Baby Hats on Way to Afghanistan

Mrs. Beaver:

A few weeks ago, Lissie posted a video produced by the radio station K-LOVE about a need on the other side of the world. In the video, K-LOVE's DJ, Scott, made a plea for Americans to knit baby hats for Afghan babies. He shared the heart-rending news that the infant mortatlity rate in Afghanistan is the HIGHEST in the world. Scott begged listeners to knit while praying for the baby to whom the hat would go and for the baby's mom. Our hearts were especially touched since Jaynie had just recently come from Central Asia.

So, the very day after the broadcast we visited Hobby Lobby and bought knitting needles and yarn. Lissie, Daria, Cassandra, Tatiana and Natasha all knit the little head coverings. Lissie was so enthusiastic that we even caught her knitting during an intermission at a Toby Mac concert the family attended in late January.

Yesterday, eleven baby hats were mailed to K-LOVE. And many prayers went with those hats, asking the God who loves all the nations and people groups to extend His tender mercies to the precious women and babies of Afghanistan.

Photo by Lissie

Photo by Cassandra

Remember... the Hard Road Also Lies Behind...

As we prepare our children to go serve in whatever capacity the Lord has in mind for them, we prepare them for a hard road ahead. We take special care to sharpen the arrows He has placed in our quiver, honing and straightening them to whatever degree we can so that they will fly straight and true... sharpening them so that they will make an impact when they hit the target He has set before them. But the road ahead of them is hard in many ways. They will hit bumps along the way and potholes that risk mis-aligning them to the course He has set before them (sorry for the mixed analogies... it's the best I can do with jet lag).

Such is the stuff this week is made of for Jaynie and Mrs. Beaver and me. We must pray Jaynie through the challenging road that lies ahead. It is only now that she will fully realize her need for the only One who can actually meet her needs, as she comes out from under our direct protection. And that transition is hard. She will need much prayer and encouragement to fight the fight of faith that lies ahead.

But let us not lose sight of the hard road that lies behind as well. There too, much prayer and encouragement is needed... and much faith.

What do I mean by this? I mean that those who 'send' also need much support, not just those who go.

Parenting is hard. Single-parenting is unimagineably hard (bless those who have no choice in the matter - we must pray even more for you!) This week, Mrs. Beaver is single-parenting 8 beautiful blessings who are still at home. And that's a blessing, but it's also very, very, very hard.

Mrs. Beaver and I have often joked that we had to switch to zone defense once we were 'out-numbered'. But in reality, parents can never play zone defense. Each child has real needs... and they're not timed in sequence to be manageable by one parent. They can't just be 'contained' which is what zone defense is all about. In fact, there is a far better analogy than zone defense... single-parenting actually looks a lot more like 'whack-a-mole', the carnival game.

Just in case you've never played it, let me describe. In whack-a-mole, mechanical moles stick their heads up above the surface of the game board, and it's the job of the game player to 'whack' them on the head as they come up in various places all over the game surface. The goal is to see every mole and whack it on the head before it goes back down below the game surface. It's pretty easy at first as the game starts slowly, with one mole at a time sticking it's head up in slow progression. But as the game moves on, the pace of the moles increases and increases and increases until it seems several moles are sticking their heads up all at once. The game player at this point is working furiously to first identify and then 'whack' each mole as it sticks it's head up. The game player has almost no chance of seeing everything in time, reacting appropriately and keeping up.

Single-parenting feels a lot like that. And with that situation, comes the need for much prayer, encouragement and faith.

Not only does it feel like you're hopelessly unable to meet all the needs of your children. It can even push you to trying meeting those needs much like the game player... by frantically 'whacking' down each need as it arises just to keep up.

Instead, parents need the wisdom to understand that they cannot meet all the needs on their own - they need their Savior and Lord to stand in the gap for them, providing wisdom, patience and grace to meet the needs of their little moles. They need miraculous intervention to slow the 'pace of the game' so they can slow down and process each one of those very real needs with each of their little moles. And they need the faith to rest and hope in Him, not in the overwhelming circumstances. They need to remember that Jesus NEVER plays whack-a-mole with our needs.

