I started this blog to write about our Ind*a adoption, but the reality of it is that we are also foster parents. I haven't written much about baby bug and his time here because I wanted this blog to be about our adoption, but I want to adovocate and share our experience with foster care. I want people to see the good, the bad and the ugly!Therefore I decided to create a new blog where our entire journey the Lord has us on can be written about!
Before I give you the new link. It is a wordpress blog. I know nothing about wordpress so when I have spare time I will work on fixing it up and making it more welcoming!
You can now find us here at Many Hearts, One Family.
Come see the latest happenings!!!
25 October 2011
18 October 2011
The Lord Hears!
But from there you will seek the lord your God, and you will find Him if you seek Him with all your heart and with all your soul. When you are in distress, and all these things come upon you in the latter days, when you turn to the Lord your God and obey His voice, He will not forsake you nor destroy you, nor forget the covenant of your fathers which He swore to them.
-Deuteronomy 4:29-31
I am not going to lie, these last few weeks have been tumultuous on our emotions! Turns out dossiers for special needs children may not have to wait until January 1. Confused? So are we! God bless our poor agency and their grateful attitudes thru all of this! They are fielding tons of questions from families and trying to sort out all of the information they have obtained from across the sea.
There are two families who are ahead of us, dependant on what happens with their file will determine our families time line. No pressure right?
Clear as mud? GREAT!
These last few weeks we hav watched several friends sit at embassy in Africa waiting for clearance (one family has been back and forth from Africa since JULY), other families have had roadblocks and obstacles put in their path while trying to bring their children home from a variety of countries. It seems the enemy is hard at work my friends, which means we need to be on our knees and praying more.
Even in our own home, we allowed the enemy a few victorious moments, but praise God for my husband and his wisdom and not allowing those victorious moments to be anything more than few and brief!
We press on trusting in the Lord for His will for we know that our family and precious darling "S" will not be forsaken!.
God is moving in Ind*a, it just may not be at a pace we want, but there are 35 million reasons to keep moving and to keep praying and trusting!
-Deuteronomy 4:29-31
I am not going to lie, these last few weeks have been tumultuous on our emotions! Turns out dossiers for special needs children may not have to wait until January 1. Confused? So are we! God bless our poor agency and their grateful attitudes thru all of this! They are fielding tons of questions from families and trying to sort out all of the information they have obtained from across the sea.
There are two families who are ahead of us, dependant on what happens with their file will determine our families time line. No pressure right?
Clear as mud? GREAT!
These last few weeks we hav watched several friends sit at embassy in Africa waiting for clearance (one family has been back and forth from Africa since JULY), other families have had roadblocks and obstacles put in their path while trying to bring their children home from a variety of countries. It seems the enemy is hard at work my friends, which means we need to be on our knees and praying more.
Even in our own home, we allowed the enemy a few victorious moments, but praise God for my husband and his wisdom and not allowing those victorious moments to be anything more than few and brief!
We press on trusting in the Lord for His will for we know that our family and precious darling "S" will not be forsaken!.
God is moving in Ind*a, it just may not be at a pace we want, but there are 35 million reasons to keep moving and to keep praying and trusting!
12 October 2011
Change the World thru 1 child
Did you know that Steve Jobs was adopted? Yep! Shortly after his death, several friends on facebook were posting a link to an article that told our family he was adopted (it was news to us)!
Steve Jobs parents chose life, and their decision literally changed the world. Chances are many are reading this post from a MAC, iPhone, iTouch or an iPad.
What if they had not chosen life?
Adoption can literally change the world. :)
Steve Jobs parents chose life, and their decision literally changed the world. Chances are many are reading this post from a MAC, iPhone, iTouch or an iPad.
What if they had not chosen life?
Adoption can literally change the world. :)
11 October 2011
Crocs for Coffee Campaign
About six years ago we met a precious family who was in the beginning stages of bringing their daughter home from China, it was such a joy to follow their journey and to see her come home!
Now they are in the process of bringing home an amazingly adorable son "Z" from Ethiopia! His face is captivating and I can NOT wait to lay eyes on him in the flesh!
The America World Transitional Home as well as the other orphanage the Martine family will be visiting when they go for their first visit constantly are in need of shoes. Therefore they started the "Crocs for Coffee Campaign!"
For every croc or croc-like pair you donate, your name will be entered into a drawing for the yummiest coffee brought to you by Ground to Cup! All shoes must be to them by November 3 since they are leaving the 15th to go spend THANKSGIVING with their son!
Payless had an awesome BOGO sale that ended last night, where the first pair was $5.00 and the second was $2.50 and there was a 20% off coupon floating around. Don't despair though I am sure there are still great deals out there to be had!
Email Cristie at cmartine(at sign)satx.rr.com for her address if you do not live in the immediate region!
Make a difference for these precious children's feet!
Now they are in the process of bringing home an amazingly adorable son "Z" from Ethiopia! His face is captivating and I can NOT wait to lay eyes on him in the flesh!
The America World Transitional Home as well as the other orphanage the Martine family will be visiting when they go for their first visit constantly are in need of shoes. Therefore they started the "Crocs for Coffee Campaign!"
For every croc or croc-like pair you donate, your name will be entered into a drawing for the yummiest coffee brought to you by Ground to Cup! All shoes must be to them by November 3 since they are leaving the 15th to go spend THANKSGIVING with their son!
Payless had an awesome BOGO sale that ended last night, where the first pair was $5.00 and the second was $2.50 and there was a 20% off coupon floating around. Don't despair though I am sure there are still great deals out there to be had!
Email Cristie at cmartine(at sign)satx.rr.com for her address if you do not live in the immediate region!
Make a difference for these precious children's feet!
10 October 2011
Update
“But as for you, be strong and do not give up, for your work will be rewarded.” 2 Chronicles 15:7
“Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles and let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us.” Hebrews 12:1
Both of these verses have been our prayers this last week as we waited for news from across the sea.
As everyone knows we were waiting for October 1 for the new laws to go into effect to continue on, but we were warned that it could be up to a few weeks after that before they actually make the changes, so we sat and waited.
GREAT News: Last year 236 children were adopted from Ind@a, well guess what?! Right now, there are 550 dossiers in their office waiting to be processed! PRAISE the Lord that close to double the amount of children will have a forever home!!!
Ehh News: Because of this, they are not accepting anymore dossiers until January 1st. What does this mean? Well, since we were on track to have our dossier and homestudy finished by no later than the first or second week of November, this means once it is finished we can triple check for accuracy and thank God for his timing.
God News: We have heard from several families who have adopted from this particular state as well as several agencies, who all say hands down this state is the hardest and most difficult to process adoptions out of. Encouraging right?! Luckily, we know our God is sovereign and has a plan! We keep hearing from these same sources that we are traveling a road less traveled and helping plan the path for other families. So we lean and trust on that.
Adoptions from Chi^a and Ethiopia, while the wait for babies may be long the path has been well traveled and it is predictible therefore smooth for those who are traveling down it now. Others have gone on before and helped make the way smooth and we would LOVE and rejoice to see the Ind&a program be the same for others in the future!
We have other news, but I am not going to share it quite yet, but if you think of it we would greatly covet your prayers thruout the week. The Lord knows the need and we are praying for His will to be done no matter what.
“Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles and let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us.” Hebrews 12:1
Both of these verses have been our prayers this last week as we waited for news from across the sea.
As everyone knows we were waiting for October 1 for the new laws to go into effect to continue on, but we were warned that it could be up to a few weeks after that before they actually make the changes, so we sat and waited.
GREAT News: Last year 236 children were adopted from Ind@a, well guess what?! Right now, there are 550 dossiers in their office waiting to be processed! PRAISE the Lord that close to double the amount of children will have a forever home!!!
Ehh News: Because of this, they are not accepting anymore dossiers until January 1st. What does this mean? Well, since we were on track to have our dossier and homestudy finished by no later than the first or second week of November, this means once it is finished we can triple check for accuracy and thank God for his timing.
God News: We have heard from several families who have adopted from this particular state as well as several agencies, who all say hands down this state is the hardest and most difficult to process adoptions out of. Encouraging right?! Luckily, we know our God is sovereign and has a plan! We keep hearing from these same sources that we are traveling a road less traveled and helping plan the path for other families. So we lean and trust on that.
Adoptions from Chi^a and Ethiopia, while the wait for babies may be long the path has been well traveled and it is predictible therefore smooth for those who are traveling down it now. Others have gone on before and helped make the way smooth and we would LOVE and rejoice to see the Ind&a program be the same for others in the future!
We have other news, but I am not going to share it quite yet, but if you think of it we would greatly covet your prayers thruout the week. The Lord knows the need and we are praying for His will to be done no matter what.
06 October 2011
Wear to Share
There are so many darling adoption shirts out there for Africa, China, Russia and even domestic and we only found ONE for Ind+a, I am sure there are more but after searching and searching we just decided to create our own!
We have been working on finding a shirt company to order custom made shirts to sell to promote Ind*a adoptions. We have created several different ones and hope to get them ordered in the next few weeks as we have foundto one that did not require you to order a ton at onc. Once that gets done we plan to sell them at our online store called "Wear to Share". I have also been working on creating hand stamped custom shirts that have been up-cycled (gently or new used shirts and onesies that I have found at thrift stores some with tags some show no sign of wear).
Last fall when I traveled to Indi*a I made the children some shirts as gifts while I was gone, so I decided to duplicate those shirts in short sleeve form for them to wear at the bakesale.
Here is my shirt for the bake sale.
I think I may try to remove the "1" and make it a lot bigger.
Stay tuned for when we get the shirts ordered and ready!
We have been working on finding a shirt company to order custom made shirts to sell to promote Ind*a adoptions. We have created several different ones and hope to get them ordered in the next few weeks as we have foundto one that did not require you to order a ton at onc. Once that gets done we plan to sell them at our online store called "Wear to Share". I have also been working on creating hand stamped custom shirts that have been up-cycled (gently or new used shirts and onesies that I have found at thrift stores some with tags some show no sign of wear).
Last fall when I traveled to Indi*a I made the children some shirts as gifts while I was gone, so I decided to duplicate those shirts in short sleeve form for them to wear at the bakesale.
Here is my shirt for the bake sale.
