Blessings and Prayers (by Thom)

Life has been…. interesting…. the past couple of months. Hannah and Miriam came into our lives so suddenly and so much changed so quickly. With Hannah’s health problems early on it consumed most of our prayers and waking thoughts. Now that she seems to have gotten through the worst of it, we’ve been working on focusing on the future. Since she can’t drink formula that’s bought in Mali (anything with cow’s milk) we’ve had to import her soy milk formula. We’ve been getting it a can at a time, having people stuff a can or two into their luggage as they come to Mali. Realistically, though, that’s not a good long term solution. Amanda’s dad sent us a case of soy formula in the mail, but that didn’t arrive until about a month after it was mailed. The post office can be so hit-and-miss here that it isn’t really a long term solution, either. We’ve been praying a lot lately for something to happen that would allow us to be able to get enough formula to last us until we come back to the States next spring. This past Sunday that “something” might have happened.

We went to church for the first time since we got custody of the girls. We wanted to go before this, but with Hannah’s frail condition we didn’t think it was safe to expose her to so many people. At the church we attended there was another missionary couple who work for M.A.F. (Mission Aviation Fellowship). We were talking with them and mentioned how difficult it was been to get Soy formula milk, much less reach a long term plan. It turns out MAF is having a plane coming soon and they said they would try to get us 3 cases of formula. If this happens, I believe we’ll have enough formula to get us through to our furlough beginning in March! We’re praying now that this will happen and we’ll be able to rest on this issue.

Really quick, I want to mention our other prayer concern right now: we’ve still not gotten the birth certificate for the girls. This is basically the only thing holding up the finalization of the adoption process. We have people helping us, but because of the rainy season and poor communication with the very remote area of Mali where the girls were born is taking a long time. We need to finish this adoption process soon so we can begin the US naturalization process. Sometimes it seems the paperwork will never end!

Please continue to pray for these two concerns with us. Thanks for all the prayers so far. The pictures have been useful, but if you could have seen Hannah in person 2 months ago and today you’d really understand how much God has blessed her, and us.