Boo's Moto

Before we left for the States, I went on a tuk tuk ride with our driver Boo Sovon (we just call him Boo). You may remember from earlier posts that Kelsi has been doing a Bible study with his wife, and we have been talking to him about the importance of going to church and getting involved to grow in his faith for his family. He has always said the same thing: that he would go when he was able to pay his house off which would be in about a year. But he has been saying that for about a year and a half, so we keep praying for him. When I was riding in the tuk tuk with him before we left, it sounded awful. We got out and I asked him about it, and he showed me that his engine was falling apart, and in general his moto was breaking down. I asked him how much it would cost to get a new moto, and he told me. He then explained to me that he used to be a bus driver, but his vision has been getting worse so he could not handle the long drive to Siem Reap. Basically during our discussion I learned that if his moto breaks down, he is sunk. So I told him that I would ask my friends in the States if they would ask God if they were supposed to help him with a new moto. While in the states we spoke to First Baptist in Schell City, Missouri about Boo, and they decided that they were the ones to sponsor his new moto. Here is the before and after:

It has more power than his other moto and since it is new it will last a long time. We have already heard people complimenting him on it. Kelsi mentioned that it would be great if he could use it as a witnessing tool. When people say something about it, he can tell them that God provided for it.

I decided to have my friend Seyha come and translate when I gave the moto to Boo. I told Boo that 

God loved him. And when we trust in Jesus and seek His Kingdom, He provides for all our needs. I said that God told my friends in the States to give him this moto, because He cares about him and his family. He said "Thank you God for my moto!" I hope that this gesture has built Boo's faith. As we have been here and seen God provide for us, we know that it has made us trust in our God more and more, who always provides. Thank you First Baptist Schell City! Your generosity and obedience is a blessing to us and those with whom we minister here in Cambodia. Continue to pray for Boo and his family, as they grow in their faith and begin to follow Christ, not just because they work with foreigners who follow Christ, but of their own decision. We are blessed by Boo, and we are so grateful that we were able to bless him in this way. Again, thank you First Baptist Schell City!

BecauseHeLives,

Micah.  

Waiting for June 15th (Adoption Update)

Thank you for the prayers about the meeting on Tuesday! When we met with the lawyer, we found out two things. One that the man's name in the family book is not Abby and Lily's father. It is the name of Ron's new husband. Secondly, the girls' father was never married to Ron legally. She explained that she had a village marriage, but nothing on paper, and he left her and said he didn't want his name on the girls' birth certificates... That means that we are good to go to court, and we do not need to include him at all. Huge answer to prayers! I answered a bonus question on Tuesday too. Abby and Lily's Khmer names are Sreyroath Roeun and Sreyniet Roeun, but Ron's last name is Pich... so I asked why they had a different last name, and the lawyer explained that, in Cambodia, when a child is born, you decide whether to give them the family name or the father of the family's first name. So, Pich is Ron's grandfather's first name, and Roeun is the name of Abby and Lily's grandfather and Ron's father. 

So June 15th can not get here soon enough. On that day, I will go and get Kelsi and my's visas, which just happen to be the last thing on my list of things we need to go to court. After that, I will meet with the lawyer and hammer out price and get our paperwork together to petition the judge. After that, it is a waiting game for the court date, and after that, a waiting game for the decision. 

Some of you may be wondering what the process of this looks like. You may have the questions, "If you get court adoptions, does that mean you can come home right away?" "What is the time frame on this whole thing?" 

To answer the first question simply... no. Court adoptions have nothing to do with the United States. It is all about how Cambodia sees us. However, once we have court adoptions, and Cambodia recognizes us as the legal parents of Abby and Lily, we can petition on their behalf for citizenship with a certain form. That is the uncertainty. We are not sure that this court adoption will be enough for that, but either way, we want as strong of a connection as possible with the girls. If the court adoption is enough, we already have the two years required of residency to apply. It will be a series of trips to the U.S. Embassy and a whole lot of paperwork, and a whole lot of waiting. To answer the second question, not sure. We don't know how long court adoptions will take, and we don't know how long the petition will take. Right now, we are here, and we are glad to be making progress.

