Mama No Leave

RaeAn

The last three weeks have been very challenging with RaeAn. We think it started when RaeAn’s “baby baba” finally went bad and we stopped her bottle three times a day. For the first week after she “quit” she just wasn’t her sweet, normal self. She started to have more temper tantrums, more anger and exhibit extreme frustration with an increasing separation anxiety. Her latest phrase is:

Mama No Leave!

She found the story in her children’s Bible where Moses’ mother had to put her baby in the river and got very upset saying, “Mama sad, Mama sad.”

While watching a Winnie the Pooh video where the Mama Elephant lost her baby, RaeAn got so upset at the story that she had to turn it off.

Yesterday she brought in a big stuffed rabbit and a little stuffed rabbit and said, “Mama Rabbit, Baby Rabbit. Mama no leave.”

Since the day RaeAn went to live with her foster mother after she was found at the orphanage until recently she’s been on a bottle three times a day. We wonder if the loss of this comfort that she’s had these past few years has triggered this increased sense of anxiety and fear that Christine is going to leave.

This week is much better than the first but she still cries and asks for her “baby baba” sometimes. Even toddlers mourn and experience the feelings of loss. And RaeAn has experienced more lost than most at her age.

Join us as we pray for RaeAn, that God will comfort her heart and let her know that truly, Mama No Leave. Even more so, God No Leave. Pray also for Christine, she’s exhausted…

Thank you again for your prayers for our family, life and ministry this week in Rwanda. God is listening and He is answering!

God is Kind

ESL/DBS w/Cyabagarura School Teachers

Tuesday afternoons are turning into one of the highlights of my week as I work with 12-16 School teachers from the Cyabagarura Secondary School. We are using a Discovery Bible Study (DBS) process as we help them improve their English. It’s exciting to see their English improve each week. But more importantly, I love watching the Holy Spirit bring the Word to life.

In a DBS we always ask these three questions:

  • What does this teach us about God?
  • What does this teach us about mankind?
  • What does this teach you about you?

Here are some of the “takeaways” that the teachers shared yesterday from Genesis 3:14-24 (in their words):

  • God is powerful.
  • Respecting my husband comes from God.
  • Pain in birth is normal.
  • I must work.
  • Sin is the reason we have pain.
  • God makes judgements.
  • We came from dust. We will return to dust.
  • We must be humble and live simple lives.
  • We must choose between good and bad things.
  • We must pray for women when they give birth.
  • Nothing in life is free.
  • God is kind. Even though Adam and Eve sinned, he still made and gave them clothes to wear.
  • There are many obstacles against men.
  • It teaches me to obey.
  • As a teacher I must work hard.
  • One person’s sin can bring suffering to others.
  • I need to increase love for others.
  • We must fight bad actions.
  • We must judge whether something is good or bad.

When we let the Holy Spirit do the teaching look what amazing truths come forth from the Word of God! There’s no way that I could have covered all of those topics had I been “teaching” them. Rather, I was the facilitator, the Holy Spirit was the teacher, and the source was the Word. We also had fun learning English as well!

Thank you for praying for this ESL/DBS each Tuesday. Pray that out of this group of teachers God will open our eyes to see the people of peace He’s raising up to transform their families and communities.

Seeking Peace

Seeking Peace in Rwanda

19 Years

This past month marked 19 years since the Rwandan Genocide. We were invited by the ATN-Rwanda Xtra Mile Community to participate in a memorial ceremony held on April 7th. We joined thousands of others (pictured above) in a long walk to the genocide memorial in Busoga. There, we watched as they buried more bones discovered in the past year from the genocide and listened to speeches and songs written to help us remember. As we sat, women on my left and behind me were sobbing deeply. As their heads leaned against my shoulders I could feel their bodies shaking with grief as the tears came and came. I can’t imagine the horror they were remembering. My hope and prayer is that our presence and our prayers can be a part of their healing.

Seeking Peace

Jeremiah 29:7 is taking on new significance for us in Rwanda.

 Seek the peace and prosperity of the city to which I have carried you into exile. Pray to the Lord for it, because if it prospers, you too will prosper.

We are discovering that “seeking” peace involves praying for and working towards peace. We believe that long-lasting healing will come if Rwanda is blessed with long-lasting peace. Today, join us in prayer as we seek peace and healing for Rwanda.

