8 Colemans Becoming 10


The journey of a family of ten, loving Jesus, loving each other, loving a hurting world.

Wednesday, June 20, 2012

The Power of a Name

There is a strong power to a name. As believers, we know that just speaking Name of JESUS can change everything. At the Name of Jesus, demons flee. Names were very significant in the Bible. God would often give a new name to his people when their lives altered or took on a new destiny. I believe names are still very significant today. The entrance of radio show host, Delilah, into our adoption story altered everything. After our encounters with her, we knew clearly, our oldest son was to bear the middle name of her son, Sammy, who died this year of sickle cell anemia. Sammy was also adopted as a teenager and was so very special to so many. Not only did the connection between Delilah and our adoption cause us to want carry on her son's name, but the message and power of the name Samuel. Our oldest son loves God. He is full of faith despite his circumstances and he declares on a regular basis, "Nothing is impossible for God." Our oldest son walks to church weekly and prays. He doesn't have parents driving him to church. He doesn't have a bus stopping by his house to get him. He rises and walks with his friend to church on his own faithfully. The name Samuel means "God has heard". Hannah prayed and prayed for a child and God heard her cries and gave her Samuel. God has heard our son's prayers and is moving mountains to see his answer come. Our son wants a family. He wants a good education to become a doctor. Our son wants a home. Our son wants to belong. Samuel, God has heard...what a fitting name. I believe that name will mark his life from this point on as seal. I believe he will pray and God will hear and answer. The power in a name... Our youngest son is nine. We don't get to talk with him as much as our oldest because he is still learning English. The pastor that used to visit them once a week told us how our younger son is outgoing, likes to joke, and have fun. We prayed about a name for him and Gabriel became the name. His middle name will be Gabriel. It will be both our son's choice whether to be called by their first names or their new middle names. They are marked by their names either way. Gabriel means "strong man of God". We sure need some strong men of God in these days! I believe that our beautiful boy will carry this name with valor and integrity and character. His coming into our family will enable him to focus on more than survival. He will be able to develop his gifts and let God develop him into a world changer. Gabriel is one of the arch angels of heaven...a strong angel. Our son will carry strength as a seal. He will be marked by meekness...strength under control. What's in your name? I find the meaning of my name very interesting and sometimes comical. My parents named me JoLynn. JoLynn means two things. It means "Increase" and it means "Bearer of Many Children". Certainly, this name has marked my life! Having children and adopting children have been my passion since I was three years old. We are about to adopt two children, making seven in our home and eight total. I believe its time to find a 12-passenger van! The most important name is the Name Above All Names...Jesus. Have you called out His Name lately? Have you asked Him to take control of your life? Have you used His Name to forgive your sins, to heal your body, to restore a relationship? The name of Jesus is powerful. He is Savior of the world. Call out to Him. The Bible says, "Whoever calls on my name will be saved"...call on the Name of Jesus wherever you are today. He will hear you, He will answer you, He will make you strong. Me with our five children...soon to be seven!

Tuesday, June 19, 2012

Ever Watchful

It is midnight. I am suffering with a season of insomnia and am about to try to sleep again. As I sit at my computer, the house quiet, the kids sleeping, and the night deep, my sons in Ethiopia are just awaking eight hours ahead of me. We had a fun evening with friends tonight, cooking out at their house and the kids playing with their friends. Kurt and I enjoyed our time, yet something was missing. Once you hear the call of God for a child, they become yours. It's a wonderful miracle that transpires in your heart, yet it brings a heaviness as you live each day waiting for your child to come home. We have two children we love with all our hearts. We long to be together. As I sleep, my sons will be going about their morning at the orphanage. They are wrapping up their school year, will probably play some soccer, or a rousing game of UNO. Today, they will live their life in Ethiopia, not yet home with their family. How glad I am to know that God never sleeps nor slumbers. He is ever watchful over my sons, protecting them, ordering their steps, leading them to their new life with us. It's the only comfort I have being on the other side of the globe. Knowing how they must live for now could overwhelm me with helplessness, but God is the perfect parent. He will keep them, He will watch them with a careful eye. A sign posted at Kolfe Orphanage

