Reflections

Well, its now February, 2009 and so much has happened. Maria has now been with us 7 months Wow how the months have flown by. She loved her Christmas time and the whole month of preparation for Christmas. She is still waiting on that first real snow to enjoy some sledding but hopefully God will give us at least on snow before the winter is over. Maria's ability to adapt has just amazed me. She is very functional in her English speaking ability now. She absolutly loves her sisters and she enjoys having a huge extended family.....she thinks everyone she meets is a cousin or an uncle. She no longer has withdrawn crying episodes and she accepts the disciple from both her mom and dad. She loves homeschooling and is really starting to spread her wings in math....a far cry from when we first brought her home and she hated the mention of the word school. Well this is supposed to be a post about REFLECTIONS on this whole adoption.


The core things that I have become deeply convinced of through this whole process are:


1. God can and will answer our prayers! Likely not on our time schedule (unless it lines up with His), likely not in the way we may be expecting him to answer and sometimes not with the answer we may want yet he does Hear and He does Answer! If we could have had our way we would have left Panama within a few days of getting there. We prayed for such a quick turnaround but this would have been the worst thing we could have done. Maria neeeded every day of those three weeks to help her bond with us, I can't imagine how things might have been if we had left in just one week.....But God knew that and it amazes me how intricate are his plans.

2. If you feel the Holy Spirit has called you to do something God will equip you with all you need to meet that calling. When we first began this process we did not have the money it takes to do an international adoption, we knew that we would have to rely totally on God to help us with the finances. What is interesting is that the wheels of progress for the adoption took 2 years which was enough for us to save up what we needed. God did provide
It has been said God doesn't always call the equipped but he equips all those he calls. I believe that.

3. We have learned from this that God cares greatly about those that have been "forgotten" by society, and that every Christian can be the hands, feet and heart of Jesus in reaching out in some way to the forgotten right here in our communities. God will use us if we will just let him.

Update

Hello, we hope everyone has been doing well....not just well but great! Thanks again for the many prayers during this process, thank you thank you thank you. Maria has been welcomed into the family (and the family of faith) with wide open arms and she is a very happy little girl. She is loving having a mommy and a daddy and sisters to play with and sometimes argue with a little bit(isn't that what sisters do occasionally?) She has done so much and everything is a first for her, she went to the Roanoke Star (which she loved to see up close) she went to see her first ballgame (the Avalanche).....of course she was more impressed with the "all you can eat burgers and peanuts". She went camping with her sisters this weekend at the Peaks of Otter and had a blast, especially going up to the top. Her daddy makes sure she has a Mango when we go to the grocery. We are sure there will be more hurdles ahead but right now we are doing great. More to follow including some pictures.

Family Photo!

Our first family photo with Maria turned out pretty good considering it was about 100 degrees and the bugs were eating us! Yes, we left the tropics and came home to Virginia to find that it is hotter here than it was there! Maria is a little confused about that! We had a great first day together as a family today. Maria is one of the crew now! She had a blast with her sisters and was very helpful with them. We went to the icecream parlor this afternoon (Maria had Mango, of course) and ate dinner at Logan's to celebrate. Maria liked the steak, baked potato, and salad with honey mustard - all firsts for her - and all off Mama's plate - just like her sisters! Everything tastes better if it is on Mama's plate! Then we went up to the Roanoke star, to properly introduce Maria to her new home. She had a great time! We stayed till they turned the star on - 9:00 - and she really loved it! We'll try to get some more pictures posted really soon!

We're home!

Well the Skinner crew is home - all of us together at last! Maria is so happy! She had a great evening with her sisters and new friends and family! We had a great welcome home at the airport, which really meant a lot to Maria (and her parents)! Then we all came back to the house for pizza and cake. There were streamers, balloons, and gifts - all to make Maria feel like part of the family - and now she is! Thanks everybody! And a special thanks to Grandmom and Papa Jim for taking such good care of our girls for us! Maria was right at home tonight. It was so wonderful to see all our girls together when Daddy read their Bible story before bed. (We have a book that has the English and Spanish). Then to see all the bunk beds full - we've waited to see that for a long time! We are exhausted, broke, and happier than we can express! God answered many prayers! Thanks again for all the prayers and support - we love you all! We'll post some pictures tomorrow of the days events!

