God Moves In The Most Amazing Ways!

     In Christ I am of royal lineage.  I am a child of the King.  My Father, the King, provides me abundant blessings not only in the life to come but in my day-by-day earthly life.  We have been watching God move in the most incredible ways.  His blessings in the past couple of months have been unbelievable to watch.  I know bringing our little one home is just the beginning in this new chapter in our lives.  His plan goes way beyond that.  I want to share with you a couple of the heart warming stories that we have had the privilege to witness in the last week.

     As many of you know I have a 15 year old daughter who is a young woman after God's own heart.  She walks with him like no other teenager or most adults that I know. If you can't find her around the house she is usually either studying for a test, sending and receiving messages from a couple of dear friends on facebook, or in her room reading her Bible.  God has blessed me with some pretty amazing kids.

     Sam met a young man last year through our church.  He was traveling with a band that came to visit.  He is a 16 year old young man that absolutely loves the Lord.  The two of them have stayed in touch via facebook.  He lives a few states away.  He told Sam one day that he really felt as though God had put a number on his heart and he was going to work real hard and save the money to send us for the adoption.  Sam received a letter in the mail this week with a check for $500.00.  I know that God works through many people but watching him work through a teenager just absolutely warms my heart.  I can not thank him enough for all of the hard work that he did to help give us a donation to bring our little one home.  Now if that is not humbling I don't know what is.

     I have another really cool story to share with you.  We worked really hard to put a garage sale together in 9 days.  Many of you know that we live in the middle of the woods and a garage sale sounds like a pretty bad idea.  That is true unless it is God that that is leading it.  We threw together a garage sale in 9 days.  We held it last weekend at the same time that the Nature Center down the road had their Fall Festival.  I had some pretty amazing friends come and help our family pull together one really miraculous sale.  While my girlfriends and I were sitting and chatting we noticed a lady come in with her 2 year old child.  He was just adorable and we all kind of initiated conversation with his momma.  She walked around and then after a short time of looking grabbed a 25 cent dinosaur and came over to pay.  She handed my friend a twenty.  When my friend Jenny went to get her change she said "No please keep it."  "See our little guy here is adopted and we were out driving and I saw your signs."  "We felt we really needed to stop and do this".  Then as fast as she walked up she exited.  It was really moving to see God at work.

     Our kids proved to be very hard workers the day of the sale.  They stood on the corner flagging down cars with the signs.  They brought us in so many people and we were so thankful to have them there.  Our sale raised $500.45.  Thank you to all of you that came and found treasures and helped us get a little closer to bringing our little one home. 

The joy of the Lord is your strength.  Nehemiah 8:10

We Are So Blessed!

     This week we have been putting together a last minute garage sale.  We have found out that for the nest step in our journey we are going to need $6,220.00.  We have been thinking about having a garage sale but did not think that we could get one put together before winter.  Well God knew we could.  He decided that we could put one together in less than 2 weeks.  The Nature Center right by our house is having their fall festival this next Saturday.  Well, since we live in the middle of no where a garage sale was probably not going to work.  As God would have it this Saturday hundreds of people will be driving right past my house.  Well, we figured why not give it a try?
     We have been getting donations for the sale and I have been going through everything in our house.  I figured if it is around just because I like it and not because I need or use it, then it is time for it to go.  We know that God has provided us with exactly what we have needed so far and there is no doubt that he will keep providing through this whole process.  We know that we have to work at raising the funds and that as long as we are doing our part he will surely intervene. 
     The cool part is we have been watching another couple that is going on our exact journey.  They are also adopting from where we are.  It is so neat to hear their stories and be able to watch God work hard in their lives to bring their little one home as well.  They are a couple months ahead of us on their journey and it is so cool to see where they are and know that we might be there really quick.
     There are 147 million orphans in this world and we are so excited to make that number one less.  I love being pregnant without being pregnant.  It is so awesome when people ask if we are adopting a boy or girl.  Well, we do not know yet.  It is like being pregnant and waiting for the ultrasound.  As soon as we get a referral we will know.  Waiting is hard but it is also so much fun.  The anticipation is overwhelming yet wonderful.  We can not wait to start getting all the baby things ready.  We want to wait and find out for sure if it is a girl or boy and we also want to make sure we know exactly what age so we kind of have an idea of sizes and toys. 
     Our family is getting stronger everyday.  We are all walking this journey together.  There has been a lot of major bonding going on preparing to expand our family.  Dawson and Sam are both so excited.  We babysat for a friend the other night and we all were working together to make things run very smooth.  We had a great time and we can not wait for our little to come home so we can take care of them and love them to pieces.
     Our sale is this Saturday at 8:00.  We have had some close friends offer to help out.  We are so excited to see what God has in store and we hope to see you all there.
     This song is an amaing song that I had to share.  Since this adoption process started this song has a whole new meaning to our family.
   

