Mongolian Students & Adoption

Our family has a connection to Mongolia. The connection began when Ryan made several trips to Mongolia to do missions work through CVM with the local vets. We have continued that connection by supporting the Vet Net in Mongolia through prayer and finances. Through that support, we are able to read monthly updates from our friends in Mongolia. We would love to return to Mongolia together. Ryan is sure that I wouldn't go there because of the lifestyle in the country side. I've tried to assure him that I would do fine if I could bring PB&J or if I could stay in the city with the American misisonary.

For several years we have dreamed of adopting. And Mongolia wasn't exactly an option because of their requirements. Now that we've been married 5 years, a Mongolian adoption would be possible. We have yet to run that race.

In the mean time, we've sought to strengthen that connection to a place and a people that are dear to our hearts. Last year we became friends with the only Mongolian international student at our nearby university. This year, Naraa is still here and there are 3 more students. Reaching out to them is the least we can do. Last Friday Melody joined us for the evening. She took two years of English in high school and although she does excellent for the amount of English education she had, much gets lost in the translation of things. We loved having her over and the kids adored her. This weekend we plan to have the students join us for our trip to the city to do a little Christmas shopping. We also plan to have them over for Thanksgiving and stay the weekend since food services aren't available at the university. I'm excited and anxious for this reaching out of sorts. The two new girls are extremely home sick and certainly need some love and attention. The new boy student we have yet to meet but I'm hopeful that he'll come around as well. May God truly bless each one of us as we add them to our extended family in the coming days.

On the Same Page

I posted this past week about adoption and missions and wanting to combine the two things together. I had not shared this information with Ryan at all. We were chatting when he came home from Kansas City about his week. While he was gone, he got to meet up with several people he knows from Christian Veterinary Mission. Ryan has spent time in Mongolia on two seperate occasions with CVM. Curious if talking to those folks peaked his interests, I asked him if he was ready to go on another trip. I would love to go (although while breastfeeding could be fun) and expected him to agree. Instead, Ryan replied with a "not really". He said that it did make him think that we really need to pursue adoption. If that's what we feel God is leading us to do, than we need to be obedient, step and out do it. I was so surprised at his response and so excited that God has us on the same page at the same time. How wonderful that God has been seperately putting adoption on both of our hearts!