Toddler Dedication & Compassion Sunday is April 11th

Friends and Family-

We are thrilled to invite you to attend Compassion Sunday at Rio West Church.

Date: April 11, 2010

Location: Rio West

Time: 10:00am-12:00pm

As you know the last few weeks have passed quickly in a blur of medications, disciplining, playing, kisses and finding a new normal. This upcoming Sunday is special to us for three reasons.

· Compassion International is an organization that releases children from poverty around the globe. For $40 a month they provide meals, immunizations, schooling and mentor relationships. This allows kids who are steeped in poverty to stay with their parents and have hope for a future. It enables them to learn that God loves them and has a plan for their precious lives.

We will have a guest speaker from Uganda who now works for Compassion International. He will share his experience and life story with us; I’m very excited about this.

· We will also hear from our dear friends Rachael and Stephen Brown, talk about their heartfelt decision to adopt Matt Brown, a terminally ill orphan.

· During the service we will have a Baby Dedication for Anaideia Ann and Lincoln James. It was the training that I received through Compassion International that fostered the desire to adopt internationally. Seeing Rachael and Stephen live out God’s command to care for orphans encouraged us to continue the adoption process even when it seemed endless.

I’m so glad these three special events will be happening together. God organizes the desires of our heart around his purposes. We have organized this Sunday with all of you in mind, please join us!

Aaron, Sarah,

Dereck, Caia, Nathan, Anaideia, Lincoln

Photos of the trip

Wow-the last two weeks have been beyond crazy. The two of them ran all three of us around like crazy people while we were gone. Our journey into Africa was very difficult for a multitude of reasons. It was far more difficult than I anticipated. My Mom was a huge lifesaver, we could not have managed without her constant help and energy. I will post more later but I wanted you all to know we are home.

Thank you for the wonderful welcoming at the Airport. Thank you for the meals and all the errands you all have done for us recently. Thank everyone for babysitting and loving on our kids while we were gone. The meals have been most helpful, especially today. While Aaron was at the Doctor with Dereck, it took me 1 hour and 20 minutes to get the munchkins down for a 2 hour nap. And yes it was totally worth it.

We have had a lot of tears around the house lately. From me and the kids. Having twin toddlers will take some fine tuning over these next few months. Mixed into our tears have been fun moments. More in the last couple of days, we are all relieved the plane ride is over.

We are in Africa, moments from meeting the kids!!!

Africa has been so neat to see. We have been in the capital which has a mix of old and new. The streets are mixed with SUV's and bicycles and the occasional goat or cow. Everyone is very friendly and we have had electricity most of the time. I'm unsure exactly how I feel, I go back and forth between elation and joyful tears. Time to pack the diaper bag and sort through our paperwork. I'm so thankful to be here in this moment, what a treasured day this will be in our memories-Sarah

God dances over each of us!

Can you imagine the day you were born? Picture with me, your parents dancing over you with delight. Singing and rejoicing over the fact that you exist and belong to them. God has danced over each of us. He created us and predestined us to be here and now. Zephaniah says he dances over you with joy! Wow!

Zephaniah 3:17 (Amplified Bible)

¹⁷The Lord your God is in the midst of you, a Mighty One, a Savior [Who saves]! He will rejoice over you with joy; He will rest [in silent satisfaction] and in His love He will be silent and make no mention [of past sins, or even recall them]; He will exult over you with singing.

As we prepare to travel to get our kiddos our hearts are filled with joy. We haven't actually danced but our bodies and minds are breathing a long sigh of relief. The anticipation is almost too much, I can't express the love we have for kids who we have yet to meet. We leave tomorrow at 5:20am and will arrive in Ethiopia on Thursday evening. We will have a day to acclimate to the time difference and then Saturday at 10am we will meet our kids!

Thanks for the prayers and support. See you on the 13th at 4:30pm.

We get to TRAVEL!!!!

We are so thrilled! We booked our flights yesterday, we are officially planning our trip! We will post while we are in Ethiopia.

