shine." (excerpt from the Jesus Storybook Bible)

 I don't know about you, but it feels like the world is darkening. Every day seems to bring new injustice, tragedy, sorrow, greif. Wether it be a small every day disappointment or an unthinkable horror like Connecticut. I know in my heart and mind that God is on His throne but oh how I long for that day when all will be made right once and for all! Shine Jesus! Please chase away this darkness that seems to be thickening....

 We've had quite a bit going on since our last post. Maybe it has been God refining us for the road ahead or Satan trying to discourage us from continuing; we don't know but we trust and pray that we would be little lights reflecting the greater Light as we go about our day to day lives. The day after we sent in our first payment toward the adoption, Geoff and I hit the most challenging conflict with each other that we've ever faced in the 13 years we've been married. Thanksgiving day someone went on a shopping spree using one of our bank accounts, a week later our other bank account was compromised and shortly after that Geoff's car was stolen. Toss in a case of mastitis, minor seasonal illness and every day parenting challenges and it's been quite a month! Praise God with us that our mariage is glued together by the LORD and not by circumstances and shifting feelings. On this side of the conflict we are stronger, more united and learning to love each other better than we were a month ago. And our bank accounts are back to normal and Geoff's car was found and still in good working order! I'm so thankful that God is at the helm in this journey.

 Please pray for us that we will continue to walk as He leads and trust Him in the big and little things of life. Even this week we have seen God's hand as Russia is proposing making it illegal for Americans to adopt Russian children. So many families in process of adopting from Russia are holding their breath as they wait to see the outcome of this sad situation. Please pray for them and for God to intervene on behalf of the thousands of children who will be impacted by the outcome. And please pray for the church in Russia, that they would begin to wake up to see that God is calling them to defend the fatherless in their own country. It's crazy to think that for the past few years we really wanted to adopt from Russia/Ukraine/Eastern Europe and that God has closed that door for now and opened up the door to Ethiopia. I'm reminded over and over again that we may think we know what we are doing but God is infinitely wiser and I'm so grateful that He is patient with us and leads us where He wants us to go. Please, please pray that we would follow His leading at every bump and turn in the road!

Why adopt?

A few months back Geoff wrote out this prayer/letter to the Lord laying out our hearts before the Lord as our family heads toward adoption. Many people have asked us why we want to adopt. We already have 5 kids they tell us, isn't that enough? For us it's not about number of kids or humanitarian reasons or just because we're a bit crazy. We long to line our hearts up with our Heavenly Fathers heart and live lives that cause people to glorify Him. Heavenly Father, Our prayer in answering the question of why we would like to step forward in faith towards adoption is a hearts confession of this: that our hearts desire laid out is for our family to be a picture of, a reflection of the larger story of redemption and Grace that you have worked out in history past, history present, and history future. Since the beginning of time you have set in motion a plan - outlined in your word, the Holy scriptures, that unfolds a story of how you have worked and moved in the lives and stories of imperfect men to bring about your perfect plan, and how ultimately you call to all, offering salvation from the just judgment for sin - through your son Jesus Christ, and how through His redemptive work, you adopt us, calling us sons of righteousness - providing justification in Jesus Christ. Our desire, is to pray your will be done - that our lives would be yielded to however you might choose to work - in order to display your work and plan in and through the lives of our family. Our heart is not simply to adopt - rather our heart is that, as you will, if you purpose to use an adoption in the midst of our family - as it also is a picture of your love and grace for your people and your children - to be a part of how you display a testimony of your faithfulness and provision to our family - then we desire that your will be done. We desire to be willing servants and stewards of what you have given us, and trusting that as we step forward in faith - you will continue to provide for our needs - which are already known to you - for which you have already laid plans to work out in order to bring glory unto yourself. Our desire is not to be comfortable in our faith - rather that our lives would perpetually be seeking to display your redemptive and sanctifying work in our midst - we desire that you would search the dark recesses of our hearts - bringing through the light of your word - truth in the dark places, transforming hearts of stone and sin to hearts of flesh - that seek to walk in newness of life by the leading of the Holy Spirit. We trust in your sovereignty over life - its beginnings, its duration, and the timing of it’s end should we fall asleep before your return - we have hearts that seek to trust you wholly in this area, even when the world offers means by which we can set our own time table - that may not be wrong or sinful, but reveal the intentions and heart motives that when exposed reveal pride and a desire to be the masters of our own destiny - to you we resign these choices Lord, to you we entrust to your wisdom and purposes. We recognize Lord that there may, by your design, be suffering in the midst of this road ahead - pray that you would use those seasons to make us more like yourself, to return and ever hold our gaze upon you. Please grant us discernment, especially for the times ahead where we must make choices that will bear out this faith and trust, please grant us an understanding of your Word, wisdom and wise counsel through others in the body of Christ, your church. Please help reveal to us, the ways in which we have sold out to the comforts of the world, where we may be trusting in self and not wholeheartedly in you. Though Lord today we do not stand at the precipice of any urgent decision, or in the midst of an emotional turmoil that requires counsel amidst distress, we desire that this day be a pile of stones to mark a moment in time, where we seek to yield our lives for your purposes - we pray your will be done - that you would receive all Glory and Honour as we walk ahead in faith. Your humble, broken yet redeemed servants - Geoff and Leah Dykstra, on behalf of the Dykstra Family

