How precious is Your lovingkindness, O God! And the children of men take refuge in the shadow of Your wings. -Psalm 36:7
Late Saturday night, our two eldest daughters, Mrs. Doug (Heather) Ummel, and Mrs. Ben (Michal) Crum, arrived at the Indianapolis Airport with two Ethiopian babies, August Jacob Eskiya ("AJ") Plag and Henock Josiah Ummel. Above is a picture of Heather, Michal, and their two infants rounding the bend within sight of their loved ones for the first time in two long weeks. Tears were abundant and Heather and Michal were quickly in their husbands' arms...
Here are pictures of both boys with their new fathers and mothers, AJ with Paul and Pam Plag and their daughter, Carly (with Michal looking on); and Josiah with Doug and Heather Ummel. (Doug and Heather's sons, Jonathan and Nathan, were in bed at their grandparents home in Bloomington.)
The reunion was joyful and we all knelt in the baggage claim area to give thanks to our Heavenly Father for these little ones now members of two Covenant families. We prayed that He would give them the gift of faith and that they would grow up to know, love, and serve Him.
The joy of the reunion was also due to the combination of relief and exhaustion experienced by Heather and Michal who had just completed a marathon thirty-six hour trip with two babies, nine and five months old, under their care.
"AJ" Plag had been escorted by our daughter, Michal, and there had been many problems with paperwork in the two weeks Heather and Michal had been in Ethiopia--both at the Ethiopian end and here dealing with the United States Citizenship and Immigration Services--the recent replacement for the old Immigration and Naturalization Service which has been subsumed under the Department of Homeland Security and renamed.
The adoption agency (Christian, by the way) had failed to do the necessary work in preparation for the adoption, although they had promised it had been done prior to Heather and Michal's departure for Africa. The agency was very bad and when Heather and Michal arrived in Ethiopia and saw how much paperwork was still needed, it became immediately clear, as phone calls flew across continents, that the agency was worthless and it was best to do the work ourselves, not allowing the agency to mislead us any more. (And here it's worth noting that adoption agencies are not of equal quality. There are some really bad ones out there, including bad ones that are Christian in commitment. For more on this, contact Heather and she can give you more specific advice.)
So for most of the first week it looked as if it would be impossible to bring AJ home and we prayed a lot and worked for many hours with every civil servant known to man to complete the process. The Lord was gracious and, finally, everything worked out and Michal (carrying AJ) and Heather (carrying Josiah) were on their way home.
Since AJ's new adoptive parents and sister, Carly, were from Chicago, they had to arrive at the airport at the scheduled arrival time, so they spent the evening sitting in the airport waiting. At 11 PM, the much-delayed flight finally arrived.
[From left, standing: Doug Ummel, Josiah Ummel (in arms), Hannah Bayly (our fourth child), Kevin and (immediately below) Christina Johnson, Jon Crum (tallest), Mary Lee Bayly (my wife), Ben Crum, Michal Crum (Ben's wife), Taylor Bayly (our fifth child), the mystery family whose father was on the plane, and the Purdue professor (with his wife and son); and kneeling, Heather Ummel (Doug's wife), Paul Plag, Pam Plag (Paul's wife, holding AJ), and Carly Plag (Paul and Pam's first of (now) two.]
The joyful scene was contagious and others in the airport entered in. One look and they understood the reason for the tears of joy. Above is a picture of the whole group. On the right is an Ethiopian professor of cellular biology at Purdue University, along with his wife and three month old son. They were there to meet their Ethiopian sister. Sadly, she never showed up, but they stood with us wishing the children well at the beginning of their new lives. Another family was there to meet their father. He had been on the plane with Heather and Michal and had been helpful to them, so he and his family joined the celebration. And finally, in the middle are Kevin and Christina Johnson, friends of Doug and Heather from Taylor University days. The Johnsons lived about forty-five minutes from the airport and came over to join the celebration. Here's a picture of their welcome sign:
After a long time in the concourse, we went down to the baggage claim area where we prayed together and the Plag's were given AJ's papers and formula and headed off on their three and a half hour drive back to Chicago. Then the Ummels, Crums, and Baylys headed back to Bloomington.
Please pray for AJ, Josiah, and their new families.
Pray also for all the fatherless and motherless children around the world who, by the love of Christ dwelling in us, might also become members of God's Covenant Community to be raised in the nurture and admonition of the Lord.
If the love of Christ is overflowing in you and you, also, are interested in adopting an African child, I encourage you to get in touch with Heather or Michal and they'll do everything they can to help. Send me an E-mail at tbayly at earthlink dot net and I'll put you in touch with them.
Finally, just because I can't resist, a few final pictures:
