Exodus 14:14

When Moses was leading the Israelites out of Egypt, they were very afraid.  The Egyptian army was in hot pursuit of the Israelites with a massive number of soldiers, weapons, and more as the Israelites were approaching the Red Sea.  Moses told the people, "Do not be afraid...the Lord will fight for you; you need only to be still."  And we all know the rest of that story.

Yesterday, the Lord FOUGHT FOR US.  Big time.  I can barely hold my emotions together as I write this!  It is SO UNBELIEVABLE what has happened in the last 24 hours.

Thursday evening after meeting Hope, the sister at the orphanage told us she didn't think the police were going to show up to do the police clearance for another 10 days or so.  Mind you, the police station is about 5 minutes away from the orphanage.  Then, after that, we could apply for the passport.  To make things worse, we heard that passport processing has been very delayed, taking 4-8 weeks to process.  Do the math.  That's like 8-10 weeks total that we'd have to STAY IN INDIA waiting on this stuff to get done.  When we heard that news, Wes and I prayed like never before.  We had no connection, no hook-up, not a single person to call to help us move things along.  I barely slept Thursday night as God woke me many times to pray.  I literally prayed the same thing about 200 times.  God, only you can do this.  We have no power here.  God, you have to do this for us.  We cannot be in India for 10 weeks to make this happen!  God you hold the world together!  God, please MOVE and FIGHT for us!

So, we waited all day Friday to hear something.  Nothing.  Around 3:30 I just felt like the police had shown up.  I asked Wes to call the orphanage to check.  Sure enough, THEY HAD!  Praise the Lord!  We got clearance to come Saturday morning to take Hope with us.  BUT THAT'S NOT EVEN THE BEST NEWS!

We arrived Saturday morning at 8:30 at the orphanage.  Since they weren't expecting us until 9:00 a.m., Hope wasn't ready for us.  The nun came in to talk with us while we waited.  She was speechless.  She said that when the police came to do the clearance the day before, he was really moved by seeing the kids at the orphanage.  The sister explained to him that, in Hope's particular case, her parents were already here in India waiting to take her.  She told him that we were going to have to wait here 8-10 weeks for passport.  He told her, "m'am, I will see to it myself that this passport gets expedited."

THEN, she said she got an email confirmation THAT SAME NIGHT that the passport has been processed, approved, and is ON THE WAY TO US!!!  We should be getting the passport by Monday!  Are you even hearing me right now?  This passport got processed in 1 day!  1 day!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!  By a man who we have never met, spoken to, or had any contact with!!!!!!!  I'm sorry for the completely improper use of multiple exclamation marks, but ARE YOU KIDDING ME?!!!  Can anyone not say that this is the Lord fighting for us?  It is because of all of your prayers that this is happening!  I am truly so shocked.  Wes and I both burst into tears when she told us!  I really can't even comprehend how God made this happen.  He is showing off big time!  To God be the glory!!  So, if we get the passport Monday, it will take a couple of days to do our Embassy appointment for the visa, vaccinations, etc.  But I think we're definitely coming home a lot sooner than we thought!!

So now that I've completely overwhelmed you with exclamation points, I will tell you about our first day with Hope!

The time at the orphanage today was sweet; Hope said goodbye to her sweet friends.  Sister let us take a picture of her 4 best friends so she'll be able to remember their faces.  I certainly won't forget them!  Hope is in the middle in the polkadots; the boy to her right is her best friend.  I heart him.  My heart breaks that we are taking his best friend away.  I pray that if/when he gets a family, we might be able to reconnect them.  Sister promised me she'd let me know if he gets adopted and then help put me in touch with the family.

Then Hope said goodbye to all the nuns after another cake and tea celebration.  Man, these people like their cake! :)  And they don't take "no thank you" as an answer.  "You're too skinny; you need to eat!"  Gotta love Indians.  They tell it like it is.  Feelings?  What are those?

But on a serious note, it was obvious the sisters loved Hope very much;  they all bought her a goodbye gift of some kind.  They even had little gifts for Priya.  It was very moving and so thoughtful of them.  They really do love these kiddos so much.  May God bless them and reward them for their work!

 A quick family photo before leaving...

So, when we finally got in the car with Hope, she was SO excited.  The first thing she said was, "U.S.A.?"  We laughed so hard.  "No, Hope, not yet.  We're staying in India for a few days."

Priya snapped these 2 photos on the ride back to the hotel.  She loves Kaki, by the way!