And sending out a sibling is hard too! It's a huge adjustment to send someone you love away for an extended time, especially when they're your friend. This is a hard time, too, for our children. And they don't have any say in the matter. Instead, they feel the loss, and feel no sense of control over the situation. What they need most now is a Savior to come alongside them and remind them that they can be forever connected with their sibling, even across time and miles, by His Spirit.

May I ask for the blessing of your prayers that:

• Mrs. Beaver would have the faith and the wisdom to lean not on her own understanding, but instead to trust in Him with all her heart, and to lead our children in a way that shows them Christ in every circumstance as the strong, kind, wise Lord that He is.
• Mrs. Beaver would have the strength and endurance to single-parent 8 little moles for over a week.
• Mrs. Beaver would have Jesus' vision to really see the needs of her little moles as they arise, and the wisdom to stop and process those needs one-by-one, with the compassion of Jesus, even when they seem to be coming in torrents.
• All 8 of our 'little moles', and especially the oldest ones, would see the need to focus not on their own needs, but to help Mrs. Beaver meet the many needs coming at her.
• That our family would be blessed by a unity of the spirit that is beyond our comprehension.
• Above all, please pray that in my home, selfishness would be slayed and all would be kind toward one another, tender-hearted, forgiving each other just as Christ also has forgiven us.

Thank you for your prayers and support!

Adoption Adjustment: We'd Be Grateful for Prayers

Mr. & Mrs. Beaver:

GUM

In the top photo, our twelve kids are standing on a bridge in the exclusive shopping mall, GUM, which sits beside Red Square in Moscow. This particular bridge connects the two sides of the third floor in the mall. There are a number of these bridges on the second and third floors of this remarkably-engineered building (see the second photo for another example).

If the bridge on which our family is standing were to collapse for some reason, disaster could be the only result for our family.

The health of our family as it weathers the stress of our newest adoption, is in many ways like this bridge. What supports the GUM bridges must be trustworthy. What supports our effort to add another three orphaned children to our family--while remaining healthy as a family--must be trustworthy.

We've had a difficult day. This doesn't surprise us given how recent our adoption is. Adoption requires many adjustments for everyone involved. Even so, what I am preaching to myself tonight is that it is the Lord God Almighty who is the trustworthy support for our adoption, for the three precious children we've just added to our number, and for the other eleven of us who ALL strongly believe that the rescue of orphaned children is worth going through the incredibly stretching adjustment that will take the next two years. (Yes...I did just write "two years." Having done this before, we know that it is about two years before the family is through all aspects of becoming a fully integrated family. However, there are many, many wonderful moments in the midst of this two year adjustment process, so don't let that number scare you if you're contemplating adoption.)

Yet, even though we know that the Lord God Almighty is our trustworthy support through this process, we would still be grateful for your prayers. Our God is a prayer-hearing God! Your precious prayers help under-gird us with His grace!

Please pray:

• That the two of us would be gentle, humble and wise like Jesus as we interact with all our children.
• For our children who share bedrooms with the newbies: Tessa and Lissie with Daria; Joe and Speedy with Alexander; Jaynie and Cassandra with Oksana. They very much wanted to have these new children share their rooms, and they continue to be glad for the privilege. However, it means they're on the "front line" all the time. When I'm growing weary of what this new situation requires, I can retire to my bedroom. They can't. Please pray for extra grace for them, especially Tessa and Lissie. Fifteen-year-olds like Daria can ask some very deep spiritual questions! Also, she's a night owl, and they're very early risers. They are getting worn down by getting less sleep.
• That the Lord God Almighty would move in the hearts of our new children to accept that our love of Christ means that we don't always make the same choices that others would in books, music, movies, etc. Again, please pray that the eleven of us would be so winsome in how we live out our love of Jesus that we would make purity of heart and mind attractive to them.
• That our very orderly six-year-old Oksana would be willing to cooperate and obey when the way we want to or need to do something varies from her strong sense of "rightness." We have absolutely no doubt that her deep love of particular routines comes from the importance placed on doing things the same way every time in the preschool area of her orphanage. We want to be sensitive to her long-standing habits, and yet we have to begin to work her into our family's habits. We also don't want to lose her love of a tidy house. Wow! What a blessing to have a six-year-old working hard to keep order in the home!
• That I (Mrs. Beaver) would rise on time to get a good long "soaking" in God's word before I face the parenting of 12. This means I must go to bed earlier. Please pray the Lord God Almighty will make that possible. I am a deep "morning sleeper," and I'm really have trougle getting up as early as a good quiet time requires.
• That the Lord God Almighty would quickly teach Daria, Alexander, and Oksana English. That He would, in fact, teach them to love Rosetta Stone, the primary means we're using to teach them. I don't want their Russian to disappear. It's a beautiful melody to my ears! Plus, we long to become a bilingual family. However, the sooner they know English, the sooner some of the more difficult hurdles (like the ones we faced today) can at least be adressed in one language--instead of two with the help of an Internet translator.

Thank you, friends far and near! You are dear to us. Your belief in what we're doing means the world to us!

Waiting for Their Peaches

Last Saturday night we enjoyed an evening with a family from our church that is waiting to adopt. They hosted us for dinner and a few hours of fellowship in the evening. There were lots of laughs, good conversation, and all-in-all, a wonderful time!

Cassandra with our host, "Big Daddy"

"Dingleberry", our friends' dog, loves it when anyone will play tug of war with him over this stuffed Pooh Bear!

I found out during a game of two-hand-touch football that "Big Fella" is sweet option for the short pass route!

"Big Daddy" and "Bo" taking some time to catch up with each other

Although "Sunshine" (center) was disappointed that Tessa couldn't be with us, she found a distraction in entertaining the little ones

This entertainment for the little ones soon turned into entertainment for all!

Jaynie and twins "Rye Bread" and "T-Bird" provided us with some praise music later in the evening



We dearly love this family, not only for their love for us but also for their deep love for Jesus and those who are hurting in the world. They long for the call that will bring the news of which little girl God has chosen for them. Because of the depth of their desire to care for this little girl (whom they have affectionately nicknamed "Peaches"), the wait has often been painful for them. We continue to pray that they will receive their good news soon, and that until then, God will wrap them in His comforting arms!

(Our friends are the authors of the blog Room for More. Please consider following their blog and praying for them as they seek to follow Jesus in the area of caring for the vulnerable and in all areas of life!)

This row of shoes at our friends' front door is missing one small, special pair!

~Joe

Pray for the Orphans

Dear Readers,

This is a plea for prayer cover for the May 12 meeting of the Russian and American governments regarding the status of American adoption of Russian orphans.

Background
As you may know, a few weeks ago an American adoptive parent placed her adopted Russian son on a plane unattended and sent him back to Russia with a note saying she was returning him. The Russian government was naturally outraged, and has demanded more rights to protect Russian adoptees. They have threatened to completely halt American adoptions if their demands are not met.

On May 1 they submitted a draft agreement to the US State Department in preparation for face-to-face negotiations on May 12. While that meeting is not likely to be the final meeting on the subject, the tenor and outcome of that meeting is very important. If Russian negotiators do not see substantial progress in the discussions, they may recommend suspension of all American adoptions indefinitely.

Prayer Request
We covet your prayers for the negotiators to have the mind of Christ in their discussions, even if they do not know Him personally. We ask that you would pray for them to place the best interests of the children above their own political interests. We ask that you would pray for them to allow adoptions to continue, acknowledging the far greater good that has resulted from these adoptions than the evil associated with a few cases. Finally, we ask that you would join us in praying specifically for our 3 children, as the oldest could get caught in their system if the issue isn’t resolved before her 16th birthday.

- Mr. Beaver