Damari & Guitar

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Deborah knows!

If you were mailed a copy of our most-recent newsletter, then you probably already know that we recently received word from Pastor Emmanuel in Liberia that international adoption has be re-instated! This is exciting news to us. We have been waiting to hear this since May of this year! What this means for us now is that we can actually begin the adoption process!

After the New Year, Pastor Emmanuel, who is serving as our liaison in Liberia, will begin getting the procedures and paperwork on his end in order.

I have spoken with Pastor Emmanuel in Liberia just about every day since he shared the news with us. Last night (Christmas night), while I was speaking with Pastor Emmanuel, he shared with me that Deborah is VERY excited about her adoption! This was the first news I had heard that Deborah knows about our desire to adopt her… it really takes the emotional level up a notch, knowing now that she even knows of our desire, and that she is excited about it!

Our desire is to have Deborah here by summer time, so that she can acclimate to her new environment and new family for a couple of months before having to start elementary school. This assumes that we would start Deborah in school this Fall; there is the possibility that we would want to wait one more year, as Deborah will have just turned 5 years old, & she is really small for her age.

Please pray that this process would be free of hurdles and that the adoption process would move forward without a hitch.

Thank you friends,
Josh

Just found this blog video

We just stubled across this blog video that never got posted, so here it is. It is from October 2009.

Click here to see the video

There is Not Enough

All is pretty well in the Robertson household...not much news. It is taking me longer to get caught up on things since I returned from Liberia than I had planned. Being away for three weeks got me really behind on a lot of things. After spending the first two weeks getting caught up on projects I had left in limbo, I have spent the past four weeks not working, just trying to get paperwork and other things taken care of. Not the best thing, since I should be out producing some income!

There were a lot of people who made my trip to Liberia possible (financial sponsors) who have been eager to hear about the trip, so we have been hosting guests at our home to see photos and hear all about the amazing trip. I've even been able to share photos and videos with Prosperity Park Dentistry and Lowes Home Improvement, both who helped by contributing supplies for some of the projects in Liberia.

Now that I'm back in the States, life as usual has begun to take over. It's the curse of living in the one of the busiest countries in America. It seems that we "busy" ourselves with so much stuff that we leave little time for friends, family, and those who do without on a regular basis, whether it is 10 miles down the street, or 10,000 miles away.

I continue to remind myself of the excerpt from the book, "Irresistible Revolution" about God "making a huge mistake". It reads,

I'm convinced that God did not mess up and make too many people and not enough stuff. Poverty was created not by God but by you and me, because we have not learned to love our neighbors as ourselves. Gandhi put it well when he said, "There is enough for everyone's need, but there is not enough for everyone's greed."

I hope this except challenges you in daily life as much as it challenges me.

There is also a quote from the new NOOMA video Corner by Rob Bell, who states,

...but this is ultimately about the far larger truth that if we each don't find some suffering and do something about it, we may become miserable. Our achievement, our education, our wealth, our time and our money; they'll turn on us if we don't spread them around. We leave a corner because in helping save someone else from suffering, we may in the process find ourselves being saved, from indifference, from the inertia of inaction, from taking what we have for granted.

You can watch the entire video here: http://bit.ly/NoomaVideo (thank you Compassion International)
I highly recommend it. The ending has a little surprise.

I conclude with the words of Mother Teresa who said to Shane Claiborne (and to us all), "Find your Calcutta".

Blessings,
josh




PS - If you have visited this blog before, and remember seeing some posts that are no longer posted here, do not be alarmed...we have removed about 10 blog posts because we felt like they could be misinterpreted, and we didn't want to convey anything that was not factual or could offend anyone.

Leaving for Liberia

Today I depart for Liberia. This morning I have been a basketcase. It really hit me this morning how much i'm gonna miss Brooke while I'm away. We're an inseperable pair; we do everything together. This morning we both cried & cried. I know...I'm a softy when it come to my wife.

Packed my bags in just enough time to leave. One bag was 50lbs exactly...WOW! The other one was 65 pounds, so I had to pay $50 extra for it. Checkin at the airport in Charlotte went smoothly; it's probably the first time I got through metal detectors on the first try! This was the place where I saw Brooke for the last time (more tears).

I made it to the gate, only to board the plane, pull out from the gate, then pull back up to the gate and deboard. It seems there is a problem with the de-icer, so as it is now, my 12:25pm flight will be a 2pm flight (best-case). That's okay though...better safe than sorry.

UPDATE: Plane was broke, so now I am on a new flight (US AIR) to Chicago, on a packed plane, in a middle seat, but I'm getting there!