Thank you for everyone who has been praying for us, and please continue to pray. Like I said, we have a little bit of a wait ahead of us--three weeks. And for most of you that time will fly by, but for me it will feel like ages. I think God likes to make us wait sometimes. I am excited to see how He works all this out in His timing, and in His perfect way. 

Hope this answers some questions. If you still have some, please comment or send us an email :)

BecauseHeLives,

Micah. 

Gardening Day

The girls are doing a project for school with Kelsi. They are growing Basil, Rosemary, Dill, Marigolds, and Lavender. These are all mosquito repelling plants, and also useful in other things, like cooking and being pretty, or that is what I am told ;) Hope you enjoy the video! Just a bit of our life here in Cambodia. 

BecauseHeLives,

Micah. 

Prayer Request: Adoption Update

Upon returning to Cambodia from the States, we are required to turn in a report to the Ministry of
Social Affairs. I decided to kill two trips with one tuk tuk and ask about adoptions. The meeting at the Ministry was not super eventful. I asked about the rumors of new laws in March and what happened with all that, she said the same thing I already heard, that the U.S. said they would not accept adoptions granted to families with foster care currently. She also said that foster care has been shut down, but it is not in lieu of granting adoptions to those with foster care. I asked if there was anyway that she could give us an adoption as if we were Cambodian, since we have had the girls as foster children through the Ministry for almost eight months now, and most Cambodian families are encouraged to adopt after only six. She said that it was not possible. I then asked if there was any way that the Minister could make an exception for our case, because of Abby's eye, and she said that the Minister does not want to give any exceptions right now, because he is afraid it will open the flood gates--which I completely understand. At this point, I asked Dina what she thought about us going ahead and looking into getting a local court adoption of the girls, so we have some way of fighting for the visas we want, and she said that she was not sure that we would get them, to which I said, "But we can try." She then gave me contact information for a lawyer, who I have a meeting with on Monday morning at 10:00 (Sunday evening at 10:00, Missouri time). I have some paperwork to gather, and a lot of praying to do. This route is going to cost money, and we want to be sure that this is what God wants us to do right now. Please pray for wisdom for us, as we begin this process. Pray that the lawyer's heart is softened to our case. Pray that the judge will have mercy and that we will have favor. Pray that we will guard our hearts well, and not get our hopes up too quickly. Pray for God's will to be done. Pray that this works, and we get adoptions, and even pray that after we get adoptions, they work for our visas. I will give an update on how the meeting went later. I just wanted to make sure everyone began to pray now.

There will also be an update about settling back into Cambodia, but right now, we are still settling, and exhausted! Thank you to everyone who encouraged us while we were in the States, and also for all the generosity from the churches that we spoke to. It was great seeing/meeting all of you!

BecauseHeLives,
The Bergens.

UPDATE 5/14/2015
I spoke with the lawyer, and he told me a few documents that I needed to collect. Things like a lease agreement, visas, ect... One thing he also noted was that he needed to have a counsel meeting with the mother of the girls. I have known this whole time that Srey Ron would help us with this, so I was not worried about it. Before the meeting with her, we needed to get her ID and the family book from the province. I got both of those things yesterday, and we are scheduled to meet with the lawyer on Tuesday at 9:30 AM, which is Monday evening the same time in Missouri (for all of you who would please pray for us). It is looking like just a couple more weeks and we will have everything to turn into the judge and await the trial, but the lawyer was concerned about the fact that the biological father's name is not on the birth certificate, but is in the family book. Please pray that this is cleared up and will not cause any trouble later. We filled out all the paper work for our lease agreement, and are just waiting for the sangkat to approve it--the sangkat is like the local office. Once that is in my hand, I will go and renew our visas (ten days, usually), and after that I can meet with the lawyer again to sign the final papers, which will include an agreement on the fee. That is up in the air right now, because everything is negotiable in Cambodia. He told me at first that they charge $3,000 per case. I thought, great, because Abby and Lily are sisters, that means one case, one judge, one set of paperwork. But then he back tracked and said, but we also charge $3,000 per child sometimes, so not sure. When I go into that negotiation meeting, I will get it as low as possible, and we will most likely have to pay a percentage of the cost up front. This is why I was wary to go the court adoption route--it gets expensive. Kelsi and I have enough savings from our time in the States (thank you!) to pay the initial part of the cost, but will need some help with the rest--all you people who have been saving change get ready! :) Thank you to everyone who has been praying and also for all the generosity toward our family. We are blessed with a great group of supporters. I will post an update on Tuesday, after the meeting, to let everyone know what the lawyer said about the family book and birth certificate situation.

