About Us!

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We are Elizabeth and Allan Pack and have been married 8 years. In November 2011 we took that leap of faith and applied to adopt a child from Ethiopia. This blog is all about our journey from start to finish. We patiently waited for 5 years to bring our child home and as of April 2016 we felt God was leading us to withdraw from the program and help another family bring home their child.

Saturday, February 25, 2012

Progress!

Well, we have made a little bit of progress over the past week!! We finished up our 10-hour online Adoption class last weekend and have received our Hague Certificates. We got fingerprinted yesterday at the Jail and will be sending that in on Monday to the State so they can research our background. It was our first time being fingerprinted and it isn't like I'd seen on movies with an ink pad and paper. They sprayed our fingers with water and put it on a big glass screen and it uses the heat to display your fingerprint on a computer screen! Then we went and got our passport photos taken at Walgreens so we can now apply for our passports! Allan had his picture taken 4 times before they actually got one that wasn't blury! It was really funny and he couldn't laugh because you can't smile for your passport photo. This might not seem like a big deal, but it one step closer than we were before! :o)

Monday, February 13, 2012

Some encouraging words

Here a just a few bible verses and quotes that I liked and wanted to share. Enjoy! 

And whoever welcomes a little child like this in my name welcomes me. -Matthew 18:5

I prayed for this child, and the LORD has granted me what I asked of him. -1 Samuel 1:27

For I was hungry and you gave me something to eat,
I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink,
I was a stranger and you invited me in, .....
The King will reply, 'I tell you the truth,
whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers of mine, you did for me'. -Matthew 25:35,40

Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find;
knock and the door will be opened to you.
For everyone who asks receives; he who seeks finds;
and to him who knocks, the door will be opened
. -Matthew 7:7-8 

I know God won't give me anything I can't handle.
I just wish he didn't trust me so much -Mother Teresa

God moves in a mysterious way,
His wonders to perform. -William Cowper

People are unreasonable, illogical and self-centered. Love them anyway.
If you do good, people will accuse you of selfish, ulterior motives. Do good anyway.
If you are successful, you will win false friends and true enemies. Succeed anyway.
The good you do today will be forgotten tomorrow. Do good anyway.
Honesty and frankness make you vulnerable. Be honest and frank anyway.
The biggest person with the biggest ideas can be shot down by the smallest person with the smallest mind. Think big anyway.
People favor underdogs, but follow only top dogs. Fight for a few underdogs anyway.
What you spend years building may be destroyed overnight. Build anyway.
People really need help but may attack if you help them. Help people anyway.
Give the world the best you have and you might get kicked in the teeth. Give the world the best you have anyway.
You see, in the final analysis, it is between you and God; It was never between you and them anyway.

The man whispered, "God, speak to me" and a Chickadee sang
But, the man did not hear.
So the man yelled "God, speak to me!" And, the thunder rolled across the sky.
But, the man did not listen.
The man looked around and said, "God let me see you." And a star shined brightly. 
But the man did not notice. 
And, the man shouted, "God show me a miracle!" And, a life was born.
But, the man did not know.
So, the man cried out in despair, "Touch me God, and let me know you are here!"
Whereupon, God reached down and touched the man.
But, the man brushed the butterfly away and walked on.
Don't miss out on a blessing because it isn't packaged the way that you expect.

 
 
 
 
 
 

Overwhelmed

   So, where do I begin? I'm am trying my best to keep everyone up to date because I want you to be on this journey with us, to see what we will be doing and going through to adopt a child from Ethiopia. To be honest, I had no idea there would be this much involved! We received an e-mail about  a week ago with a lot of attachments to print out out; we used an entire ink cartridge printing everything! This information is very detailed and I have to say completely overwhelming when you look at it because everything has to be done exactly how it is stated. We have to get current birth certificates and marriage licenses, apply for passports, take pictures of ourselves with family and by ourselves posed in our favorite activities, get references to fill out paper work, doctors to exam us and give detailed descriptions of our health and have it notarized, detailed description of my running a stop sign 6+ years ago, questions on how we will raise this child up to know about their background and many more pages of things, each being notarized and exactly right. Crazy, huh? Yeah, I am overwhelmed but we will be taking it one step at a time and know we will get it done!
   I posted in the last blog that we'd be sending out letters to our families and friends explaining we were adopting and asking for their help. Well, so far we have had pretty negative feedback and I have to say it can be pretty discouraging. A few comments have been made that we should e-mail Angelina Jolie and ask her to give us pointers on adopting and others have questioned Why would we want to do this? Why do we want a black child? Why don't we adopt from the US? Lots of questions and negative responses but we had kind of expected it from one side of the family anyways. To be honest when I first got these responses, it did make me question our decision and I tried to give them answers but I keep going back to this: The Lord has laid this on our hearts and we might not understand it and others might not either but we are going to continue moving forward. There is a child who needs us out there, a child that God has picked out just for us.
   When I was younger, people's opinions matter way too much to me and if they would have said it was a bad idea then I wouldn't be doing it because it wasn't considered "cool." Not this time! This time we will be going against the grain! We will be the outcast, the crazies, the whatever you want to call us. As the world sees this as an impossible task, I see the Lord moving in ways I have never seen before. I don't understand why people question us adopting a Child?! Does it really matter that much about the child's skin color? Apparently in the world around us, it does, it is socially acceptable to adopt a child from China or Russia but to adopt from Ethiopia is unheard of. I don't see the difference, they are all children desperately needing a family, a home, love, food and shelter.
     We are clinging to the love and support from those around us. We are blessed to have so many great people in our lives! We continue to move forward, trusting in the Lord every step of the way! Thanks for walking this journey with us! :) God is AWESOME!
                                 Elizabeth