Reach Few to Reach Many

We continue to pray to the Lord of the Harvest to raise up more disciple makers in Rwanda who will connect their families and communities to the Word of God and to Jesus.

One Disciple Making Movement (DMM) principle is:

Reach few to reach many…

As we have prayed these past few years for God to lead us to people of peace, we expected to experience a constant flow of new people of peace in our lives. However, we are realizing that we have to disciple, coach and mentor the ones He’s already brought us into relationship with rather than just constantly seeking new ones! Isn’t that the example Jesus provided? He ministered to multitudes but focused his discipling efforts on a few.

With this new insight, we are now focusing our prayers and discipling efforts on a handful of men and women God has led us to these past few years. Our prayers continue for God to raise up more disciple makers, but we are asking God to raise them up not for us but for those whom God has put us in relationship with. Please join us in prayer for these twelve people, that God would help us pass along what we have learned from the Word and that God would lead each of them to five people of peace whom they can coach, mentor and train in disciple making. Their names are listed throughout the week in our daily prayer targets.

Our family is doing well in answer to your prayers. We are so grateful for the abundance of blessings the Lord is lavishing upon us through you; our family, friends, supporters and prayer warriors!

Making Disciples and Seeking Peace in Rwanda,

Murphy and Christine Crowson

Filled with Gratitude

Happy Holidays from Rwanda! Our family is so thankful for your continued prayers for us these past few months as we settled into our new home and life in Musanze. We prayed for years that God would prepare us to live and serve in this valley and these past few months we’ve experienced evidence of his going before us to prepare the way. Be sure to see the slideshow below with lots of pictures!

 

Packing up in Kigali...

On August 3, we finished packing our things in Kigali in the morning, traveled to Musanze and then unloaded the truck in the afternoon. We’re only two hours north of where we were in Kigali, but moving a family was just as challenging! I forgot about all of the physical and emotional stress that this kind of transition brings on. Now, months later, we are “recovered” and getting used to our new life here.

Crowsons in Musanze - Fall 2012We’re thankful for our new landlord, Jean Baptist Twahirwa, who went far beyond the call of duty to prepare a special place for our family to live. He’s not just a landlord, but a new friend. We’ve already been blessed with a meal at his home and were introduced to many of his family members.

We’re thankful for Eliezer and Seraphine and their 9 kids! (pictured in the middle below to the right of Nsenga and his family) Eliezer is my language helper and Seraphine helps Christine in our home. They quickly began introducing us to their friends and neighbors and have been a “key” that is helping us open many doors of opportunity for friendships in our community.

Crowsons in Musanze - Fall 2012We’re thankful for Nsenga who watches out for our home, spends a lot of time teaching RaeAn Kinyarwanda and introducing her to the kids in our community (pictured far left). He lives 2 hours away by bicycle on the side of Muhabura volcano (extinct :-) ). We were blessed last month to visit his family “on the mountain” and meet his mother, brother and grandparents.

We’re thankful to be with the Miller family (pictured below right) whom we’ve known for almost 12 years now. The Millers worked among the Kabiye people of northern Togo while we worked with the Watchi people in the south. Over the years our paths crossed many times as country teammates. Now we’re excited to be working with them together in the same place! They have four children, Abby, Aiden, Asher and Anna Marie.

Crowsons in Musanze - Fall 2012We’re thankful to have Julie Reagan and Meredith Gravatte here as teammates and teachers. Together, with the Millers, we created the Virunga Valley Christian Academy where the kids from our two families are going to school. Julie and Meredith are doing a great job providing a challenging and supportive learning environment. Our school is already growing as we are planning to add two more students and another teacher in January. At that time the school will have seven grade levels! A special thank you to the churches and friends that support our families in this way!

crowsons-in-musanze-fall-2012-20We’re thankful for new partnerships between ATN-Rwanda and two schools in our community, Regina Pacis and Group Scholare Cyabagarura. Christine is pictured left with Claudette teaching English to preschoolers at Regina Pacis. We prayed for open doors where we could serve the communities here and God led us to these two schools. Not only are we finding opportunities to serve, we are getting to know and are becoming a part of the communities and families that the schools serve.

