Not So Discouraged That We Won't listen

Life has been hard for me lately. Things have been more than difficult is nearly every erea of our life these days and my husband and I are definitely feeling hard pressed under the weight. We both feel discouraged.

This is for us and for anyone else under threat of becoming too discouraged by their trials, troubles and cares:

Exodus 6:6-9 (NLT)

6 “Therefore, say to the people of Israel: ‘I am the Lord. I will free you from your oppression and will rescue you from your slavery in Egypt. I will redeem you with a powerful arm and great acts of judgment. 7 I will claim you as my own people, and I will be your God. Then you will know that I am the Lord your God who has freed you from your oppression in Egypt. 8 I will bring you into the land I swore to give to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. I will give it to you as your very own possession. I am the Lord!’”

9 So Moses told the people of Israel what the Lord had said, but they refused to listen anymore. They had become too discouraged by the brutality of their slavery. (emphasis mine)

It's tough. You are weary, yes?! But don't give up an inch. The truth is God willed that the slaves were going to be set free. That means they were to be free indeed, no matter what. It was only a matter of what their track record of faith would be like during the wait. Would they listen and believe or would they grow so discouraged and so focused on their misery that they would refuse to find comfort in the Comforter?

I have felt the strain of our circumstances and been discouraged some lately. Not because of the adoption. Mostly because of other events happening in our life right now. Oh friends, I have been tempted to grow so discouraged that I wouldn't listen. Truthfully maybe there are times when I have not listened to the Lord. But not today! Today I seek the Lord afresh to listen to what He has to say to me and to trust in Him.

Which leads me to my theme verse lately. One which I cannot let go of or fail to be reminded of as it hits home for this season of my life perfectly and so I MUST share it again:

Habakkuk 3:19 (AMP)

19The Lord God is my Strength, my personal bravery, and my invincible army; He makes my feet like hinds' feet and will make me to walk [not to stand still in terror, but to walk] and make [spiritual] progress upon my high places [of trouble, suffering, or responsibility]!

Getting Ready To Take Flight

Well friends, our Dossier will head to Ethiopia this Friday. Please pray for a safe trip for our paperwork.

New ticker AGAIN

I have a lot of agains on this blog lately. I depressingly had to update our ticker to reflect the delayed status of our dossier. I must admit that the even round number of the last ticker was much appreciated. For today only, our ticker will read negative as our revised document will not reach awaa until tomorrow. So don't get freaked out if you notice that we are going backwards in time today (although I must admit sometimes it feels that way). It's just the ticker acting funny because I gave it a date to begin in the future.

Finished AGAIN.

After a difficult week long wait I finally was able to obtain the much needed signature of the notary (who had been on vacation) and so the last form of our Dossier is being overnight to Duni. We are once again FINISHED. This time I hope for good.

I keep reminding myself that this is all a part of the process and that we were warned taht there are many twists, turns and bumps on the road to adoption.

As I have struggled this week with delays and wondering why some things have been so difficult for us during this process I was reminded that things work best if I just release them to the Lord. today I have prayed and done just that. Our daily reading (through the Bible in a year) included Psalm 23. Here are the words in the NLT translation (which is the translation our church is using together) while I have this Psalm memorized in the NIV version the change up in language made the meaning fall afresh over me today. I have my heart set on these words.

Psalm 23
A psalm of David.

1 The Lord is my shepherd; I have all that I need. 2 He lets me rest in green meadows; he leads me beside peaceful streams. 3 He renews my strength. He guides me along right paths, bringing honor to his name. 4 Even when I walk through the darkest valley, I will not be afraid, for you are close beside me. Your rod and your staff protect and comfort me. 5 You prepare a feast for me in the presence of my enemies. You honor me by anointing my head with oil. My cup overflows with blessings. 6 Surely your goodness and unfailing love will pursue me all the days of my life, and I will live in the house of the Lord forever.