Snow! Real, Packble SNOW!

Well, Missouri finally gave us some good snow :) Here are some pictures for you!

Lily loved the snow and was happy just walking around.

Abby just wanted to build Olaf and have a snowball fight.

We dragged the girls in a tube behind the Ranger. Abby loved it, and Lily hated it, of course.

And we finally built a snowman!

or two....

Remember to pray even for the small things! God loves when we come to Him like children and ask for things. He knows our needs before we even pray, but He allows us to ask, so that we can learn to rely and trust in Him. Our faith is made stronger, and we realize that God cares for us. 

Speaking of praying, this came out recently, and I wanted to share it with everyone, so you could continue to pray about it: http://www.phnompenhpost.com/new-step-towards-adoptions

God is working on adoptions in Cambodia, and we are excited to see what He has planned.

It was such a blessing playing in the snow with my daughters! I am so thankful that we were able to come to the States, and that we were able to stay longer, so the girls could experience good, packable snow! Thank you to everyone who contributed to this winter furlough!

BecauseHeLives,

Micah. 

Updated Departure Date

It is now February 25th. When Kelsi and I left Cambodia, we were under the impression that this would be our return date, but we have been blessed with extra time. Abby and Lily received visas upon arrival that go through to May 17th. At the time, it didn't matter, because we were needing to return in time for our directors to take their furlough, but things have changed and we are able to stay until April 25th. I will be returning to my position as School Administrator on May 4th--giving me a week to recover from jet-lag. We are super excited to spend more time with family and friends, and continue visiting new churches and sharing what God is doing in Cambodia.

What have we been doing in the states, you might ask? Mostly spending as much time with family as possible. Wendell has been setting up churches weekly for us to share. We have seen a rise in our monthly support and we even had enough to go ahead and purchase our plane tickets. I am no longer surprised by God's provision--He always provides. We at this point are continuing to raise support, with a goal in mind, but we also know that God will provide exactly what we need monthly, if we continue to seek His kingdom first and continue to place our trust in Him. It is exciting to share about what He is doing, and seeing people willing to be a part of it.

Since coming in November, we have been sharing at each church to please pray for adoptions to open up in Cambodia, and we have already seen that it is working. Rumors and whispers are what I call them, until I hear it directly from my contact at the Ministry of Social Affairs, but there has been talk that Cambodia will be finalizing all in-country adoption cases by the end of the year. We have even been told that they have shut down the foster care in preparation for this. I was already planning on going into the Ministry when we returned and fighting for adoptions, so it looks like God has already begun the work. We really don't know where all of this will lead, but we are excited to hear this news.  As usual we are not making plans. When we return to Cambodia, we are assuming it is for the long haul, unless God says otherwise. Keep praying for adoptions!

Because adoptions may be opening up, Kelsi and I discussed how we might help pay for it all--we don't know what it will cost at this point. Since we are teachers, and we are not doing anything during the week, it just made sense to substitute teach. We have already been busy with this, and it feels great to be able to contribute to the work God is doing in Cambodia, and it is easy to work with a good attitude, when you realize that the money you are making will be going toward adoptions one day--maybe soon.