As we visit and become friends with more and more families here in Musanze, we continue to pray that God will lead us to “families of peace” who are hungry for spiritual transformation in their homes, communities and nation. To find these families, we are serving in every opportunity the Lord gives us, investing in new friendships in our community, prayer walking through Musanze’s neighborhoods and doing our best to be salt and light everywhere we go and with everyone we meet.

Thank you for praying so faithfully for us. God is listening and He is answering. May our Holiday Season be filled with joy and thanksgiving as we remember the abundant love our Creator has lavished upon us!

A Place Where God’s Name is Honored

Greetings from Ruhengeri, Musanze, Rwanda! This past August our family successfully transitioned from Rwanda’s capital city of Kigali to Musanze (formerly Ruhengeri) in the north west part of the country. As we settle into our life and home here we are working hard to become a part of our new community through language learning and relationship building. Our prayer is that God will use us to be catalysts for community transformation.

Reflections from Nehemiah 1

When people talk about community building, community development or community transformation, they often turn to Nehemiah to gain insight and inspiration. Recently, as I was reflecting on Nehemiah Chapter 1, several things stood out to me.

Jeremiah was curious to know how those in Jerusalem were doing. He was concerned about their welfare and sought out information. He wasn’t a citizen of Jerusalem and we don’t think that he’d even been there before, yet he was concerned. Transformational leaders don’t just care about their own well-being. They are also concerned about the well-being of outside communities, cities and nations. Our love for Rwandans will push us to consider not our own needs and struggles but also those in the community in which we are living.

I also asked myself why he wept and mourned for a people he didn’t know and a place he hadn’t seen? Perhaps, his heart was broken simply because of the suffering of God’s people. It seems that this news from Jerusalem came as a total shock to him, having not been aware of the desolate state of Jerusalem and it’s people. But once he was aware, his heart was led to compassion. The more we get to know our community, it’s brokenness, suffering and need, the more our hearts long for transformation and renewal.

It was also interesting to me that following his mourning his heart turned to confession, not only of the sins of the nation, but his own sins and even the sins of his own family. “I confess that I have sinned against you.” I’ve heard it said many times that transformation begins with self. So does confession. Why should he feel guilty for the sins of others? He realized that he too was also unrighteous.

As I reflect on the suffering in Rwanda, my heart too is sick. Why was I spared the horror that Rwandans experienced? I have never suffered as they have suffered. Perhaps part of Nehemiah’s pain was the realization that it could have just as easily been himself and his family who experienced the destruction of their home and nation. Yet, he was spared as I and my family have been spared.

Finally, Nehemiah reminds us that Jerusalem was the place God had chosen for His name to be honored. Yet, it’s current state was no longer bringing honor to God. When people hear the name “Rwanda,” almost without question they think of the 1994 genocide. An event that reminds them of darkness and brings no honor to God.

Today though, Rwandans are writing a new, future story for their nation. We are praying that this new story will overshadow and even replace the dark history so that when people think of Rwanda, God will be honored. We are praying for a spiritual revival that recaptures the hearts and minds of the nation. A discipleship movement that wipes away the tears, heals the wounds and unites the people.

RaeAn is pictured above during a visit to  Emmanueli Nsengimana’s home, one of our new friend’s in Musanze. You can see RaeAn holding the hand of his newborn son, Aimé (French name for “Beloved” or “To Love”). Perhaps the new story we are praying for will be written by the new generations represented in this picture as God raises them up. New generations who will write love, joy, unity, righteousness, truth and peace into the future story of Rwanda.

God had chosen Jerusalem to be a place where His name would be honored. Join us as we pray asking God to choose the city of Ruhengeri, the valley of Musanze and the nation of Rwanda as places where His name will be honored.

China Adoption: USCIS Appointment

Last Wednesday (September 28, 2011), our guide delivered Raean’s US Passport with her IR3 Immigrant visa to our hotel. On Thursday morning we set off on our journey to Honolulu, Hawaii via Seoul, Korea. The journey was long and wore us out! I do want to say though that in my last 20 years of international travel I have never experienced better customer service than with Korean Airlines! I wish they flew to Africa from the States! When Stephen was throwing up during the night due to motion sickness they took care of our every need! They didn’t treat us as “customers” but as friends. So thankful for their service, care and attention! They also took great care of Raean and made sure we had bassinet seats and everything else we needed to take care of her.

