Adoption update

Well we have offically, yet sort of unoffically finished our homestudy!! FINALLY! oh my goodness - I know that God's timing is perfect and everything happens right when He wants it too, but sometimes I do not understand it. For instance why in the world did we send in our application in May 2009 and just now February 2010 finish it! That's ridiculous - of course we did not help the process by changing to domestic and then changing back to Peru and then changing placing agencies! And now that it has taken forever we will have to get our medicals over again and wait for the child abuse forms to come back from Alabama before our social worker can offically send off our homestudy to DHR!

Once our homestudy is sent off, we can begin working on our dossier!
In the meantime we have so much reading to do! It's like the paperwork - it never ends!
But that's okay, it helps us to be prepared. And some days I do not feel prepared for raising a child and then some days I wish we were on the way home from Peru!

I have just finished reading a blog of some friends from Texas who are in the beginning of adopting from Ethiopa. They were talking of all the paperwork they were doing and amazingly enough was encouraged! Who knew paperwork could be so encouraging! :) But along this road of adoption, there can be much frustration and waiting. And listening to other people stories gives me encouragement and reminds me that we are on the right path and this will all come to completion.

As a side note continue to pray for our friends adopting from Nepal. They are so close to end of their journey!

We recently visited the International Adoption Clinic for an all day seminar. It was amazing! I loved learning all about what we might face with adopting internationally. We heard all kinds of the information about traveling to the country, medical issues, developmental delays, emotional stuggles (for the child - and us), but also hearing about the love, and the joy and excitement of adopting children and raising them!

I have mostly been learning about hope the past few months and not only with the hope of adoption. Hope is a such a vital part of our life. Without hope, all seems lost. Hope bring life!

This week has been a much quieter week for my soul, more peaceful. Until this weekend. Just let me say if evil plans to come on our land, it will be met and defeated by the host of angels that are standing, armed with flaming swords and shields because they are surrounding our land and home. I know this because I have prayed that all weekend! And now we must pray for them to surround about a mile or two radius around us to encompass our friends who live around us! CRAZY weekend. :)

1 Thessalonians 3:16 - "Now may the Lord of peace Himself give you peach at all times in every way. The Lord be with you all."

I hope you are able to follow this. I think I have talked all over the place!

Posting correction

Okay, I know said I wasn't going to post for awhile, but it was a normal Sunday for the first time this year! :)

It has been a hard week. Brent and I have not communicated well, I didn't something I should not have done, and there is a situation I have been angry at this week. That is why prayer and music have been my helpers! Music helps me to get my thoughts focused and remember the truth of God's word. It's been very hard for me to trust God lately with a situation that is completely out of my hands, I want some things to change and it's not up to me to change them. I want God to snap His fingers and correct it all instantly, but He's not doing that in this situtation. He lets us choose our path. For the past year or more the prodigal son story has come up seveal times, I beginning to think that either I am the prodigal or to help me understand some of what's going on now with a current situation. I am daily figuring out how to surrender to the Lord.

I felt like I have been very passionate about a situation lately and I've wondered why sometimes my passion for my own relationship with God, as well as spreading Christ to others is not of the same intensity?


Happy thoughts today are: today is my brother's birthday and mine is tomorrow! So we are going celebrate with our families after church! :) We also might get to meet a friend from seminary who is passing through later this evening.

Hopefully Brent and I will communicate better this week and I will behave!

I will leave you with this song by David Crowder :

He is jealous for me
Love like a hurricane, I am a tree
Bending beneath the weight of His wind and mercy
When all of a sudden,
I am unaware of these afflictions eclipsed by glory
And I realize just how beautiful You are,
And how great Your affections are for me

And oh, how He loves us so,
How He loves us,
How He loves us all.

He love us,
Oh how He loves us
Oh how He loves us
Oh how He loves
Yeah, He loves us
Oh how He loves us
Oh how He loves us,
Oh how He loves

We are His portion and He is our prize
Drawn to redemption by the grace in His eyes
If grace is an ocean, we are all sinking
So heaven meets earth like an unforseen kiss
And my heart turns violently inside of my chest
I don't have time to maintain these regrets,
When I think about, the way

He loves us,
Oh how He loves us
Oh how He loves us,
Oh how He loves
Yeah He loves us
Oh how He loves us
Oh how He loves us
Oh how He loves

Happy Valentine's Day

There are a lot of things going on in life at the moment. Mostly a few things I am working through and figuring out. Not very pretty either. :) Plus since we do not have internet access at the house, it's harder to keep up with this blog and with facebook for that matter. So with that said I may not be blogging for awhile. But don't give up completely, check back later. :) I might suprise you. If you need to catch up with me, call me. :) I will talk to you later.