Pure & Lasting bio picture
  • Welcome to our blog!

    Hello! My name is Jennifer. My amazing husband, Chris, and I have been married for nearly 3 years. This blog was created to document our life together and, more specifically, our journey of adoption. We have finished our paperwork and are now on the wait list for a 0-12 month old infant girl. I am a wedding/portrait photographer and Chris owns a landscaping company. Welcome :) Stay a while.

    "Rescue the perishing; don't hesitate to step in and help. If you say, "Hey, that's none of my business," [i.e. "that's not for me"] will that get you off the hook? Someone is watching you closely, you know— Someone not impressed with weak excuses." -Proverbs 24:12 (The Message)

Rwanda & Alain {Part 4}

The Visiting Orphans team was only at Noel for two days, so the next day we were on our own. It had been a busy couple of days with little time for us to just be together. We decided to spend the entire day just the three of us. In the morning, we played Jenga and games on the iPad, ate breakfast at the hotel, all while listening to Justin Bieber. Yes, lots and lots of Justin Bieber. Alain is obsessed and now we know all the words! Then our tour guide (aka Alain), took us on a walk to Lake Kivu. We had lunch at another hotel. After lunch, Alain swam in the lake. It was an amazing day.
Before we arrived in Rwanda, we were not sure how well we would be able to communicate with Alain. On our first trip, we didn’t actually talk to him much. Crazy, I know. Although he has a lot of English to learn, we had no problem communicating. There were some dramatic hand motions. Sometimes I was sure that he thought I was absolutely insane. We have been home for over two weeks and every day he learns something new. He is constantly surprising us. It is a crazy good life.
-Jenn

Photo by the wonderful Wynne Elder on their last night in Rwanda.
Teaching Alain Cut the Rope on the iPad.
The beautiful walk to Lake Kivu.
Rwanda is quite a modern country. The main roads are all perfectly paved.
Getting a photo of him swimming proved to be difficult. He is there, on the deck with the basketball.
Jenga was a hit. A great way to interact without much vocabulary and lots of laughs when it all came crashing down.

Randi Shetley - Love, Love. Love!!!

Los Johnsons - What amazing pictures! My heart is happy to see where the Lord has lead you! You are amazing people and thanks for doing what you are doing.

Rwanda & Alain {Part 3}

The following day we hitched a ride with the Visiting Orphans group and returned to Noel to hang out with the children. I am so glad that we decided to spend some time at Noel, to give Alain a chance to be with his friends again and for us to reconnect with the children from our first trip. Emotionally, it was difficult. Many of the children remembered us and knew that we would be taking Alain with us. They seemed to understand that would could not take them all, but that did not stop several of them from asking us to. It is heartbreaking. I believe that every child deserves a family, someone to give them personal attention. For many of these children, that will never happen.
At this time, the Rwandan government is working to “reunify” the children of Noel with any living family members that they may have. You can read Tara’s post about the reunification here. There is another article about the reunification here. In a nutshell (in my opinion), they are trying to make it appear as though Rwanda has fewer orphans by manipulating family members who either do not want these children or absolutely cannot care for these children to take them out of Noel so that they can use the Noel Orphanage grounds for other purposes. Not cool, not cool at all. Say some big prayers for our friends at Noel. No child should be traded for a cow. Seriously infuriates me. Children being pawns in politics is absolutely crazy. I could go on and on. We are blessed to have one, here with us and safe, but there are so many others. It seems like there is nothing that can be done to stop it. Tara is working on opportunities for the older children so that they will have job skills to support themselves when they are no longer allowed to live at Noel. I will keep you updated on how you can help :)
-Jenn

On the right, Wynne’s sister, Rachel. 
Chris’ buddy Immanuel.
Alain with his friend, Gato (on the left) and Pascal (on the right).
My sweet Mohoza and I making crazy faces at the little one to make her giggle.
I love this photo!!
Innocent and Alain on the drums. They are really good. Video to come :)
Tara and her boy, Inn. Love this girl.
Oh my goodness!!! Could he be any cuter?! I think not.
Wynne, with her boys and my boy.
My girls, Evone and Mohoza, in their new dresses that I brought for them.
Kazuba.

kirsty - i am loving reading your posts guys, god bless your soxs off!..keep them comming im so addicted to reading your storys and your faith in god;)

wynne - love it! love the photos, as always!!!! you are the best!