So, the scene at the hotel was pretty adorable.  She walked in the lobby, looked around, and said, "woah, very nice.  U.S.A.?"  "No, sweet girl.  We're not in the U.S.A. yet."  Then we went up to our room.  First comment, "oh, very nice.  U.S.A.?"  'No, honey.  We're still in India.  We're going to the U.S.A. later."  "Tomorrow?"  "No, baby, not tomorrow."  This girl is READY to come to the U.S.A.!

Hope was fascinated with the bathtub in the hotel.  Priya got so excited and asked if they could take a bath together.  Before I could even say yes, Priya was butt-naked in the tub.  Hope was staring at her like she was nuts.  Hope was NOT getting in there.  I finally convinced her to put her hands in.  Guess what she said?  "Oh, very nice.  U.S.A.?"  LOL!  A few minutes later, Hope rolled up her pants and put her feet in.

What happened next I was NOT prepared for.  Homegirl got in the bathtub WITH HER CLOTHES ON!  Her pants are beige so you can't see them, but they're on her body!  Fully clothed.  Wow.  Not expecting that.  Priya laughed for a solid 5 minutes.

Then, I couldn't get the girl out!  She kept saying "very nice, very nice" about 100 times.  Priya was cracking up.  I bribed her out with food.  After lunch, Priya read her a story before rest time.  Hope loved that!

Immediately after dinner, Hope asked to go "swimming" again.  She thinks the bathtub is a pool.  No wonder she thought Priya was crazy for getting in naked.

So, here are the girls "swimming" in the bathtub. Gotta love these smiles!

We had a sweet time with the girls today!  Priya is so happy to have a sister!  Hope is very joyful and is so intrigued by everything around her.  She has a LOT of energy, so I need to find a playground around here really soon.  They can't just swim in the bathtub all day!  She loves Wes very much and is constantly looking for him.  She didn't want him in the bathroom during bath time, but she kept calling his name to hear if he was still around.  Sweet girl.  Priya's prayers have really been answered because I don't see an ounce of fear in Hope when she's with us.  To God be the glory!

Almost

Not much time to write, but we got the police clearance today!  I can't post how it happened, but let's just say God intervened!  Since we didn't get the clearance until around 5 p.m. today, the orphanage asked that we come first thing tomorrow morning to pick up Hope!  We'll be picking her up around 10 p.m. Friday night in Texas time. Please pray for us as I (Kasey) am fighting a sinus infection and everyone is having some stomach issues.  I will try my best to update tomorrow!

Wes' Take

Wes:  I will start by saying, please forgive my writing skills.  Kasey is asleep and my schedule is still off.  Its midnight here in India and and 2pm in America.  So since Kasey is asleep, she has no idea what I'm writing.  She might delete this in the morning, ha.   We did have many sweet moments today, but please continue to pray for us.  Kasey was panicking in the car ride more than I was.  Four years ago when we picked up Priya, it was me having a panic attack.  I ll try to lighten the tears a bit, but I couldn't help to take a pic of the sugar here in India.  I meant to drop it in front of Kasey, and say you dropped your name tag.  (If you don't get it, sorry).  I like white sugar, say what?

Being the science fair guy myself, and to get a little techy.  Below is a pic of my spy pen, the right is the spy pen, and the red one is a regular pen.  Just so you can see the size difference.  Its a Guardline, when you unscrew it, there is a USB stick that goes right in your computer.  It has a 8GB card, and the battery lasts about 90 minutes.  It costs about $99 on amazon.  It records in HD 720p.   It also takes still photos.

We will see if the footage was any good today.  We will post our mini documentary in a few months or so.  Josh Spires is going to edit a 30 minute doc, and a 3 minute trailer/summary.  Sherry, my sister, wrote lyrics, and Kasey's brother, Sam, put melody lines and music to the lyrics.  Sam also wrote some basic music scores to the doc.   We are excited about this, and we are just doing this to spread the awareness on adoption and our journey.  I have never done this before, so we will see where God takes it.  If we become Bollywood stars, then we will not come back to America.

Here is my sneaky spy look, with my spy pen in pocket.  I feel like double "o" FOB.   00FOB, instead of  double "o" 7, "007" James Bond. .  .  FOB means, Fresh Off the Boat.  I m definitely rocking some FOB looks with tennis shoes and jeans, and long sleeve shirts.  Maybe I ll grow a thick mustache, like our driver today.

Here is our driver Rakesh, pic below.  He doesn't speak english, and neither do I.  Driving is a mess, trying to tell him where to go.  Both of us don't understand each other.  Maybe his mustache is blocking his ears. Just kidding, he was a great guy.  We did get lost on the way to the orphanage.

Below is Josh, this might be the only pic we see of him.  He is doing the mini doc for us.  Great guy, great cinematographer, and great editor.  I pray God can use this to break people's hearts for adoption and the orphan crisis.  