The whole Skinner crew

We leave tommorow (Sat 6/7) at 7:30 a.m.

Sorry we are placing this post so late, we have good news.....Maria got her Visa today.....God willing we are coming back to Roanoke tommorow. Wow this has been quite a journey, we can't wait to share the finer details with all our friends and relatives when we see you. Maria is so excited she says she is ready to meet all her relatives and her amigos she remembers from the Dale Ridge mission trips.
We were on edge all morning as we had an "interview" with Immigration about Maria's visa applicatioin scheduled for around 1pm....would there be some little fine detail that we had forgotten to submit? or are our pictures the right size?....do we have everything signed?, will there be someone there that just doesn't care if it gets finished today?.....etc etc....we just had to take a breather and lay it before God......the process couldn't have gone smoother we were the only ones dealing with a Visa this afternoon and they had plenty of time and willingness to get it done. As much as we deeply and I mean really deeply wanted to come home we can see that God knew what was best. We really needed a little more time for bonding and working out some discipline issues with Maria....He knew far better than we did as far as what would be best. Besides this, we befriended a taxi driver.....invited him to church (which he says is something he has not been involved with in a long long time and now says he would like to meet with the brethren again), we gave him our Spanish/English Bible, another driver a week early was taught about the gospel while we visited Maria's house parents.....so its really really awesome to see how God can work in so many different ways. Sena and I both really realized today, just why we had to wait 2 and a half years.....it took time to get all the people in the right places in Panama to make this happen. The Judge over Marias case noted that Maria had been lost in the system and she should have been placed in a family evironment over 4 years ago.....she even told us that maybe this is God's way of taking care of a great injustice and of giving Maria what she needs. I am still in awe that this phase of things is finished.
We thank God for his answer to our prayers over the past 2 years......Hannah, Adele, and Lilly thanks for your nightly prayers about this....God said YES! You get to meet your new sister tommorow! Thank you Lord for your answer. We thank you Lord for loving us and for giving up your own child on a cross. We thank all our family and friends who have helped in so many ways and we thank you for all the prayers....which I fully believe have kept our spirits up. God bless you all We love you and we can't wait to see you real soon!

Greg and Sena

US Embassy - Round 1

We went to the US Embassy this morning at 8:00 to deliver our I600 (permission to bring an orphan into the US, basically), and to get our appointment to come back and apply for Maria's Visa (not a credit card!). We also had to get the form we needed to get her medical exam (also for the Visa) as well. Fortunately I had sent an e-mail to a really nice lady at the Embassy who works with Immagration on approving the children for admission into the US (must prove the child is an orphan, adoption legal, etc), part of the I600 process. She called us while we were on the way over this morning and gave us some instructions so we could get as much done today as possible, including Maria's medical exam. Well our friend that works window number 5, had other plans. She didn't share our goals for the day. So we left the Embassy briefly so we could make some phone calls (no cell phones allowed inside), regroup, and try again. Well our phone calls (SOS), and prayers worked! We got everything we needed today, and were able to get the medical exam, including vaccinations (ouch!) done, and have our Visa interview appointment for Friday. We are praying we'll get her Visa Friday - there are no guarantees. So please pray - we want to come home!!!!!!! We miss our other girls!!!!!!! Maria has been really happy this afternoon - even after the awful shots (4) - she seems to know that we are really her parents and she is really going to Virginia! She was telling us at lunch how she was going to hug each of her three sisters and "mi amigo Chris's" two girls at the airport! (Our dear friend Chris went to Panama just over a year ago and met Maria, and his girls are best buddies with our girls.) Maria has looked at the pictures of them all seeing us off at the airport many many times! We are so excited to have things (Lord willing) coming to completion. Maria is such a gift, and will bring so much joy into all our lives. We are so thankful and feel so blessed to be her parents! Thanks again for all the prayers and support! We love you all!

Sena, Greg, and Maria