After we arrived at the Honolulu airport (9am) we proceeded to immigration where the officer said, “Are you the family we’re supposed to ‘expedite’? We loved the sound of that! “Yes!” we replied. He told us he would make sure the USCIS got our file that day.

We rushed to get a car rental, find a bite to eat and then make photocopies of adoption paperwork in preparation for our appointment that after noon at 1:30 with the USCIS office downtown. I was only 10 minutes late after trying to find the office! I paid the N600K fee, submitted all supporting documents and then the immigration officer said that we probably needed to redo Raean’s passport photos (we had taken extras in China in prep for this appointment but the color was faded). I didn’t have Raean with me and their office was closing. So, that meant another trip into town on Friday to have her passport photos retaken and submitted. At this point, we had done all we could do. Now it was time to wait.

Yesterday (Thursday, October 6, 2011) the USCIS office called (and emailed) us our interview appointment date and time! We are hoping that this means THERE ARE NO PROCEDURAL CHANGES in the Certificate of Citizenship application process for us and that next Tuesday, October 11th, we’ll be able to complete the interview and receive her CoC.

In the last week we’ve been working on four paperwork issues at once and have made numerous trips to OfficeMax for copying, scanning and emailing:

  • Certificate of Citizenship: We now have an appointment for 10/11/2011 for an interview.
  • 1st Post Adoption Report (PAR) for China: Our first PAR is due October 31st which means that we had to find an accredited Social Worker in the Ft. Worth area to visit us while we are in Texas and do a “home” visit and prepare all of the necessary documents to file our 1st PAR. To begin the process we had to fill out more paperwork and submit it to the agencies office in Austin, Texas (via email)
  • IMG Health Insurance: We were able to file the application and medical records this week and IMG already granted her Health Insurance Certificate adding her to our family insurance. They even back dated her coverage to the day she was adopted in China!
  • Re-Adoption in the US: We were able to file the necessary application forms and supporting documents with a law firm in Ft. Worth to “Re-Adopt” Raean in the US and get a court date for October 21st with the Tarrant County Court to complete the process. This will ensure that in US legal terms, she’s our adopted daughter! When the process is finished, we will have a US Adoption Certificate definitively stating that she’s our daughter! Here’s the legal wording that will be in the court document that we just love:
IT IS, THEREFORE, ORDERED, ADJUDGED AND DECREED that Petitioners’ request to adopt the child in the United States be, and it hereby is, granted; that the name of the child be, and hereby is, RAEAN LI CROWSON; and that the parent-child relationship exists under Texas law between the child, RAEAN LI CROWSON, and Petitioners, MURPHY ATHEL CROWSON and CHRISTINE CAROL LANGSTON CROWSON, as if such child had been born to Petitioners.

If/When we receive Raean’s CoC next Tuesday, the next “filing” will be for her US Passport in Honolulu.

In-between all of this paperwork we have been able to enjoy several days at the beach, 2 snorkeling trips, a Hawaiian Luau, a visit to the USS Arizona memorial in Pearl Harbor and lots of swimming:) We’ve also enjoyed having Papa and Mama Dear (my parents) here with us as we continue to “bond” with Raean as a family.

We have had a few challenges in Paradise though…. The traffic in souther Oahu is TERRIBLE! One day we spent over 3 1/2 hours in traffic! Can you imagine my frustration! Raean DOES NOT LIKE BEING CONSTRICTED IN A CAR SEAT! Every car trip is fill with lots of tears crying for mama to rescue her! This is one active little girl that does not like to be tied down! On day three of our car rental this parking lot post/column jumped out of the ground and hit our car on the driver’s side causing some significant cosmetic damage! Did you know that Hawaiian parking lot columns are ALIVE!  So glad we bought collision insurance. Lots more paperwork now though filing the claim. I joked that as we were coming to an end of our adoption paperwork that I was subconsciously looking for more! NOT!

We appreciate your prayers for our paperwork processing to much. It’s all coming together at once! If all goes as planned, expected and hoped, we will have Raean’s Certificate of Citizenship next Tuesday, apply for her US Passport that same day (with a two-day turnaround) and then leave for DFW next Friday night! We’ll let you know how things go!

