Home Early!

So I am past due again on a few updates so I will have to just cut to the chase with this one. I am very excited to say that since the last update, we received approval on Teya’s visa (after all of the many prerequisite steps) and are planning to travel home by the end of the week. Words literally can’t express how amazing this is – that after everything we are actually moving our tickets up by almost two weeks instead of back like we had expected. Thank you all so much for following, supporting and praying us through this.

See you soon!

Moving Along

We are thankful today that Tina safely made it back to the US and by all reports enjoyed a great weekend reuniting with the boys.

Unfortunately we had a few minor delays and setbacks with paperwork last week so we basically haven’t progressed much since court. I’m back at it today and praying for some progress, especially since the presidential elections are tomorrow and things are expected to shut down for a few days. I’m waiting for a letter that basically serves as my ticket to the next few steps of registering the adoption decree and obtaining a birth certificate and new passport.

Please pray for the letter to be released today and for a speedy processing of the next few steps.

Please also pray earnestly that God would be honored and His will be done through tomorrow’s elections. I’ve had so many encouraging conversations with Zambians who say that “only God knows” (a favorite saying here) and that they have faith that God has selected the right person to lead Zambia in the next chapter of its history.

But desperation also exists. The campaigning has been very vigorous and spirited and common citizens seem to be more politicized and polarized than ever. Please pray that reactions to the results, which are proposed to be released on thursday, are peaceful and accurately reflect the sensibility and good nature of this God-fearing people.

Faithful

We continue to be amazed at the Lords faithfulness.

From the moment we started  planning our trip back here to zambia I was fully aware of all the things that needed to line up perfectly, in order for this to work out. We had/have so many things pending from so many different arenas…so many balls in the air…and many people telling us that we “shouldn’t get our hopes up”. What were we hoping for was not very likely. The first being getting our adoption finalized in the first 20 days of our trip. This was necessary as I, Tina, needed to present for that and had already booked a return ticket for February 16. The Lord cut this time in half and we had our adoption finalized by the Zambian court in just 10 days! This, in and of itself, is a miracle.

Our next hurdle was our US home study and something called an I-600A. You see, you need this approved before we could go to the US embassy to get her adoption finalized on the US side and get her a Visa package. Since July of 2014, USCIS have been increasingly strict in their home study approval process. And in doing so delaying the approval process by months. We were told by our social worker that this process could take 3 months…probably even more. She also told us that every single case she had submitted since July had come back to her, asking for more information. Even more, she told us that upon further research she was finding a 100% first time rejection rate for all home studies. Monday morning I opened an email from my dad informing me that our I600-A (our home study) had been approved…first time through in just 8 weeks! We were blown away by this and just so humbled that the Lord indeed heard our cries for mercy, our pleas for favor, and had richly prepared the way for us.

This journey, not just our adoption journey, but these past three years have been  a time of transition. There have been extremely difficult times, uncomfortable times, painful times. There have also been times of laughter, and joy. God has so blessed us through our difficult times by keeping us close to him. And rejoiced with us in our victories. He continues to speak to us through gentle whispers, songs, scripture. One morning during devotions, prior to booking our tickets for this trip I felt the Lord telling me to move forward with our plans. Book the tickets. Nothing about that timing seemed right…it seemed very unpredictable and unlikely that we would accomplish anything in that time frame. But again I heard the gently whisper, trust me. I knew that He was going to do something amazing, and I was so excited to see what that was going to look like.

As I was preparing to leave the US for our trip here I was visiting with the boys teachers and just prepping them for the time we would be away. And while talking with one, I just broke down crying. The stress of it all, the pain of missing my boys, and just how overwhelming it all seemed. But I remember looking at her through the tears saying, “I just know that God going to do something awesome, and I can’t wait to be a small part of it.” So this is just the beginning of the awesome story God is writing…I can’t wait to tell you the rest! We will keep you posted!