Much Thanksgiving as the Paper Chase begins!

Thanks so much to everyone who purchased pies! With your help we were able to send our first program fee for the adoption!! Please praise the Lord with us! We were contacted today by our agency and have been assigned a "family coordinator" who will be helping us with the big "paper chase". We have all sorts of documents we need to read and sign, classes to take, doctors physicals, etc. We are so excited though and this adoption is really feeling real rather than just an abstract idea. Please continue to pray with us as we have much to do, including lots of waiting! The process looks daunting on paper but we serve a BIG God who is able to do BIG things for His glory. We long to make His name great in this process and with our lives! We will be continuing selling pies through Christmas. Please let us know if you or anyone you know would like one or two. And thanks again for helping us! We were able to make 100 pies in about 2 1/2 weeks! Phew! It was well worth it =)

Anybody wanna buy a pie?

So after our last post I had several calls asking for an explanation to what the adventure was. It was fun to see that people still check our blog since we've been so slack in keeping up with it. Thank you Kelly and Faith for checking up on us! Many of you know that over the past few years we have been prayerfully considering an adoption. We had started the process before we knew Finn would be joining us. When we found out he was on the way we put the process on hold. We had applied and been accepted into the Russia program through the America World Adoption agency. We were advised to wait until our new little one was 6 months old before we moved toward the adoption. As soon as 6 months came we contacted AWAA and we needed to re-apply because of the time that had elapsed. AWAA had recently added India to their programs and we decided to inquire and soon found out that the Indian government doesn't adopt out Indian children to families with more than 3 kids! We then re-applied to the Russia program and waited expectantly to hear what the next step would be. Much to our surprise we found out that because of some medical history on my (Leah's) part we wouldn't be eligible to adopt from Russia or any other Eastern European country! We were not expecting to hear that and were pretty bummed but also knew that God was answering our prayer for direction with this closed door. So over the past month or so we have been led in a new direction and are excited to share that we are in the process of adopting from Ethiopia! We have so much that we could write but will have to save most of it for later posts. We just wanted to share a bit of what has been happening lately! We are at the very beginning of the process and there is so much that we don't know so we want to invite others to see how God is working and answering prayers. There are so many "hurdles" from our limited perspective and much that seems impossible from this side. However we have a God who is limitless in power and love and has called His people to walk by faith and we are seeking to do just that!

So, why did I title this post "Anybody wanna buy a pie?". We are hoping to pay our first program fee as soon as we possibly can so that we can start the "paper pregnancy" as some affectionately call the process leading up to finally meeting our child (or children!). We have part of the funds from the amazing garage sale that many of you helped with about a year ago. To make up the difference we are selling pies for Thanksgiving! APPLE PIES! Anybody wanna buy one? We are going to freeze them unbaked so you can thaw and bake them at home at your convenience. If you live locally and would like one or two please e-mail me at leah.dykstra@biola.edu or find Geoff or I at church and let us know. And please spread the word if you know anyone who'd like one. We are asking for a $20 donation per pie.

The Adventure Begins!

The adventure begins! More to come soon!