I think I may try to remove the "1" and make it a lot bigger.
Stay tuned for when we get the shirts ordered and ready!
03 October 2011
Post-Adoptive Conference
Our bake sale was slated to end at 2:00 but since we still had customers we stayed until 3:00, then we boogied home, changed clothes and headed to a post-adoptive conference.
When we arrived we went to drop our children off in the childcare area and I stopped at the door to see the most AMAZING and beautiful picture! If I had had my camera I would have taken a picture. There in the room were children from all around the world, Korea, China, Urkraine, Russia, the U.S., Africa, and more! It was truly breathtaking! I loved seeing so many nations represented in one room! Beautiful!
Praise and worship was provided by the amazing and talented Billy and Cindy Foote...go get her No Double Yellow Line cd we have loved listening to it and it warms my heart to hear my four year old sing "Bring Our Children Home"! For the conference they had an amazing panel of adoptive families, all adopted older children (a few had adopted younger ones as well)including All Are Precious In His Sight (who bring wisdom on three bio children and seven almost nine adoptive children). On the panel was also a child psycologist and a family therapist who offered not only their own personal adoption experiences but also their professional experiences on issues families face after "the honeymoon" is over. You know, the ugly stuff no one tells you about and you think your prepared for things like attachment or lack there of, manipulation, grief, bonding, issues with your children already in home and their new sibling, discipline in a way that makes the adopted child still feel loved and so much more. Everyone highly recommended The Connected Child in case you were wondering for your own journey. They offered guidence, wisdom and hope that on the other side the difficult journey is SO worth it and the blessings far outweigh the tough times.
Each of these families fall within a 60 mile radius of our community and each want to be there to support those families who have just recently came home and are in the midst of the settling in phase and the one family who was there who is yet to come home with their older child (us)!
It was such an honor to be able to be a part of such a God blessed evening.
My husband and I drove home that evening feeling encouraged and blessed to have more insight on how to pray for this journey!
When we arrived we went to drop our children off in the childcare area and I stopped at the door to see the most AMAZING and beautiful picture! If I had had my camera I would have taken a picture. There in the room were children from all around the world, Korea, China, Urkraine, Russia, the U.S., Africa, and more! It was truly breathtaking! I loved seeing so many nations represented in one room! Beautiful!
Praise and worship was provided by the amazing and talented Billy and Cindy Foote...go get her No Double Yellow Line cd we have loved listening to it and it warms my heart to hear my four year old sing "Bring Our Children Home"! For the conference they had an amazing panel of adoptive families, all adopted older children (a few had adopted younger ones as well)including All Are Precious In His Sight (who bring wisdom on three bio children and seven almost nine adoptive children). On the panel was also a child psycologist and a family therapist who offered not only their own personal adoption experiences but also their professional experiences on issues families face after "the honeymoon" is over. You know, the ugly stuff no one tells you about and you think your prepared for things like attachment or lack there of, manipulation, grief, bonding, issues with your children already in home and their new sibling, discipline in a way that makes the adopted child still feel loved and so much more. Everyone highly recommended The Connected Child in case you were wondering for your own journey. They offered guidence, wisdom and hope that on the other side the difficult journey is SO worth it and the blessings far outweigh the tough times.
Each of these families fall within a 60 mile radius of our community and each want to be there to support those families who have just recently came home and are in the midst of the settling in phase and the one family who was there who is yet to come home with their older child (us)!
It was such an honor to be able to be a part of such a God blessed evening.
My husband and I drove home that evening feeling encouraged and blessed to have more insight on how to pray for this journey!
02 October 2011
Sugar and Spice
Psalm 119:171 "May my lips overflow with praise"
WHEW! What an amazing day yesterday was! It was two fold so expect two posts!
We want to give a shoutout to everyone who made this bakesale happen!
Our bake sale could not have happened first and foremost without the Lord! We are grateful we stepped out in obedience and did something we would not have done! We are grateful for all of our sweet friends who took their own time to make goodies for the sale! For our sweet friend who came and helped run the sale, her help was priceless! A sweet family friend of ours came to shop and then made the sweet offer of taking our children to the playground to play for a bit so they could have a break. Close to lunch time a family near and dear to our hearts whisked the girls away with their daughter to go have a burger and fries. The children were having a blast helping with the bakesale and "recruiting" drive by customers but they were grateful for the break!
It is amazing to see how our friends love our son already and how they support him. We are blessed beyond measure with friends who are our family!
Early Saturday morning a friend arrived to help us load up and set up and before we had even finished people started coming.
Aside from the occasional person who thought we were raising funds to a family pet, peoples encouragment was amazing. We met countless people who had been adopted from all around the world, people who had adopted both domestically and internationally and even another foster mom! Their stories were encouraging and amazing to hear and it was such a blessing to hear other strangers tell us to keep on and that they would be praying for our family.
To see strangers who did not even know our family stop to buy buttermilk pies, cheesecake, cupcakes, cookies, rice krispie treats, etc just to help S come home is humbling. My husband and I both said that all day long.
A few weeks earlier we printed a family photo of us with our website and information on it to mail to family and friends and to pass out at the bake sale, it is awesome to know that our journey went home with others and they will pray for us or share our story with another family.
All together $579.46 was donated at the bake sale!!! All the glory goes to God!
WHEW! What an amazing day yesterday was! It was two fold so expect two posts!
We want to give a shoutout to everyone who made this bakesale happen!
Our bake sale could not have happened first and foremost without the Lord! We are grateful we stepped out in obedience and did something we would not have done! We are grateful for all of our sweet friends who took their own time to make goodies for the sale! For our sweet friend who came and helped run the sale, her help was priceless! A sweet family friend of ours came to shop and then made the sweet offer of taking our children to the playground to play for a bit so they could have a break. Close to lunch time a family near and dear to our hearts whisked the girls away with their daughter to go have a burger and fries. The children were having a blast helping with the bakesale and "recruiting" drive by customers but they were grateful for the break!
It is amazing to see how our friends love our son already and how they support him. We are blessed beyond measure with friends who are our family!
Early Saturday morning a friend arrived to help us load up and set up and before we had even finished people started coming.
Aside from the occasional person who thought we were raising funds to a family pet, peoples encouragment was amazing. We met countless people who had been adopted from all around the world, people who had adopted both domestically and internationally and even another foster mom! Their stories were encouraging and amazing to hear and it was such a blessing to hear other strangers tell us to keep on and that they would be praying for our family.
To see strangers who did not even know our family stop to buy buttermilk pies, cheesecake, cupcakes, cookies, rice krispie treats, etc just to help S come home is humbling. My husband and I both said that all day long.
A few weeks earlier we printed a family photo of us with our website and information on it to mail to family and friends and to pass out at the bake sale, it is awesome to know that our journey went home with others and they will pray for us or share our story with another family.
All together $579.46 was donated at the bake sale!!! All the glory goes to God!
27 September 2011
Surreal
Sorry I have not updated in a few days, we have been quite busy around here! This past Friday my husband took the day off so we could take part in a big deal event here in our community. Afterwards we decided to visit local business to see if we could leave our bake sale fliers with them for their customers (PRaise the Lord only two said no!) When Willow and I hopped back in the car from leaving fliers at one of the local businesses, hubby was on the phone...my phone. Odd I thought, who in the world would call me that would make him answer the phone?! It was our foster agency and they had a baby who was leaving NICU and six days old and they needed a home for him and he would be at our house in TWO hours.
BAM!
It was a circus from that point on! We had nothing baby, NOTHING! A sweet friend of ours did and was gracious enough to let me raid her garage for all things infant while hubby and our children were waiting eagerly at our house in case baby came early!
EXACTLY two hours later baby came, we signed four gazillion peices of paper and two case workers left. It was surreal, truly. I told a friend, this is preparing us for our adoption. We have done all this work and will continue to do work and then we will travel to Ind#a, sign papers and S will be ours. WOW!
Our friend was being ordained that night so as we shut the front door we loaded up this darling little guy in our suburban and headed for an hour drive to our friends church. We sat on the back pew still in a whirlwind from the last few hours events and just gazed at this tiny baby. We were like a three ring circus on the back pew. Our kiddos were clammering to look at him, touch him, stare at him. They were so excited and it was hard to keep their excitment contained! Our friends may not speak to us again :).
The last few days we have been getting into a routinue. Yesterday was our first day of school and it went beautifully. We are not naive that this will not always be the case but wow it was great!
We have a court hearing next week that hubs will attend. Please pray for babies mom. Hubs is praying he can get just a few moments to talk to her and ask her if we can pray for her. We have been taking lots of pictures of baby and he plans to ask her if she would like them. We know she is loved by our heavnly father. I admit that my flesh gets angry but we all deserve to burn, none of us deserve grace but we are ALL the same regardless of our sins. We are all sinners and we all deserve to be treated the way our heavenly father treats and loves us. She is a broken woman who needs the Lord. Pray for her with us please. Please also pray the Lord would give hubs the right words. We by NO MEANS want to seem better than her, we just want her to know that we care about her, so does our heavenly father and that we are praying for her and that she is loved, worthy and has value.
If it is not the Lords will that baby go back to mom, please begin praying the Lord would prepare the most fabulous family to adopt him. They may not even know the Lord has adoption in their future but the Lord does!
Everyone has asked us if we are going to keep baby. No. We consider it a HUGE honor and blessing to be able to love on this little guy and give him a temporary home rather than a shelter until the Lord reveals his plan for this little guy. HUGE honor and blessing. It makes me even more grateful for the aunties who have been loving on our son 9,000 miles away for all of these years. I pray Gods abundent blessings on their heads, lives and families for being his family until the day the Lord brings him to our house.
BAM!
It was a circus from that point on! We had nothing baby, NOTHING! A sweet friend of ours did and was gracious enough to let me raid her garage for all things infant while hubby and our children were waiting eagerly at our house in case baby came early!
EXACTLY two hours later baby came, we signed four gazillion peices of paper and two case workers left. It was surreal, truly. I told a friend, this is preparing us for our adoption. We have done all this work and will continue to do work and then we will travel to Ind#a, sign papers and S will be ours. WOW!
