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!

Greetings from the Dykstra Family! Our apologies for being strangers these last months. we have not taken the time to share with you some of the things going on in the life of our family. I will briefly do so here.

Wow, the time these days seems to be flying! Leah and the kids are in the dog days of summer and loving every moment of it! Though the kids like school, they love summer too! Leah has been enjoying the change of pace as well. Tomorrow they will host a tea for a neighbor down the street, Miss Betty. They made scones and cookies today, and will set a table in the yard for them, as Miss Betty cannot climb the stairs.

You might hardly recognize our crew now! Abaigael is 8 years old and is a genuine book worm, we have had to encourage her to eat books one at a time, which she laments, because there are so many books and seemingly so little time! She has read all of the Chronicles of Narnia, Anne of Green Gables, and is eager to begin reading about the Boxcar Children. Keely is 5 years old, she is more active than ever! Keely has a servants heart and loves to help her younger siblings, though they don't always appreciate her help. Keely's favorite thing is to run into a room yelling "Roar!!!" at the top of her lungs! Silas is 3, he loves to rinse things in water, for his birthday in April we got a water activity table for the deck, and he loves to play in the water. Actually, he loves even more to help mom in the kitchen rinse the dishes, this will occupy him for hours if he were allowed! Evangelyn is now 14 months old, walking, pivoting, and slowly beginning to speak. She says, Momma, Dadda, cracker, this, and she recognizes dog barks. She is the happiest baby of the lot, and is contented just to follow her siblings around most of the time, as they often do their share of entertaining her! (If they are not trying to carry her around).

Our family has prayerfully submitted an application to begin the process of an International adoption, though it has been a while since an update from the agency, we trust that if the Lord would bless the process we are quite willing to be an adopting family. We recently read "Adopted for Life" by Russel Moore, and served along side a family of our church as they welcomed a daughter from China. What a blessing to witness adoption, and how it serves as a picture of our adoption into the family of God as God's children through our adoption in Christ. We will keep you posted in how this goes or as we receive updates.

Leah and I recently attended a "Weekend to Remember", a marriage conference hosted by Family Life Today. What a blessing that was, to see God's merciful and abundant hand as He has blessed our almost 12 years of marriage. We are thankful for the time together, it was a refreshing and renewing weekend.

I have been working for the County of Los Angeles now for 6 months as a District Public Health Nurse. What a blessing that has been! I work out of the county health center 1 block away, a 6 minute walk! I serve a region only 7 miles away, following-up referrals for communicable diseases like TB, SDT's and reportable acute communicable diseases (like salmonella, pertussis, etc...). I am enjoying the field of nursing and each day prayerfully and expectantly walk to work knowing God has placed our family in this place at this time.

Thank you for your prayers, we pray this finds you well, and we would love to hear how you are doing. We have also attached a semi-recent photo of our family :-)

Much Thanks!

Geoff
for the Dykstra Family South
Geoffrey & Leah, Abaigael, Keely, Silas, Evangelyn, ?

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Get Healthy and Help Orphans!!!

So, starting in March we are going to have fresh, organic, seasonal produce delivered to our home once a week! A local farm in Irvine has a neat program that we've been thinking about joining for a while. By starting a group and getting at least 10 families to order a small or large box per week, we can use our house as a drop point and Tanaka Farms will deliver the boxes right to us and anyone in our group who orders can pick up their produce at our place. And the even cooler thing is that the Tanaka Farms CSA (Community Supported Agriculture) program will not only benefit our health but will also benefit orphans through Project Hope's Lifesong Adoption fund! For every box of produce our group buys, Tanaka Farms will donate 10% to the Lifesong Fund. Our church has an orphan ministry (Project Hope) and we are so excited to join in supporting orphan care in this small but practical way. If you live locally and are interested in participating let me know!!

Today, Eileen from the farm, delivered two boxes to us to "sample"! Oh yum! She gave us a small and a large box full of all sorts of of great veggies and fruits. The kids and I enjoyed some tasty strawberries and crunchy carrots. I love these kids! They make me laugh so much. Especially Keely......check out the pictures of our fun afternoon.