 

China Day 2 – The Forbidden City and The Great Wall

 

The Great Wall of China

The past two days were filled with city tours and site seeing. The highlight was visiting and climbing to the top of The Great Wall of China… Lots of steps!

We were joined by two other families also adopting children through CWA yesterday and are so blessed to have others here experiencing all of this with us!

Tomorrow morning we leave the hotel at 5am for the airport to fly 2 and 1/2 hours south to Nangchan City. After checking into our hotel, our guide will then take us to the China Adoption Affairs office where we will meet our daughter! It’s hard to imagine that after 5 and 1/2 years of waiting THE DAY has finally come! I think that we’re 14 hours ahead of Central time. If we meet her at 2pm China time that would be midnight Central time… So, when you wake up Monday morning, we’ll have RaeAn in our arms! How exciting is that!

Pray for her adjustment and bonding with our family, that it will be smooth and quick. As well, please pray that we will be able to interview her caretakers. We have many questions!

Below are a few pictures from Saturday and Sunday. Enjoy:)

China Schedule

Below is our schedule while we’re in China. We would greatly appreciate it if you could pray for us specifically on each day. As well, please continue to pray that the USCIS will process our daughter’s Certificate of Citizenship in three days as they have done in the past before new changes take place!

We leave Kigali tomorrow afternoon at 3:45pm and arrive in Beijing Friday afternoon around 3:30pm.

We are so thankful for how your prayers have carried us this far!

We are supposed to have internet at different hotels in China and will be updating our blog as often as we can…

Oh…. So excited!

Crowson China Itinerary

China Women Travel Service Head Office
HAO RUN Building 50 Deng Shi Kou Da Jie, Beijing 100006
Tel: 86-10-65254272   Fax: 86-10-85113514   E-mail:ad@cwts.com.cn

Itinerary for the Crowson family / Lu Rui Wen?2010/12/27?

Sept. 16: Arriving in Beijing by the flight ET 604 at 15:30
Staying at Jian Guo Hotel
Sept. 17: Free day
Sept. 18: Local sightseeing: the Forbidden City and the Great Wall
Sept. 19: Flying from Beijing to Nanchang by CA1573 (0750/1015)
Staying at Jin Feng Hotel
Meeting the child and doing registration in the afternoon
Sept. 20: Doing notarization
Doing shopping for the baby stuff
Sept. 21: Local sightseeing: the Teng Wang Pavilion and the People’s park
Sept. 22: Local sightseeing: the You Min Temple and the Elephant Lake Park
Sept. 23: Getting the passport
Flying from Nanchang to Guangzhou by MU 5231(1925/2100)
Staying at Garden Hotel
Sept. 24: Taking visa photo and Physical check
Sept. 25: Local sightseeing: the Yun Tai Garden
Sept. 26: Visa appointment at 10:00, and swearing ceremony at the Consulate
Sept. 27: Getting the visa
Local sightseeing: doing shopping in the local market
Sept. 28: Local sightseeing: the Six Banyan Temple
Sept. 29: Leaving for home by the flight KE 866 at 12:40

Hotel information:
1. Jianguo hotel in Beijing
Tel: +86-10-65002233
Fax: +86-10-65002871
Address: 5, Jian Guo Men Wai Da Jie, Beijing?100020

2. Jin Feng Hotel in Nanchang
Tel: 86-0791-8867777
Fax:86-0791-8868888
Address: Zhan Qian Xi Lu 281, Xihu District, Nanchang, Jiangxi Province, 330002

3. Garden Hotel
Tel?+86-20-61136156
Fax: +86-20-38471992
Address: 368, Huan Shi Dong Lu, Yuexiu Qu, Guangzhou,510064

China Adoption Update: Headed to China!

In our last post we said,

There are two possible dates for when we would be able to travel to pick up our baby girl: September 15 or October 28. Obviously, we prefer the date in September!

In order for that to happen though we need two small miracles:) First, we need to receive travel approval from China by the end of August. Second, there needs to be an available appointment for us at the US Embassy in Guangzhou the last week in September. To get to travel that quickly would be “icing on the cake!” So, LET’S PRAY FOR ICING!

If you pray for icing, go ahead and get your cake ready! Both miracles happened and we are excited to announce that we are headed to China on September 15th and our US Embassy appointment is September 26th! AWESOME!!!!!!