The Next part Of Our Journey

     We are so excited!  Today was a big day for us.  We had our home visit for our home study.  We are almost finished with the first part of our journey.  Our home study should be finished in about 2 weeks.  Now the waiting begins.  We have to finish one last class on-line but it is almost done.  Then we just wait.  We wait for our social worker to put our file together.  We wait for her to mail it off and for it be mailed back.  Then we can mail it to our adoption advocate.  He then will look it over and make sure everything that we need for our paperwork in Taiwan is there.  Fingers crossed it is all there and then he can mail it to Taiwan.  We then wait for our referral : ) !  Then we wait for the court in Taiwan to get the paperwork and set up the first ruling.  We have officially paid off our home study.  That is so exciting and now we will begin the next step.
     We still have a long way to go.  We still have a little less than $24,000 left to raise.  We know though that God has had this whole journey planned from the very beginning and he will help us get there.  We will begin applying for grants as soon as the home study is finalized.  Then we will have to do another fundraiser of some sort.  I think that we should come up with a fundraiser that is all about God.  A unique fundraiser that would be very pleasing to Him.  Kent on the other hand has a complete feeling of peace and he knows that the Lord will provide.  It seems like everyday he has been providing a little bit here and a little bit there.  In our humanness we feel it would be so much better if he would just provide us with a check for $24,000, but we are learning to trust him more and more everyday.  His timing will be the perfect timing.  It may not be on our schedule or how we picture it, but it will be exactly in his time and exactly how he has it pictured.  We have been very humbled by this whole process.  Those of you that know us well, know that it is very hard for us to ask others for help.  We have always done a pretty good job of taking care of things on our own.  This time we know that we have to step out in faith and depend on the help of others.
     We are so excited about getting our home study finished because we know we are one step closer to bringing our new child home.  We are living out a dream and love that you all are here to watch it all unfold.  Every night when I go to bed I try to imagine what our next family picture will look like.  I can not wait to get our daughter or son home and love them to pieces.  I can not wait to share their adoption story with them and let them know how much God loves them and what he has done for all of us. 
    
Romans 15:13  May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace as you trust in him, so that you may overflow with hope by the power of the Holy Spirit.
    
    
  

In My Dreams

     We have had a bit of a crazy week.  Sorry it has been awhile since the last post.  We have all been passing around a nasty respiratory infection.  We have had physicals, shots, TB tests, classes to figure out, work and cross country.  We have been going allot of different directions and last night our two dogs got sprayed by a skunk.  Today was me and Kent's date day and we spent it giving the dogs a tomato juice bath followed by a regular bath and had to shave them both.  You know that you are really in love when even a day filled with dirty, smelly dogs is a great day when you are together.  I am so blessed to have the greatest husband in the world. 
     We went to the doctor last Wednesday and got our physicals for the adoption.  We were so excited until we actually got there.  It is crazy that the older you get the more in depth the physicals get.  Let's just say that it was definitely a very awkward visit for both Kent and I.  We made it through it and now we are another step closer to getting our home study finished.  We can not wait to hurry up and get it finished so we can begin the wait of a lifetime.  The wait to get the referral of our new family member.
     I had a dream last night that we were in Taiwan and we were going to pick up our little girl.  Now we don't know for sure if it is a boy or a girl but in my dream she was just beautiful.  I was handed our little bundle and could not quit kissing her.  I looked up and Kent was smiling and had a tear running down his cheek.  My face all covered in tears was so excited.  Kent looked up at me and said can I hold my daughter now?  I started crying even more as I handed her to him.  I woke up and then could hardly get back to sleep.  I can not wait to see what our little one looks like.
     Everyday that goes by we pray for the organization that is going to be helping our birth mother out.  We pray for our little one, and his or her birth mother.  We pray for the transition from a family of four to a family of five.  We are praying that all the paper work will be efficient and that it will be processed in a very timely manner.  We pray that we will keep this all about God and never lose sight of the fact that he is the one that made this all possible and keeps making it possible.  We pray for all of the people that are praying for us.   We hope that through this process we will be able to help others and our story will be a blessing and testimony of what God can do.  He loves us so much that he has turned the impossible to possible.
     Thank you so much for your continued prayers!

