update and mutual respect

Not much to report: The new laws are passed in Liberia. They appear to not require residency. The minister said that he would finish the 'in process' adoptions "soon". Havilah laughed when I told her that. She has learned that "soon" coming from the Liberian government doesn't tell us much. It's been 2 years now scince we began the adoption process. One of the favorable things about Liberian adoption at that time was the short process. The adoptions were completed and the children home in an average of 4 months after the dossier got to Liberia. Ours has been there almost 2 years now. We know more than ever that God has the children and our family in His hand and He is very present all our lives and furthering His will with us. We have held the adoption loosely the entire time and have been very willing to give it up and go another direction. God has kept us waiting and it's been very good.

We have been spending a lot of time at Faragut park. The other day we saw a total of 27 deer while there. Some were while we were on the trails and the rest were while we were driving out of the park.
We are learning so much about relationships, grace, church and each other. One major thing that we have figured out is that there has to be mutual respect in a relationship. A relationship where one is looking down on the other, or judging him is fine for a while but, then it starts to leave a bad taste in the mouth of the one looked down on. There is not much trust in these relationships. There is love but, not mutual respect.

We wonder if we did this to some of our friends in Portland. (Please tell us if we have, we will believe you.) We may have treated them as less spiritual because they had less children or tried to pull them up to our level of "-ness", we may have looked down on those who ate differently etc.
Here in Northern Idaho we have experienced how it feels to be on the receiving end. We don't play the 'right music', use the 'right bible version', have our hair the 'right style', 'fellowship the right amount or the right way', Fellowship with the 'right people', etc.

I want to learn about loving others from my sister Erin and other friends that we have that I know always assume the best from us.

waiting to celebrate and assuming the best

We almost celebrated on Monday when our case worker informed us that the judge had signed our adoption papers. The next news was that the new adoption laws may require anyone adopting from Liberia to have been a resident there for 18 months. That would certainly disqualify Leon and I. Next we heard that we still have a good chance of being grandfathered in under the old laws of which we have fully complied. In any case, we are hesitant to celebrate the finalization of our adoption in Liberia. We will wait until the new laws are in place (supposedly happening today, Friday) and we find out if they are going to let us have the boys or not.

As far as our comparatively minor news: Two of our does have delivered healthy goat kids. We have a total of three kids with one doe still due to deliver twins in May. I am already receiving delicious and nutritious milk. The chickens and our one duck are all laying lots of eggs. Naphtali has started doing math when the big children do and he loves it. Ephraim has been given 12 tasks of manhood which he has one year to complete. Havilah has been given 12 tasks of womanhood as well.
We had a frisky young moose come jogging out of the woods this morning while we were having breakfast. It came within 4 meters of our house and then walked and trotted along our paths beside the house, down our driveway and down the street. The moose seem to like this path as they have traveled it several times this last winter.
We've been waking up to 1-2 inches of new snow every morning for over a week. It melts during the day and overall the winter snow is declining. All is still white and over a foot lies on the ground in most places. Some days this week it has snowed all day. The blue sky comes out on other days and makes us think it's spring for a while.

We are enjoying home church and delighting in the Lord. The baby in my womb is moving more and more and the whole family is involved in picking out great names as we read God's word in the evening. There is so much going on that I can't list it all. Thank you all for your donations of clothes, kitchen and bedroom necessities.
We have so many good friends that love us and always assume the best of us. We pray that we can love you as well, assuming the best of you. Love, the Goodenough's