Rwanda & Alain {Part 2}

I really am trying to blog all of the photos and stories before I forget them!! After two full days of airplane travel and one night’s stay in Kigali, we headed to Noel Orphanage. Alain had not been to the orphanage in a couple of months. He had been staying with family in Kigali so that he was close to our attorney and to all of the government agencies to get a passport, ID, and eventually a visa. I didn’t know what to expect when we returned to Noel. How would Alain react? How would the other children react to him and to us? How would I feel being there again? I was excited to see some of my friends from the first trip and my friend Wynne would be at Noel when we arrived!! As soon as we got out of the car, I was looking for Wynne. I could hear drumming coming from one of the buildings, so I made my way towards the sound. I didn’t see her until she was running towards me. The second best hug I’ve had in a long time. It was just so good to be with her in Africa. God really is too good to me! You can read Wynne’s account of her first day at Noel on her blog (click here).
The rest of the day was spent playing, holding children’s hands and wondering where in the world is Alain. He ran off to be with his friends, play basketball and reconnect. It was good for him to see them and for them to see him so happy. I was worried that the other children would not welcome him knowing that he was leaving. But they did, with open arms. His joy was their joy. Such beautiful children with hearts so big to love their friend in such a selfless way. It was a good day. Here are some photos from our first day back at Noel.
-Jenn

Alain with a group of his friends soon after we arrived.
WYNNE!
Alain and Innocent, he is Tara boy. Hoping and praying that there will be more of his story soon.
I was so excited to see my girls again. Evone and Muhosa.
Katherine was on our first trip to Rwanda/Ethiopia. It was amazing to see her again. I loved the timing of our trip. Perfect!
Painting toenails :)
I LOVE this photo. We were both so happy. I love this girl, truly a friend of my heart. We were even wearing the same cardigan :) Too funny!
Chris and Immanual, reunited. (on the left) Tara and Innocent. (on the right)
My Africa girls. Jane, our guide, me, Wynne and Tara.
Giving Immanuel his new shoes.

Angel - We are halfway through our second Ethiopian adoption. It is so nice to read your blog because you share the same passion. It makes me feel a little closer to the finish line. I’ll be praying for you as you adjust to your new life. Thank you for shareing.

Rwanda & Alain {Part 1}

We’re home and busy, busy, busy, but doing great!! I am a bit overwhelmed with all we need to do to get Alain set up for school and life in the US, but I want to write down the stories from our trip before I forget. First there will be a few posts about the day to day goings on. I’m expecting a few about the emotions, motivations and changes in our life to surface a little later :)
It is my intention to honestly document our journey. It is a beautiful journey, but it is and will be hard work. It is not a fairy tale. It would be irresponsible for me to give you the idea that it is. We are blessed beyond measure to be a part of Alain’s life, but not only because it is fun and exciting, but because we are a part of the work (work!) God is doing in his life. We get a front row seat to watch God’s plan for his life and for ours unfold. To go into an adoption or a whatever-it-is-that-you-call-what-we-are-doing with unrealistic expectations is not fair to the child who is involved in the situation. The adults in the situation have to be in it for the long haul. To love through the healing of broken hearts and stay when the new wears off. If there is one thing I have learned through Maya’s adoption process and Alain’s visa process, it is that this stuff is complicated. Worth it, so very worth it, but complicated. I’m sure there will be more about this later :)
On December 28th, Chris and I boarded our first plane on our way to Rwanda. Throughout the many hours of traveling, we had conversations about how we were feeling. At 30 years old, both owners of businesses, we pretty much do what we want, when we want to. Adding a 16 year old child who would need quite a bit of attention, teaching, directing and loving was beyond our imagination. Literally, we did not know what to expect at all. We wondered if we had any earthy idea what we had gotten ourselves into. Was Alain as sweet and smart as we remembered him to be? Would we be able to communicate with him at all? Could we actually do what we said we were going to do? How the heck did this even happen? I know I was there throughout the whole process. I filled out the forms, paid the fees and said the prayers, but oh my goodness, it actually happened! I was excited and scared to death, but some how unusually calm most of the way to Rwanda.
While waiting on our last flight, we were told that it had been delayed…for 6 hours. That was when I almost lost it. I knew Alain would be waiting with our attorney at the airport and we would have a difficult time getting a hold of them. But when you are in Africa, just wait a bit and everything changes. Somehow they found another plane and had us on our way with a 2 hour delay. We get off the plane in Rwanda, go to collect our bags and find that the bag with all of Alain’s we clothes is missing. We wait and wait and still nothing. All this time we know that he is waiting just on the other side of the doors to greet us. Finally we gave up, report the bag missing and head out of the terminal. A few steps into the room and there he is, bounding towards me arms wide open, he hugs my neck saying “Thank you, thank you, thank you.” and doesn’t let go. It was a great moment and a picture that I will have in my mind forever :) He was just as beautiful and sweet as I remembered. He was so excited to see us!!
After the big greeting, he returned to his somewhat reserved self. We discussed our plans with our attorney and driver and decided it was best not to drive 3 hours after dark. We would wait until the next morning to leave and hope to collect our missing bag before we left. It worked out perfectly, we got a good nights rest, collected bag easily at the airport the next morning and we off to the orphanage. We wanted to give Alain a chance to say goodbye to all of his friends and my dear friend Wynne was at Noel with a Visiting Orphans team. Such perfectly great God-timing. Here are a few photos of our traveling days :) Next up, Noel Orphanage.
-Jenn

