Rinah arrives HOME!

Love that I'm JaJa to this lovely girl, Rinah!  Love that I'm Mom to a most amazing girl & her wonderful husband, who had the love and desire and persistence and faith to go over to Uganda, stay 7 weeks, and bring home this dear girl, whom they have loved and pursued since Spring of 2010, when Rinah was orphaned.   Welcome Home, Rinah!   You are just in time to catch the last of Fall and the beginning of Advent!   We can hardly wait to see you again and look forward to having you here at Christmas!
We love you!  JaJa & Pappy  (that feels good!)

A bit of our Adoption Journey...pt. 6

Autumn is always busy for the Batten's...and we had much to do!   Piles of paperwork, copies of everything about us .....birth certificates, marriage, diplomas, finances, etc.; medical examinations & tb tests, finger printing, finger printing & more finger printing for criminal clearances, etc. etc......    We began gathering, doing, copying & notarizing....   We began our Adoptive Parenting classes.  And we continued to pray about which children the Lord might want us to "pursue".    Carly had some special ones she particularly hoped we would adopt (as she was still living there at the orphanage in Uganda), and while we respected her thoughts, we also knew that the Lord wanted to show us clearly.  ;0)    So, we continued to go through the holidays, praying, seeking input from friends & family, and sl--ow--ly getting thru all the list of things to prepare our file.   This was all quite a lesson in patience for me, the "get it done now" type person I tend to be.  I wanted it all done in a week, but didn't want to be feeling I was leading, so I was waiting on Mark to bring it up..... "hey, let's read some of our parenting courses", "hey, let's pray together about which children;"  "hey, do we have those papers filled out & copied yet?"   But of course Mark also has this other thing called  a job.   And for some of this journey, I especially struggled with respecting that.  I wanted this stuff done so we could proceed!  God was teaching me how to follow, and with patience and prayer.   Ha!  After 30 years of marriage, I needed to once & for all learn what being Mark's "helper" really meant.  ....Then the Lord God said, "It is not good that the man should be alone; I will make a helper suitable for him."   (to be continued)

A bit of our Adoption Journey....pt. 5

Back to November, 2010.  As we sat together at lunch at the end of our "fast", and shared how the Lord had "spoken" to us, Mark said, "so have you thought about gender?  I see you with a girl."  I said, "One? One girl?  I see us with three!"  Mark almost choked on his food,  and said, "I think I need to do another fast!"   Anyway, I didn't want to press him on this, but my feeling was "If we're gonna do this, let's do it!"  So, back to praying....the Lord would have to speak to Mark's heart if we were gonna adopt more than one.   In the next few days, we prayed, and the Lord quickly gave Mark the desire to adopt more than one!     Now, the question was "which ones, Lord?  which children have you ALREADY planned to be in the Batten family?"  Mark and I both felt Uganda was the place...and Mark felt that he was ready to take any child that was in need.  I however felt that I needed the Lord to clearly direct me and show me, and put a love in my heart for the specific children He had for us.   I had a feeling I was going to be going on a trip.   Okay, so this is the thing.  I NEVER had ANY desire to go to Uganda.  (I don't even like to travel more than 2 hours from my house!)   (side note: I told Carly before she went on her year-long mission trip to Uganda, that she shouldn't expect me to visit....that I did not feel "called" to come there and she just needed to understand.)   Ha, don't you love how the Lord decides what we will and won't do?   He was getting ready to take me to  Uganda.  ...."Faithful is He who calls you, and He will also bring it to pass."   (to be continued)

A bit of our Adoption Journey ....pt.4

This passage Hosea 10:1 was like the Lord speaking out loud and clear to my heart.  "Jan I have blessed you and Mark. Now what are you going to do with the blessings?"  I knew He was telling me yes, do it....don't build altars and pillars for yourself...let the fruit I've given you bless these kids.    Anyway, not to be simplistic....But God has His way of speaking right to your heart, and we felt Him speaking to ours.

So..... today.... when I opened my Bible and saw Hosea 10:1 again...I thought, "wow!  one year ago!"   And in the midst of all the delays, sad reports of orphans not getting immigration visa's, thinking we were going in October, and here we still are, wondering if we heard right..??  this refreshed and confirmed in my heart the call of God to do this.  And also today's reading from Ps. 131 (while it didn't hit me a year ago) reflects exactly where I am today in my soul     ..."O Lord, my heart is not lifted up.  my eyes are not raised too high; I do not occupy myself with things too great and too marvelous for me.  But I have calmed and quieted my soul, like a weaned child with its mother; like a weaned child is my soul within me.  O, Israel, hope in the Lord from this time forth and forevermore."  (to be continued)

A bit of our Adoption Journey...pt. 3

After the Mama of our dear Rinah had died (see here), and we were praying about whether to adopt Rinah...much began to happen.  Others began to pray about her as well, including my daughter Carissa and her husband Andrew.  They were Rinah's "sponsors", and as they prayed about it, the Lord truly led them to go forward to do so.  (video).  (As I write, they are in Uganda with her, having obtained legal guardianship & waiting for the IR4 Visa for Rinah, so they can bring her back to America!)