This is a pic of his boom mic on his camera.  Priya said it looked like my hair.  The jokes never stop, not even from my own daughter in India.

  I don't know how to close.  Maybe with a wonderful view of me taking a nap on our queen size bed.  Please don't lust.  Funny that everyone says we look alike.  Although, I think she does.  Just because I m brown with black hair, I look like every Indian, Dominican, Mexican.  I feel like I m universal looking.  The only race I don't look like is American, ha.  I promise that I have been faithful to Kasey and staying in America.  I am not producing illegitimate kids all over the world.  It seems that every foreign kid looks like me.  You have 8 hours to read this before Kasey deletes this.

More than we ever imagined

How can someone express with words the experience of meeting your child for the first time?  Words fail me.  Today was a day that will forever be in my memory.

Wes, Priya, and I all had different emotions this morning.  Priya said her palms were sweaty!  She was so excited about meeting Hope.  Wes and I were pretty calm (until arriving at the orphanage...but more on that later).  We had a nice family breakfast at the hotel, and our friend Josh was able to snap a family picture before heading out the door.  The bunny in Priya's hand was her gift to Hope, made with love at good ol' Build-A-Bear-and-Take-All-My-Money workshop.  My favorite part of this little stuffed animal is that Priya recorded her own voice saying "I love you, Hope" for the bunny.  Although I am still bitter about the price of this thing, I must say that Hope LOVED her gift.  But again, I'm getting ahead of myself.

 

Driving to the orphanage, I started to get really emotional.  It's like 3 years of waiting, praying, filling out paperwork, waiting some more, praying, doing more papers, praying, filling out more papers, praying some more...it was all about to come to an end.  Or better said, a beginning.  When we pulled up to the orphanage, I was completely overcome.  Outside the gates, there was a cradle drop box where anyone could leave their child, knowing he would be taken into the orphanage and given a chance at a better life.  It was more than I could bear.  The thought of any baby or child being left in that box was just too much for me.  What a broken world we live in.

Once we pulled up to the front, Sister Smitha, the nun who is Hope's primary caretaker, was waiting to greet us.  Despite some frustrating road bumps throughout the adoption, I felt God overwhelm me with great love for this lady.  Here's a person who has given her LIFE to help children.  And she's been taking care of MY child.  I completely lost it when I saw her.  I think we hugged for a solid 5 minutes.  I hope she genuinely felt how much I appreciate her.  I will forever be grateful to this sweet gift from God.

Now I need to stop and point out that Sister Smitha had told us that no one could enter the orphanage except immediate family members.  We were bummed about this because Sherry, my sweet sister-in-law, came along with us along with Josh, a friend and video guy from our church.  We planned to have Sherry and Josh wait in the van while we went inside.  But before we left the hotel this morning, we prayed and asked God for His favor.  We prayed that Sister Smitha would see our love and somehow be compelled to allow Sherry and Josh inside, too.  When she saw them, she told them they could come inside and sit to wait!  Praise God.  I felt the Lord so intimately answering our prayers.  

We went to a room to talk for a few minutes alone with Sister Smitha.  Josh and Sherry waited in a room next to ours.  Without us even asking, she said that after our initial meeting with Hope, she would allow Sherry and Josh to come in and also meet her!  Hallelujah!  What a gift.  We are so thankful.

And then, in a heartbeat, our sweet Hope entered the room.  I cannot even describe what I felt in that moment.  I can't understand how I can love a child so much that I've never met before!  Is it possible that God has given us the 2 MOST BEAUTIFUL DAUGHTERS in the world?  It is unreal.  She has the sweetest, shy little smile.  It will melt your heart.  She said, "hello Mommy, Papa, and Priya dedi."  I was dying.  I melt for little kids with Indian accents.  (not for adult ones, just to be clear.)  Here are some of our first moments with Hope!

It's totally crazy, but HOPE LOOKS JUST LIKE WES!  Their faces look identical to me!  They even have the same haircut! HA HA HA

After a few minutes, Sister Smitha let Sherry and Josh into the room.  It was interesting because Hope recognized Sherry from the family photo album we sent!

We colored and talked for a couple of minutes.  I was surprised at how much English Hope could understand!  She only answered with a word or two, but she did answer everything I asked her!  She said her favorite color is pink.  And then she added yellow.  How amazing that her room at our house is pink!  She also said she loves dance.  She looked at me once and called me Kasey Lorene! It was so cute!  The nun said she had memorized our names.  I was a little taken back by that!  She smiles a lot.  She never shows her teeth, but she has the cutest smile.  Adorable dimples.  And she's SO sweet.  She and Priya hit it off right away!  Priya was talking to her like they've been friends for all 6 years of their lives.  I love when Hope says "Priya Dedi." (a term of respect for an older sister).  I kinda hope she never loses her accent, either.  It really is the sweetest thing.  I think she pushed the sound button on her new bunny about 20 times in those first 5 minutes.  Then she'd repeat, "I love you, Hope."  I'm in love. 