Teya Grace

Although she has been a part of our family for some time now, our precious daughter is now officially adopted as of Friday, January 9, 2015 and is legally named Teya Grace DeKam. We met Teya just three weeks shy of one year ago and she came home less than two months later. We continue to marvel at how much she has grown and developed during that time – literally blossoming before our eyes.

We have numerous steps to take before everything is finalized and she can re-enter the US, this time as a US citizen, but that process is underway. Tina should also be able to leave this Friday, as scheduled, to be with the boys, while Teya and stay and check off those boxes.

We also continue to be humbled by God’s infinite mercy and provision throughout this next chapter of the story He is writing for our lives. When we woke up on Friday morning, we still didn’t know whether we would be able to get into court. Tina and I spent the morning doing some odds and ends and in prayer and devotions. We later compared notes and shared what we had experienced.

I have been reading through the Old Testament and had come to the chapters in 2 Samuel where David has become king of Israel and Judah, was anointed for the third time, and settles into his home in Jerusalem. David has a plan to build an equally suitable home for God by constructing a great temple for the Ark of the Covenant – a seemingly reasonable, even noble plan. God responds to David through the prophet Nathan, insisting that David’s plans are not His plans, but that if David follows Him, God will carry out an even greater promise for his family.

This obviously caught my attention and I stretched to apply these truths to our humble situation. But as I read David’s response, knowing it was in a very different context, I was struck by how David’s words could be applied directly and literally to our current situation:

“Who am I, O Sovereign Lord, and what is my family, that you have brought me this far? And as if this were not enough in your sight, O Sovereign Lord, you have also spoken about the future of the house of your servant. Is this your usual way of dealing with man, O Sovereign Lord?

“What more can [I] say to you? For you know your servant, O Sovereign Lord. For the sake of your word and according to your will, you have done this great thing and have made it known to your servant.

“How great you are, O Sovereign Lord! There is none like you, and there is no God but you, as we have heard with our own ears. And who is like your people Israel – the one nation on earth that God went out to redeem as a people for himself, and to make a name for himself, and to perform great and awesome wonders by driving out nations and their gods from before your people, whom you redeemed from Egypt? You have established your people Israel as your very own forever, and you, O Lord, have become their God.

“And now, Lord God, keep forever the promise you have made concerning your servant and his house. Do as you promised, so that your name will be great forever. Then men will say, ‘The Lord Almighty is God over Israel!’ And the house of your servant [] will be established before you.

“O Lord Almighty, God of Israel, you have revealed this to your servant, saying, ‘I will build a house for you.’ So your servant has found courage to offer you this prayer. O Sovereign Lord, you are God! Your words are trustworthy, and you have promised these good things to your servant. Now be pleased to bless the house of your servant, that it may continue forever in your sight; for you, O Sovereign Lord, have spoken, and with your blessing the house of your servant will be blessed forever.”

2 Samuel 7:18-29

Now obviously I am no David, and our promise pales in comparison to the one God was making to send a Messiah from his house, but those words rang so true, even before we knew what was coming later that day. Meanwhile Tina, who has returned to reading Jesus Calling lately, read this passage for Friday morning:

“I am with you and for you. When you decide on a course of action that is in line with My Will, nothing in heaven or on earth can stop you. You may encounter many obstacles as you move toward your goal, but don’t be discouraged – never give up! With My help, you can overcome any obstacle. Do not expect an easy path as you journey hand in hand with Me, but do remember that I, your very-present helper, am omnipotent.

“Much, much stress results from your wanting to make things happen before their times have come. One of the main ways I assert My sovereignty is in the timing of events. If you want to stay close to Me and do things My way, ask Me to show you the path forward moment by moment. Instead of dashing headlong toward your goal, let Me set the pace. Slow down, and enjoy the journey in My Presence.”

Moments later, our phone rang and we were summoned to court where we made oaths to care for Teya for life as our very own child.

Blessed is the house that the Sovereign Lord builds.

