11/23/2007 - 11/23/2007

The Journey Home

Let me personally introduce you to Abram Siebe Dominic Ypma.

I had hoped to journal my way through the last week and a half but that didn't happen so now I'll tell the journey of God's work in bringing Abram into our lives (and yours).

Last week we flew to Florida to receive our new son. We were as you can imagine, both excited and anxious. Our prayer was, "God we need your strength in all of this." On Thursday we went to the adoption agency and we began the legal work. Again our prayer was, "God we need your strength in all of this."

At around 11am Abram was discharged from the hospital and brought to our arms. We held him, look at him, marveled at how small he was. We named him Abram Siebe Dominic Ypma. There is a tradition of A.S. Ypma's (My grandfather was A.S., My dad's name is Siebe, I am S.A. Ypma) so the first two parts of the name are family oriented. The name Abram means "High Father" but our love of the name is two fold, we love how it sounds and in the story of God's special calling of Abram in Genesis 12, God adopts a special people and promises to care for them. It's a pivotal moment of scripture where God says to Abram "I will make your name great (as opposed to Genesis 11 when the people try to make a name for themselves). And we know that as we raise Abram our prayer will be, "God we need your strength in all of this."

About an hour after we met Abram, we met the birth mom. She was such a sweet and beautiful woman. She was making a great sacrifice and to hear her talk made us aware of how selfless a decision this really was. We were able to talk and ask each other questions. She wanted to know about Port Alberni and we wanted to know what she hoped for little Abram. I think all three of us prayed, "God we need your strength in all of this."

By days end the Florida paperwork was done and we then had to wait for the BC government to say "yes" to Abram's entry into Canada. And so we waited... "God we need your strength in all of this."

On Monday we flew to Seattle with the plan of staying at Jim and Elaine (Hoekstra) Jenkins to wait for the paperwork. On getting to Seattle we found out that they lost Brenda and Abram's suitcase. Gone were most of our supplies and cloths. "God we need your strength in all of this."

On Tuesday the suitcase was found and delivered and we continued to wait. As good as our hosts were (and they were great by the way, we felt very welcome) we simply wanted to go home. "God we need your strength in all of this."

On Wednesday we got the fax saying that we could return to Canada with Abram. We jumped in our car and headed for the "Peace Portal"...how fitting. "God we need your strength in all of this."

We made it through and headed to Ladysmith, where Anna had been staying with Tim and Edna Hogeterp. It was so good to introduce her to her new brother. We then returned home, dropped our bags in the doorway, looked around, looked at our two children and said, "God we need your strength in all of this."

At every step of this journey we have known God's faithfulness and as we move forward we know that God's faithfulness will continue. God has been Good, God is Good and God will be Good. And so we live in confidence even in the midst of many unknowns. Each day we help our children to know that it's not by our strength, but by God's. We hope that we can teach Anna and Abram to pray, "God we need your strength in all of this."

But for now Brenda and I will adjust to sleep deprivation..."God we need your strength in all of this."