Our friend was being ordained that night so as we shut the front door we loaded up this darling little guy in our suburban and headed for an hour drive to our friends church. We sat on the back pew still in a whirlwind from the last few hours events and just gazed at this tiny baby. We were like a three ring circus on the back pew. Our kiddos were clammering to look at him, touch him, stare at him. They were so excited and it was hard to keep their excitment contained! Our friends may not speak to us again :).
The last few days we have been getting into a routinue. Yesterday was our first day of school and it went beautifully. We are not naive that this will not always be the case but wow it was great!
We have a court hearing next week that hubs will attend. Please pray for babies mom. Hubs is praying he can get just a few moments to talk to her and ask her if we can pray for her. We have been taking lots of pictures of baby and he plans to ask her if she would like them. We know she is loved by our heavnly father. I admit that my flesh gets angry but we all deserve to burn, none of us deserve grace but we are ALL the same regardless of our sins. We are all sinners and we all deserve to be treated the way our heavenly father treats and loves us. She is a broken woman who needs the Lord. Pray for her with us please. Please also pray the Lord would give hubs the right words. We by NO MEANS want to seem better than her, we just want her to know that we care about her, so does our heavenly father and that we are praying for her and that she is loved, worthy and has value.
If it is not the Lords will that baby go back to mom, please begin praying the Lord would prepare the most fabulous family to adopt him. They may not even know the Lord has adoption in their future but the Lord does!
Everyone has asked us if we are going to keep baby. No. We consider it a HUGE honor and blessing to be able to love on this little guy and give him a temporary home rather than a shelter until the Lord reveals his plan for this little guy. HUGE honor and blessing. It makes me even more grateful for the aunties who have been loving on our son 9,000 miles away for all of these years. I pray Gods abundent blessings on their heads, lives and families for being his family until the day the Lord brings him to our house.
23 September 2011
Surrender Some
I will say to the Lord, "He is my refuge and my fortress; My God, in Him I will trust." Psalm 91:2
Judson W. Van DeVenter penned these words in 1896:
Some to Jesus I surrender,
Some to him I quasi give;
I will ever love and trust him,
In his presence Sunday live.
WAIT! Those aren't the words!
Here is what it really says:
ALL to Jesus I surrender,
ALL to him I FREELY give;
I will ever love and trust him,
In his presence DAILY live.
Surrender by definition means to yield (something) to the possession or power of another; to give up, abandon, or relinquish (comfort, hope, etc.); to yield or resign (an office, privilege, etc.) in favor of another.
As a whole it is typically hard for one to surrender, when we surrender we are no longer in control and by human nature everyone enjoys control of something so we feel life is in "order." But God calls us to a higher standerd. We need to surrender ALL to Him, A.L.L.
I think we would be lying if we said "YES, I have this mastered and I give it all to Him and hold on to nothing for myself." At some point we have all struggled with surrendering all.
I vividly remember the first day I truly gave it all to Christ. I was standing at our kitchen sink a few days out from giving birth to our second child. The doctors said some tests looked like she could have a serious kidney problem and in RARE cases it results in death. I was washing my hands and remember praying "Lord, you blessed us with this child for a reason, she is not ours but yours. Give us strength and endurance as we walk this journey and thank you for the grace that is big enough to cover us. If it is your will to take her, then I have to trust in you, if it is Your will that she have a disease that could ratically affect her little life, then we trust You." By the time I was done, I was sobbing, not because I was afraid, but because I had complete peace that HE was in control. I was not holding on to a small fragment of the situation in hopes that I could control the situation, I laid it at the cross and kept walking.
We are blessed to say that she is healthy and fine, regardless the peace that covered me that day is something I have never forgotten and it is something I strive harder than ever for. About a year later, our oldest daughter was actually diagnosed with a rare issue that will live with her forever. She is monitored by doctors closely but each of them say she is a miracle that none of the "typical" issues or side effects have occured to her. The day we got the call once more I had to lay it at His feet and trust in Him that His grace will cover us and sustain us when we need it.
Now, as we walk the adoption road we have to lay it all at His feet. EVERY LAST BIT. Seems easy, but when your flesh sees things that could only get worked out by God, the flesh/enemy fight to get the glory. The end of this journey has been written by someone better than I, the story has been written by someone who could only write such a beautiful story, so why surrender some? Why not give it ALL to Him? Why not throw our hands up and say "LORD, we are yours, do with us and our family as you will, show us what and where to go and we will do it." If we do, I know the Lord will show us HIS will, in HIS time, thru HIS story.
Why miss a blessing like that?
Judson W. Van DeVenter penned these words in 1896:
Some to Jesus I surrender,
Some to him I quasi give;
I will ever love and trust him,
In his presence Sunday live.
WAIT! Those aren't the words!
Here is what it really says:
ALL to Jesus I surrender,
ALL to him I FREELY give;
I will ever love and trust him,
In his presence DAILY live.
Surrender by definition means to yield (something) to the possession or power of another; to give up, abandon, or relinquish (comfort, hope, etc.); to yield or resign (an office, privilege, etc.) in favor of another.
As a whole it is typically hard for one to surrender, when we surrender we are no longer in control and by human nature everyone enjoys control of something so we feel life is in "order." But God calls us to a higher standerd. We need to surrender ALL to Him, A.L.L.
I think we would be lying if we said "YES, I have this mastered and I give it all to Him and hold on to nothing for myself." At some point we have all struggled with surrendering all.
I vividly remember the first day I truly gave it all to Christ. I was standing at our kitchen sink a few days out from giving birth to our second child. The doctors said some tests looked like she could have a serious kidney problem and in RARE cases it results in death. I was washing my hands and remember praying "Lord, you blessed us with this child for a reason, she is not ours but yours. Give us strength and endurance as we walk this journey and thank you for the grace that is big enough to cover us. If it is your will to take her, then I have to trust in you, if it is Your will that she have a disease that could ratically affect her little life, then we trust You." By the time I was done, I was sobbing, not because I was afraid, but because I had complete peace that HE was in control. I was not holding on to a small fragment of the situation in hopes that I could control the situation, I laid it at the cross and kept walking.
We are blessed to say that she is healthy and fine, regardless the peace that covered me that day is something I have never forgotten and it is something I strive harder than ever for. About a year later, our oldest daughter was actually diagnosed with a rare issue that will live with her forever. She is monitored by doctors closely but each of them say she is a miracle that none of the "typical" issues or side effects have occured to her. The day we got the call once more I had to lay it at His feet and trust in Him that His grace will cover us and sustain us when we need it.
Now, as we walk the adoption road we have to lay it all at His feet. EVERY LAST BIT. Seems easy, but when your flesh sees things that could only get worked out by God, the flesh/enemy fight to get the glory. The end of this journey has been written by someone better than I, the story has been written by someone who could only write such a beautiful story, so why surrender some? Why not give it ALL to Him? Why not throw our hands up and say "LORD, we are yours, do with us and our family as you will, show us what and where to go and we will do it." If we do, I know the Lord will show us HIS will, in HIS time, thru HIS story.
Why miss a blessing like that?
20 September 2011
Wall Art
I was not born with crafty abilities. AT.ALL.
I got an idea to paint the US on one and India on the other, and to put a heart where we live and then when we got a refferal put a heart where our blessing lived. In July when I got the idea to paint canvas' I surprised myself most of all! Then I dragged my feet in fear they may not turn out okay. One day I found myself wandering aimlessly in Hobby Lobby and there, in the middle of the isle were 16 x 20 canvas' calling my name. I took them home and hoped for the best.
The paint lines show up in the pictures but when you are looking at them in person, they don't show up. After I took the pictures, we added a bright red heart where we are, and a bright red heart where "S" is, but since I am determined to blog under anonymity I didn't show bloggy land where any of us live. :)
These canvas' turned out better than I had hoped, so much so that since the boys room is a construction zone, I am going to paint construction trucks on canvas' for the boys room. Then for above their beds I plan to have a cement truck "pouring" one of their names, and a dump truck "dumping" the others name! Careful world, this crafty stuff has been fun!
I got an idea to paint the US on one and India on the other, and to put a heart where we live and then when we got a refferal put a heart where our blessing lived. In July when I got the idea to paint canvas' I surprised myself most of all! Then I dragged my feet in fear they may not turn out okay. One day I found myself wandering aimlessly in Hobby Lobby and there, in the middle of the isle were 16 x 20 canvas' calling my name. I took them home and hoped for the best.
The paint lines show up in the pictures but when you are looking at them in person, they don't show up. After I took the pictures, we added a bright red heart where we are, and a bright red heart where "S" is, but since I am determined to blog under anonymity I didn't show bloggy land where any of us live. :)
These canvas' turned out better than I had hoped, so much so that since the boys room is a construction zone, I am going to paint construction trucks on canvas' for the boys room. Then for above their beds I plan to have a cement truck "pouring" one of their names, and a dump truck "dumping" the others name! Careful world, this crafty stuff has been fun!
12 September 2011
Sisterly Love
Matthew 18:3 “Assuredly, I say to you, unless you are converted and become as little children, you will by no means enter the kingdom of heaven."
In so many ways time seems to be standing still, yet in others it is flying by. We are counting down the days until October 1st!
Our sweet friends have offered to make delicious goodies, and we ourselves (including three lovely assistants) have been busy making sweet treats for our upcoming bakesale. Willow told us she needed to work on things and would be back in a bit. Hmmm, I wonder what that sweet girl is up to.
Turns out she was up to this:
Our darling daughter made crafts to sell at the bakesale! She told us the price and told us she wanted to sell these things, so that she could help bring her brother home as well. She went on to tell us that she has been praying for God to send hundreds of people to our bake sale, then she said, "well I asked Him to send people until the whole table is empty."
Her daddy happened to be home and both of our hearts melted. Such a sweet, selfless thing to do, and it is just confirmation that our whole family is preparing to bring "S" home. Her prayer? Precious and humbling reminding us that we should pick up her prayer and pray the same thing with her!
This sweet girl has been OVER THE MOON about adoption since we started this journey, and her heart aches and longs to have him home as well. She talks of the things she longs to teach him, the things she longs to ask him about his country (she wants to help make him a Life book). She too is not naive as to the challenges that lay ahead. She is wise beyond her years and when she talks of challenges that only we have discussed behind closed doors as adults, it goes to show us that she gets it. Willow is a wonderful daughter and an excellent sister who longs to give a sweet little boy hugs.