Safe and Sound and So So Sleepy

We made it! Everything went fairly well but it was a long, tiresome trip with very little sleep since Sunday night. After a long layover, our flight from Amsterdam to Nairobi was delayed for some reason and we nearly missed our final connection to Lusaka via Lilongwe, but we just made it. Our luggage did not, but they were able to get it on a cargo plane yet this afternoon and I already ran back to the airport to get it.

It seems we had become so far removed from Zambia, but we were instantly brought back and it all feels very familiar already. We are so grateful to Jean, Rachel, Kathy and Sophie (and the girls) for a warm welcome, to Soph for a ride to the grocery store and home, and to Ben and Anna for letting us crash at their house for awhile while they are enjoying the holidays away.

We just might set a new mark tonight for the earliest New Years Eve poop-out on record (although we set some impressive ones in the past few years). We will enjoy our third straight new years eve sound asleep in Zambia, but will be thinking of all of you celebrating in the West when we wake up tomorrow.

Happy New Year!!!

Amsterdam

We made it safely through the first leg of our journey: Detroit to Amsterdam. I can’t stand being in my “motherland” for the first time and not being able to get out, but Teya can’t leave the airport without a special visa. We are here most of the day before continuing on. After getting through Detroit safely, we expect Nairobi, Lilongwe, Harare and Lusaka to be a breeze! 🙂

Heading Back

We thought it might be a good idea to “resurrect” our blog and use it to update those of you who may still be following it or haven’t otherwise heard the latest news from our family:

We continue to enjoy the many blessings of being back home, in our house, and among family and friends. The kids have settled into school and church and I have been able to make some progress starting up my new counseling practice. We were also able to complete our US homestudy while here and apply to the US government for Teya’s citizenship to be confirmed once the adoption is finalized in Zambia.

We are especially grateful that we were able to spend some time with my grandfather, who passed away less than three months after we returned. We were able to go fishing one last time (he caught the only fish!) and I was even humbled to be at his side as he took his last breath. We were able to heal through the celebration service and spend some important time with grandma as she adjusts to life without her love of 67 years.

We have commented so many times on God’s omniscience in bringing us home when he did and allowing us to settle gently into another “new normal”, albeit back in a familiar place. But we also have some unfinished business to attend to!

One week from today, Tina, Teya and I (Kevin) will be returning to Zambia with plans to finalize Teya’s adoption and complete the necessary to steps to allow her to return again as a US citizen and a legal member of the family she joined 9 months ago.

We plan to spend some time with friends in Lusaka where we will be closer to the many adoption meetings and appointments, but also hope to spend some time back in Nyangwena visiting the Esther School and our many loved ones in that area. We were told by our Social Welfare Officer in Zambia that she has applied for our court hearing to finalize the adoption in Zambian court, but are waiting to hear confirmation on the exact date. Assuming that it is within a few weeks of our New Years Eve arrival, Tina plans to return to the US to be with the boys, who will be staying at home and in school with grandparents who will be taking turns providing care for them.

Teya and I will then remain in Zambia and walk through the step-wise process from Adoption Decree to Official Registration to Birth Certificate, Passport and, finally, the final US embassy appointment that confirms her status and allows her to enter the US as a citizen! We don’t know exactly how long all of this will take, and any in the process will have us there longer waiting for the next step. We booked return flights for 7 weeks, but are prepared to stay longer if necessary.

As usual, we have many potential wildcards along the way. We are never fully certain of what obstacles to expect on the Zambian side, and the Zambian president recently died, leaving the country in the turmoil of uncertainty and with potential for a government shake-up after the election that will happen while we are there in January.

We are also leaving without yet receiving our approval from the US government. Not only are none of these steps guaranteed, but a delay at any point in the process will leave us waiting in Zambia, in transition, disconnected from each other, and without income. We have many reasons to doubt, worry and waver.

