Taboo Topics: Adoption – meet Philippa and Emiel

this is from my good friends, Philippa [who i met online when i was overseas] and Emiel [who i met back home years ago] who somehow met each other and got happily married [which is a great story and i don’t think i had anything to do with it]:

“We are the family waiting (not so patiently) to adopt”

My name is Philippa and I am married to my hero Emiel. We are the proud parents of Alexander and Beatrice and we are waiting longingly for our baby/babies.

For as long as I can remember adoption has been a huge part of my thinking. As children my siblings and I would beg my parents to adopt. We wanted another sibling, but not just any sibling, a special one, a chosen one. I have grown up in church so I imagine somehow, somewhere I was taught that or it was something God wrote on my heart. When I was 19 my parents adopted a really ill 9month old baby girl. It was her 10th birthday two weeks ago. She is a gift to my family. God has used her so many times to teach faith, hope and His unconditional love. She is a sparkly, happy, gorgeous little girl who we are all grateful for.

Our adoption story goes as follows: it has yet to begin. We’re in a unique situation in that we are South Africans living in Japan. If we’d been in South Africa the process would already have started, but for South African’s living abroad adoption of South African children becomes an international adoption governed by the law of the country you live in. We have started investigating this, which means we’ve sent e-mails and not received responses or received negative responses from organizations and international adoption lawyers in South Africa. International adoption is tricky. We have also started investigating other countries including Japan.

Adoption is not a whim or fancy and I don’t think I can fully explain the longing in my heart. It is not our desire to simply complete our family, but rather to be obedient to what God has called us to do. And through the process He teaches us, mould us, grows us. And God wants us to be doing something for the countless children that may never know love, He wants us, His people to love them. There are so many children, orphaned or abandoned facing a life unimaginable and that is not acceptable to God and should not be acceptable to us.

We have experienced 3 pregnancies. The first didn’t last past 7 weeks and the second two both had miracle factors. We have known to cry out, to pray, to wait and ultimately to trust that God would carry us through. I feel much like a pregnant woman trusting on God’s perfect timing!

“This Love” by Mandi Mapes 2010

I’ve never felt this way before
funny how you found you’re way to my door
and suddenly my prayers are coming true
and these arms are not letting go of you

this love this love is the deep kind
you’re my baby, you’re my sunshine
I’ll hold your hand, be your biggest fan
and I’ll love you all of the time

our eyes are not quite the same shade
and your hair blows in the wind a different way
but I am your mother and
I love you just the same
so I’ll take your hand honey
and you can take my name

my heart has been redeemed,
adopted and now I know my Father
this grace that I’ve received
I want to show you
I want to show you

this love this love is the deep kind
it hangs on through the storm and the sunshine
I’ll hold your hand, be your biggest fan
and I’ll love you all of the time

Thanks B
Much love
Philippa and Emiel

Prayer-liners [i]

i have just started reading ‘Prayer: Does it make any difference?’ by Philip Yancey which was given to me by two great friends Emiel and Philippa a while back and which i just started reading at the right time… still early days but REALLY enjoying it and highly recommend it [and it is not ‘the ten steps to really great prayer’ at all]

and while you should read the book, until you do, i thort i’d share some lines or thoughts that really stood out, from time to time as i continue to read it…

‘Most of my struggles in the Christian life circle around the same two themes: why God doesn’t act the way we want God to, and why I don’t act the way God wants me to. Prayer is the precise point where those themes converge.’ [pg. 9]

‘Prayer helps correct myopia, calling to mind a perspective I daily forget. I keep reversing roles, thinking of ways in which God should serve me, rather than vice versa. As God fiercely reminded Job, the Lord of the universe has many things to manage, and in the midst of my self-pity I would do well to contemplate for a moment God’s own point of view.’ [pg. 14]

for more thoughts on prayer, click here.