After a few minutes getting acquainted, Sister Smitha invited us into the dining area to celebrate.  They had an awesome cake to celebrate the occasion!

They lit two candles, one for Hope and one for Priya, and the girls cut it together.  We all sat down (including Sherry and Josh) and celebrated together with India tea.  Let me tell you, there wasn't an ounce of chocolate left on Priya or Hope's plates.  These girls love chocolate.  Me, too!  That's why I married Wes.  Wait, what?  That's inappropriate.

After our celebration, we took a tour around the orphanage.  Unfortunately, Sister asked us not to take any pictures of the kids.  She is very protective of the kids and doesn't want them to be exploited.  While I would never do that, I DO wish you could see their faces.  These children are amazing.  Every one of them.  I wanted to die as we walked through.  They were all congratulating Hope and asking her questions about the new family!  It was sweet to see Hope happily introduce us to all the kids.  We got to meet her best friend, a sweet little boy.  I am really hoping we can get a picture of him tomorrow.  That boy's face lit up when we walked into the room.  Hope pointed at him and said, "my friend."  He knew exactly who we were.  These kids really are so precious!  I pray every one of them gets a family.  They were all eager to show us their schoolwork, their clothes, or anything that would make us pay attention to them.  I want to bring all of them home.  Not even kidding.  

Hope was proud to show us the room where she sleeps and her bed.  I have a feeling someone's going to be sleeping in bed with Priya.  She's probably not going to like sleeping alone!

We were able to get one shot of some of the girls in Hope's class.  Sister said she wanted Hope to be able to remember their faces.  These girls were SOOOO sweet.  They all need a family, too.  Any takers?  They're all over age 5 so even non-indians can adopt them!!

Well, now for the bad news.  We couldn't take Hope home with us today.  The passport office does need a police verification before Hope can be released.  This basically means an officer has to physically visit the orphanage and have the caretakers sign off on Hope's paperwork.  This apparently has been the delay. Sister Smitha said she asked the police to come tomorrow, at which point we can take Hope with us.  PLEASE PRAY the police show up.  We cannot proceed to get her passport without this step!  Hope was a little sad when she found out she couldn't leave with us.  Then, Sister Smitha told her to leave her bunny with us, too, so that the other kids wouldn't be sad about not having their own!  Hope was holding onto that bunny for dear life!  So Sister Smitha compromised  (Mary Klein, you'd be very proud) and told her she could keep the bunny in the office.  Hope seemed ok with that.

As we were leaving, Hope said something in Hindi to Sister Smitha.  Sister Smitha, choked up, told us that Hope said, "Thank you for finding me a very nice mommy and papa."  Commence tears.

Not Without Hope

We leave to meet Hope in about 4 hours!  So hard to believe we're here in the same city as our sweet girl, and we've never even met her!  We are so excited and surprisingly calm.  I don't remember feeling this calm the hours before meeting Priya.  I guess after you have a kiddo, you realize that you're going to survive, no matter what!  I am thankful for the peace Wes and I both feel going into this adoption.

Praise God that Priya has adjusted SO well to the schedule here.  She didn't skip a beat with her sleep schedule!  Wes, on the other hand, has not slept much and is having difficulty adjusting. Please pray he gets some rest.  It's currently 4 a.m. Delhi time, and I am wide awake!  But don't feel bad for me...I slept for 8 hours!  Feeling great!

Yesterday (Wednesday) we spent the day resting and walking around the area surrounding our hotel to get acquainted.  We had some interesting experiences!  We walked by an extremely poor neighborhood surrounded by piles of trash, and there were about 20 little boys outside playing cricket.  It was fascinating to stop and watch; it was straight out of Slumdog Millionaire scene!  Priya was amazed that none of the boys were wearing shoes!  They were having such a great time.  Once they saw they had an audience, many of them ran over and tried talking to us.  Of course, we didn't have a clue what they were saying!  The only English word they knew was "money" and they all repeated it about 500 times!  We didn't give them any as there were so many of them, but we did share some oreos and chips.  They were over the moon about that!  Priya loved seeing them so happy, and she immediately wanted to go back to our room and give away all our snacks!  I love her heart.  We told her we'd go back another day and take more goodies to them.