More Video

Gosh I'm on a video roll here. I, again, stumbled upon this video and thought it was a hoot. Large families are treated as if they are a traveling freak show these days in society and I just had to laugh it up over this family's response to some the the nagging questions they must be bombarded with on a regular basis. Sad thing is I often hear some of these comments with just our 3 kids in tow! Just wait until we are a trans-racial family...... Oh the things we'll hear!

PS- I used to joke about having a fear that Dustin and I would someday have a family of 12 or so. These days I fear it less and have begun to wonder more if we haven't already begun our journey to buying in bulk, shopping at Goodwill and driving an Econoline Van.

Room for One More?

I saw this on the blog of a family who just returned home with their kiddos recently. I thought it was worth sharing here too.

More on the Subject

My sweet friend Tisha directed me to this broadcast after I wrote this post yesterday. Go have a listen. You'll be glad you did. And then, here is a link to the book if you are interested.

Thanks Tisha for the heads up!!!

A Blessing for Today

Today has been a tough day for me. I have been down. I'm feeling a bit queasy with an upset GI system and I am hoping and praying I didn't pick up anything while out of the country. While I still feel sick I have something to cling to to make me smile. A BIG blessing.

Dustin and I were blessed today to receive a $500 gift to use toward adoption expenses. We are humbled by such generosity and loving kindness.

Thank you Lord and thanks to the family (who shall remain nameless) for your blessings today.

Red Letters Campaign- Read This

I happened upon this article via this blog. Thinking about foster kids aging out of the system without a family breaks my heart. I cannot imagine how scary a place the would would seem to such a child. I know I was terrified when I graduated high school with no real direction for my future. I try to imagine how things would have gone without any family to support me. Ouch. My heart trembles at the thought.

A friend told me that she read a statistic which stated that if just one person from every church in the US adopted a child from the US foster care system there would be no kids left in the system. Can you dream of such a thing? Oh wouldn't it be so wonderful?!

You know, it's not that unrealistic. What if each of us made it our goal to visit the churches in our neighbourhoods and pray that God would move the hearts of at least ONE family in that congregation. What could happen!?

Make Me To Walk

Habakkuk 3:19 (Amplified Version)

The Lord God is my Strength, my personal bravery, and my invincible army; He makes my feet like hinds' feet and will make me to walk [not to stand still in terror, but to walk] and make [spiritual] progress upon my high places [of trouble, suffering, or responsibility]!

I've clung to this verse before and today I feel a renewed attachment to it. Through the trials and frustrations lately I have been tempted to stand still and not make spiritual progress. I have asked the Lord to make me to walk and not stand still today.

Panic!!!

AGGGGHHHHH!!!!!!!!

Just guess what the heck I'm freaking out over......... the notary who failed to sign Dustin's health exam form is on vacation until Monday! I want to sit myself down on the floor and have a BIG, L-O-N-G temper tantrum. I am so frustrated. I would pull all my hair out if I weren't so vain!

I swear it, I SWEAR THIS ADOPTION IS GOING TO BE THE DEATH OF ME if something doesn't give!!! (at least that's how I feel right this moment!) I better be a more patient woman at the end of all this, that's all I have to say!! What can a girl do!? It seems we have no choice but to wait once more. I am so sad.

I am asking for some renewed perspective and for a calm heart today.

GRRRRRRR- I don't like this! This is where it gets hard for me. Days like this and me don't go together.

Our Trip to Costa Rica in Pictures

We're back. First, let me say we had a great time and fell in love with the people of Costa Rica. I want to tell you all about our trip but I also want to tell you some bad news. Our Dossier did not make it to ET while we were away. It seems one paper had cleared the State certification process only to go to the Fed level to find that a signature was missing ( I can't believe that! We checked every paper. I have no clue how we missed it...) as I type it is being shipped back to us. I hope to be able to travel to the doctor's office and find the woman who notarized the doc and get her signature. If we can get it by end of business today hopefully we can ship it out overnight by Wed at the latest. SO SAD!!!