If our understanding of our schedule is correct then we will get to meet our daughter on Monday, September 19, two weeks from today. This is also Matthew’s 11th Birthday! What an awesome birthday present:)

We thank you for praying for us, for miracles, for paperwork, for logistics. God is listening and answering. We waited and prayed for so long and now the answers are flooding in!

Our tickets are purchased, hotel reservations made and China visas stamped in our passports! It’s true! It’s real! We’re headed to China!

You can imagine the range of emotions we are experiencing… Rush, rush, rush to get ready to leave. Long “to-do” lists that never seem to finish. Excitement that we are actually getting a daughter. Nervousness about the trip, logistics, and change in our family. Uncertainty as to how to file certain kinds of paperwork. Dazed by the reality that we are leaving in less than two weeks! Prayerful that everything will go just as planned!

Last Friday was a difficult day as we found out about more “unknown and uncertain” USCIS paperwork. It’s confusing even to us! Since we live overseas, the US does not recognize us as “US Residents”. In a normal adoption case, when the US family returned home, the USCIS would automatically process a Certificate of Citizenship (CoC) for their adopted child.

No so for us! We have to file a special USCIS form called a N600K to apply for our daughter’s Certificate of Citizenship.

There is great confusion as to whether or not we can get a US Passport for our daughter without this certificate. Some say we must have it. Some say we don’t need it. The USCIS and State Department seem to disagree on this matter. The State Department will issue a US Passport without the CoC, but the USCIS doesn’t like that and wants the child to have a CoC before they apply and receive a US Passport. This whole process, it is rumored, can take from 2-6 months to complete. We need to have a US Passport for our daughter before we return to Rwanda. If we get the passport before the CoC then the USCIS may (as they have done in the past) deny her a CoC. Confused yet! Obviously, we don’t want to hang out in the States of six months!

The solution that many Americans adopting while living abroad have taken is to first enter the US via Honolulu. The USCIS office in Honolulu has, as a service and courtesy to US Citizens adopting while living abroad, processed the adopted child’s CoC in just three days under these conditions:

  • Honolulu is their first port of entry into the US
  • Appropriate appointments are made ahead of time
  • Necessary forms are filed and paid for
  • Proof of citizenship is provided
  • Proof if provided that the parent has lived in the US for at least five years, two years after the age of 14.

As well, in Honolulu, once the CoC is granted, the State Department office there can issue her a passport in just two days.

Thus, our plan fly from China directly to Honolulu to get our daughter’s CoC and US Passport in a matter of days. This is the easiest and best option for our family which will enable us to return to Rwanda quickly.

Friday though, we received a shock!

The USCIS office in Honolulu wrote us (after we had written them of our plans to arrive on September 29th) and told us that their office will be closed and no appointments will be available until October 11th. FURTHERMORE, during this time their office will be conducting an audit AND the procedure for CoC applications may change.

The office was very gracious to us and said that they hoped we would not be affected by the changes! Can you imagine the panic! Christine just happened to look at me as I was reading the email and asked, “What are you doing?” The shock was evident on my face!

So, here is our next prayer request for you:

Pray that our daughter’s Certificate of Citizenship and US Passport can both be processed in Honolulu at the USCIS and State Department Offices as planned. Pray that any possible changes in the USCIS CoC processing WILL NOT EFFECT US and that our dauther’s CoC  and US Passport can be processed under the current system!

We prayed for icing before and God listened and answered. Now we are praying for whipped cream and a cherry on top! May all glory and honor go to Him for He is a Good God who listens to the prayers of His people and answers them in His faithfulness out of His abundance!

 

Specific Adoption Paperwork Prayer

Friends, family and prayer warriors,

Thank you so much for your intercession today. The information, ideas and solutions are flowing… It was a good day.

With the help of our Social Worker, Randy Barlow, we were able to submit the information that we believe is sufficient to answer the USCIS Nairobi’s request!

Please pray specifically that the USCIS Nairobi office would accept and approve our updated home study “AS IS” just like the USCIS Accra office accepted and approved our previous three home studies.

The previous three home studies and this new update are all virtually the same. For some reason, the first three were not questioned but a specific item in this fourth one is being questioned.

Encouraged and full of positive expectations! Glory be to the One who is above all powers, thrones, rulers and red tape! Let us hold steadfast in prayer!!!