Cinco

I don't know if anyone is still checking this blog.
We are a family of 5 now.

How do you spell stressed?

Wow! Getting ready to leave has been crazy. We have so much to take! We ar so nervous and excited all at once. The new blog is up and running, so I will post most adoption information on that blog. But keep checking, I will put some adoption stuff on here too!

Brent may use this for a devotional blog while we are gone.
If you want to join him in this devotional, pick up A Call to Die by David Nasser. I think you can get it anywhere.
It's a great challenge to go deeper with God. Hope you choose to do the study.

Pray for us.

P.S.

I meant to add a few more people to that prayer list before I published it yesterday.

Please pray for the house parents and orphanage directors as they prepare the children to be adopted.
Also they have had such an influential time in the kids lives. I know they will miss the kids very much. Pray for them as the kids leave the orphanage. Thanks

To pray for the children

Hair bows. We don't have hair bows. Football. We have one. A swingset. How much did you say?

It's the little everyday things that you use in life that I think of at night that we need for the kids. I think that we have to have it right now. I have to remind myself that it's okay, we will aquire all of these things - at some point. :)

But then I panic a little when I walk into Hobby Lobby or JCPenny. I think "I just want it all to be perfect." To be everything they like to do, that will match their gifts and hobbies and talents, that they will love to have in their room, to play with, to share with each other and friends. I see items and get excited thinking it will go in his room! It will match her bedspread! Then my heart squeezes and sinks - what if he hates sports? Would he rather have music? Will she play with it? Does she like this? I love music, Brent loves sports. I taught my stuffed animals and played with Barbie as a little girl. Brent played sports and video games when he was little, actually he still does! :)

I know it will take time, maybe a long time, maybe years, maybe months, for the kids to feel at home. It may take awhile to feel like a family. I guess I think if their rooms and our house is just what they wanted, then it help the matter go much more quickly. I posted a question on facebook one day asking for suggestions about what do 10 year old boys like. An old boss wrote "the love their mom and dad."

We are about the ask these kids to leave their home. Their house parents, friends, who have become their family. They will leave a place where the sights and sounds and holiday traditions are familiar and come to a place where nothing is familiar or normal. I know that no amount of decorating or toy supply will heal their grief when they walk through our door. They are in need of so much prayer.

Please pray for them as....
*They have lost much in their life. They will miss their country, their family, friends, etc. They will grieve for all that has gone on in their life. Things we don't even know about, things we do not understand.
*They have to learn a new language.
*They start school in the fall.
*They make new friends
*Adjust to living in America - it is going to be completely overwhelming for them.

*Pray for us to know what to take to Peru and how to pack
*Pray for safety and protection as we travel to Peru and live in Peru for a few weeks
*Pray for the first day of meeting the children and they meet us!
*Pray for our Embassy appointments and medical appointments
*Pray for the plane ride home :)
*Pray for our families

*Pray for us for wisdom as we get into their world and help them walk their pain and grief.
*Pray for us as this is stressful time for us.
*Pray for us as we become parents for these kids and we become a family.

Whatever God the Father lays on your heart, we will need your prayer and Jesus presence and wisdom and healing.

One of my favorite quotes from Russell Moore's book, Adopted for Life, says:

"But then there's Jesus....."


He is Everything.

We are okay

Just letting you know we are okay. As you know the tornados destroyed parts of downtown and many other places cities, towns, and homes and families. Our house is fine. We are fine. Just waiting for power to come back on which may be a few days. I'm at moms, so that's why I can blog. They have power and hot water. :)
Thanks to everyone who checked on us. We sure felt loved!
As it comes to mind, pray for the 6 or 7 states and the families who were affected by the storms. There is much rebuilding to be done now.

We still haven't received word from the Embassy yet. But wow, the skymiles are flooding in! So exciting! We are SO thankful for everyone who has donated their skymiles! If you have any Delta skymiles and would like to donate, leave a comment of how we can reach you and Brent will gladly give you instructions.