Ok, now back to our trip. We flew a charter flight with 236 other folks from New Mexico and Arizona who buy from our distributor. they picked up the bill FOR EVERYTHING and for all 238 of us. It was awesome! We stayed at Paradisus Playa Conchal in Santa Cruz, Guanacaste, Costa Rica. We landed in Liberia and drove by bus about an hour to the resort by the beach. Our room was beautiful and the resort was top notch. We had a blast.

The first full day at the resort was spent at the beach enjoying the amazing views. I did manage to get a sun burn THROUGH my swim suit ( Proof of just how pale I really am!!) since it never occurred to me that such a thing would happen to me. Now I am sure to apply sun screen to my ENTIRE body before putting any clothing on when heading outdoors.

The first activity we did was the zip lines. What a hoot that is! SOOO MUCH FUN. I felt completely comfortable. We were able to see many Howler Monkeys, an Iguana and other birds. the tress were beautiful. In all we zipped down 13 lines for a tour of the canopy in the dry forest. The "dry" forest sees 60 inches of rainfall annually. It is a Sahara like Africa. Never knew that, did you?

The guides told us that on the other side of the continental divide in Costa Rica the rain forests receive 3 times that amount of rain. Can you imagine!? They said that when they had their last rainy season in October many homes were flooded and many people were or drowned. The rivers rose so high they touched the bottom of the main bridge from the airport to the resort and the bridge had to close down.

When the guide asked if I wanted to try the zip line upside down I told him "sure!" Dustin following behind me was not too pleased (he's afraid of heights a bit but put on his brave face for the zip lines and did awesome!) that I agreed to try it because, being the man he is, he couldn't look like a chicken following his wife and not trying it as well. And so, he did it. He would like to point out that I went first hands free, and he followed with a TIGHT grip on the harness. The guide told him to let go and Dustin responded with, "What do you mean LET GO? NO!" hahahaha

Costa Ricans speak Spanish. I know enough lines to be able to greet folks, ask for the bathroom and what time it is, and how to order some food. I had fun picking up some new words and practicing the bit of Spanish I actually retained from High School. In Costa Rica they are taught English and French in school for three years in high school and then for the two final years they must choose either English or French to continue on with (yes , your math is right. Their high school is from 7th grade to 11th grade). All that to say you wouldn't need to know a lick of Spanish to have a great time there. We found Costa Ricans to be well educated. To get jobs at the resorts and for the tours you need a college degree. Wow, not like in the US!!!

Dustin and I both agree that Costa Rica was friendlier by far than any of the islands in the Caribbean we visited last year and would definitely head back there for a visit again. The culture was so friendly and fun. We felt welcome wherever we went.

The day before we left we went white water rafting on the Tonorio River. Our guide was Dany and he told us that the rafting company was a family business and he was a part of the family. So, we're not sure if he was the owner or not, but he was the man in charge and took great care of us. Our boat mate from Utah was named Keith and we had a great time paddling our boat together as hard as we could while Dany steered us down the rapids. Here are a few pictures taken by the rafting company's photographer. Her did a great job and for $30 US we got over 70 photos of out rafting trip plus over 500 photos of the flora and fauna of Costa Rica. Really beautiful pictures! I consider that to be a real deal. Especially since we couldn't take any pics while we were rafting of all the amazing wildlife we saw.

Order left to right: Dany, Dustin, Keith and Jen.
You can't tell from this picture but I am actually still in the boat. Just under some water at the moment! hehe

Dustin went over a 14 foot drop together with Dany. Keith and I watched safely from the shores. After they had already been down the fall Dany told Dustin that he hadn't been down that particular rapid in 6 months because the last time he'd gone he almost drowned. You see, at the bottom of the waterfall is a wall to the left side which catches the water and pushes "swimmers" against the wall. With the resultant under current swimmers tend to be pulled down and so their vests keep them stuck near the top but the water pulls their heads down. Dany told us he always has respect for the river. Thank the Lord Dustin and Dany went over without a hitch (you can be sure I was praying hard during that whole event!) Check out the pics below:

I have SO MANY more pictures I'd love to share but that would just be too many. we had a great time and are so blessed to have the opportunity to take a trip we would otherwise never be able to afford to take. Especially at this time in our lives. Wow. What a gift!!