Waiting to board the loooooong flight from Washington D.C. to Ethiopia.
The beauty that is Rwanda.

Ashley Irvin - - I just found your blog. Wow this is nuts and so very amazing! He seems like such a sweet kid.

Sydney Hollingsworth - thank you for sharing such an incredible story! I just wanted to let you know you are both such an inspiration!

Chelsea Mills - Sincerity is always appreciated :)
Love you all. Praying. Can’t wait to hear more!

Jennifer Nichols - What an amazing journey. I can’t wait to hear more!!

Dream big. Do something.

Our life is turning into quite an adventure, but somehow, for the first time in months, I am not anxious. I’m overwhelmed, but peaceful. Scared and excited. It is a strange combination. I’ve always dreamed of living a big life. I think the only way to do that is to be scared out of your mind and take that step anyway. I’ve been saving some quotes on Pinterest for a few months, you may see a trend (Click here for my board).

Source: etsy.com via Jennifer on Pinterest

 

 

I can almost pinpoint the moment that I realized that when you want to do something, you should make it happen. I was about 21 years old, sitting in my best friend/business partner, Kaylinn’s bedroom and we were dreaming of going to Europe. We had talked about it many times before, but this time one of us said, “Let’s just do it.” It was at that moment, I decided that I wanted to be someone who did what I said I wanted to do.  A dreamer and a doer. We made the call, booked the trip, shut down our business for a month and went to Europe. It happened. We said we would go and we went. It is a great feeling to make a dream come true, to live your dreams in reality.

Here we are in London, living it up!

After that I was addicted. When I dreamed something enough to say it out loud, I wanted to do it. When Chris and I started dating, we read a book called Just Do Something: How to Make a Decision Without Dreams, Visions, Fleeces, Open Doors, Random Bible Verses, Casting Lots, Liver Shivers, Writing in the Sky, Etc. It basically said that we need to stop waiting, even if we say we are waiting on God and DO SOMETHING. God has given us direction in His word. He has given us talents and opportunities. We should compare our desires to God’s heart and start moving.
That morning when I woke Chris up to tell him about my dream to go to Africa with Visiting Orphans, I’m pretty sure his response was, “Let’s do it.” God gave us the desire, the time and the resources to go, so we went. When we came home, we couldn’t stop thinking about Alain, we wanted to do something about it. We prayed, we researched and we said that as long as God was opening doors we were going to walk through them. There were no signs from heaven or prolific dreams. All we had was a love for a child, who we knew God loved too. We know that God has not forgotten Alain. God’s way of telling Alain was to give this crazy couple in Texas a love for him too. I am so glad we didn’t wait, ponder and worry. I’m so happy that we did something. Our lives will not wait for us to make a decision. They continue to pass us by. If you have a dream, even a BIG dream, don’t wait. Do something!
-Jenn

Lisa Woods - Ah that book sounds awesome. I’m going to get it.

Beth Skeeter - Jenn and Chris,

So excited for you three! I wanted to add that I’ve been engrossed in a book titled
SUN STAND STILL, by Steve Furtick. With your quotes given, you will love it! It’s all about audacious faith. Our boldness with God that to expect the impossible. It’s very encouraging and since my VO trip I have been on a journey myself. Actually my “faith journey” began to change before the trip. I felt like I was “bossy” with my prayers at time, but no – not so. Wish we had had more time to visit on the trip…. blessings!

Wynne - So honored to walk this with y’all! Thank you for encouraging us to love big & to do something!! Such an important life lesson! See you in Rwanda ;)

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