But we have nothing to fear. Once again we find ourselves at a point that makes little earthly sense and without clear direction, but with the peace of a conviction that God is in command of this process and will bless it, even if it doesn’t play out the way we would like or can even imagine it to. We have done what we can and will go, trusting Him.

If you are continuing to follow this journey, please join us in praying for key elements of the next phase:

– That every step of this process would go according to God’s plan.

– If it is His will, that our paperwork would be processed smoothly, and decisions would be made swiftly and favorably on both the US and Zambian side of the adoption.

– That each of us, especially the 4 children, would have peace as we are separated for awhile.

– That we will be able to be a blessing to those living and serving in Zambia while we are there.

– That God would choose a man or woman that fears and obeys Him to serve as the next President of Zambia and that the people would progress peacefully and honorably through the upcoming election.

But above all – That God will use our small story to reveal His Great Story to all who hear it.

thanks for checking in – we hope to use this blog once again to post updates efficiently while we are there so feel free to check back in or subscribe to updates as they come.

May the Peace of our Dear Christ’s birth fill your hearts as you experience Him and each other this Christmas Season.

The DeKams-heading-back-to-Zambia

Settled?

We just wanted to offer a quick update, especially for those who we haven’t had a chance to catch up with yet or have not had the time to really sit down and share. We are often asked in passing how we are adjusting or whether we have settled into our home/life/routines. For the most part (and for better or worse!) we have. We spent most of our focus initially on getting settled back into our home and helping the kids settle into their routines. They are all in school, Clayton is playing football, Rowan soccer, and all are doing quite well.

We are fortunate that we were thoroughly warned that the adjustment back to the States would likely be more difficult than our initial adjustment to entering the mission field. While this holds true in many ways, our transition so far hasn’t been as difficult as we were braced for. Also, while we miss so much about our life in Zambia, we are grateful to be “home”.

The next most common set of questions we are asked falls into the “what’s next” category. We know a few things “for certain”. We know we need to return to Zambia for a period of time in order to finalize our adoption. We are both planning to return in late December with Teya and hopes for a court date in early January. The boys will stay here with Grandparents at home and in school. We have been told that Tina will be able to return after the court proceedings, leaving Kevin and Teya to work though the remaining steps with the US government. We hope that the entire process will take 4-6 weeks or less but need to be prepared for every possible contingency. We also hope to spend some time at the Esther School and be a blessing there in whatever way we can.

It took considerable time and energy just to get back up to full steam, but we are now focusing on our next steps. We took for granted what it would take to line up new phones, utilities, vehicles, insurance, etc. and often wondered how we could find time for work outside of those full-time duties! Tina is still more than busy tending to family schedules, the kids and home. I have been able to start focusing on work am very excited about getting back to it. After much prayer and consideration, I am pursuing a prompting and desire to begin my own private practice in counseling. I truly missed that work and am excited to return to it and to begin building something. I was also looking forward to working closer to home and school activities, so am grateful for the opportunity to set up an office in Byron Center.

We will say more later about what we miss about Zambia already, but one thing is our access to fresh food and the opportunity to grow it ourselves. While we may not fare too well with bananas in Michigan (41 degrees F and rainy today – or 5 C for our friends in Zambia) we have returned to chicken farming with 25 egg layers and 200 meat birds. We expect the broilers to finish in late October and plan to sell them for some extra income. Eggs will be coming in January.

So while we have largely settled back into life in these United States, we continue to covet your prayers as we find our place and seek God’s direction in life, work, and ministry. We have much that is still uncertain and, actually, prefer that it stays that way to some extent. Living a life that was responsive to God’s specific leading and constantly reliant on His provision made us appreciate uncertainty and resent the comfort and predictability we so often tend to seek. We also ask for your continued prayers over the Esther School, its students, families and the new team committed to seeing it through year 3.

Finally, we will be speaking at Friendship CRC this coming Wednesday October 8 at their Missions Dinner that begins at 6pm. We hope to provide some further updates as well as share some stories about God’s work through our family over the past few years.

