Family

Half a year has gone by since my last blog post. It takes my breath away to consider what has happened since then. God has shown His grace and love in one particular part of our lives. Our family had become committed to taking in four refugee children from Africa into our home indefinitely if their father was unable to join them in the United States before their mother, Bibiche, passed away from her metastatic cancer.

Bibiche's health went from good to bad several times throughout the spring months. Amy, Dave and Juleeta Harvey, Tricia Freshwater (an attorney working pro bono for this family), and several from Northwest Bible Church began doing everything possible to facilitate bringing the father, Raymond, to Dallas from Africa. This required help from legislators, embassies, and consulates because of Raymond's situation of being a refugee from the Democratic Republic of Congo trying to care for his family while they were relocated to Rwanda. Even though Bibiche and the four children arrived in Dallas in September of 2013, there seemed to be little hope of Raymond being allowed to leave Rwanda despite all of our efforts. Bibiche was admitted several times to the ICU but was able to be discharged home each time until April where she appeared she would never make it to her apartment again. Finally, after much prayer Raymond somehow was given clearance to leave Rwanda and landed at DFW Airport on April 6th at the last minute the day Bibiche became unstable in the ICU (http://youtu.be/Eejn79RYPN4?list=UUj5oRYnyHbG6I4_glFTBH-w)! He was finally able to be with his wife and children. Bibiche surprised us and improved to the point where she came off the ventilator and asked to go home. She arrived at her apartment on April 30th. She went to be with the Lord in the early morning of May 1st. We were sad, but it also allowed me to see God's plan. Bibiche's suffering from the pain, paralysis, infections, and other complications were over. God now gave us the opportunity to continue helping her children and her husband who had just come to our country. I never thought God would bless us with all of this and let us share this story with our entire church (http://youtu.be/FU3TAc964Qk?list=UUj5oRYnyHbG6I4_glFTBH-w). The challenges remained in how we could get this family (the Wafodis), now considered a part of our family, everything they needed to survive life in the USA, but God definitely provided. Raymond soon got his social security card, drivers license, and a job a few months later! Their English skills are improving each day. In addition to this adventure locally, the Kahn family also went around the world... literally.

We went to my brother's wedding in Thailand and met up with friends in Dubai. Unfortunately, we have not had much progress on our adoption process. As we continue to pray for our son to be allowed to come home, God has already added to our family with the Wafodis and know He has more planned for all of us!