Monday, October 22, 2018

Faith

What is faith?

We found out a few weeks ago, from the Philippines, that our request to be matched with our girl, was denied. Again. To say our world has been shattered would be an understatement. Our hearts hurt in a way that we haven’t felt before. I have had to try and answer questions from our children that I don’t have the answers to. We have had to bravely say that this is what seems to be the best for our girl right now even if we can’t believe it or see it ourselves. I have had to hold our little girl tightly while she is crying and asking “why won’t they let us bring our sister home”. We have seen some hard-sad-days recently. I still cannot talk about it out loud without getting teary. It’s hard. Life is hard. Adoption is good, why isn’t the Lord letting us adopt our girl? Why isn’t this good thing working out how WE want it too?

For I know the plans I have for you declares the Lord…

If you have any sort of knowledge of the bible, when you read my question “what is faith”, Hebrews 11:1 may have gone through your head (Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen.) The dictionary says that it is a belief or trust in something or someone. I have been thinking a lot about faith and what it means to me lately. And faith to me is believing without a shadow of a doubt that God’s plan is sovereign and He is perfect. Therefore His plan is perfect. It isn’t in HIS plan that we adopt this little girl that we love so much. We don’t understand why, but we trust that He does. Even though it is hard and it hurts so badly.

We are glad that when we heard our “no” a few weeks ago, someone else heard their “yes”. We are glad that our girl has been matched with another family so she isn’t going to be waiting long to be with the family God has chosen for her. That is good news. That is what we prayed for, if not us, someone else. So for that, we are grateful. Through our pain and hurt and tears, we can truly be happy that another family has opened their hearts to adoption and that our girl will soon have a family of her very own. This family doesn’t know it yet, but they will soon realize, that they have been matched with a super sweet, talented, smart, beautiful, and awesome young lady.

We do not know what the future holds. But we are so glad that God does. We are giving ourselves some time to grieve this loss. But eventually we will pull up our bootstraps and continue to follow what we believe God has called us to… adoption.

Please keep praying for “our girl” and for her new soon-to-be family. Adoption is beautiful, but it can also be hard. Especially for the older children with so much trauma. Keep praying for our family as we grieve this loss and heal. And as we look to God for direction on where to go from here. Thanks friends <3




Friday, August 24, 2018

Is it really the end of August already!?!

I have been asking myself this question for days now. Where has the summer gone!? We have had a fun and busy summer doing the things that we love while enjoying the company of family and friends, old and new!

The boys have started soccer and they couldn't be happier being on the pitch again. They have been looking forward to this for a long time and we are excited to watch them play a sport they both love so much.

School will be starting soon. September 4th to be exact. I am so not ready. I'm not sure why, but my momma heart is having a little bit more trouble with this year starting. Maybe it's because I have only 1 more year before a high schooler? Maybe it's because I thought we would have another one starting this year with us? Maybe it's because I have 2 homeschooling and 1 leaving to go to public school? Or maybe I just love being carefree with the kiddos all summer long :) Whatever the reason, Jesus and I have been talking a little bit more then usual, and I guess thats not a bad thing, is it... If you are a teacher, a momma, or a student, know that I have been praying for you. I hope we are ALL praying for our kiddos, our teachers, and our fellow mommas out there as a new school year begins!

With August coming in full force brought us our adoption appeal as well!!  We were able to get all of the requirements done and sent in a few weeks ago. We are still waiting on any word on how that will turn out. We remain hopeful but guarded at the same time. Please pray with us that we hear something soon and that God will be glorified, no matter what the outcome. The tears still come and go, but God has given us all amazing peace and for that we are thankful.

We hope all of you are doing well and that you are finding peace and comfort in our Lord Jesus no matter what you are going through. We are praying for you. We love you! ~The Schulz Family




Monday, May 21, 2018

6 Months "Home"


It is crazy how fast time flies. I cannot believe that we have been home in the US for 6 months already. We endured the coldest and snowiest winter we have had in recent memory and were missing Cebu a little more after we got 30 inches of snow dumped on us in April!!! We are glad it melted quickly though :) A lot has happened in the last 6 months but also on some levels nothing at all. I will try to update y’all on as much as I can remember :) I know some of you have been wondering what’s been happening with the Schulz clan… 

House: We are home owners again!! We have been renting the last 6 months and are so grateful for the place and space. We have had fun in the country and roaming many acres. We move into the new place the first weekend of June. It is in the city of Sturgeon Bay (and for you locals, we will be “westsiders” this time!). We are grateful for the home that the Lord has provided for us. It is “big enough” for our family now​ and also has plenty of room should​ the Lord allow​ our family to grow in the future. (But not too big someone has to clean it, am I right!). 



