God's Rainbows in Our Lives: Part 1 of Introducing our Kids

I've decided that since we have a name now for Keith then I will introduce them 1 by 1. :) Their names are very confusing for us since some have a birth name (I can't disclose), an online name that they were given on Reece's Rainbow, and another name we are giving them. Some days I get confused and close friends who have heard me use all kinds of names are now thoroughly confused as well. So each day I am going to introduce a child and from then on use (or at least try to lol) that name to refer to them. I think it will help a lot with everyone getting them straight. It will also give each one their day to "shine". I'll also tell you a little more about that child in the post.

So first up is "Keith Isaac"!

Keith is the youngest of the children we are adopting and is only 4 years old. He is also very tiny at only 11 pounds. We can't wait to get him home and see the miracles that God has in store for him. We are expecting from what we currently know that he will need 12 to 18 months size clothing for the length, which will be waaaaayyyy too big to stay up so we will be buying one piece things for him most likely. It breaks my heart to know how tiny he is and I was looking at a friend's little girl who was so tiny the other day. She isn't even 2 years old yet and is considered quite small in a size 18 months clothing. I was thinking that he is about her height but only about half of her weight. It breaks my heart into a million pieces.

The name "Isaac" was actually the most popular for a middle name for him on the poll. :) We had decided on it too, so knowing that others liked it really helps!

We like the sound of the name, but also the story of Isaac in some ways reminds us of our story with Keith so far. We thought that we were only bringing home the 4 children to begin with, but really felt like God wanted us to bring home Keith as well after some prayer. We felt everything come together and were able to get the USCIS approval for 5 quite easily. Then once our dossier was submitted we expected our "verbal referral" on November 11th. Instead we were told that if we left Keith behind, then we could get our verbal referral the next week, but if we wanted to pursue him then we would need to have a homestudy addendum showing that we could have other adults come in to help if needed and that my two oldest daughters (who are legal age of adults but have special needs that in Eastern Europe would have had them in mental institutions) were not taking care of kids. Our daughters most certainly don't do child care, but to try to convince someone across the ocean of that seemed daunting. We were told that with the paperwork the committee would look at our dossier, but there were no guarantees that we could bring him home.

We were so upset. That day I cried while I vomitting from a stomach virus. We just couldn't leave him behind though. We all already loved him! We decided to do everything we could and leave it in God's hands. It truly felt like we could be asked to put Keith on the alter, as Abraham was asked to do with Isaac. We did all we could and left it to God. When people asked we told them that if Keith was left behind it would be because a governement made us leave him and not because we didn't do all we could. We begged for prayers from everyone we knew. We got the paperwork done quickly and drove to get it apostilled and had it hand delivered to Bulgaria with a friend who was travelling to pick up her little girl.

God did for us what He did for Abraham. We were not made to sacrafice Keith by leaving him behind. God gave us that verbal referral. We are now waiting for the written referral and a travel date for Brent to go for trip #1. Then I will go for trip #2 and get to bring Keith and our 4 other Bulgarian Blessings home.

Keith is tiny, but MINE. I can't thank God enough for the blessing of that referral happening. God is holding Keith right now and soon I will too. :)

Keith was actually the name of my uncle that passed away before I was born.

Isaac means "He will laugh" and I surely can't wait to see Keith Isaac LAUGH.

This is my very tiny boy. Mama is coming.