A Christmas Wish List

[Note: This year I wrote a brief Christmas wish list/letter. It wasn't in most of our Christmas pictures. We decided to share it with you here. Merry Christmas from our crazy house to yours!)

A Christmas Wish List

From the Beukers

It’s been that kind of year. Lots of great and wonderful things, lots of hard stuff. We don’t even know where to begin on what to put in a Christmas letter, so instead you get a Christmas wish list.

Here it goes:

Josh is in 3^rd grade. What does he want? To not have to wear his retainer anymore!

Katie is in 2^nd grade. This year, she really wants her two front teeth (actually four missing teeth!) I love that gappy smile!
 

Olivia is 5 and in Kindergarten. She would really like to lose more teeth so the tooth fairy can visit more often.

 

But our greatest wish as a family is to bring home our kids. In April of 2011 we started the process to adopt 2 siblings from a small country called Lesotho (it’s land-locked within South Africa). We had expected to have them home by now, but instead we don’t even know who they are. It is our heart’s desire to bring home siblings. We have faced delays and frustrations, but we know that God’s plan is perfect for our family. A matching meeting is scheduled for early February—you’ll know we’ve been matched with waiting orphans from the sloppy grins that will cover our faces. You are invited to join in the story by following our family blog at www.sammyneric.blogspot.com.

 This process is filled with unknowns. We don’t know how many kids we will be matched with. We don’t know when they will finally come home to us. We don’t know how we will pay for it all.

 There is one thing we know: this whole thing is really expensive. We estimate that by the time we are all done with the adoption, including travel and a three-week stay to pick them up, our expenses will be over $40,000. That’s a lot of money for a one-income family. We’ve paid for and saved about half at this point. But it is clear to us that we will not be able to afford all the remaining costs of this adoption on our own.

With humble hearts we ask you to consider being part of the story of our family’s adoption. We have been blessed with many gifts in the past year. Each one has lifted our hearts during times of discouragement and frustration. Each one brings us closer to bringing our kids home.

Last year, we were blessed to receive a matching grant from Lifesong for Orphans, a 501(c)3 non-profit ministry in Colorado. Our account at Lifesong is still open and able to receive gifts. Lifesong is a trusted organization that will administer the funds on our behalf, and will pay adoption expenses out of funds received. Every gift received by Lifesong on our behalf is tax-deductible.

This journey has been one of the most challenging of our lives, both as individuals and as a family. We covet your prayers as we look forward to meeting, then bringing home and parenting our children.

Christmas Blessings,

 Eric & Sammy Beuker

(with Josh, Katie, & Olivia)

There are two ways to make a donation.
1) You can follow the link on our family website (www.sammyneric.blogspot.com)

2) You can send a check payable to: Lifesong. In the memo, write “preference Beuker #2355 adoption.”  (Note: In following IRS guidelines, your donation is to Lifesong which retains full discretion and control over its use).

Mail the check to:

Lifesong for Orphans
Attn: Beuker #2355 Adoption
PO Box 40
Gridley, Il 61744

We thank you in advance for your prayers and gifts on behalf of our family.

Staying the course....

So here is the moment where I tell the world how awesome my husband is because he told us to wait.

So we waited. And waited.

I asked Eric, "Can we check now? Can we ask more questions? Let's make a decision."

And he said, "No, Let's wait until we hear from our social worker."

And finally, this week we received official word that our adoption case will be grandfathered into Lesotho.

Take a moment to let that sink in. It's taken me a few days.

We don't need to make any decisions. We don't need to decide to change countries. We don't need to figure out how to change all our paperwork.

We are being grandfathered in. So somewhere in Lesotho my next child(ren) is waiting, just as we are waiting here.

And there is a matching meeting on February 8.

So on or before February 8--we will know who will join this crazy family.

Thank you for your love to us during these very emotionally difficult past few weeks. We are so very, very, very blessed to be surrounded by such good people.

Does any of this feel real? Nope, not yet, probably not until the day our kids come home will it be real. Until then we pray--for their protection and safety, for their hearts and for ours.

And Josh would ask that you pray it's a boy....

Peace for the Storm

To say that my life is stormy right now...is a perfect description.

Between all the forces and tasks competing for my time, attention, and emotions, I am being pulled in many directions. Sometimes I am strong enough to stand in the force of the storm.

Right now, I don't feel so strong, nor do I feel particularly safe.

So God uses his people to hold me up, to encourage, and to protect me.

In the past 48 hours, I have been the recipient of a number of blessings which I did not earn nor do I feel I deserve--and as I ponder the sources of them, I find myself pondering the Source of them. And I feel my heart held, my soul comforted, and my burdens eased.

One such example, and that which inspires me so greatly, happened this morning when a friend showed up on my doorstep with an early Christmas present. She felt moved and obeyed a prompting in her life.

And I am so grateful--the gift she gave is a new book from Calvin author, Gary Schmidt and his wife Elizabeth Stickney, Acceptable Words: Prayers for the Writer.

I have literally dropped almost everything this morning to pour over the words of this book. It resonates deeply within me. Even the names of the chapters. I have found myself, skimming and jumping, reading and dwelling on the words and prayers of brilliant writers who have gone before me.

And I want to give you my prayer (it's in chapter 3), the prayer of my heart, the one that I have already found myself going back to numerous times, that I will recite tonight as I sit and write and edit.

The Writer's Prayer

 
Open my mind, Lord. Grant me the talent to write with clarity and style, so my words go down rich and smooth, like fine wine, and leave my reader thirsty for more.

Open my heart, Lord. Grant me sensitivity to understand my characters--their hopes, their wants, their dreams--and help me to confer that empathy to my reader.

Open my soul, Lord, so I may be a channel to wisdom and creativity from beyond my Self. Stoke my imagination with vivid imagery and vibrant perception.

But most of all Lord, help me to know the Truth, so my fiction is more honest than actuality and reaches the depths of my reader's soul.

Wrap these gifts with opportunity, perseverance, and the strength to resist those insist it can't be done.

-Sandy Tritt

Amen and amen.