So pray with us that the Lord sends people until the entire table is empty!
In so many ways time seems to be standing still, yet in others it is flying by. We are counting down the days until October 1st!
Our sweet friends have offered to make delicious goodies, and we ourselves (including three lovely assistants) have been busy making sweet treats for our upcoming bakesale. Willow told us she needed to work on things and would be back in a bit. Hmmm, I wonder what that sweet girl is up to.
Turns out she was up to this:
Our darling daughter made crafts to sell at the bakesale! She told us the price and told us she wanted to sell these things, so that she could help bring her brother home as well. She went on to tell us that she has been praying for God to send hundreds of people to our bake sale, then she said, "well I asked Him to send people until the whole table is empty."
Her daddy happened to be home and both of our hearts melted. Such a sweet, selfless thing to do, and it is just confirmation that our whole family is preparing to bring "S" home. Her prayer? Precious and humbling reminding us that we should pick up her prayer and pray the same thing with her!
This sweet girl has been OVER THE MOON about adoption since we started this journey, and her heart aches and longs to have him home as well. She talks of the things she longs to teach him, the things she longs to ask him about his country (she wants to help make him a Life book). She too is not naive as to the challenges that lay ahead. She is wise beyond her years and when she talks of challenges that only we have discussed behind closed doors as adults, it goes to show us that she gets it. Willow is a wonderful daughter and an excellent sister who longs to give a sweet little boy hugs.
So pray with us that the Lord sends people until the entire table is empty!
07 September 2011
Stepping forward
We spoke with the agency and sent in our inquiry form for this precious little boy last week. Ind*a is changing their adoption laws so we have to wait until October 1 to be able to get his medical records. The LORD knows the reason for this wait, and we are trusting in HIM and His goodness!
From there we have to officially be with their agency and pay their agency fees. When you do a traditional adoption, your agency fees are spread out over the course of your adoption (which for us would have been two years plus possible up to another year for travel) because "S" is a "waiting child" they are due within the next few weeks!
We have to submit our state homestudy. The h.s. will release his records for medical review...which we really plan to use for informational purpose and to be able to meet with surgeons to go over possible future surgeries. From there we must work on getting an international homestudy. These were all things we (again speaking in SELF not CHRIST!) had planned to have ready over the course of time, and then work on gathering the rest of our dossier paperwork. Once we have it finished, it will all go to India for acceptance. We have been told to prepare that it takes 9-12 months once India receives your dossier to approve it and approve travel. Which means from the day that I type this post we are looking at up to 15 months. Obviously it could take less or longer, but while we wait we long to give him hugs. We long to tell him he has a home. IF we have everything finalized by December/January we very well may receieve a wonderful Christmas present next year!!
15 months of knowing who this little boy is and knowing that he is sitting in an orphanage, rather than sitting in our arms.
We knew we were facing a wait of UP to 3 years (at the very longest) but honestly, this makes a mommas heart sad. I appreciate a sweet friends journey which is similar who has been waiting 21 months for ONE signature and them to release that paper for them to bring their daughter home.
God continues to give us peace that HE has paved a way to make this journey and we consider it a privledge to be able to take this time to learn how to pray for him during this wait and for when he comes home.
We are busy preparing for the bake sale October 1st so mark your calendars if you are local!
From there we have to officially be with their agency and pay their agency fees. When you do a traditional adoption, your agency fees are spread out over the course of your adoption (which for us would have been two years plus possible up to another year for travel) because "S" is a "waiting child" they are due within the next few weeks!
We have to submit our state homestudy. The h.s. will release his records for medical review...which we really plan to use for informational purpose and to be able to meet with surgeons to go over possible future surgeries. From there we must work on getting an international homestudy. These were all things we (again speaking in SELF not CHRIST!) had planned to have ready over the course of time, and then work on gathering the rest of our dossier paperwork. Once we have it finished, it will all go to India for acceptance. We have been told to prepare that it takes 9-12 months once India receives your dossier to approve it and approve travel. Which means from the day that I type this post we are looking at up to 15 months. Obviously it could take less or longer, but while we wait we long to give him hugs. We long to tell him he has a home. IF we have everything finalized by December/January we very well may receieve a wonderful Christmas present next year!!
15 months of knowing who this little boy is and knowing that he is sitting in an orphanage, rather than sitting in our arms.
We knew we were facing a wait of UP to 3 years (at the very longest) but honestly, this makes a mommas heart sad. I appreciate a sweet friends journey which is similar who has been waiting 21 months for ONE signature and them to release that paper for them to bring their daughter home.
God continues to give us peace that HE has paved a way to make this journey and we consider it a privledge to be able to take this time to learn how to pray for him during this wait and for when he comes home.
We are busy preparing for the bake sale October 1st so mark your calendars if you are local!
05 September 2011
What Now?
If you missed the first post go here.
Joshua 1:9 "Have I not commanded you? Be strong and of good courage, do not be afraid, nor be dismayed, for the Lord your God is with you wherever you go!"
The lady who changed our lives sent us some basic info on him and while we were blessed with a lot of information on him the two things we knew for certain were 1)he is a waiting child and 2)he has special needs. Two did not matter, one meant that this was God saying "you have a fast pass to move to the front of the line!" Without going into everything, this summer was a lot of refining and talking to the Lord about this very thing. It was confirmation from the Lord.
We were up until 1:30 a.m. talking, asking questions, praying, crying, repeating.
ONE thing we knew for sure that God loves this little boy so much that He sent him to me for a reason. Our prayer was that God show us with clarity and peace if this little boy was our son, if he wasn't we thanked God for allowing us to be a vessel in this little boy finding a forever home and asked that the Lord show us where his forever home was.
The next morning was a daze, my legs were like jello, my arms were like jello and every hair on my body was still standing, and my sweet husband was more quiet than usual. We prayed together again and he left for work. It was the crack-o-dawn and knew that one of my closest friends was busy getting her daughter ready for school, but that an amazing godly woman (who the Lord recently put in our life)was up. So as I dialed, I prayed that she would still be my friend after we got off the phone. She prayed with me and there were more tears. (I am happy to say that she is still my friend!).
Once I knew my friends daughter was tucked nicely into her school room I called my friend. They have walked the path of adoption, so much so that she will tell you she said "Lord you are going to have to drop a baby in my lap" and HE DID! She gave me sweet words of encouragment and reminded me that when they adopted their daughter they did not have the financial resources at the time to bring her home either (they had three months!). She reminded me that it is not our economy we are working under, but that ultimately it is God's economy we are under and it all belongs to Him and He controls it all. I got off the phone with more tears (notice a trend yet!!).
The end of the evening brought us together to join together talking to the Lord.
This little boy has a medical condition, he has had surgery and very well may need surgery again in the near future. This was NEVER a concern for us, but God blessed us with the ability to learn the diagnosed name and what medical journey he has already been on, and what complications he may face in life and what may need to be done to correct it.
I started praying for his parents in a different light. I prayed that the Lord would strip them of any burden they may carry from abandoning a precious boy born with a medical need (3rd world country!). I prayed that the Lord would show them that he was okay and that the Lord would give them a peace for his well being and future.
The next morning our couples devotional was on Pslam 139:14. More tears. This sweet boy is fearfully and wonderfully made! God made this boy for a reason! (more tears). Later in the day the Lord laid Jeremiah 29:11 on my heart. The Lord has plans of good and not of evil to bring this little boy a FUTURE and HOPE. I went to the bathroom and wrote those two verses with his orphanage given name filled in and claimed those to Jesus.
Later on during the same day, one of the most amazing godly women we have had the privledge of knowing called to check in and chat as she drove home from the birth of her darling nephew. I felt the Lord prompting me to tell her what had been happening in the last 35 plus hours. She said "your not going to believe this, but remember my friend that you helped me send her to Aggieland adoptions? She has ____ (the EXACT same thing this little boy has) her doctor is at a very well known and local hospital and he is the doctor who invented this solution because of this woman!!! Not only that, but my sweet friends sister in law is a pediatric nurse at a super fabulous children's hospital that we are very familiar with, and she went on to say that her sil would be happy to help with any questions we may have.
I hung up the phone and cried, and dialed my husbands number with trembling hands. He was about to go into a meeting so when I finished we got off the phone.
At the close of the business day my husband walked in the door and said "your conversation was what I prayed for all day, we need to pursue this precious little boy."
More tears. Rejoicing. More prayers.
***another side note, our youngest children were terrible that day. TERRIBLE. My body looked like a chew toy filled with bite marks from children who have long outgrown the biting stage. Without a doubt we know that it was spiritual warfare. At one point I kept telling one of them to say "satan get behind me" they refused and their beahvior got worse. We repeated this for an extensive period of time. Spiritual warfare, people. Satan is throwing a raging fit which just means that Abba Father has something incredible in store!***
While most would chalk this all up to being "coinsidences", we WITHOUT A DOUBT know that God has been laying the pathwork all along and continues to lay the foundation of our story. This is all God's handiwork, not forces of nature, not random happenstances, NO this is GOD!
His file is not with our agency, but it is with an agency that a friend of ours used (who sent me an email in June telling me about!).
My fear was money. WE (notice the fleshly tone hear?) had a beautiful Excel Dave Ramsey spread sheet as to how we would be able to pay for this adoption over the course of a typical "wait" period. The reality is, we don't have it now, and caused me fear. My calm, cool, and collective husband said "it will be okay."
We have a short matter of time to come up with a huge chunk of change because that means, new agency fees, homestudy fees, etc. So please if the Lord wills you, share our journey with others, and if by any chance he lays it on your heart to help bring this little boy home we would be ever so grateful! We know that the Lord will provide if this is His will, so please pray with us and for us!!!
"By faith we understand that the worlds were framed by the word of God, so that the things which are seen were not made of things which are visible." Hebrews 11:3. It will truly be thru Christ and with Faith alone that we bring this little boy home. HOME.
Joshua 1:9 "Have I not commanded you? Be strong and of good courage, do not be afraid, nor be dismayed, for the Lord your God is with you wherever you go!"
The lady who changed our lives sent us some basic info on him and while we were blessed with a lot of information on him the two things we knew for certain were 1)he is a waiting child and 2)he has special needs. Two did not matter, one meant that this was God saying "you have a fast pass to move to the front of the line!" Without going into everything, this summer was a lot of refining and talking to the Lord about this very thing. It was confirmation from the Lord.