Plan on attending our "Airport Greeting Party" on Feb 13 @ 4:30,

Location:	Albuquerque Airport US
When:	Saturday, February 13, 4:15PM
You are all invited to join us in our joy! We will be arriving in Albuquerque from Ethiopia on February 13th at 4:15-4:30pm. I have anticipated this moment for years and I always pictured it with friends and family around. (I will most likely be crying, just a heads up) This will probably be a short gathering, 30 minutes or so, just enough time to say HI! We anticipate being able to pray as a group before we head for home as a family of seven. Thank you all for your love and support through this lengthy adoption. Please pass this info onto anyone who might be interested. Call Jenny (363-0540) or Angela (614-288-3885) on Saturday to confirm flight times. Flight info-United flight 5869 arriving from Denver,CO.

Only a few more days until we will know if we have permission to leave for Ethiopia.

Praise God! Our kids were successfully moved into the capital! This is the BIG step we have been waiting for over the last 8 weeks.

We received several new photos. Anaideia finally has hair and appears to be walking:) Lincoln got all of his curly hair cut off again:(

Relieved? Yes, I'm very grateful that they are in a better environment with access to medical care and Nannies who know that they are siblings.

I feel a great heaviness that I don't think will go away until they say that we have permission to book our flights. We expect to know this on Monday (only a few days away).

Keep sending your Peek-A-Boo photos, I love them. It keeps making me cry but they are good tears! Thank you all for your support. I believe we are close to being done!

Posted by Aaron & Sarah Sanchez+5 at 9:22 PM

Adoption video, send in your Peek-A-Boo photos!

Prayer does work!

The past two months have been the hardest, but best times I have ever been through! But I wanted to encourage all of you to keep praying!

On December 9, 2009 I was awakened at 3:30 am, and felt a very strong push to pray, for our case worker, Ben. He was part way through a 4 week trip in Ethiopia, visiting the orphanages that he was working with. I had no idea of what he was doing or were he was at. It turns out that during his trip he was able to visit the orphanage that our kids were at. While he was at our kid's orphanage he was very close to being able to move the kids. The officials at the Shashemene orphanage actually thought he was there to pickup the kids and move them to the capital. While he was arranging a car or van big enough to transport them, One more phone call was made to the capital to make sure that moving the kids would be ok. Communication is very bad between the different offices. The orphanage Director at the Shashemene orphanage thought it would be ok to move the kids. It was during this call they found out that it was not ok with the Regional officials to move them and that he would have been arrested at the border. They most likely would have been arrested at the border, causing many more delays. Which could have caused the entire region to be shut down to all adoptions present and future to be jeopardized, so thankfully he chose not to move them.
Like I said earlier I had no idea that this was taking place, only that I had to pray for them!

-Aaron

Here is the emails between Ben (Our Social Worker) and I Yesterday.

I was awakened at 3:30 am while you were in Ethiopia, ( Dec 9 to be exact) and felt very pushed to pray for you.
I was just wondering if you remember of what was taking place that day?
Aaron

Ben

Wow! Thank you for sharing that. I checked my calendar and can see two possible reasons. That happens to be the one day that I was in Shashemene, meeting your children. It was also the day that I personally struggled the most with loneliness and missing my family.

Thank you for praying!

January 2010- Adoption delays

From Aaron-
We need your help! The adoption has been delayed once again.

We were planning to travel at the end of the month but we found out today that the issue of moving our kids into the capital has become much more serious. Last summer accusations were made about the adoptions taking place is a region (Oromia) about 3 hours south of the capital (Addis Ababa) The officials had slowed the paper work until an investigation was done.

Until today we thought that the investigation had been clean and we were waiting for an official announcement, that things could proceed. We received word that there was validity to the accusations of misconduct in our region and because of this they will continue to hold all children in their custody. This is very concerning news because they are refusing to move kids, even if there is a medical emergency. This is a life and death situation! Last week a young child passed away because they denied transport. These are kids whose paperwork is complete and yet the region (county) officials are not allowing them to leave. This situation is unprecedented and our agency is unsure about the time frame, or exactly what to do.

So we do not know when we will get a embassy date. This is a heart braking blow to Sarah and I. However we know that God is in absolute control and his timing is absolutely perfect!

We do feel that God is also asking us to engage in battle against the Satan and what ever forces that may be hindering this adoption.

Eph 6:12
For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms.