Here's what this weeks small box contained (minus the kids):


Here's what this weeks large box contained (also minus the kids):

And another one bites the dust.... or why I love my washing machine and miss my dryer

So yesterday started off normal (whatever that is!) and quickly turned the corner into Wednesday, daring me to follow. Evie threw up in the morning and it wasn't pretty. This was complicated by the fact that our water was turned off. The kids and I trooped downstairs to see if there was a note left on our mailbox and saw a city water truck parked in front of the house doing something to the fire hydrant on the corner. Thankfully the water was back on in a few hours. The rest of the day seemed pretty normal, we got some school done, went to bed at a decent time. Then Evie woke up around 4am vomiting. Ewwww.

Geoff got up early and I was able to sleep until right up until he went to work at 7:3o which I would later be even more thankful for than I was then. School started great and Keely and I were able to get through several Phonics lessons (which is her least favorite subject). Then she said she didn't feel well. Uh oh. By 1o she began to throw up, on the couch. (Warning, if you have a weak stomach you probably won't want to read about the rest of our day).

So we changed gears and ended up reading stories on the couch and the next time she threw up we had the bucket ready. Score 1 for preparedness! And then Silas begins to say he doesn't feel well. At this point I begin to wonder how long it will be for the rest of us if 3 out of 6 are sick within 12 hours of each other. I decided to tuck sad Keely in bed with her bucket ready thinking she'll sleep and feel better soon. How wrong I was!

I get her tucked in and Evie, who had been napping wakes up crying. Before I could get her up Silas throws up on the kitchen floor. At least it wasn't the couch this time. The floor is so much easier to clean. Clean Silas up, tuck him in bed, exit his room to the sounds of Keely throwing up in bed (not in the bucket). Bummer. Evie's not crying anymore though. I'm SO thankful she went back to sleep. I clean Keely up, strip the bedding off and put clean sheets on and head downstairs to toss the soiled laundry in to wash.

As soon as I get back upstairs I hear Silas. Change his sheets, clean him up, toss the yucky stuff on the porch for the next load. Get Abbie some lunch. Sit down to eat and hear coughing. Uh oh....Silas again. Change the sheets again and toss them on the deck. Sit down to eat a few more bites and hear, "Mama!!!". This time it's Keely. De ja vu! Change sheets, exit room...Silas' turn.

So now we are out of sheets and I just shift Silas to a different spot on the bed and put towels under him. I called Geoff at work (which is something I rarely do!) to get his expert advice on what to do for them. As I'm on the phone Keely comes out, I tell her to get her bucket. She gets it just in time! And then it's Silas in his bed again. I start to wonder if this is really real? Per Geoff's advice I made up a re hydration drink and as I head to give it to Keely who is on the couch, out comes Silas with his hand over his mouth. Clean him up and sit him on the couch. I give them each a cup and a towel and Evie wakes up.

I'm so thankful for Disney movies! We sat on the couch the 5 of us and for the next 2 hours Keely and Silas both throw up every 15-20 minutes. I felt like I was playing a Wii game. Abbie jumps off the couch, I put the baby down, wipe a mouth, grab a clean towel, toss the dirty one on the deck, start the movie, repeat......

In between I have been running up and down to the laundry and notice that the dryer is no longer drying. Problem. Geoff gets home and he and Abbie run out to get some dinner and while they are out Abbie begins to feel yucky. Silas finally succumbs to sleep at 7:30, and Keely stops throwing up and goes to sleep at 9:45. Abbie wakes at 11 and now it's her turn every few hours.

And another bites the dust.....it's Geoffs turn.

I am sooooo thankful to the Lord that all 4 kids didn't have it at once and that He gave me the strength to make it through that marathon! I am soooo thankful for a washing machine and Disney movies. Abbie (who has been reading Little House on the Prairie) reminded me multiple times of how good it was that I wasn't Ma and that we weren't living on the prairie. Amen! And I'm soooo thankful for our wonderful friend Sheryl who let us dry clothes in her dryer and for our other friend Cheryl (and Cindy) who came and picked up our laundry, washed it and dried it and returned it to us! Blessings upon you!

Here's a picture of my favorite load of laundry :