Thanks for continuing to follow us

The DeKams-who-used-to-be-in-Zambia

“Home Sweet Home”

“Aaaaah, home sweet home!”, said Hudson as we walked up to the door of our hotel room in Abu Dhabi in the United Arab Emirates where he would be sleeping on a sheet on the floor in the corner under a desk.

“Home” has been an often discussed subject throughout the course of our journey. Michigan has been home, Zambia became home, home was wherever our family traveled together, our Eternal and true home, home alone, homecomings, homesickness and sharing homes. After two years of seeking and planning and two years at home in Zambia, we are so happy to be back home in Michigan.

We nearly made Abu Dhabi our home. Just to continue to keep things interesting, we were told at the US immigration office there that there was no way Teya would be allowed to enter the US. After a very frustrating conversation, an excruciating wait, and a supervisor consult we were told again at first that we would be denied, but then that an exception would be made and we could proceed. At that point it was simply two more flights (both delayed of course), one of them lasting over 14 hours, a sprint through O’Hare carrying bags and sleeping children, and we were indeed home sweet home in Grand Rapids late Friday night!

We are staying with mom and dad DeKam this week, catching up with family and slowly unpacking and settling into our family home. We had a chance to visit there yesterday: remembering or, in one case, being introduced to the home we built together. The kids all rolled around on the carpet yelling that they loved their house! We hope to be settled in before the end of the week before leaving for our two week training, after which we hope to emerge from our isolation and start catching up with friends.

Once again we can’t express adequately our gratitude for all of the prayers that have been offered on our behalf as God has so graciously guided us through this next phase of our journey with Him.

Keeping things Interesting

As many of you know, our travel plans home have been quite exciting. There have been hard moments and exhilarating moments seeing Gods perfect timing and provision. Just to keep things interesting our flight home has been delayed 24 hours, so here we sit in Abu Dhabi. It is a long story, but in short there was some misguiding from the staff at the airport and basically we were told to wait in the wrong area, hence missing our flight. Sounds crazy, and it was…there wasn’t really any earthly sense to any of it besides the enemy getting one last shot at us, leaving us feeling defeated. We have been dreaming of the day we returned to America, especially with so many family and friends anxious to meet our new daughter and be reunited with their precious grandsons.

It has been a long day in the airport. After missing our original flight, we we’re told we had to wait for our baggage to be examined and taken off the plane (2 hours) before we could even book new tickets. We sat watching the monitors as flight after flight departed for the US until there were no more. We were then told there were no more flights available until morning, and we may even be responsible for paying for a whole new set of tickets. After explaining our situation and what had happened they were able to convince the airline to cover our new tickets, as well as book us the exact same itinerary right into Grand Rapids, just the following day. The offered us free breakfast, lunch, and dinner and a free hotel stay. The only problem was that Teya couldn’t get a visa to leave the airport. So Kevin agreed to sleep in the airport with Teya while I took the boys to the hotel. A few hours later, as the boys and I were resting in our room, we got a call that Kevin and Teya were able to join us after all…the Visa came through at the last minute. Kevin actually has the boys and Teya at the pool as we speak (the kids are swimming in their undies as we have no luggage) and they actually said they thought missing our flight was worth it to get another day of swimming!

This whole trip home, Kevin and I have just been overwhelmed with a sense of thankfulness. For all that the Lord has blessed us with and how we can go forward knowing that He does walk ahead of us and alongside us. Sometimes it is so hard to trust when these things happen…and things are left until the last minute! But God is so good and He lifts us up in our most humble times. My mother in law just sent me these verses from a song a little while ago, “Trust Him when dark doubts assail thee, trust Him when your strength is small, Trust Him when to simply trust Him seems the hardest thing of all.” We choose FAITH again today and are trusting Him in all situations. Please continue to pray as tomorrow will be a long day of travel, especially for the kiddos after a long day at the airport. Thanks you everyone for your support!