I do have to complain about something... I try not to complain often, but the girls and myself are very disappointed... in Missouri weather. We were promised a long hard winter, and we have seen hardly any snow... all we have to show for this winter is dry cracking skin and two inches of snow. In the words of Abigail, "I wanna build a snowman!" Step up your game, Missouri!

Well, I think that is all for now. As I mentioned already, we have our return tickets purchased, and we are grateful to the many people who contributed towards that expense. We are blessed continually by your prayers and words of encouragement. Thank you to everyone who has committed to praying for us, and thank you to those who also financially support us! May God bless you as much as you have blessed us!

BecauseHeLives,
The Bergens.

Time in the States (Thus Far) - Resting in God

We have been in the states now for over a month. The time is going by really slowly, which we really appreciate. Leading up to our departure, we felt like we would never get here, but now the slow passing time is a blessing. We have been visiting with family and friends and have enjoyed more pajama days than I am willing to admit. All in all, the girls love it here. I do not think that they expected it to be as cold as it is, but they think America is awesome! This is probably due to the fact that they love sleep-overs and this month has basically been a non-stop sleep-over at different people's houses.

I have been thinking about blogging for the last week, but could not really think of anything "blog worthy" (as if anything on here is). I am going to write about a lesson that God is teaching me (Micah) right now.

I like to be busy. Like most people, I like to have a purpose. It is not so much about what other people think of me, but that I like to have things to do--it is just the way God made me, I guess. If you ask Kelsi, I am always wanting to work on projects. I have learned the lesson that I need to put Kelsi and the girls first in my priorities, but I still like my projects and work. Since being in America, I have not been doing too much. We are speaking at churches and trying to raise our monthly support (please be praying for that), but during the week, we are mostly just spending time at the Loyd house, and spending time playing with the girls. I noticed that I have been feeling kinda strange and some what distant in my relationship with God. The enemy took that as an opportunity to creep in and whisper the all-too familiar lie in my ear: "You don't really have a relationship with God. You are just acting like a Christian to make yourself feel better, ect..." That may just be me, but knowing that the enemy has very few tricks, I am thinking he probably tries it on you sometimes too. But it did make me think about my relationship with God (which we are instructed to do countless times in the Word--not from doubting but a healthy evaluation). When I start thinking about things, and when the devil is verbally attacking me, Kelsi usually takes notice, so she asked me what was up. After explaining what I was thinking, she spoke some great wisdom into the situation (single guys, keep your eyes open for a wise godly woman--I got mine). She told me that maybe God was trying to teach me to rest in Him. I know the importance of Sabbaths and the humility that comes with taking a break, but resting in God is not my strongest point. We go through seasons in our lives when we are laboring in the field (really until we get to heaven), but there are times when God calls us to breath for a moment--not because we are too tired to carry on--but because He wants us to enjoy Him. I really enjoy being obedient to God's calling... teaching and projects are who He made me to be. I like doing things and especially check-lists :) But without those things, is God enough to satisfy? Can I get in God's presence and just be content to be quiet? The season I am in now is a season of resting in God, and I am finding it difficult to just be quiet and still. I am grateful that God can speak wisdom into my heart through my lovely wife, and I am practicing resting--trying to clear my to-do lists and just sit with God in the quiet. I am satisfied with Christ, and I am so blessed to have this time to take a step back and remember why I follow Him--because He is the only spring of life that truly satisfies.

Thank you to all our supporters for your prayer and financial sponsorship. We are blessed by your faithful obedience, and this time in the states could not have happened without you!

BecauseHeLives,
The Bergens.

Abby's Eye

Most of you know that Abigail fell when she was young and damaged her right eye. This happened when she was a little over a year old. The last time Ron came to visit (Abby and Lily's biological mother), Abby came home from visiting with her with a new story about her eye. We had been previously told that she fell on a stick, but now Abby says that she ran into a hammer that was hanging on her grandpa's belt. This story seems likely to me, because she is always running around without watching where she is going. Which ever story is true, she is blind in that eye, and that is a fact.