We were up until 1:30 a.m. talking, asking questions, praying, crying, repeating.
ONE thing we knew for sure that God loves this little boy so much that He sent him to me for a reason. Our prayer was that God show us with clarity and peace if this little boy was our son, if he wasn't we thanked God for allowing us to be a vessel in this little boy finding a forever home and asked that the Lord show us where his forever home was.
The next morning was a daze, my legs were like jello, my arms were like jello and every hair on my body was still standing, and my sweet husband was more quiet than usual. We prayed together again and he left for work. It was the crack-o-dawn and knew that one of my closest friends was busy getting her daughter ready for school, but that an amazing godly woman (who the Lord recently put in our life)was up. So as I dialed, I prayed that she would still be my friend after we got off the phone. She prayed with me and there were more tears. (I am happy to say that she is still my friend!).
Once I knew my friends daughter was tucked nicely into her school room I called my friend. They have walked the path of adoption, so much so that she will tell you she said "Lord you are going to have to drop a baby in my lap" and HE DID! She gave me sweet words of encouragment and reminded me that when they adopted their daughter they did not have the financial resources at the time to bring her home either (they had three months!). She reminded me that it is not our economy we are working under, but that ultimately it is God's economy we are under and it all belongs to Him and He controls it all. I got off the phone with more tears (notice a trend yet!!).
The end of the evening brought us together to join together talking to the Lord.
This little boy has a medical condition, he has had surgery and very well may need surgery again in the near future. This was NEVER a concern for us, but God blessed us with the ability to learn the diagnosed name and what medical journey he has already been on, and what complications he may face in life and what may need to be done to correct it.
I started praying for his parents in a different light. I prayed that the Lord would strip them of any burden they may carry from abandoning a precious boy born with a medical need (3rd world country!). I prayed that the Lord would show them that he was okay and that the Lord would give them a peace for his well being and future.
The next morning our couples devotional was on Pslam 139:14. More tears. This sweet boy is fearfully and wonderfully made! God made this boy for a reason! (more tears). Later in the day the Lord laid Jeremiah 29:11 on my heart. The Lord has plans of good and not of evil to bring this little boy a FUTURE and HOPE. I went to the bathroom and wrote those two verses with his orphanage given name filled in and claimed those to Jesus.
Later on during the same day, one of the most amazing godly women we have had the privledge of knowing called to check in and chat as she drove home from the birth of her darling nephew. I felt the Lord prompting me to tell her what had been happening in the last 35 plus hours. She said "your not going to believe this, but remember my friend that you helped me send her to Aggieland adoptions? She has ____ (the EXACT same thing this little boy has) her doctor is at a very well known and local hospital and he is the doctor who invented this solution because of this woman!!! Not only that, but my sweet friends sister in law is a pediatric nurse at a super fabulous children's hospital that we are very familiar with, and she went on to say that her sil would be happy to help with any questions we may have.
I hung up the phone and cried, and dialed my husbands number with trembling hands. He was about to go into a meeting so when I finished we got off the phone.
At the close of the business day my husband walked in the door and said "your conversation was what I prayed for all day, we need to pursue this precious little boy."
More tears. Rejoicing. More prayers.
***another side note, our youngest children were terrible that day. TERRIBLE. My body looked like a chew toy filled with bite marks from children who have long outgrown the biting stage. Without a doubt we know that it was spiritual warfare. At one point I kept telling one of them to say "satan get behind me" they refused and their beahvior got worse. We repeated this for an extensive period of time. Spiritual warfare, people. Satan is throwing a raging fit which just means that Abba Father has something incredible in store!***
While most would chalk this all up to being "coinsidences", we WITHOUT A DOUBT know that God has been laying the pathwork all along and continues to lay the foundation of our story. This is all God's handiwork, not forces of nature, not random happenstances, NO this is GOD!
His file is not with our agency, but it is with an agency that a friend of ours used (who sent me an email in June telling me about!).
My fear was money. WE (notice the fleshly tone hear?) had a beautiful Excel Dave Ramsey spread sheet as to how we would be able to pay for this adoption over the course of a typical "wait" period. The reality is, we don't have it now, and caused me fear. My calm, cool, and collective husband said "it will be okay."
We have a short matter of time to come up with a huge chunk of change because that means, new agency fees, homestudy fees, etc. So please if the Lord wills you, share our journey with others, and if by any chance he lays it on your heart to help bring this little boy home we would be ever so grateful! We know that the Lord will provide if this is His will, so please pray with us and for us!!!
"By faith we understand that the worlds were framed by the word of God, so that the things which are seen were not made of things which are visible." Hebrews 11:3. It will truly be thru Christ and with Faith alone that we bring this little boy home. HOME.
It's a . . . WHAT?!?
When we began this journey, we both said we would adopt a girl. We had chosen a girl because of Ind*as staggering and ever changing rates on child trafficking and the number of young girls involved in the "red light district" business. We felt if we rescued ONE, that would be one less that the enemy could use in a horrible lifestyle.
And then I wrote this post. And we began a journey that can only be planned by Christ.
The following will be a list of things that have stood out in our minds over the course of a very short to us time, which leads us to where I am going with this glaze your eyes over post, but I ambegging praying that you will read to the end.
*FOR YEARS we have had friends who worked with agencies who have sent us emails with precious children's faces from all around the world and other than that little indian girl who captured my heart years ago NONE have made me long for them, they made me pray harder for their future and their home and that when the time was right the Lord would show us....I even confess to searching T.A.R.E. for children that maybe God would somehow let me know if that was our child. :)
*In January some sweet and amazingfriends family came for a week of laughter, sillyness, political "discussions" and how to solve the worlds problems in five days. With them they brought their totally cool and awesome sons size 5 and 6 wardrobe. I was GRATEFUL, but on the inside I was selfish! "Where will I store these for the next 3-4 years until Hunter can wear them? is what I said on the inside" SELFISH, I tell ya! Oh, how I am a terribly ungrateful friend! I tucked the clothes away and never gave them another thought.
*All summer long we spent looking for bunk beds for the girls room, we started hunting even harder once we moved (hey, one less thing to move we thought) and our search kept coming up empty. A few weeks ago I searched psycho'slist and found some really awesome looking bunkbeds but they were far to manly for a girls room. I shot the owner an email and she replied back offering them to me at a significantly lower than listed price. REJOICED for this awesome find! Then we realized, crud the boy needs a mattress (he has been on a full size bed until now). But wait, SHAZAM a city down the road's groupon was for Mattress firm! Holy smokes, God you are blessing us with some awesome finds! THANK YOU, THANK YOU LORD!
We were so grateful, Hunter loves his bunk beds with built in desk and dresser, but we continued the hunt for some girly ones for the girls room.
(get up and stretch your legs, it is about to get good!)
From about mid-week of the first week of August I was awaken every. night. with dreams/visions of a little boy. He had dark hair, dark skin, dark eyes, and the whitest teeth you have ever seen. e.v.e.r.y. n.i.g.h.t. This beautiful little boy had a name. I told my husband about it, and we both felt it was the Lord telling us we had a little African American boy here (via foster care or maybe answering Willows prayer that one day we adopt from Africa) that HE had set aside for our family. His face started coming to me during the day as well, I literally could see his entire face. I felt crazy, nothing like this had ever happened to me before. So with that craziness I kept asking God for clarity on what this meant.
Then I put all our business on facebook and wrote that post about how we knew God was going to knock our socks off....
Someone sent me a private email offering someone else's info who was adopting from India as well. I shot this other person an email with a link to this blog (gasp, someone would know what I am writing now!)and introduced myself and told her since there were so few of us adopting from India I thought it was a HUGE blessing to be able to follow someone elses journey.
She emailed me back and said these words "I know of an incredible 5 year old boy who would be a great son!"
Son. Huh. 5 years old. Huh ( This post talks about how one of us felt led to a 5-6 year old. ) I replied with something and went and spoke to my husband.
We sat in the office and chatted about all sorts of things. Every hair on my body stood straight up and I glanced at the computer to see that this woman had replied. I clicked on her email, and there in front of my face was the VERY SAME BOY that the Lord had sent to me in my dreams for weeks! E.X.A.C.T.L.Y I could not hold back the tears, what in the world does this mean Lord? I sobbed. We sat confused, full of questions, and prayed. We filled Heaven with prayers asking for wisdom and guidence...and cried some more.
If you don't believe the Lord can move in amazing ways, you better not read the next post because I can guarantee you, you may be forced to admit that this world is not Mother Earth and that we did not just all get here by happenstance!
Part two can be found here.
And then I wrote this post. And we began a journey that can only be planned by Christ.
The following will be a list of things that have stood out in our minds over the course of a very short to us time, which leads us to where I am going with this glaze your eyes over post, but I am
*FOR YEARS we have had friends who worked with agencies who have sent us emails with precious children's faces from all around the world and other than that little indian girl who captured my heart years ago NONE have made me long for them, they made me pray harder for their future and their home and that when the time was right the Lord would show us....I even confess to searching T.A.R.E. for children that maybe God would somehow let me know if that was our child. :)
*In January some sweet and amazing
*All summer long we spent looking for bunk beds for the girls room, we started hunting even harder once we moved (hey, one less thing to move we thought) and our search kept coming up empty. A few weeks ago I searched psycho'slist and found some really awesome looking bunkbeds but they were far to manly for a girls room. I shot the owner an email and she replied back offering them to me at a significantly lower than listed price. REJOICED for this awesome find! Then we realized, crud the boy needs a mattress (he has been on a full size bed until now). But wait, SHAZAM a city down the road's groupon was for Mattress firm! Holy smokes, God you are blessing us with some awesome finds! THANK YOU, THANK YOU LORD!
We were so grateful, Hunter loves his bunk beds with built in desk and dresser, but we continued the hunt for some girly ones for the girls room.
(get up and stretch your legs, it is about to get good!)