On our way back to the hotel room, a shaven, filthy little girl walked up to me and grabbed me.  She was literally covered in dirt from her head to toes.  Her clothes were oversized and stained all over.  She put her hand to her mouth to signal "I need to eat" and I almost lost it.  I didn't have any more snacks at that point, but I had Priya's half-full Orange Fanta.  I handed it to her, patted her head, and she smiled the most amazing smile at me.  It hit me in that moment...THIS COULD HAVE BEEN HOPE.  God only knows how many days Hope spent scavenging for food or begging on the streets before the police took her to get help.  I wonder how many people stopped to help my daughter when she was hungry.  As I walked, I prayed and thanked God for any person who had ever given our daughter food to eat when she was on the streets.  I know God has seen every one of them!  It made me think about the verse in Matthew 25 that says, For I was hungry, and you fed me. I was thirsty, and you gave me a drink. I was a stranger, and you invited me into your home.  I needed clothes, and you clothed me. 

Somehow now I understand why this pleases God so much.  He loves His children!  So when we show love to them, we show love for the Father.  I, too, love and appreciate any person who ever helped Hope!  

Immediately after, 2 filthy boys ran up and were asking for help.  Before Wes and I could even do anything, a random adult man came up to the boys and pushed them off the sidewalk, yelling something at them!  I was so angry!  This man was clean-shaven and professional, and I guess it made him mad that these street boys were "bothering" us.  But I couldn't believe that happened!  What a heartless act!  Right before my eyes, I saw the scriptures come to life.  Truly the heart of our father beats for the least of these.  May He open our eyes to the needs around us and show us how He wants us to meet those needs!

I thank God for allowing us to see that yesterday as we prepare to meet Hope.  May He show us a glimpse of the life, including hurt, hunger, and rejection, that she once lived.  Only then can we understand how to better parent our sweet girl with love and compassion.

On a lighter note, here's the picture I promised of our "queen-size" bed.  HA! 

We will update later after we meet Hope!

We're here! And how big are the queens in India?

Praise God, we made it!  We arrived Tuesday night and we're spending today trying to catch up on sleep, getting settled, and completing Priya's schoolwork.  Priya is already so excited because we ate Indian food at our hotel last night; I believe her comment was, "Oh, wow, I could live here forever.  This food is SOOOOO good."  Our hotel is VERY nice, but we laughed a little at our "queen size beds".  If we have some time, I'll take a picture of Wes and I trying to fit on it together.  I mean, what size are the queens in India?  Apparently not 5'9 or 6'2.  They need to eat more hormone-injected food around here, and then they'll know what size a REAL queen is!

Please pray Sherry (Wes's sister) arrives safely tonight.  She wasn't able to get on our flight because she forgot her OCI card, which India now requires along with a visa to enter the country.  She had to return to D.C., get her card, and catch a flight out a day after us.

Pray that we get rest today and tonight before we meet Hope tomorrow.  WE MEET HOPE TOMORROW!  Seems so surreal.   Pray specifically for our visit to the orphanage; we are praying that the nun allows us to take Hope with us tomorrow.  Legally, she can't stop us, but that doesn't mean she won't try!  Please also pray that the orphanage would allow Sherry and Josh to enter the facility with us!  Josh is a friend from church who came along with us to video our experience here!  We would love to capture our first moments with Hope on camera, but as of now, the orphanage isn't planning to allow him inside.  But, no worries, Wes bought a "spy pen camera" to keep in his pocket just in case.  He's going to look very cool sporting that around.

We'll update later!  Thank you all for praying!

Our adoption journey

Welcome to the Mathew family blog!  Let me just give 2 disclaimers now: 1) we have no intention of keeping up with this blog after we return from India, and 2) when you see a ton of grammatical errors, ebonics, or other nonsense, please know that likely means that Wes wrote the post.  Soon I'll be working with all 3 of my little Indians and their English! ;)

In 2010, we brought home our sweet daughter, Priya!  Adoption has changed our lives!  We believe adoption is a beautiful picture of the gospel, as God rescues us from the dominion of darkness and makes us His children!  Galatians 4:4-5 "...God sent forth His son...to redeem those who were under the law, that we might receive the adoption of sons."

In 2011, we decided to begin the adoption process again because we knew that India was making many changes to their adoption program, and we anticipated a much longer wait.  We received our referral of Hope in 2013.  We have been anxiously waiting to bring her home!  We have sent her family pictures, homemade gifts, blankets, and more...trying our best to convey our deep love for her!

We leave tomorrow to bring her home!

Wes:  I know my writing is bad, oh well.   I'm hauling a butt-load of luggages to India.  10 Suitcases.  Kasey is trying to correct me now as I write, so I'll stop.