Big Miracles Come In Little Packages!

I found this poem tonight and I just had to share it with all of you.  It is just beautiful and it captured my heart.

Kisses in the Wind

I hold you in my heart and touch you in my dreams.You are here each day with me, at least that's how it seems.

I know you wonder where we are... what's taking us so long.

But remember my child, I love you so and God will keep you strong.

Now go outside and feel the breeze and let it touch your skin...

Because tonight, just as always, I blow you kisses in the wind.

May God hold you in His hand until I can be with you.

I promise you, my darling, I'm doing all that I can do.

Very soon, you'll have a family for real, not just pretend.

But for tonight, just as always, I blow you kisses in the wind.

May God wrap you in His arms and hold you very tight.

And let the angels bring the kisses that I send to you each night.

Aurthur unknown

I just have to take a minute to tell you my heart.  I feel so blessed and you all are an amazing group of family and friends.  Just since our fundraiser last weekend we have raised another $300.00.  God is so amazing to watch in action.  My niece who is in boot camp right now a I write this, sent us a letter the other day telling us how excited she is for us.  She also sent us a donation for our adoption.  It is so crazy for me to think that the little girl that use to have picnics in our yard, and sang and played for hours on video is now all grown up and helping to support our adoption.  I had a dear client and her husband give a check and tell us that she is thankful for our family.  We received a check in the mail today from some very good friends of ours who were also there supporting us at the fundraiser.  I can not tell you how amazing it is to see everyone gather around us in prayer and support.  We knew going into this that $28,000 is humanly impossible to come up with and the only way it was going to be possible was through God himself.  Well, he is working hard and we can not thank him enough.  We even received our first set of hats and booties from a girlfriend of mine that is incredibly talented when it comes to knitting. 
     We have turned in most of the paperwork that we had to fill out.  We are now waiting to get our physicals.  We also still have to make a blueprint of our house and an escape route in case of an emergency.  We still have to get the dogs their newest shots and we are waiting to get back our well water tests.  We had to get our well tested to make sure that our water is up to state standards.  We did get our fingerprints done and they are running the background checks.  We still have our classes left to take.  The autobiographies were probably the hardest part.  We had to write our life stories with specific questions that had to be answered.  The funny thing is you can so tell the difference between man and woman when it comes to telling a story.  I answered questions in paragraph form and sometimes it took a few.  Kent's answers were very much straight and to the point.  Sometimes they were only one sentence answers.  His was short and sweet and very much to the point.  Mine were very long winded and very intricate.  I am so blessed to be married to a man that helps even me out.  He is amazing and God knew exactly what he was doing when he through our paths together a little over 16 years ago. 
     I can't wait to get this home study finished so we can start waiting for our referral.  We are hoping to have it all done by the middle of October!  We ask that you keep this whole process in your prayers.  There is a lot of paperwork that has to be mailed here and there and we ask for prayers that it all to be mailed and received in a very timely manor. Thank you all again for all of your love and all of your support.