From about mid-week of the first week of August I was awaken every. night. with dreams/visions of a little boy. He had dark hair, dark skin, dark eyes, and the whitest teeth you have ever seen. e.v.e.r.y. n.i.g.h.t. This beautiful little boy had a name. I told my husband about it, and we both felt it was the Lord telling us we had a little African American boy here (via foster care or maybe answering Willows prayer that one day we adopt from Africa) that HE had set aside for our family. His face started coming to me during the day as well, I literally could see his entire face. I felt crazy, nothing like this had ever happened to me before. So with that craziness I kept asking God for clarity on what this meant.
Then I put all our business on facebook and wrote that post about how we knew God was going to knock our socks off....
Someone sent me a private email offering someone else's info who was adopting from India as well. I shot this other person an email with a link to this blog (gasp, someone would know what I am writing now!)and introduced myself and told her since there were so few of us adopting from India I thought it was a HUGE blessing to be able to follow someone elses journey.
She emailed me back and said these words "I know of an incredible 5 year old boy who would be a great son!"
Son. Huh. 5 years old. Huh ( This post talks about how one of us felt led to a 5-6 year old. ) I replied with something and went and spoke to my husband.
We sat in the office and chatted about all sorts of things. Every hair on my body stood straight up and I glanced at the computer to see that this woman had replied. I clicked on her email, and there in front of my face was the VERY SAME BOY that the Lord had sent to me in my dreams for weeks! E.X.A.C.T.L.Y I could not hold back the tears, what in the world does this mean Lord? I sobbed. We sat confused, full of questions, and prayed. We filled Heaven with prayers asking for wisdom and guidence...and cried some more.
If you don't believe the Lord can move in amazing ways, you better not read the next post because I can guarantee you, you may be forced to admit that this world is not Mother Earth and that we did not just all get here by happenstance!
Part two can be found here.
31 August 2011
Sweet Hour of Prayer
"And I will praise Your name forever and ever. GREAT is the Lord, and greatly to be praised!" Psalm 145:3
Since we began this journey we have prayed with our children not only for the child the Lord will bless us with but for that child's parents. We pray first and foremost that the Lord would send someone into their path that will teach them the love of their ONE TRUE GOD (in a land where there are millions of 'gods'), and that the Lord would bind satan from causing interferance with them hearing and accepting God's word and that they would truly hear and accept HIS word! How marvelous would it be for this sweet child who was once abandoned to worship at the Lord's feet with his/her biological parents AND Parents born of their heart?!?!
We also pray for our child's salvation. We pray for our younger two to come to know the Lord, and what an honor it is to begin praying for this sweet child's soul!
While praying for this child's parents, we ask that the Lord would strip them of any guilt they may carry. Satan wants each and everyone of us to lug around our guilt, and I want those precious parents to know and experience freedom in Christ!
I have always loved my quiet time with the Lord, but I love sitting in silence and listening to the Lord direct me on how to pray for this child, his/her family, our children we currently have, and our families future as a whole.
We would love for you to join us in prayer as well!
In 1845 William Walford penned these words:
Sweet hour of prayer! sweet hour of prayer!
That calls me from a world of care,
And bids me at my Father’s throne
Make all my wants and wishes known.
In seasons of distress and grief,
My soul has often found relief,
And oft escaped the tempter’s snare,
By thy return, sweet hour of prayer!
Sweet hour of prayer! sweet hour of prayer!
The joys I feel, the bliss I share,
Of those whose anxious spirits burn
With strong desires for thy return!
With such I hasten to the place
Where God my Savior shows His face,
And gladly take my station there,
And wait for thee, sweet hour of prayer!
Sweet hour of prayer! sweet hour of prayer!
Thy wings shall my petition bear
To Him whose truth and faithfulness
Engage the waiting soul to bless.
And since He bids me seek His face,
Believe His Word and trust His grace,
I’ll cast on Him my every care,
And wait for thee, sweet hour of prayer!
Sweet hour of prayer! sweet hour of prayer!
May I thy consolation share,
Till, from Mount Pisgah’s lofty height,
I view my home and take my flight.
This robe of flesh I’ll drop, and rise
To seize the everlasting prize,
And shout, while passing through the air,
“Farewell, farewell, sweet hour of prayer!”
Since we began this journey we have prayed with our children not only for the child the Lord will bless us with but for that child's parents. We pray first and foremost that the Lord would send someone into their path that will teach them the love of their ONE TRUE GOD (in a land where there are millions of 'gods'), and that the Lord would bind satan from causing interferance with them hearing and accepting God's word and that they would truly hear and accept HIS word! How marvelous would it be for this sweet child who was once abandoned to worship at the Lord's feet with his/her biological parents AND Parents born of their heart?!?!
We also pray for our child's salvation. We pray for our younger two to come to know the Lord, and what an honor it is to begin praying for this sweet child's soul!
While praying for this child's parents, we ask that the Lord would strip them of any guilt they may carry. Satan wants each and everyone of us to lug around our guilt, and I want those precious parents to know and experience freedom in Christ!
I have always loved my quiet time with the Lord, but I love sitting in silence and listening to the Lord direct me on how to pray for this child, his/her family, our children we currently have, and our families future as a whole.
We would love for you to join us in prayer as well!
In 1845 William Walford penned these words:
Sweet hour of prayer! sweet hour of prayer!
That calls me from a world of care,
And bids me at my Father’s throne
Make all my wants and wishes known.
In seasons of distress and grief,
My soul has often found relief,
And oft escaped the tempter’s snare,
By thy return, sweet hour of prayer!
Sweet hour of prayer! sweet hour of prayer!
The joys I feel, the bliss I share,
Of those whose anxious spirits burn
With strong desires for thy return!
With such I hasten to the place
Where God my Savior shows His face,
And gladly take my station there,
And wait for thee, sweet hour of prayer!
Sweet hour of prayer! sweet hour of prayer!
Thy wings shall my petition bear
To Him whose truth and faithfulness
Engage the waiting soul to bless.
And since He bids me seek His face,
Believe His Word and trust His grace,
I’ll cast on Him my every care,
And wait for thee, sweet hour of prayer!
Sweet hour of prayer! sweet hour of prayer!
May I thy consolation share,
Till, from Mount Pisgah’s lofty height,
I view my home and take my flight.
This robe of flesh I’ll drop, and rise
To seize the everlasting prize,
And shout, while passing through the air,
“Farewell, farewell, sweet hour of prayer!”
29 August 2011
It's Out There and God is going to knock our socks off!
Proverbs 22:13 "the lazy person claims "there is a lion out there! If I go outside I might be killed."
These were the encouraging words my amazing husband text me this morning. I LOVE THAT MAN!
This blog was started quietly, something only our family (as in the immediate five of us!) knew about, it was originally started to document thoughts, feelings and the journey. The blessing bonus would be that one day our child would have something tangible to hold and read as to what led us to them. Our close friends knew what was happening in our lives and praying for our family, and excited to join the journey with us but we did not run around town telling everyone because we knew this would be a long journey (up to three years!). Even when we did tell everyone we were hesitent to give this blog out and to be out there on the internet for a lot of reasons. None of which I will touch on.
Last week the Lord stirred both of our hearts that we needed to tell, share, and trust HIM! For the ugly reasons we didn't want to be out there, we are trusting in the Lord to do miracious things in the hearts of others!
This morning I got up after hearing what the Lord had told both of us and tried to chicken out...hence why my amazing husband sent me this scripture. So I wont be lazy, I wont listen to the enemy, I will listen to the ONE who defends the cause of the fatherless and I will listen to my heavenly father and my amazing husband and step out of my comfort bubble and TELL!
With that being said, today it became "official" because it isn't official until it has been on facebook right?! HAHA
We are organizing a bake sale for October 1st...I simply asked that if anyone felt led to bake and donate to let us know. Pressing "share" my stomach went to the floor and I knew we were truly letting go and trusting God. Personal emails started coming in from people who said they would LOVE to bake for us, LOVE to pray from hundreds of miles away, and one even connected us with another family adopting from I*dia! I LOVE THIS! IT is such a new program that there are only a handful of us brave newbies...I love that we can come together and share this journey with others!
So now we press on preparing for the bake sale and trusting God to send us lots of hungry and thirsty people!
We know that God is going to knock our socks off during this journey to our beautiful brown eyed beauty! We can not wait to see what He does in our lives, and the lives of others!
These were the encouraging words my amazing husband text me this morning. I LOVE THAT MAN!
This blog was started quietly, something only our family (as in the immediate five of us!) knew about, it was originally started to document thoughts, feelings and the journey. The blessing bonus would be that one day our child would have something tangible to hold and read as to what led us to them. Our close friends knew what was happening in our lives and praying for our family, and excited to join the journey with us but we did not run around town telling everyone because we knew this would be a long journey (up to three years!). Even when we did tell everyone we were hesitent to give this blog out and to be out there on the internet for a lot of reasons. None of which I will touch on.
Last week the Lord stirred both of our hearts that we needed to tell, share, and trust HIM! For the ugly reasons we didn't want to be out there, we are trusting in the Lord to do miracious things in the hearts of others!
This morning I got up after hearing what the Lord had told both of us and tried to chicken out...hence why my amazing husband sent me this scripture. So I wont be lazy, I wont listen to the enemy, I will listen to the ONE who defends the cause of the fatherless and I will listen to my heavenly father and my amazing husband and step out of my comfort bubble and TELL!
With that being said, today it became "official" because it isn't official until it has been on facebook right?! HAHA
We are organizing a bake sale for October 1st...I simply asked that if anyone felt led to bake and donate to let us know. Pressing "share" my stomach went to the floor and I knew we were truly letting go and trusting God. Personal emails started coming in from people who said they would LOVE to bake for us, LOVE to pray from hundreds of miles away, and one even connected us with another family adopting from I*dia! I LOVE THIS! IT is such a new program that there are only a handful of us brave newbies...I love that we can come together and share this journey with others!
So now we press on preparing for the bake sale and trusting God to send us lots of hungry and thirsty people!
We know that God is going to knock our socks off during this journey to our beautiful brown eyed beauty! We can not wait to see what He does in our lives, and the lives of others!
17 August 2011
O.B.E.Y!
Deuteronomy 19:9 "I command you today—to love the LORD your God and to walk always in obedience to him"
We talked to our pastor on Sunday and God went before us and spoke great things thru him to us. I needed to hear we shouldn't live in fear of what may happen because we are stepping out in obedience of Christ. If we are following the Lords will, plan and direction for our life why do we worry?!