Monday, June 18, 2012

God the Farmer

My heart is heavy for my sons today. Can you imagine if your child was taken from you, put in a foreign land far away, in need of food and medical care and love? You would go to the ends of the earth for that child. You would shout it from the rooftops, asking whoever you could find to help you get them home. That's where our hearts are. We have loved these boys as our own for two years. We long to touch them and hear their voice and feed them and love them with all our hearts. God always partners humans together to change the world. No one can do it alone. God partners the willing with the able. We are willing to bring these children into our home, making it a household of 9. We are willing to love them and invest in them, send them to college and support them daily. We need others to partner with us who are able... able to give to pay the large expense of getting them here. Adoption internationally is expensive. We need help with the initial expense to get these boys home. God is just like a farmer. There is always a harvest to the seed that is planted. When you help plant a seed to bring these children into the safety of a home, God will bring a harvest into your life. Giving never goes unnoticed by God and we believe and pray your harvest will be 100-fold. There are many charities to give to in this world. What is so powerful about helping a child go from a parentless existence of poverty, sickness, oppression, and hopelessness, is that you get to see with your eyes what your investment accomplishes. You will see these children come home and join our family and you will see their lives transformed and saved. You will also be able to watch them in the community as they give back to others. There is no greater reward than to see a child find a family and blossom into an amazing young person. We have watched this happen with our little ones and with countless other former orphans who have been blessed to come home to a family. Are you able to help today? Are you able to buy a shirt or a hat from Ordinary Hero with 40% of your purchase going toward getting our boys home? Are you able to give $15 For the 15th Year, helping us get the boys home during our older son's 15th year before he ages out? Are you able to let me take your family portraits for $60 to raise money for our adoption? Maybe you are able to give a large amount to see these boys' lives completely transformed. Pray about what God would have you give today. Your seed, your gift will go into the ground and God will bring a great harvest into your life. You can never out give God! Thank you for praying for our adoption, for our boys, for our process. It is a long and hard road to the final moment they come home, but we are willing to walk that road. Are you able to equip us with what we need to walk it? These are pictures of Kolfe Orphanage...the dorms, the soccer field, the kitchen

Saturday, June 16, 2012

So Close, Yet So Far

I talked with my older son today on Facebook. He was about to go to bed eight hours ahead of me and I asked him what he would be doing in the morning...if he would be going to church. He told me he and his friend would be going to St George's Cathedral to pray. Immediately, I googled this church and was awe struck by it's wonder and beauty. While I sleep tonight, my son and his friend, also a wonderful teenage boy waiting for his adoption to be completed, will be walking to church to worship the same God I worship. They will be praying for their families and we will be praying for them. Our hearts so mended, so close...yet, so far away. Modern technology allows us to be close to our sons...email and phone brings their voices and hearts and lives so very close to us as we wait. Yet, they are so far. We cannot see them smile and enjoy the glimmer in their expression. We cannot brush their cheek or draw them close. We cannot breathe in their essence, their unique smell that brings such bonding. In such ways, they are worlds away and that is where the heartbreak of adoption comes in. So close, yet so very far... I marvel at the thought of my son standing before this great house of worship. I am not sure if they enter inside or stand outside and pray as the people in the picture are doing. I don't know if there will be music or a 'sermon' as there will be in our church in the morning or whether its more of a private time as they stand facing the church in prayer. What I do know is this....Jesus is not far from either of us. As we whisper His Name, both my son and his friend and both families...as we cry out from our hearts to the Savior of the world, He is never far away. He is as close as the mention of His Name! As my son whispers in his beautiful Amharic tongue, asking God to bring him home and as we groan out, "Oh, Lord! Bring our sons home to us!", God bends His ear to our cries and sends forth His Word to answer. He is near to those who call on Him....never far, never at a distance...so close, you can feel Him breathe on you if you are still enough to receive. Know this today...God promises to draw near to us as we draw near to Him. No matter what you are facing, what mountain stands before you, what pain you endure...Jesus is close...so very close.