Red Letters Campaign- Having a little freak out session

I have this ticker up there which says 4 days waiting for a referral but really it ought to say: Dossier sitting on a desk since Monday.

(BLANK) more days until it's certified and authenticated and shipped off? Who knows....

We head off to Costa Rica and we won't have any idea when it leaves (or IF it leaves) AWAA corporate while we are gone. I am praying it does. It would be better for me that way. Then I won't have to be sitting at home obsessing over watching the tracking progress as it travels.

It's hard not to freak out. It's not anyone's fault. There's just this strange thing happening in me which is not unlike what a two year old thinks about not getting their way. I suddenly feel an urge to drop to the floor and have a good fit. (ah yes, friends it's not a peaches and cream over here. I am trying to paint the real picture for you.)

My poor friend Kim had the scare of her life when her Dossier took a vacation in Paris around Christmas...... I don't want our dossier to do any sightseeing during it's world travels!!!

Check these out

A woman with our agency is now making the cutest onesies and since I just posted about tee shirts, etc., I thought I would post a link sending you over to Andrea's blog to see them. Enjoy!

Honestly

I have to be honest here. 2007 was a really tough year. This month is starting off on the difficult side too. It's hard to have SO MANY DIFFICULTIES swirling around our family. I guess I am trying to write about how I feel about all these difficulties without going into too great detail. That's a hard thing to do. Especially if the goal is to have people understand what in the world you are typing about not sound like a loon. Well, I have resolved myself to the idea of sounding like a loon. I just need to vent. This is a strange forum for that, but hey I am a strange person!

I've written before about being in need this past year. I have been able to see the blessings of being in such a position but sometimes I struggle. It's plain HARD. When we committed to place our whole family on the alter for the Lord's service back at the leadership commitment event at Palm Valley we really had not a clue what that meant. Only now are we beginning to catch glimpses of how all encompassing that commitment really was.

Yesterday, I was on the phone with my mom, unloading all my heart's concerns and asking her for more prayer I found these words coming out of my mouth; " It just gets hard. It's like every area of our life is under serious overhaul. We have SO MANY things going on." I was thinking of all the areas in our lives where we are absolutely in a position of utter need and we have no choice but to rely on the Lord for our provision or it aint gonna happen for us! While we sometimes grow weary of being in that position I have a gut feeling that years from now we will look back and see that this season produced a gigantic amount of spiritual growth in our lives. Sometimes, Dustin and I wonder if the Lord isn't calling us to spend the rest of our lives here on earth in such a position. To be totally honest that freaks me out a whole lot! It's HARD work to surrender myself to the Lord's care daily. To honestly not try to cling to the delusion of control of my own life. To live on the brink. To live by faith. IT takes lots of work. LOTS OF YIELDING TO THE HOLY SPIRIT.

To be completely honest once more, I can think of many, many, MANY days where I have failed to do that. I have been a grumbly little desert wanderer. I have an entire runway behind me lit up with God's faithfulness and provision for me and our family yet many days I wake up feeling sorry for myself over the fact that each day God only chooses to only light up enough of the day's runway for me to finish out the day. No more, no less. Really, I haven't often been happy about that.

To give myself a little grace I have to say that Dustin and i have faced down some seriously stressful situations lately and by God's grace we have been able to act faithfully. It may take us travelling the LONG way to get there, but the Lord always brings us to the place where we surrender for His glory.

That is where I am at today. We have huge burdens pressing upon our hearts this week. SO MANY LOOSE ENDS. We wonder about our future and what's going to happen. How will things play out. At this point we just feel the need to KNOW, we don't necessarily care how things turn out. It seems there is some kind of oppression here in the waiting place. Not that God is oppressing us, but that the enemy is trying desperately to steal anything and everything he can get from us in our weakness during the wait.