Over the summer of 2010, we continued to pray about whether the Lord was calling us to adoption or not.  Then, on 1st of Nov, 2010, Mark & I began a "fast" for three days hoping that the Lord would make it very clear to us.  During that three days, as we fasted and prayed, read Scripture, and googled "empty nesters, adoption, Uganda", God was slowly & surely directing us.      It was clear from the Bible that all Christians should do something for orphans...(James 1:27) and many other Scriptures showing God's heart for orphans.   But should WE bring them into our home & family?  That needed to be a clear calling for us.  So, on day 4 of the fast, we decided to break it by meeting together for lunch and sharing what the Lord had done in our hearts.  For Mark, the Lord spoke clearly from Matt. 25:31+  (esp. vs. 35-40) and Is. 58 (esp. vs. 6-11).  For me, it was on 11/4/10, one year ago today......I was reading my regularly "scheduled" daily reading plan and I came upon  this:   "Israel is a luxuriant vine that yields its fruit.  The more his fruit increased, the more altars he built; as his country improved, he improved his pillars."   (to be continued)

News Bulletin

I am going to interrupt this story with the following News....I had hoped & dreamed to soon begin a post with that statement, followed by some good news such as, "the reason we packed our four 50# travel bags for Uganda (which have been in our bedroom for the past four weeks) is now here."  or  "we have just heard that our daughter & son-in-law are on a plane on their way home with our newly adopted Ugandan granddaughter", or "we have now gotten our court date assigned and are on our way..." or something of this nature.   However, I am not reporting any of those....yet.    What I am about to report is a need for prayer.

It appears there have been more and more "hang-ups" with the U.S. Embassy in Uganda granting the IR4 visa's necessary to immigrate the orphans to America with the new legal guardians.   Such as our daughter and son-in-law, who were granted the legal guardianship after a long & "bumpy" 4 weeks in Uganda, only to now have had to wait over a week for the issuing of the Visa for Rinah.  They have already re-booked their return tickets that were to be for last week and are now re-booked to return on Thursday.  They have yet to get the visa in hand.  When they went last Friday to the Embassy, they were told "we might not even let you take the child with you."  They went back on Monday and were told that they need to consult with D.C. regarding the "abandonment" issue.  (What?! How could that even be in question in her case)?    They will need to pick up the visa tomorrow (Wednesday) for them to be able to keep their return flight on Thursday.  PLEASE PRAY THEY WILL GET THE VISA ON WEDNESDAY!  Thank you so much.

Also, for us.  This is not good news in our journey.  The two girls we are wanting to adopt both have living parents, who have not abandoned them.  They are simply too poor to care for them, so the girls live in an orphanage.   This used to be a good enough reason to let you adopt these children, but as of the last year, apparently the U.S. Embassy has not issued visas very readily to Americans wanting to bring these kids home for adoption.   It causes us much sadness to think we have come this far.....having filed our papers, having bonded with these girls, having told them and gotten their hopes up, only to now realize we may not have a good case for the immigration.   We are praying and trying to see if the Lord would have us contact someone who can help us on this side before we go or what to do.  Please pray we know what the Lord has for us in this next step.

I will continue to blog our story from the beginning, but this is where we are right now.
Thanks for reading and for caring.  "I will lead the blind by ways they have not known, along unfamiliar paths I will guide them; I will turn the darkness into light before them and make the rough places smooth.  These are the things I will do; I will not forsake them."

A bit of our Adoption Journey pt. 2

As I fulfilled my commitment to my husband to pray about adoption, our daughter, Carly had begun her one-year mission in Uganda.  Not long after she arrived to live at the orphanage, Carly went to visit a very sick 24-year old woman, with no husband and one small child.  As Carly sat by her on the floor, the dying woman murmured through a weak voice, "What will become of my daughter?"  "Who will take care of her?"  "Please... ask her sponsor....take her to America?"   Well, Carly couldn't promise that, but did promise that she would take care of the girl, somehow.   That night, through many tears, Carly related the story over Skype to us.  "Mom & Dad, will you pray about adopting this 6-year-old girl?"   My heart felt many things at that moment....we both said "we will PRAY. "  I told myself, "Carly has only been there a month...we can't promise to take this little girl....there may be a dozen more by the time she comes home in a year..."  But through all my fearful excuses, I could feel my heart was being softened.  Here now was a real child, with a real dying mom, and a real need.  Three days later, the Mama died.   As for me, the Lord had connected my heart to orphans in Uganda.  "I will remove your heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh."   (...to be continued)