Miracles Through The Rain

Blessings come even through the rain.  Last night was sure proof of that.  These are just a few of the pictures I took from our Adoption Fundraiser.  We are so blessed to have such a wonderful group of family and friends.  We raised $3059.50.  I don't know about you but to me that number is just awesome.  We are now a little bit closer to bringing our little one home.  We now have enough to finish our Home Study, take the classes we need, and even a little bit left for the next step in our adoption process.  It is so cool that God just keeps providing exactly what we need right when we need it.  I have been watching God do some pretty remarkable things lately and I knew he was going to be in control of the whole day.  When Kent woke me up yesterday he said "Get up get up it's time to get up God is going to do some pretty amazing things today."  That is such a great way to get out of bed.  Thanking and praising him for the day ahead.  We jumped up got ready and headed to church.  We praised God in worship and thanked him for what he has been doing , and for what he still has in store.  We have came to this great place of peace with him because we know that it is not humanly possible to come up with the finances on our own. The only way it is possible is through him.  Even when I got out of bed yesterday and saw the rain, instead of flipping out (like the old me would have) I gave him a great big thank you for giving the ground a drink.  We have not had rain in so long and we really do need it.  I knew that rain or shine his glory was going to be had.  We had the most amazing time last night.  We had friends from so many different parts of our walk there.  We had family members, church family, old friends, new friends, and even a few friends we had never even met before.  We had an awesome worship team that volunteered there time, and gifts.  We also had many people step up to help set up, run the bake sale, help with the silent auction, grill hot dogs, move tables, and help clean up.  We had people praying that could not come and people praying that were there.  We ended up being blessed in so many ways.  Our spirits were so full last night by the time we got into bed that we could hardly sleep.  We were talking about all the events of that day and how incredible our God is.  We talked about all the things we wish we had done (like grab the microphone and thank everyone for coming, & tell the volunteers that they could have as many hot dogs as they wanted.)  We have never done anything like this before so it is all new and it is also a path of learning for us.  We want to tell all of you that came and that prayed that we love you and thank you from the bottoms of our hearts.  We are so blessed that God has put you all in our lives. 

Psalm 72:11-14

I will remember the deeds of the Lord; yes, I will remember your miracles of long ago.  I will meditate on all your works and consider all your mighty deeds.  Your ways, O God, are holy.  What god is so great as our God?  You are the God who performs miracles; you display your power among the peoples. 



Taking Time To Count Our Blessings!

     We have learned through the years that it is very important to take time with the Lord.  Even on busy weeks like this one, well especially on weeks this one.  This is not just our Fundraiser week, but it is also Sam's Homecoming week.  She is on student council and has had to be there early every morning before school.  Dawson has had cross country practice or a meet everyday this week.  Kent and I have both been very busy at work as well.  We still have lots to do to get the fundraiser all ready to go.  We have more baked goods to be baked, cookies that need separated into packages, baskets that need to be finished, lots of tea and lemonade to prepare, and a few other little minor details.  We have realized lately that our world has and will continue to totally change.  We have stepped out of this place of comfort that we had found.  It felt very safe and cozy there but now we are sailing into a whole new world.  A world that is lead by God and may at times take us out of our comfort zone.  In this new world faith is the one thing that keeps us going everyday.  When we decided to add to our family we were overloaded with emotions.  We were scared, excited, happy, and did I mention scared?  There is a lot to take into consideration but we knew that God had made our choice for us.  We knew that walking with him he would take care of us.  We are changing a lot a things in our lives right now.  We have been very nervous about the financial aspect of this adoption.  It takes more money than we can even imagine coming up with ourselves.  That is why we know that we have to give it to the Lord and let him take control.  We know that when we finally get to bring our little one home we are going to have to start making a few cut backs.  We feel that God is not giving us this child for someone else to raise them.  We are going to change our schedules so that Kent or I will be home at all times.  We have been very blessed with two wonderful Godly children and we want to make sure that this child has the same upbringing as Sam and Dawson.  We are so excited to see how God's plan is going to unfold.  People keep telling me that a year is a long time to wait.  Well, when I think about how much fun we have had as a family going through this whole process I believe that a year will fly by.  We have seen God move in ways that we have never seen before.  He is daily showing us how blessed we are.    We are trying to make sure that an hour does not go by that we are not thanking him for what he is doing in our lives.  Thank you all for being here with us right now on this most amazing journey.