I can see a park from our kitchen table. It has a yellow
slide, yellow monkey bar swings and a little cubby house at the top. There is
so much space between where our house ends and the park starts that at times my
mind wanders, it wanders to a place where I can see little children leaving our
back door and running to the park and returning all hot and sweaty clamoring
for something to quench their thirst.
Today I see that park and I know there are no children
running out to play or who will come back asking for water. It is days like
this that I learn all over again what it means to be content in all situations.
In God’s providence Cam and I are where we are. We do not
have children and we desire a family. We have never been told that we can’t
have children. This is real. We have started the adoption process. This is
real. How God builds families is still a mystery to us. This is real.
Currently, the means to our family is different to many others. We may never
have the surprising news of a positive test. I may never know what it feels
like to have my children grow inside my womb and I may never know the emotion
of giving birth and having a child lay on my chest hours after birth. In these
things, we grieve a loss but we do not grieve without hope.
We will know what adoption looks like. We will know
something about our own adoption by God. We will know what it is like to be
parents. We will know what it is like to have our own children. What a mystery!
To date, we have raised $15,244 with only $32,700 to go. I
know it sounds a lot but we can hardly believe that we have already raised as
much as we have. We know that many of
you have given to us, given to our agency, bought t-shirts and coffee
and we are truly grateful for every penny that has come our way.
Where are we in the process? Our dossier is still with our
agency. We have been told that it should be sent to Lesotho in the next week or
so. Once it arrives in Lesotho it is then submitted to a ‘Matching Meeting’
where we are matched with our children and then we get a referral. It is at
this referral when we have to pay our next payment of $24,000. This is what we
are working toward now.
On June 14th we will be completing a Both Hands
project (http://www.bothhandsfoundation.org)
in Franklin, Tennessee. The short of it is that we get a core team together
that get sponsors for them to work on a widow’s house for the day. We will be
working on Mrs Gumm’s home; painting, washing windows, organizing, landscaping
etc etc. We love Mrs Gumm, she and her family is so special to us. We are super
excited to be able to help her out like this. If you are local, would you be
willing to be a part of our core team? If you are unable to be a part of the
core team, please consider still coming out for the day. For those of you are
not local, there is still an opportunity to sponsor us as we work this day.
Click on http://www.bothhandsfoundation.org/cam-and-taryn-clausing
to find more info about our project day.
Here is a video from a previous Both Hands project so you
can get some idea what it is all about. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=98PD-O97N3I
We would love all our friends, near or far, to get behind
this project.
For some, children will never come in to the home. We know
that there is One working in ways that none of us can fully fathom so that we
all may know His sufficiency in all things. We do not trust in ourselves but
trust in God who works in all things.
Thank you for coming along this journey with us.
Taryn (&Cam)
