This year,2014, will be one for the record books! Anna started the year realizing this wasn’t it. We wouldn’t be having a baby and for the
first time in four years that was okay. Little
did we know fourteen days after writing a blog post on the subject, God would
bring an unborn baby girl into our lives and yet allow her to vanish from it just
as quickly as she’d appeared. It was an
extremely difficult time and we didn’t understand what He was doing. We were finally in a good place emotionally
with our infertility. Why would He bring
a baby into our lives just to take her away before she was even born? “Trust me,” He said. And I (Anna) wish I could say I did in every
moment. I knew He had a greater plan but
I was struggling. Stephen on the other
hand: he always trusts, always obeys. He is my rock firmly planted on The Rock. Fast forward to March. We were contacted on a Thursday by CASA
asking vague questions about our relationship with Lillian’s birthparents and did
we still want her if she became available for adoption in the near distant
future (3-6 months or so). Of course! We felt like she was ours and we had lost her;
to adopt her would be like having a child raised from the dead! That night we went to bed thinking God was possibly
going to change our lives when we got back from Africa. The next morning March 7, 2014, around 11:00
am Anna received a text to call the lawyer ASAP. “Anna, what are you doing this
afternoon?” “Nothing, why?” “Do you want to go pick up your daughter this
evening?” And just like that in a crazy
turn of events only He could orchestrate, in the living room of one of our
dearest friends in Lufkin at 5:00 pm, a 6 week old perfect Lillian was placed
into our arms! We are grateful to all
who played a small and large part in our adoption story. There are so many facets and levels and
people involved it is hard to give a short and complete version. If you are interested in knowing more feel
free to visit our blog www.camonanddiamonds.blogspot.com and start with those famous last
words I wrote on January 1, 2014. (For
all you English teachers I must warn it is very much unedited! Who has time for that with an infant ;)
It’s been a short eight
months with respect to Lillian’s growth and milestone achievements from weight
gain and chubby thighs to rolling over and sitting up. Yet it seems to have taken an eternity to officially
be able to say she’s ours. We no longer
have to prove we are fit to be parents, get permission to travel out of state
to visit Anna’s family or have multiple monthly visits in our home with caseworkers. We can now just be a “normal” family. While the adoption process has been
cumbersome at times, it is through these past seven months God has been
teaching us a tangible lesson: our children are not our own; they are His.
Our first test of
faith in trusting God with Lillian, and yet we know it is He who is trusting us
with her, was choosing to follow the call he had given us back in the Fall of
2013, and still go to Tanzania in June.
God used YOU dear one to help confirm our call through your prayers and
financial support. Back in the Fall of
2013 we set out to raise half our funds for the trip and planned to pay the
rest out of pocket. The day we brought
Lillian home EVERY. SINGLE. CENT. had been raised for BOTH trips. With unexpected adoption fess ahead and the
expenses of a new baby overnight, God provided and left us with no financial
hesitation for moving forward with our plans.
All we had to do was TRUST Him with our hearts and daughter. We knew God called us to Africa before
Lillian was placed in our lives knowing she was coming; it was no surprise to
Him! She is His and we knew and trusted He
would protect her as we headed to do His work in Tanzania.
Stephen’s Experience:
I did not really know
what to expect or how I would be used to minister to the people of Bukoba,
Tanzania, but I knew I had been called to go.
Expectations are a funny thing; you control them so you think. Control is another allusion we cling to. I thought I was going to travel halfway
around the planet to fill prescriptions written by Tanzania doctors for
Tanzanians needing them. Anxiety and
worry were not an issue because my Lord and Savior told me to go. From the first day traveling through Bukoba
to the pharmacy, Director of Medical Services for the Kagera District of
Tanzania and the two locations we were to hold clinics I saw just what I
expected. Anna had an issue with her
passport that limited my time with her in Bukoba to just this first day. I had looked forward to experiencing this
mission with her but that was out of my control. Before heading to the clinics each morning we
met with the translators at a local church for that mornings worship and
devotion. Unadulterated worship and
praise of God was the nature of each service.
Language didn’t matter because God is the God of all. The mobile pharmacy was limited to the
formulary available. Several hundred
Tanzanians received medical attention, vision services, physical therapy,
prescriptions to help heal their physical bodies and saw the love of Christ
portrayed by a group of missionaries from a land far, far away. Nothing about my experience was how I expected. Not even our last day in clinic was bound by my
expectations. The whole experience was
out of control and unexpected. My
undergraduate degree is in Forestry and Wildlife which led me to my profession
as a pharmacist through a convoluted series of events. I expected to fill some prescriptions and
come home; however, God had some other expectations for me. A saying that I am familiar with and with
which you can identify is, “You can’t see the forest for the trees.” I think that sums up my first mission
experience. I was only a small part of
God’s plan to reach the lost. He told us
in the gospels that “the harvest is plentiful but the workers are few….” I still can’t see the forest that is God’s
plan of salvation for those He calls His own, but I am blessed beyond any words
to have walked among and tended his trees.