It is so appropriate for us to be studying Abraham and Sarah during this time. Talk about a LIFETIME of waiting on the Lord!!!! I can't fathom!! Nor, can I really honestly say I'd want to share in some of that (...but that's just my fleshy faithlessness talking... I can't give way to that!!) thankfully the Patriarchs study I did last year with all my precious sister is still very fresh in my mind and is wonderful to draw from while I read the text once more.

Who would have ever though that this is where Dustin and I would be?

Back to the phone conversation with my mommy. As soon as the words came out of my mouth about how all encompassing life change seems to be for us lately, the Holy Spirit confirmed in me that I ought not to wonder at this. It's as if he reminded me that placing oneself completely on the alter means that God will completely accept that offering and do what He will with it.

This is just the LORD doing what the LORD does. That ought to make me rejoice. And so that's what I will do during this wait. Rejoice in the Lord and continue to wait on Him.

Tracking THE Package (Cont'd)

Duni, our Family Coordinator emailed me today to tell me that our dossier should be heading out early next week to ET. I think they are waiting on a few other Dossiers to make it to the office to be authenticated and then apparently they will send them all out together.

Next week we are blessedto be traveling on a FREE TRIP hosted by one of our distributors to COSTA RICA!! That means I will not be able to keep up with my blog, email, dossier tracking obsessions during that time as I will be sitting on the beach with my handsome hubby for 5 days straight!

Though, I may try to sneak the lap top with me (if hubby doesn't mind).

Am- Har- WHAT!?

Ok, so lots of people have asked me how to pronounce the language I am learning. It is pronounced Am-HAR-ic with the emphasis on the second syllable. IF you can't say it don't worry Dustin has been having trouble switching the h and the m making it A-HAM-ric. Good for a laugh!

Today finds me a bit overwhelmed once more as after studying for over an hour I think I can only remember 7 of the more than 200 letters and sometimes when I see them in words I still can't seem to identify them. OUCH! This is gonna be rough, but I am committed!

Tracking THE Package

Our Dossier was delivered at our agency's corporate office this morning. Yeah!

Tracking THE Package

Our dossier is in the Dulles local FedEx facility waiting to be delivered tomorrow. Just thought I'd share.

This is so exciting!

Side note: The girls have a teacher at church who noted in my comments section about the girls excitement over the dossier being complete. The girls know that the dossier has to go to Washington D.C. to be authenticated. Apparently, Rienne told her teacher that the President himself is going to review our dossier papers. HAHAHA!

Some Window Shopping

I was bored and took an Internet stroll around Cafe Press. Have a look.....

at this. I am strongly considering purchasing this at some point! How fun would that be!?

This one is cute too.

Admit it. We've all felt this way before!

Some shirts were confused about their identity.

I liked this one for Dustin

Well that was fun. Gotta run.

Movies

The kids watched Lassie tonight. Though, it was no version of Lassie that I had ever seen. It was some kind of foreign production. ( I assume by the accents and the fact that the setting is in Scotland) Our dear Rory was moved to tears at one particular scene of violence when a man beat a dog to death. She was angry and horrified all at once. So deeply moved by the injustice of it all. We had a nice long conversation sprinkled with many hugs and kisses.

She took much comfort in reminding me that even the dogs in this movie were acting and that none of them actually were hurt or dead "in real life". I was glad she was clever enough to think of that herself.

After the kids went to bed Dustin and I popped in the DVD of Evan Almighty (yes, I know we are the LAST people on earth to have seen the film) and enjoyed a laugh or two. The last scene where Evan and "god" are dancing in the field together found me choking back a few tears.

The theme from Evan Almighty which struck a cord in me most was the theme of man's rejection. My skin crawled in the scene where "god" stripped Evan of his regular clothes in front of everyone and revealed Evan before congress in his "Noah clothes". Evan then admitted in front of everyone all that god had told him to do. Everyone mocked him and was disgusted by him.

It was such a dramatic and moving scene to me. Partially because I have, at times and in much less dramatic ways, experienced the angst of sharing what I knew to be God's desire for my life to others and having them look back at me as if I were crazy, laughing me off a bit. Or, even worse, not listening to me at all... just sorta staring right through me as if I were a window. I've been stung by rejection before, to be sure.

Oh yes, and my flesh grew very uncomfortable at that point. Why..... Matthew 16:24 If anyone would come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross and follow me. The hero Evan did just that.

If only you could have read the thoughts running through my mind. Trying to determine the breaking point of my pride and the beginning of my willingness to bend my knees to the pleasure of God's perfect will in spite of man's biting rejection. Have I truly done that? Like the Limbo: How low can I go? What am I willing to suffer to accomplish Christ's will for my life?

After heading to bed and praying for the evening with Dustin another old movie was recalled to my mind. The first movie I ever cried over, and a bitter cry at that! The Elephant Man. Whew, talk about a humdinger of a tear jerker! I must have been around 7 or 8 at the oldest. I sat down with my grandma, aunt and mom to the film, which contained themes largely over my head. Oh, but not the rejection, evil and injustice. We all know those when we see them don't we?

It was right at some intense scene of suffering on the part of our dear Elephant Man ( I can't recall the specifics because I never again subjected my heart to such torture as it endured watching that film the first time) and I believe some men were beating him. I am not sure. All I can remember is hating the sheer cruelty of those people mistreating the Elephant man. Hating their insensitivity to his obvious worth and the injustice of it all. That big fat meanies should be able to carry on like that and NOT get spanked was beyond me! I refused to be consoled and was in complete hysterics for at least ten minutes. (probably more, as I've been reminded many times that throughout my childhood that I could really turn the water works on... if ya know what I mean. wink, wink)

Already, by the age of 7 or 8 I had come to understand that the world could be a mean place, that injustice abounded ( just ask any three year old who doesn't get what she wants about injustice!) but I don't think I had ever encountered such a vicious display of it before that point, or if I had I hadn't yet had the ability to recognize it for what it was nor comprehend it. Nope, for me, The Elephant Man was an awakening of sorts. One I have never forgotten.

I don't have the time (especially this early in the a.m.), or quite frankly all the answers to wrap up neatly for myself all the issues I seem to be trying to process related to the themes of these movies and the cords they've struck in me tonight. One thing I am glad of is that now some twenty years later I do have a much greater understanding of Hope and of the Joy set before me which compels me to pray that the Lord would indeed make me to stand firm against my fears and temptations and to take up my cross and follow Him wherever He would have me go!

To me taking up our crosses is what being BOLD is all about.

All the Inspiration I Need!!

Go here then here.

'Nuff said! Now here are some ladies I'd like to meet in person.

This is why I want so desperately to learn Amharic. I am going to be there, among those precious people! How can I not listen and how can I not speak Love and Christ to them!?

And It's Off!

Too bad we couldn't look cuter for the picture below. We're a bit sick over here. I am the worst. I've been hacking all day. It's not pretty but this is the state we're in at the moment. Out of three pictures this was the best. I really didn't have any more energy to try to convince the kids that mommy's blog deserved a picture with them smiling and that this same pic would be used in brothers scrap book, "so sit still and love this, darn it!" so this is what I've got to work with people! ( I seriously cannot believe I posted a picture of myself sans makeup! Honestly, 5 years ago you would have had to kill me first. I guess I have grown in some ways and regressed in others. I can't decide which category this case would fall under.) BUT BACK TO THE POINT take a good look at this photo because those three stacks of papers consists of our original dossier and two complete copies which....