Children: We finished up our 2nd year of homeschool a couple of weeks ago AND SURVIVED!!!! We are super grateful for the homeschool experience and are glad that we were able to do it well. The kids all enjoyed being homeschooled and I LOVED watching them grow. 

   
     Isaac will be attending 8th grade at Sturgeon Bay public school next year. It is still up in the air for Carter and Mady on where they will attend
​, they both WANT to be homeschooled again next year, 
so we are praying about what next year looks like for them. It literally changes from going back to school to being home schooled every other day.
    
     Mady is enjoying softball this spring and is already talking about doing it again next year she loves it so much! We are glad that she has found something that she can enjoy to do with a team. 

     The boys are not playing a spring sport but are going to enjoy some golf lessons, soccer camp, and some strawberry picking this summer. Both boys are excited and cannot wait for soccer again this fall. They have really missed being on a competitive team the last 2 years. 


Jake: He has been learning up a storm at his new gig at Therma Tron X here in town. He is loving the challenge of learning a new job and he also loves being back in manufacturing. He spent all of April and half of May in South Carolina at a job installation and loved being hands on. The lucky duck was able to enjoy beautiful weather while his family froze in WI ;) We are grateful that his trip was a great learning experience, but oh so glad to have him back home with us! 

Adoption: Ugg. Well, we don’t really have any update yet. We have been at a stand still since we heard the ​"​no"​ in February. Our agency has agreed to appeal the "​no"​ decision for us this August, so we have held out hope that we still have a chance with our girl. We are not sure how that is going to end up​,​ but we are grateful that the Lord does. We keep praying that “our girl” will indeed, be our daughter soon. 

     Somedays we miss her so bad it hurts. It is hard to breath a lot of the time. The promises that the Lord has for us, he also promises for her and he loves her way more then we could ever imagine, so for that, we keep on keeping on. Thank you for keeping us in your prayers during this process. To say it is a frustrating process, is such an understatement. 

     We do have all of the Philippine adoption paperwork completed and our dossier is complete as well. We are now just waiting on August to get here before our agency will send it to the Philippines for us.

     Again, thank you for your prayers, it means so much to us to know we have so many in our corner. Our God is a God of miracles and we are trusting Him for one in this case too. We know He can move mountains and we cannot wait to see how He is glorified on the other end of this crazy adoption journey of ours!! Please continue to pray for our girl and the others that are at the shelter waiting for their forever families.

FUNdraiser: We were able to raise a little over $1300 in our fundraiser with ONE MISSION. THANK YOU to everyone who donated towards our travel expenses. That gets us at least 1 ticket, hopefully 2 depending on airline prices once we are actually able to travel. If you wanted to help with that but didn’t get the chance, we will be doing something else once it gets a little closer to travel time as well. Stay tuned for that and thank you for your consideration towards helping with our adoption :) 

Family Fun: We are having so much fun reconnecting with friends and family. It’s so nice to have our “tribe” close again. We have a few camping trips scheduled for this summer. We are excited to be able to enjoy God’s beautiful creation together as a family and also with friends! Our first trip is here in Door County over Memorial Day weekend. I am not sure of the exact number but there will be 30+ of us laughing the weekend away and praising the Lord for godly friends. (if you are in the Door County/Peninsula State Park area on Saturday, come say HI to all of us!! Sites 562-569ish)

I believe that is our life in a nutshell. We are committed to keeping everyone in the loop as far as the adoption goes, so stay tuned to the blog for updates (or you can ask us if you see us out and about. We love to share how God is working in our lives!).
​​
We love you all!!  ~ Pam and fam 




Wednesday, February 21, 2018

Adoption Update


Hello all,

   It is with heavy hearts that we tell you that we have been denied the girl we had requested to adopt. We were told that due to birth order we will not be able to precede with this particular girl. We are heart broken to say the least.

   We have more questions then answers at this point. None of it makes sense. We were approved to move forward with the age range of 6-14 and we are now being told that we cannot adopt out of birth order, so the child we would be approved for would have to be younger then our youngest (age 8). We truly believe that every child deserves a family, but our hearts hurt for the child that is at risk of aging out.

   We are continuing to trust that Lord has a perfect plan for us, and for the girl that we thought would be our daughter. We pray that the Lord provides a loving family for her soon so she doesn't have to sit in an institution any longer. As much as we love CSC and love how they take care of the children there, a family is a better option then an orphanage.

   We also feel strongly that a family (even out of birth order) is better then the risk of aging out. We do not understand the Philippines decision but there is nothing we can do at this point except pray for a miracle. Will you please pray with us. Pray for a miracle that somehow they will change their mind and allow us to continue to pursue an older child. Can you pray for this girl that she will be given a family soon. If it isn't ours, we pray that it is another family that will love her as fiercely as we do.

 
Where do we go from here....