Our hearts yurn to see the beautiful brown eyed child that God created just for us. We are unsure of this journey but we know that the Lord knows the path ahead!
Know that we pray for you every day and all day sweet child of ours. Your sisters talk about you all the time and they long to see your face as well. They long to show you your toys, your bed, to eat meals with you, they long for you to be home!!
We talked to our pastor on Sunday and God went before us and spoke great things thru him to us. I needed to hear we shouldn't live in fear of what may happen because we are stepping out in obedience of Christ. If we are following the Lords will, plan and direction for our life why do we worry?!
Our hearts yurn to see the beautiful brown eyed child that God created just for us. We are unsure of this journey but we know that the Lord knows the path ahead!
Know that we pray for you every day and all day sweet child of ours. Your sisters talk about you all the time and they long to see your face as well. They long to show you your toys, your bed, to eat meals with you, they long for you to be home!!
06 August 2011
New Leaf
Isaiah 42:9 Behold, the former things have come to pass, And new things I declare; Before they spring forth I tell you of them.”
I am writing from a new setting, while I would love to say that two weeks out of our move I have completely unpacked and hosted lavish dinner parties, I can't! The truth is I have two boxes sitting in front of me (more in other rooms) and our sweet friends came the other day and ate hot dogs and canned green beans!
Our previous home was on the market last summer to no avail. God had more lessons in store for each of our hearts and those former things are no more! We are trying to prepare our home and hearts for our child and everyday we are a bit closer. Sweet Willow can't wait to make room for your clothes and dreams of playing and teaching you English. Everytime daddy prays "be with our child and begin to prepare their heart and our hearts" I cry.
Emory, talks to you as though you were sitting right there with her. I can't wait to hear you all giggling and playing sweetly together...and yes, even argue!
Willow the other day said "mommy I wished it didn't take this long to bring our new sister home" and the truth of the matter is, I AGREE!
The Lord has great things in store for our family while we wait, which means that the serpent will be lurking at every corner trying to steal the joy and rob us of fulfilling the Lords plans for our daughter and our family, so we pray and put on the full amor of God!
For now our family turns over a new leaf in a new beautiful home and we long to make memories in it with YOU in this God blessed journey!
I am writing from a new setting, while I would love to say that two weeks out of our move I have completely unpacked and hosted lavish dinner parties, I can't! The truth is I have two boxes sitting in front of me (more in other rooms) and our sweet friends came the other day and ate hot dogs and canned green beans!
Our previous home was on the market last summer to no avail. God had more lessons in store for each of our hearts and those former things are no more! We are trying to prepare our home and hearts for our child and everyday we are a bit closer. Sweet Willow can't wait to make room for your clothes and dreams of playing and teaching you English. Everytime daddy prays "be with our child and begin to prepare their heart and our hearts" I cry.
Emory, talks to you as though you were sitting right there with her. I can't wait to hear you all giggling and playing sweetly together...and yes, even argue!
Willow the other day said "mommy I wished it didn't take this long to bring our new sister home" and the truth of the matter is, I AGREE!
The Lord has great things in store for our family while we wait, which means that the serpent will be lurking at every corner trying to steal the joy and rob us of fulfilling the Lords plans for our daughter and our family, so we pray and put on the full amor of God!
For now our family turns over a new leaf in a new beautiful home and we long to make memories in it with YOU in this God blessed journey!
20 July 2011
One roundtrip ticket or two?
Deuteronomy 10:18 "He defends the cause of the fatherless and the widow, and loves the foreigner residing among you, giving them food and clothing."
I LOVE this verse. I love it! It may appear frequently because it is one that is near and dear to the heart. Our great country was founded on immigrants but nowadays it seems most Americans have a sense of entitlement that we "own" our great country, they look at foreigners as those who do not belong here. GOD LOVES THEM and so should WE!
I digress, I am sitting here three days before we move into our new home. I should be packing, but I am not. I am sitting here with an aching heart that longs for India. A beautiful country with beautiful people and I long to go back. I long to see the precious faces again and one day when the Lord appoints I will see our precious daughter.
I never understood when I sat with and prayed with friends going thru the adoption progress...how can you ache for something you don't have? How can you long for something that isn't yours? The truth is, SHE IS OURS! We don't know her, we haven't met her but she is ours, but most importantly her Heavenly Father knows who she is and loves her and can't wait for her to come home.
I digress again, when we were in In*ia last year the sweet friend who led the group I traveled with began to roughly plan another trip. I was hooked and I did not even know the date! Time has passed and a few weeks ago he emailed the team that went to In*ia stating that we would be going back in February! SEVEN MONTHS FROM NOW!!! My heart lept for joy but sank at the thought that my husband would not see the beautiful land that held our daughter and the people who captivated my heart.
We talked about him going and he said he would pray about it, while he prayed I selfishly just assumed I would go. Not sure why I assumed, I just did. Monday he told me he feels led to go. I have gone, I got the experience, I fell in love, I should be estatic! And I AM!! I rejoice in my husbands adventure that awaits him!
Today, he asked me if we could both go. New fears. Where will our children go? We don't have family to keep them. Our friends have their own children! We are blesed by a wonderful community but THREE children is a huge burden to lay on someone else while their parents are 9,000 miles away! So now, we pray. We seek our Heavenly fathers face and plan and ask Him to make the path clear to us if we are both to go or only my husband. Countless people have walked up to us and said "I saw the church is going back, we would love to help with the children." Each time leaves me a bit more speechless! Will we buy one roundtrip ticket or two Lord?
I LOVE this verse. I love it! It may appear frequently because it is one that is near and dear to the heart. Our great country was founded on immigrants but nowadays it seems most Americans have a sense of entitlement that we "own" our great country, they look at foreigners as those who do not belong here. GOD LOVES THEM and so should WE!
I digress, I am sitting here three days before we move into our new home. I should be packing, but I am not. I am sitting here with an aching heart that longs for India. A beautiful country with beautiful people and I long to go back. I long to see the precious faces again and one day when the Lord appoints I will see our precious daughter.
I never understood when I sat with and prayed with friends going thru the adoption progress...how can you ache for something you don't have? How can you long for something that isn't yours? The truth is, SHE IS OURS! We don't know her, we haven't met her but she is ours, but most importantly her Heavenly Father knows who she is and loves her and can't wait for her to come home.
I digress again, when we were in In*ia last year the sweet friend who led the group I traveled with began to roughly plan another trip. I was hooked and I did not even know the date! Time has passed and a few weeks ago he emailed the team that went to In*ia stating that we would be going back in February! SEVEN MONTHS FROM NOW!!! My heart lept for joy but sank at the thought that my husband would not see the beautiful land that held our daughter and the people who captivated my heart.
We talked about him going and he said he would pray about it, while he prayed I selfishly just assumed I would go. Not sure why I assumed, I just did. Monday he told me he feels led to go. I have gone, I got the experience, I fell in love, I should be estatic! And I AM!! I rejoice in my husbands adventure that awaits him!
Today, he asked me if we could both go. New fears. Where will our children go? We don't have family to keep them. Our friends have their own children! We are blesed by a wonderful community but THREE children is a huge burden to lay on someone else while their parents are 9,000 miles away! So now, we pray. We seek our Heavenly fathers face and plan and ask Him to make the path clear to us if we are both to go or only my husband. Countless people have walked up to us and said "I saw the church is going back, we would love to help with the children." Each time leaves me a bit more speechless! Will we buy one roundtrip ticket or two Lord?
12 July 2011
Lost in tranlation - fear not!
Romans 8:15 "The Spirit you received does not make you slaves, so that you live in fear again; rather, the Spirit you received brought about your adoption to sonship. And by him we cry, “Abba, Father.”
Last night I laid in bed stricken with fear. We have been praying over the age we should adopt, meaning a baby or an older child, and at this point and time we feel the Lord is leading us to an older child. What does older mean? Well One of us thinks 2-4 and one of us thinks 5-6 which means that BOTH of us are asking God for clarity, direction and peace that can only come from the Lord.
While lying there the thoughts that flooded my head about adopting an older child were: How will I homeschool our oldest and middle daughter, all while trying to teach our new precious child English? How will I teach him/her English AND basic math, etc with a massive language barrier? How will he/she feel living in a strange world and not being able to communicate with his/her own mother, father, brother and sisters? Maybe a baby would be easier and better! You get the picture, it wasn't pretty.
I finally had to stop, tell the enemy to get behind me and cry out to God. If this is truly the journey He is calling us on, He will give us the strength to endure the lost in translation days! The enemy wants us to focus on our fears, he wants us to be afraid because when we are afraid we are not stepping out on faith, we are stepping out in flesh. Instead, we will cry out to our Heavenly Abba Father and seek HIM, seek HIS will and trust that His plan is better than our fleshly plan.
Satan hates adoption! First and foremost the Lord has adopted us as HIS children, so of course Satan hates adoption! He hates a child no longer being called "orphan." We know he will continue to attack and his battle will be fierce. However, the Lord is on our side and HE will be victorious! HE will enslave Satan and He will fight for our family because our child 9,000 miles away is LOVED and we are LOVED!
Last night I laid in bed stricken with fear. We have been praying over the age we should adopt, meaning a baby or an older child, and at this point and time we feel the Lord is leading us to an older child. What does older mean? Well One of us thinks 2-4 and one of us thinks 5-6 which means that BOTH of us are asking God for clarity, direction and peace that can only come from the Lord.
While lying there the thoughts that flooded my head about adopting an older child were: How will I homeschool our oldest and middle daughter, all while trying to teach our new precious child English? How will I teach him/her English AND basic math, etc with a massive language barrier? How will he/she feel living in a strange world and not being able to communicate with his/her own mother, father, brother and sisters? Maybe a baby would be easier and better! You get the picture, it wasn't pretty.
I finally had to stop, tell the enemy to get behind me and cry out to God. If this is truly the journey He is calling us on, He will give us the strength to endure the lost in translation days! The enemy wants us to focus on our fears, he wants us to be afraid because when we are afraid we are not stepping out on faith, we are stepping out in flesh. Instead, we will cry out to our Heavenly Abba Father and seek HIM, seek HIS will and trust that His plan is better than our fleshly plan.
