The Seidel Family Blog
Life Out of Darkness
Mabuhay (welcome/hello)!
Last month, we asked for prayers for a quick decision by the deciding committee on the sibling set we submitted our family for consideration. During our initial waiting, I felt God telling me that we would hear by the end of September. And hear we did. Shortly after I posted the last blog, God answered our prayers (and your prayers if you have been including us in your prayer request). We received an answer. Praise God for answering our prayers through a quick decision.
Unfortunately, though, we were not selected. God answered us quickly, but He gave us a no. It's taken us some time to process the decision, hence the delay in sending our update to you, our loving friends and family. While that no is certainly hard for us to accept, we praise God that His perfect will is unfolding in front of us. We praise Him for the family He chose for those precious kiddos. We release our hopes for them with a heartfelt prayer that God would continue to protect them, guide them, and grow them into powerful warriors for His kingdom.
As we look to the future, we recognize that God is saying no to this good thing we wanted, because He has something even better in store for us. He knows the perfect kiddos for our family. We trust Him and submit our hopes and dreams to Him. This process further emphasized how ready we are. He has continued to teach us through this process what love is. We cannot wait until we get "the call" that our kiddos are waiting for us. We cannot wait for the excitement of knowing they will soon be joining our family. Honestly, the above scripture says it all for us this month – we are putting all our trust in the Lord. We believe if we are obedient to His prompting, He will lead us in the right path.
So, what does that mean for now? Well, it means we are back to waiting. As a part of the process, we learned ICAB (the deciding board) had some further clarifications on our profile/dossier. We are thankful to have learned that now so we could respond to those questions and hopefully provide an even clearer picture of our intentions and dreams. We will continue to be considered through the normal matching process, as well as personally monitor the Special Home Finding list. Unfortunately, over the past few months, we have been told the normal matching process has slowed down considerably due to COVID-19 restrictions. There are still as many kiddos needing homes, but unfortunately, it has been challenging for social workers to perform the necessary steps to get the children prepared for international adoption. However, we feel God has told us something important will happen towards the end of October or early November. We're not exactly sure what that means or what it will look like, but we're praying God would do a mighty work.
God brings life out of darkness – of this I am convinced. Beyond answering prayers each step of the way, God has brought so much life in other areas as well for Ben and me throughout October. In early October, we took some time off and explored areas around the KC metro as the weather started turning to fall. It was a beautiful time for Ben and me. We also celebrated a 1st birthday of one nephew and welcomed another nephew into our family! I was even blessed to have Ben's support to take off work for a bit, so I could go help out with my new nephew for 5 days. What a precious time I had with my newborn nephew and his brother (2.5 years old). Those are days I will cherish forever. Next week, Ben and I celebrate 10 years of being together (only 6 years of marriage, but 10 years dating) – oh how the time flies by!
Below are pictures of some of our fun times!
Our prayer requests this month - Holy Spirit, continue to fill us with trust and obedience to your perfect will. Give us extra doses of patience. Whomever our kiddos are, wherever they are at…protect them and fill them with your love and encouragement. Give them the supernatural comfort that their forever family is praying for them right this moment. Be with all who are a part of the Philippines matching process – ICAB, social workers, group home parents, our adoption agency, all the waiting parents…work through each person and each role that we may all glorify You. Show us an answer to the prompting you've given us that something special will happen towards the end of this month or early next month. Let us praise you, Lord, through it all!
Until next time – all our love!