So we are rallying the troops!
HE IS CALLING US TO FIGHT!

Eph 6:10-11
Finally, be strong in the Lord and in his mighty power. Put on the full armor of God so that you can take your stand against the devil's schemes.

We are a well equipped army! Because of what Christ did for us on the cross!

Eph 6:13-17
Therefore put on the full armor of God, so that when the day of evil comes, you may be able to stand your ground, and after you have done everything, to stand.Stand firm then, with the belt of truth buckled around your waist, with the breastplate of righteousness in place, and with your feet fitted with the readiness that comes from the gospel of peace.In addition to all this, take up the shield of faith, with which you can extinguish all the flaming arrows of the evil one.Take the helmet of salvation and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God.

Please meditate on these verses before praying! The truth of the word is how we can have the power to break the devils schemes!

We are earnestly seeking help in this!
Pray that/for
1. Dr. Tsegaye the head of the agency network. He is representing American agencies as he meets with heads officials from the Oromia region. He is meeting primarily with the deputy minister of MoWA. Pray that he has wisdom on convincing the Oromia officials to move the kids and to put a system in place to keep all kids waiting, for adoption safe.

2. Peace for Sarah and I
3.that we can travel before march (our paper work will expire costing thousands to renew).
4.those responsible for disrupting the adoptions will be removed and that future adoptions will proceed smoothly.
5. Wisdom for us on how to proceed, we are trying to figure out if Aaron should leave for Ethiopia and try to go and move things along.
6. Safety and health for the orphans that are in waiting status.

-Aaron (& Sarah)


From Sarah- My heart has hurt so badly today that I felt like I did not have the strength to utter a word. I was completely unprepared emotionally, despite previous delays, to find out that our travel plans have been delayed indefinately. As Americans we work off of schedules, planners, appointment times and often expect justice and for the wrongs of the world to be corrected. These kids are ours legally. Our names are on their much anticipated birth certificates, so how can they refuse to move them? They just can. They are stuck in a system of crushing poverty and horrid injustices. While I was trying to come to terms with all of this I was thinking of the gross injustice of this situation and how tired I am of dealing with the emotional ups and downs of waiting, and delays and more waiting.Our family is truly in a holding pattern of sorts, until our kids are home. Emotionally it has been very taxing anticipating our departure over these last five weeks only to wait some more. I will grieve the lost time with them until I bring them home, but while this waiting period continues, the reality is that without the grave injustices of our sin filled world, these kids would never have become apart of our family to begin with. Sin, poverty and circumstance have determined that their parents could no longer care for them. The injustices that are stealing time from us as we speak are the very thing that has caused us to be a family. Therefore, somewhere past the deep sadness is a window of thankfulness. Thankful that we are on the receiving end of this adoption, thankful for a home in which to raise these little blessings and thankful for the resources in which to accomplish all this. Our agency is working to get these munchkins released as quickly as possible, this affects all orphanages in the region.

( A photo for an adopted child is usually very crucial in their development and self worth. Learning to understand that they do indeed have 4 parents, A simple photo can give a child an anchor into who they are. Despite all of our love, the truth is that our kids will deal with a great loss throughout their lives and a photo is one of many tools to help them through this process)
Two years ago I was telling my friend Jill how I desperately longed for our kids to have at least one photo of their parent(s). Often there is no photo available. As the months have passed I told Jill I didn't know if I could hope or pray that we got this. I have felt like in hoping for the kids I couldn't handle the emotional pull of hoping for photos. A couple months ago Jill said I'm going to pray this for you, I know that you can't but I'm going to pray that God gives you this. Along with the news of the impending delays we got a big treasure. Today we received photos of our kids with their biological parent! I'm so thankful for the long term benefits of this one item. It will be the only tangible item our kids come home with.So, we ask for your strategic prayers over the next couple of weeks, or more. Just as Jill stood in the gap for me, I ask that you all stand in the gap for our kids. God has opened a door that no one can shut, but he still chooses to work through all of us. Thank you all for your letters of encouragement, financial support, donations and listening to all of this. We hope that it will all be over soon and we can go onto the next phase of our lives.

-Sarah

We will try to keep you updated!