Satan hates adoption! First and foremost the Lord has adopted us as HIS children, so of course Satan hates adoption! He hates a child no longer being called "orphan." We know he will continue to attack and his battle will be fierce. However, the Lord is on our side and HE will be victorious! HE will enslave Satan and He will fight for our family because our child 9,000 miles away is LOVED and we are LOVED!
11 July 2011
Why Ind*a?
"Many are the plans in a person’s heart, but it is the LORD’s purpose that prevails."
Proverbs 19:21
When I (mom) was very young, I was at camp and I very clearly heard the Lord say that one day I would go to In*ia, Africa and Haiti...I didn't know it would take years to get the ball rolling!
Fast forward to about five years ago, a precious friend who worked for an adoption agency sent out an email asking for a family to please consider adopting this precious girl from Ind*a. As I looked into those darling eyes, my heart felt something I have never felt before, a huge longing and a huge gap. I forwarded the email on to my husband who said "find out more." At that time we just could.not.do.it. God closed doors and told us no. I never forgot her face or that feeling in my heart.
As we started the process to do domestic adoption, my heart still ached for a face across the seas. Hubby was adamant we would adopt from here, I smiled said ok but inside I cried and I cried out to the Lord. I asked the Lord to change my heart or to change his, because we were both quite set in our ways and I knew it would take an act of God to change either of us!
Fast forward again to summer of 2010 when our church announced a trip to Ind*a! I about came off the pew with excitement, hubby leaned over, looked me square in the eyes and said "your going, we will make it work, but you are going." I will save my trip for another post, but when I came back I printed out some pictures of some of the children I had worked with and framed them and put them on my desk with pictures of my biological children.
Little did I know that God would use those two pictures to move hubbies heart in a way I could never imagine. Like I said, I have prayed for years that God would change one of our hearts but I didn't know when or how! One night as we talked and prayed about stepping out and adopting again, he said "what if we adopt from Ind*a and from here because I know we have a child in India!?" I literally could not stop crying. He went on to tell me that waking up every day and seeing the pictures of those little children in my arms changed him in a way that HE never imagined.
So the journey began in June for our child 9,000 miles away. We pray over her/him every night and we ask that the Lord begin to prepare our hearts for her/him, and that He would begin to prepare her heart for us. We do not know if she has even been conceived yet, but the Lord does. We do not know what her given name is, but HE does. He knows exactly the time she will join our family. In our prayers we also pray for her family, we may never know their story but the Lord does, so we pray that one day they come to know the love of the Lord.
For heartbreaking statistics on Ind*a and why our heart breaks for the beautiful people of that country and nation click on the "Stats" tab at the top!
***Side note, the very next day after we had that wonderful "GO" conversation a sweet friend who works for an adoption agency sent me an email and told me the Lord had laid our family on her heart when she learned they would be adding India to their program list, yes, I wept with that awesome confirmation from the Lord!***
Proverbs 19:21
When I (mom) was very young, I was at camp and I very clearly heard the Lord say that one day I would go to In*ia, Africa and Haiti...I didn't know it would take years to get the ball rolling!
Fast forward to about five years ago, a precious friend who worked for an adoption agency sent out an email asking for a family to please consider adopting this precious girl from Ind*a. As I looked into those darling eyes, my heart felt something I have never felt before, a huge longing and a huge gap. I forwarded the email on to my husband who said "find out more." At that time we just could.not.do.it. God closed doors and told us no. I never forgot her face or that feeling in my heart.
As we started the process to do domestic adoption, my heart still ached for a face across the seas. Hubby was adamant we would adopt from here, I smiled said ok but inside I cried and I cried out to the Lord. I asked the Lord to change my heart or to change his, because we were both quite set in our ways and I knew it would take an act of God to change either of us!
Fast forward again to summer of 2010 when our church announced a trip to Ind*a! I about came off the pew with excitement, hubby leaned over, looked me square in the eyes and said "your going, we will make it work, but you are going." I will save my trip for another post, but when I came back I printed out some pictures of some of the children I had worked with and framed them and put them on my desk with pictures of my biological children.
Little did I know that God would use those two pictures to move hubbies heart in a way I could never imagine. Like I said, I have prayed for years that God would change one of our hearts but I didn't know when or how! One night as we talked and prayed about stepping out and adopting again, he said "what if we adopt from Ind*a and from here because I know we have a child in India!?" I literally could not stop crying. He went on to tell me that waking up every day and seeing the pictures of those little children in my arms changed him in a way that HE never imagined.
So the journey began in June for our child 9,000 miles away. We pray over her/him every night and we ask that the Lord begin to prepare our hearts for her/him, and that He would begin to prepare her heart for us. We do not know if she has even been conceived yet, but the Lord does. We do not know what her given name is, but HE does. He knows exactly the time she will join our family. In our prayers we also pray for her family, we may never know their story but the Lord does, so we pray that one day they come to know the love of the Lord.
For heartbreaking statistics on Ind*a and why our heart breaks for the beautiful people of that country and nation click on the "Stats" tab at the top!
***Side note, the very next day after we had that wonderful "GO" conversation a sweet friend who works for an adoption agency sent me an email and told me the Lord had laid our family on her heart when she learned they would be adding India to their program list, yes, I wept with that awesome confirmation from the Lord!***
25 June 2011
No Double Yellow Line Event
The amazingly and wonderfully talented Cindy Foote released her amazing EP/CD today at a beautiful event called "The Event!". NO DOUBLE YELLOW LINE is the most amazing cd on adoption! Each and everyone of the songs has been touching our hearts over the last week (thank you iTunes!), with each song being special to a different family member, which makes the cd even better for us! The event was amazing!
At one point they had all families in the process of adopting stand up so others could pray for us. The prayers could be felt and heard thru out the room! TRULY A BEAUTIFUL MOMENT!!
Cindy and Billy have brought home a beautiful girl from China, Ethiopia and now they are waiting to bring their beautiful Haitian daughter home! Thru their journeys God used their story to pen beautiful music that can go on to touch others and bless them in their journeys! For more on this cd visit their store.
Another one of our sweet friends and her hubby work for Ground to Cup Coffee and they launched their CarePoint with Children's Hope Chest to sponsor darling children from Warancha (Ethiopia). For a mere $34 a month your family can sponsor one of these children and be the hope they need. Sweet Willow drew a picture the very next day for us to send to Selamawit Bashe! If your family would like to sponsor one of these children and forego one night out at Red Robin visit the Ground To Cup team and they will set you up!
One of the beautiful parts of the evening was when the emphasis was placed on Orphan Care and how it does not always mean adoption and that orphan care comes in many forms, we just need to look around for orphans in our own community we can care for! So true. So often we hear "I LOVE that you are adopting, but that is not for us." So let's find the faces of the fatherless next door, at the store, at church and anywhere else we frequent!
At one point they had all families in the process of adopting stand up so others could pray for us. The prayers could be felt and heard thru out the room! TRULY A BEAUTIFUL MOMENT!!
Cindy and Billy have brought home a beautiful girl from China, Ethiopia and now they are waiting to bring their beautiful Haitian daughter home! Thru their journeys God used their story to pen beautiful music that can go on to touch others and bless them in their journeys! For more on this cd visit their store.
Another one of our sweet friends and her hubby work for Ground to Cup Coffee and they launched their CarePoint with Children's Hope Chest to sponsor darling children from Warancha (Ethiopia). For a mere $34 a month your family can sponsor one of these children and be the hope they need. Sweet Willow drew a picture the very next day for us to send to Selamawit Bashe! If your family would like to sponsor one of these children and forego one night out at Red Robin visit the Ground To Cup team and they will set you up!
One of the beautiful parts of the evening was when the emphasis was placed on Orphan Care and how it does not always mean adoption and that orphan care comes in many forms, we just need to look around for orphans in our own community we can care for! So true. So often we hear "I LOVE that you are adopting, but that is not for us." So let's find the faces of the fatherless next door, at the store, at church and anywhere else we frequent!
21 June 2011
The journey begins
James 1:27 tells us "Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself from being polluted by the world."
Since our oldest was a few months old adoption has been a topic of conversation in our home. We always agreed we would adopt, from where and when was up to God but we knew God was calling us to step out on faith and trust Him with a child set aside for our family.
A few years later we attended a state meeting to foster/adopt, we came home filled out the application and a week later we found out we were pregnant...and not paper pregnant! We welcomed a sweet bundle of joy and we continued to discuss adoption.
Shortly, after her #3 came along and then we said "okay, Lord let's start this journey again"...turns out God had other plans! The Lord revealed to both of us that we had work to be done on our own marriage. Our re-fining time was amazing! God brought us closer to Him and closer to each other. Our marriage was stronger and we look back and see why God appointed THAT time to reveal that our marriage needed re-fining...the adoption journey is difficult and your marriage must be strong and deeply rooted in Christ.
Here we are, a few years later, and we are willing and ready! We have no idea what God will do during this adoption but we can NOT wait! We are praying against the enemy and we are praying that the Lord be victorious! The enemy would rather keep 167 million children ensnared in his grip, but we serve a MIGHTY GOD who longs to see ONE rescued!
Next post...why Ind*a?!
Since our oldest was a few months old adoption has been a topic of conversation in our home. We always agreed we would adopt, from where and when was up to God but we knew God was calling us to step out on faith and trust Him with a child set aside for our family.
A few years later we attended a state meeting to foster/adopt, we came home filled out the application and a week later we found out we were pregnant...and not paper pregnant! We welcomed a sweet bundle of joy and we continued to discuss adoption.
Shortly, after her #3 came along and then we said "okay, Lord let's start this journey again"...turns out God had other plans! The Lord revealed to both of us that we had work to be done on our own marriage. Our re-fining time was amazing! God brought us closer to Him and closer to each other. Our marriage was stronger and we look back and see why God appointed THAT time to reveal that our marriage needed re-fining...the adoption journey is difficult and your marriage must be strong and deeply rooted in Christ.
Here we are, a few years later, and we are willing and ready! We have no idea what God will do during this adoption but we can NOT wait! We are praying against the enemy and we are praying that the Lord be victorious! The enemy would rather keep 167 million children ensnared in his grip, but we serve a MIGHTY GOD who longs to see ONE rescued!
Next post...why Ind*a?!
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