Sunday, June 10, 2012

God Heard- Our Adoption Story---$15 for the 15th Year

My stomach full with our Sunday night treat of Casey's taco pizza, snuggled up on the couch with my husband and kids with a movie, my heart drifts to a time zone eight hours ahead of me. As I close out my day of rest, the sun is just peeking over the horizon in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. Nearly stirring from a nights rest, lying on the bottom bunk in a room full of boys, a young teenager is waking. Living in orphanage life for four years, he has persisted in prayer for a family, his heart filled with child-like faith. This child is my son. In 2008, we adopted our first two precious children from Ethiopia, Joshua and Julianna. What a blessing they became to our lives. Our hearts for the orphan only enlarged after being in Ethiopia. In 2009, God led us to a powerful group of moms from across the United States, all with a passion for a group of boys living in a government orphanage in the capital city of Ethiopia. These boys, now close to 200 of them, rarely had opportunity for adoption. A movement began called the Kolfe Mamas with women from the US pairing up with boys from Kolfe and loving and nurturing them long distance. Kurt and I became 'Mom and Dad' to three boys, keeping in touch through email and Facebook, and sending gifts to them with traveling adoptive families. Our hearts fell in love with these boys, claiming them as our own, praying for them daily, and mentoring them from across the ocean. This year, God began to stir our hearts for our two younger boys. Our oldest was now a man and struggling to make it on his own and soon we had lost touch with him. How we longed to see our younger two flourish in a family, with community and opportunity and future. Every child deserves a family afterall. I have listened to and admired nationally known radio host, Delilah Rene, for many years. She is a strong follower of Christ who holds tight to the belief that the true church is one who cares for the widow and orphan as James 1:27 teaches. Delilah has twelve children, nine of them adopted. Browsing through the internet one day recently, I came across a story on Delilah's website about her son, Sammy. I could barely breath through the entire story as she told of adopting her son from Ghana, a 14 year old boy stricken with sickle cell anemia, two years ago. The story ended with this: "On the first night that he was fully my son, Sammy told me through tears that he never dreamed God would answer his prayers. He said, "Momma, I always thought I would die alone in the orphanage. That I would never know what it was like to have someone love me"...and then after several racking sobs, he said, "and no one would even know that I had ever lived." I promised him through my own tears that he would not die alone. That he would not die in an orphanage. That he would be loved more than life by me and many others, and that people would know that he had lived. He died in our arms. He died surrounded by people he loved, and none of us will ever forget that he lived." I felt a squeezing ache within my chest as I read her story. My heart broke for Sammy and broke for Delilah. Her grief overwhelmed me. I was compelled to write to her from her contact email from her website. I honestly didn't think she would even read my email, but I knew I must say something. I was moved beyond description and I wanted to share my heart for Delilah in her grief. I reached out to her and also told her of my boys, living in a similar situation in Ethiopia and much to my surprise, Delilah responded to me that very evening. We shared back and forth, talking about adoption, about grief, about the Lord. My conversations with Delilah catapulted Kurt and I into moving forward to bring our sons home and we began the process. As Delilah and I shared, it became clear it would be very fitting to give our oldest son the middle name of Samuel, after her son, Sammy, who had graduated to heaven. Our son has told me more than once, "Nothing is impossible with God, Mom." His faith is strong, his prayers persistent, his need desperate. The name Samuel means "God Heard". God has heard the cries of a young boy in a in a distant land, longing for a family. God has heard the prayers of our family, longing to bring both of our boys home. Our older son will be 15 in September, our younger son is 9. Time is of the essence. After turning 16, adoption is very difficult to accomplish in Ethiopia. We need God to provide the necessary funds to bring our sons home. We need God to move paperwork and give us favor with judges and people of Ethiopia. Our sons need a family. Our family needs them. God is never late, but we need to get our son home before he draws closer to 16. Our younger son needs to enjoy his young life with a family that loves him. Would you be willing to help get our sons home? God always pairs the willing with the able. We are willing to raise these beauiful boys as a part of our family, we are willing to do what it takes to get them here. Are you able to help us? Are you able to give financially? Are you able to pray? Our first adoption was a long process. We are aiming to get them home in our oldest son's 15th year. They deserve this chance to be loved and give back to the world around them. On the right hand side of this blog is a donate button. Would you be willing to donate $15? $15 to get our sons home in our son's 15th year. Would you be willing to share this post with your Facebook friends, yourbfriends at church or work, your family members? This global network attached by the internet is a powerful force when people join together for one cause. Thank you for joining with us and giving $15 For The 15th Year Delilah and her son, Sammy

Monday, June 4, 2012

Kolfe Saying Goodbye

This week, our boys and all the boys of Kolfe will be saying goodbye to some amazing people. Will and Susan Oswald, Baptist pastors who have lived in Addis Ababa for a year, have visited Kolfe every Saturday. These incredible people have taught the boys at Kolfe the Word, loved on them, gave them a great Christmas, and have been the most amazing advocates for us Moms in the United States. My boys will greatly miss them and will always remember what they did in their lives! Thank you, Will and Susan Oswald! We are forever grateful for your investment in the boys of Kolfe and are praying God will bring another advocate for them right in Addis. You have impacted their lives for eternity!!

Friday, June 1, 2012

Wrecked!

Kurt went to Haiti with Convoy of Hope this week and came back "wrecked". That's such a great word for a believer. To be "wrecked"..."gloriously ruined"..."disturbed". Those are words that awaken our souls to the need around us. Those are words that push us into action. Kurt will never be the same after seeing the people of Haiti...their need, their desperation, their beautiful faces, their hope. I have been "wrecked" since I looked into the faces of three African boys in a picture in my preschool Sunday School class. After going to Ethiopia, my level of wreckage was overwhelming. I've never been the same. Now, we have two more sons that need their family and I am ruined more and more everyday. I long to bring them home, to wrap my arms around them and tell them they will never be alone again, to watch them grow and flourish in a family and community that loves them. Our first step towards bringing our boys home was complete this week. We sent in the first packet of paperwork to our agency and we are on our way! Our next step will be to complete the dossier. Let God wreck you for His Kingdom, breaking your heart as His breaks. It's the journey that brings us to a place of changing the world!