We have taken Abby to an eye specialist in Cambodia, and after two seconds of looking into it with a light, he told us that she would never be able to see out of it, and that the stitches should be left alone unless they caused her problems. Obviously, Kelsi and I did not want this to be true. We wanted there to be some surgery that could be done, so that she could see out of that eye again. We let it go, but when we found out that we were going to get to come to the States, we decided to go ahead with a second opinion.

We went to see Dr. Susie sometime last week, and did not take pictures, because it slipped my mind. It was funny, because during the pre-check up, one of the assistants was going through the motions and came to a test with some glasses, and she said, "Have you ever been to a 3D movie?" I replied, "Yes, but she doesn't like them, because the glasses don't work for her." The assistant looked perplexed, so I added, "You have to have both eyes working to see 3D..." She looked kind of embarrassed and said, "Well, I guess we won't do that test..." Yeah... probably not.

Once we got in to see Dr. Susie, I was excited to ask the question... but before we got there, we found out that Abby is nearsighted. She will be getting glasses eventually, but not quite yet. The doctor told us that she would love to slap some glasses on her to protect her good eye, but she is still a little young for glasses. What a shock! Abby is going to wear glasses for the rest of her life!? I guess I couldn't give her my great sight, since she is technically not biologically mine... oh well.

We finally got to ask about Abby's blind eye, and Dr. Susie took a look inside. The doctor in Cambodia missed that Abby does still have part of her iris left, so she could be eligible for a cornea transplant. I was really excited, but then the bad news came. Even though she could technically get the transplant, her brain has already developed for three years with one eye, and there is a slim chance that it would adjust to having two eyes. Dr. Susie said that it would be hard to find a surgeon who would take the chance on it. She is still young enough to maybe pursue it, but we would need to be stateside with insurance before we tried anything with it.

It is looking like Abby is just going to have one eye. She is already quite adjusted to it, and most of the time, I forget that she is blind in that eye. We are super grateful to Dr. Susie for the check up. She was great with Abby and answered all of our questions with grace and kindness. And on top of it all, she gave us the visit for free. Such a blessing to our family! When/If we get back for good, she will definitely be our eye doctor.

Well that is your update on Abby's eye. Hopefully it answered some questions you might have about her vision and what we could do about it. We get asked all the time, "Will she ever be able to see out of that eye?" Like most things, God could work a miracle and give her vision... or He could show His glory in her through her testimony of a life with one good eye. Just as in the story with the man born blind, Jesus explained that it was not about sin that he was born blind, but so that the glory of God might be shown in him. I believe the same thing for Abby. We all have a choice to live for the glory of God, and I believe that her heavenly Father has a plan for her life that will give her an opportunity to show His glory in an amazing way. That is my prayer for her at least.

BecauseHeLives,
The Bergens.

Airplane!

So I am finally getting around to writing about our flight. We have been in the states about a week now: praise God!!!

Our flight did not go exactly as we planned. Phnom Penh to Korea was great. Abigail freaked out when we took off for the first time--a good freak out. She loved flying. Lily didn't even pay attention to it. The flight was in the middle of the night, so the girls basically slept the whole flight. The only thing not so great about it was that I forgot to take some Dramamine before the descent, so I ended up being super sick. We had a seven hour layover in Korea, so I had plenty of time to recover. It is a great airport to have a layover in with children, because there is tons of room, and there are play-places. We were able to put some dance videos on for the girls on my computer, and we basically just waited at our gate. I ended up walking across the airport for some Subway, which was great! We made our flight and took off for our long flight.
One good thing about traveling with small children is that you get put to the front of the line on everything!

The long flight was all right. Kelsi and I sat in the middle and the girls were on either side of us. They again slept most of the flight, and when they were not sleeping, they were watching movies! To the person who thought of putting movies on the backs of seats in planes, I love you. The girls were amazing! Such troopers. When we landed in LAX, we knew that we had only about an hour and a half to make our connection--because our flight was delayed slightly. We were not super confident that we would make this flight, because we had to go through immigration and re-check our bags, and LAX is a terrible airport. We told our flight attendant that we were going to be on a short connection, and so when we landed, they put us on the fast track to go through everything.