Anna’s Experience:
The hardest part the day we left for
Africa was actually handing Lillian over to my sister-in-law. Once we were in the car on our way, God put a
layer of protection around my heart almost immediately and allowed me to focus
on the task set at hand: to bring His good news to the people of Bukoba. Or so I thought. Unfortunately after three days of travel we
finally arrived in Bukoba and I realized my passport had been taken at the last
airport in Mwanza. Quickly my mission to
Bukoba began to unravel before my eyes. We
called the airport immediately and the passport was nowhere to be found, and so
after doing some research the next things needed was a police report in order
to get a temporary passport from the American Embassy in Dar Es Salam. The next morning as Stephen and the others
headed out for their first day of clinics and ministry I headed to try and file
the needed report. Once we had this in
hand it was determined due to weather I would make the five hour drive to
Mwanza that day rather than wait for the 45 minute flight the next
morning. Thankfully I was able to see
Stephen for five minutes before leaving Bukoba to touch base. At this point as I entered the cab Satan
began to peck at me saying “you left your four month old for this?” That
evening as I talked through my thoughts and feelings with Charlotte who
traveled with me to Mwanza, I was determined Satan would not win and this trip
was still going to bring God glory. To
make a long story short I was able to share my testimony with a few people
while in Dar but most importantly God brought Richard and Karen Lee along with
their children Christian and Rebecca into my life.
They are Southern Baptist Missionaries
serving in Dar and have been on the field in Tanzania for more than ten years. We share and eerily similar infertility and
adoption
story and were able to have a sweet
time of fellowship. Most importantly I
was able to learn about Karen’s ministry It Takes A CAKE (Cakes Advancing
Kingdom Expansion). When they served in
the bush of Tanzania she developed a very simple cake recipe made with
ingredients found almost anywhere and can be baked on a coal oven.
While giving women a vocational skill, Karen
is also taking the opportunity to share Christ with unbelievers and encourage
believers to share Christ with their neighbors through the hospitality of
sharing a cake. The ministry is in the
growing stages and while in Dar Karen and I were able to spend part of our time
together discussing how the ministry can be used, grown and expand to be as
effective in Kingdom Expansion as possible.
Since being home I have been able to help get a logo created for the
ministry and brainstorm ways it can be used to continue to reach others not
just in third world countries but in the states when the Lee’s are on
furlough.
At the beginning of August we got an
email from e3 sharing the same trip we took to Bukoba would be going to
Shinyanga, Tanzania on June 12-22, 2015 (this is where Anna lived the summer of
2006). Immediately we knew Stephen would
be going. I (Anna) was hesitant to leave
Lillian and had been trying to figure out if I could take a one and a half year
old with me. I also wanted so badly for
our family to attend Pine Cove Family Camp next summer. But
for several weeks I could not get the trip off my mind and then God finally hit
me square in the face: It Just Takes a
CAKE. He took me away from my four month
old and allowed me to lose my passport in order to meet Karen Lee so I could
become a part of her ministry to help bring it’s concept to e3 Partners. My mom had already volunteered to keep
Lillian if we both went back to Africa and Lillian would not remember Pine Cove
just yet anyway. What was I thinking? Karen and I are already emailing and planning
and she is even hopeful to be able and come and help for part of the time we
are there. God is SO good and again
showing us we do not always see immediately what He is doing but He is ALWAYS
at work!
We covet your prayers
as we now travel this exciting, new and sometimes scary journey of
parenthood. Pray we will follow Christ
in all the decisions we make and we will always point Lillian towards the
cross. Would you also pray as we prepare
for another journey to Tanzania. The
expenses will be a little more than last year totaling $7700 for the both of
us. If you would like to give towards
the trip you can do so by writing a tax deductible check to e3 Partners
Ministry and putting Wyatt TZ15G in the memo and get the check to us and we will make sure it gets to our account at e3 or you can give online at www.purecharity.com/annakwyattTZ15G.
We also plan to do several fundraisers over the next nine months and
would love for you to keep an eye out for those.
Ephesians 1:5 says,
“God decided in advance t o adopt us into His own family by bringing us to
Himself through Jesus Christ. This is
what He wanted to do and it gave Him great pleasure.” How amazing that God provided Christ as the
way to salvation. It is our hope and
prayer that all who we meet on this trip will hear the good news and receive it
so they too may be adopted into the family of God!
Thank you for loving
us and being a part of our incredible story; rather God’s incredible story,
Stephen, Anna and
Lillian Wyatt
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