   We are continuing to move along with the adoption process without a match at this time. We have our fingerprinting appointments scheduled for next week and then our immigration papers will be processed and all of our paperwork can be sent to the Philippines.

   We will not be requesting another child at this time. We are going to allow our hearts to heal for awhile. We need our hearts to heal for awhile in order for it to be fair to another child who might come into our home and to our children and Jake and I who have pictured life with this girl in our family. We are going to pray through what the Lord has for us, and we are going to continue to pray that the Lord still allows us to adopt this girl. We are going to give it some time and see if we can't "re-apply" (for lack of a better word) for this girl if she doesn't have a family yet in a couple of months. Our hope truly is, that she will have a loving family by then OR that the PH changes their minds about us.

 
Thank you for your continued prayers and support. We will keep you updated as much as we can. We love you all.

~Jake and Pam








Monday, February 5, 2018

FUNdraiser Opportunity

Hi my friends! As most of you know by now, we are adopting :)  A lot of you know, or could guess, that adoption is EXPENSIVE! And some of you have asked us how you can help, and for that we are grateful. For those of you who would love to help us out, we are currently doing a fundraiser with One Mission.

With One Mission, there are 3 ways that YOU can support us:

1. You can purchase any of the One Mission’s awesome products online and 40% (FORTY PERCENT!!!) of what you spend will be donated to us! (There are some pretty amazing t-shirts, art prints, jewelry items, and much more to choose from!)

2. You can donate cash right on the link (kind of like a  "go fund me" page except One Mission DOESN’T charge a platform fee!!! How amazing is that!) AND/OR

3. You can share this fund with your friends and family. To do that you can copy the link below and post on your social media pages or you can email it to friends and family with a short blurb about what we are doing.

We love you and appreciate you all so much and THANK YOU from the bottom of our hearts for loving us and supporting us on this mission to Change the World for ONE.

For those of you curious, our family is purchasing the “Be the Change” t-shirts, so if you would like to match us, feel free to order that one in any color!!! Together, we can Be the Change!



With Love, The Schulz Family! 

Wednesday, January 24, 2018

The next chapter...

It has been almost 3 months since we arrived back in the US. It still seems so surreal. I look at pictures and it is so hard to even imagine that we were in the tropics just 3 months ago. We traded palm trees and sunny blue skies for snow piles and ice covered roads. Shorts and tank tops for snow pants, hats, and gloves. It's interesting how there is so much beauty in such opposite scenes. We love the tropics and the mountains and palm trees but we also love the snow covered trees and the beautiful crisp sunsets (the negative temps are not something we missed however!) Our hearts are definitely still in Cebu, for more then just the weather. Our hearts ache for those sweet smiling faces at CSC, still, and probably always will.

We are settling back into life fairly well. We have been able to ease back into the pace well too. Jake starts his new job at Therma-Tron-X, here in Sturgeon Bay, on Monday. It has been nice having him home to help me with home school and household tasks (it has been challenging too, y'all have heard the old saying "too many cooks in the kitchen" ;) ).

With him home we have been able to get a huge head start on our Next Chapter that the Lord is calling us to as well. For those of you who haven't heard, WE ARE ADOPTING!!!! We actually started the process while still in Cebu. Once we realized that our family staying in Cebu long term was not what the Lord wanted, we started praying about what it looks like for The Schulz Family "to care for the orphan".

We all really struggled watching children turn 16 and age out of adoption while in Cebu. We sat with and comforted kiddos who's dreams of being adopted came to an abrupt end once they turned 16. We saw on children's faces the look of trying to be brave but knowing that they are crushed inside because their hopes for a forever family are gone. It is in Cebu that the Lord worked in beautiful ways to open our hearts more to the orphan and especially the older child who doesn't have a family to call their own.

The main reason we had to come home from Cebu a few months early was so that we could continue on with our adoption process. When we started the process, we thought that we would be able to do everything we needed to do while in Cebu, and then bring home the child that the Lord wanted for us. That was not the case, so we had to make the decision to come home so we could finish the process.

Since being stateside we were able to get all of our Home Study visits in, our Home Study completed, and our Dossier mostly finished. We have also been able to identify a child whom we think would be a good fit in our family and "request" to adopt them. We are currently in the "waiting" stage of the process and cannot wait to hear if we are approved to adopt this 12 year old girl.

Patience is not my best virtue so everyday I check my email multiple times to see if we have been "matched". This process can take 2-3 months and so far it's been 6 weeks. I am praying that the Lord doesn't make us wait too much longer :)

Thank you all for your continued love and support. Without you, we wouldn't be on this journey. We love you all and cannot wait to share more of this journey with you. Please continue to pray for our family as we prepare to become a family of 6, hopefully sooner rather then later.

God bless you all!! Love, Jake and Pam, Isaac, Carter, and Madelyn