We officially mailed off this evening. It should arrive at our agency's VA corporate office Monday morning. We were bummed that we couldn't finish everything up soon enough to have our dossier go out with the over night packages for today, and if we had chosen to overnight them tomorrow they would arrive at the office on Saturday when no one would be there anyway, so we just went ahead and sent it to arrive on Monday.

We are so excited! The kids are too. It's so hard to explain to them that now we are officially going to begin the wait and that all this other waiting was just the warm up round!

Red Letters Campaign- My Thoughts on the Paper Chase

I got the call from our doctors office that our letters are finished. Dustin is racing home as I type to pick up the final few docs to be certified at the SOS, then he will head to Kinkos (or a similar place) to make 3 copies of every sheet of paper needed for our dossier. Then, here is the good news: WE CAN MAIL OFF OUR DOSSIER!!

I am so excited. I can't believe we are finally finished with our paper chase. It has been a LONG 7 month 3 week and 6 day journey to the finish line but we made it, and I am still partially sane. Amazing.

I am so thankful for the friendly woman who answered the phone at our doctors office yesterday. She happened to be a notary (thank You Lord!) and was sympathetic to our cause. She got things done for us within 1 day ( a record time for this particular doctor's office...let me tell you!!) and I have no doubt that reaching her by phone was a gift from God and instrumental in making this happen so quickly.

I can think of many dear souls who have helped along the way. Strangers, who whether they realized it or not, were instrumental in helping us bring our son home and others who have now been touched by our journey, possibly in ways they never imagined either. The optometrist who ran next door from his office to our bank during his break to notarize my vision exam, the judge who signed and approved our Home Study mere days after we mailed it, the notary at the local FedEx store who notarized a slew of papers for us without charge just to be kind (who had a sibling who had adopted internationally), the pool inspector who was an adoptive father himself, and many others.

After looking at things more closely it's amazing to me to think of how God truly does connect us all together. Sometimes even the seemingly smallest connection can make a large impact. I recall the Lord's faithfulness in directing me to a new OB/GYN for our fourth pregnancy. How He knew we would miscarry the next two babies and how important having a Christian doctor to pray with me would be. Even more astounding is knowing that this doctor and his wife have adopted from China themselves. NOT A COINCIDENCE!!

Our adoption journey is still only half baked yet already I can see how beautifully GOD has orchestrated events and people around us. I can catch just a glimpse of the grander story; a slight moment of clarity in my vision when I gain just a bit of understanding about the tapestry He's weaving. All I can say is that it is good and I have never felt more alive....... or more blessed.

Ringing in the New Year

NEW YEAR'S EVE:



We had two families over for a night of stiff board game competitions and fun. We all had our kiddos with us. The kids did great and even managed to fall asleep without much fuss around 10pm. At 10pm most of us looked like we wouldn't make it to midnight but soon after the clock struck twelve we found our second wind and managed to hang out chatting until THREE A.M!! Can you believe that!? I haven't been up that late since high school!

Our church is beginning the One Year Bible this year and the church staff is blogging about it. We all took turns reading the January 1st entry together. I can't think of a better way to ring in the New Year than with friends in the Word!



NEW YEAR'S DAY:



After seeing our Friends off safely in the morning (after eating breakfast of course) we stayed up just 45 minutes before we all headed back to bed to catch up on some sleep. Imagine our shock when Dustin and I woke up at 2pm and the kids were still sleeping. We all got ready for dinner and were excited to be joining two very special families who are with AWAA and are adopting from Ethiopia. We all met at the Macaroni Grill. It was so awesome to meet these people face to face and hear their voices, as usually we chat via the Internet. Here are a few pics of our friends the Ducommuns and the Gibsons. The Gibsons are in town from Branson, MO and the Ducommuns live in Flagstaff. The Ducommuns have been in the process of adopting first from China and then switching to Ethiopia for 3 years now. Can you believe that!? They are close to the top of the list along with the Gibson family. It's my hope and prayer that the Gibsons and Ducommuns receive referrals SOON!


Myself, Kari and Laura: the moms to be.