We went through immigration, and went to the front of the line on multiple security things, but in the end, having to re-check our bags killed us. By the time we made it to the place to check our bags, they told us that we should just take them to the gate. When we got to the gate, they said that since we did not have our boarding passes, and it was only fifteen minutes to take off, they could not do anything for us. So instead of getting on that plane at 10:15 AM, we were to wait for the next flight at 6:30 PM.

LAX is not a good airport to have a long layover in, and by this point, we had already been traveling for about twenty hours. As we waited for our flight, it got pushed back to seven, and then eight, and then eight thirty. By the time we got on the plane, it was nine. All I can say is you might want to avoid LAX and Delta is not my favorite airline, but that is based on one experience.

All in all, we landed in Kansas City! It was a long journey, but the girls were so excited when they saw their memas and papa standing at the gate. They were so excited about being in America that Abby ran straight to go outside... I don't think that she realized how cold cold could be. When it snowed on Sunday, she picked it up with her bare hand and then said, "That is sooooo cold!" When we played in the snow for the first time, she didn't last one hour. At forty minutes into playing she said, "Daddy, I think we need to go inside... my hands are freezing!!!"

We are blessed to have this time in the states, and we are slowly getting over jet lag--it is much harder when you have a baby! Abby and Lily woke up at two in the morning the second night and said, "We don't want to sleep anymore..." And Melody has been waking up at four in the morning ready to play, after on and off sleeping. I can't complain though, because most babies sleep like that anyway, but Mel usually sleeps through the night! Oh well, in the words of Abby, "We're in America!!!" :)

We would love to see you guys, so please get in touch with us, so we can plan a time to meet up with you! Our email is micah.kelsi@gmail.com

BecauseHeLives,
The Bergens.

Abby Goes to the Dentist

Abby was complaining about her tooth, so we looked in her mouth and found that she had a tooth growing in behind her baby tooth (commonly called a "Shark Tooth") Her baby tooth was wiggly but was not ready to come out. We decided to take her to the dentist to have it extracted, so that her other tooth would fall into place correctly. Here is a photo tour of our experience :)

Abby was not excited. A couple nights before, I tried to pull the tooth out (how hard could it be?). When I was unable to get it out, I told her that she would have to go to the dentist, and she cried, "No! I don't want to go. You pull it out... I don't want to go to the dentist, cause it will hurt." I could not convince her that it would hurt less at the dentist than if I tried to pull it out... 

 The whole procedure only took about five minutes. The dentist rubbed her gums with the numbing gel, and Abby screamed at that. When the dentist got out the pliers, Abby reacted as if it was a chainsaw. When the pliers went into her mouth she was not happy, but before she even had time to react, the tooth was out. The dentist asked me afterwards if I could help her to not be scared the next time... Hello, I bribed her with ice cream afterwards and held her hand and spoke to her in a calming voice the whole time. And leading up to it, I said over and over again that it would not hurt... what more could I do... seriously... any suggestions would be great... comment below.

It took me three tries to get her to finally hold this smile--showcasing her new gap :) The dentist told Abby not to stick her tongue in the whole or play with it for a while... who is she kidding, how can you resist? Abby kept telling me, "Daddy, I'm sticking my tongue in the hole :)"

 As promised, afterwards we went to the new mall, and ate ice-cream. Abby picked the chocolate chocolate chocolate... I'm not sure if that is really what it was called, but it was a big bowl of chocolate things, and Abby ate it all by herself, because Lily is as stubborn as Kelsi, and when she found out she had to share, she would not eat a single bite of it... other than the cherry on top, which she did not have to share.

Hope you enjoyed it!
Thank you to everyone who prays for us and supports us. It is because of you that we were able to take Abby to the dentist and ice cream! You are a huge blessing to our family!
BecauseHeLives,
Micah.