S.N.S.

S is for Shower
We had the 3rd adoption shower a few weeks from our home church. It was just as great as the other two! But there was an extra suprise. There is a class of senior adults who said they were going to do the "grandparent" gift. So they got 2 bikes and tricyle for the kids! They even got 2 helmets. WOW! We were so excited! We started to purchase some bikes one day, but we weren't exactly sure what to get and decided to wait. Then these gifts came and they were perfect! They were exactly what we wanted! (even though we didn't know it until we saw them! haha!)
There are lots of miles to be driven on those tires!

Since the world (or rather part of the world) is celebrating Holy Week, our agency said all activity (i assumer legal activity) has ceased in Peru and will start again next week. Hopefully then the Embassy will send our approval and we can be on our way. We didn't realize we had to wait for this part, so it's MUCH longer than we thought. But God has His timing, so for now we are still waiting.

N is for Notice
I also turned in my notice at work the other day! WHAT?!?! I don't know why I got so nervous, they have know about the adoption and me leaving from the day they hired me.

S is for Skymiles
This is the most important paragraph in this post.
If you have any Delta skymiles you wish to donate to us that would be fabulous! Just leave a comment or contact me and I will get you the information.

Shower #2

Tonight was our 2nd adoption shower. It was hosted by the church I grew up in. We are grateful for the people in this church. They helped to shape my life. I have so many good memories there. We enjoyed getting to share with them about the adoption. My camera is broken. It quit working last night at Stadium Fest. I do not have any pictures now of this shower. It was so nice. They had a fiesta theme! Bright colors and food. It was so nice. I know there was a lot of hard work that was put into the shower.

At the same time that Brent and I are running around making rooms ready, sorting toys and clothes and getting ready for three new lives in our family, my uncle is fighting for his life. In fact, I don't even know if he will live through the week. He has heart problems. And as far as I know, he is not believer. Yes, he has heard the gospel. More than once I am told. His daughter, Tracy, is a believer. I'm not sure about my aunt.

When was a teenager, he teased me about getting a red convertible when I turned 16 and then again when I graduted high school. For fun, my cousin Jeffrey bought me a red toy convertible at gradution. One of my all-time favorite gifts. I still have it.

My family needs your prayer. I can't imagine what Tracy and my Aunt Sandy are going through and the decisions they have to make tomorrow and in the coming days. My uncle is in desperate need of prayer, maybe the Lord will allow him to live and be coherent and decide to trust Christ. Thank you for praying.

I'm still here. We were gone for a few days. We head to SC to see some friends and then GA to a marriage conference - which was phenomenal! Then we went to MS to visit some more friends. It was a very nice vacation. I still have a few days off so that is terrific!

The marriage conference was put on by FamilyLife.
There were about 500 something people, so it was nice to be in a smaller conference. The longest married couple there had been married for 46 years and there was a couple there who were only married a month ago! I love where Brent and I are in our marriage. I would not want to go back to being a newly married couple, but I can't wait to be married for 46 years!
I may blog more about the topics at the conference a bit later.

There has been a little movement in the adoption area! YES!! We got our approvals from Immigration in the mail today! We got these back so fast! Amazing! Our agency said Peru will approve those approvals and then on to the next step!

Well I'm tired from travelling. Just wanted to check in!

April Showers....

Well it's close enough to April anyway. We have 3 adoption showers to celebrate! Our family did one for us this past Sunday and we have 2 more in April to look forward too!

It's so exciting to see everyone come together and give towards the lives of these kids! One of my favorite surprizes was gift in the mail from Angela! A box from Amazon full of Max Lucado children's books! I love these books and I can't wait to read them to the kids! My mom and I also went to consignment sales this weekend. Confession: it was bit overwhelming. I wasn't completely sure what to get, but picked up a 2 games, a puzzle, some legos, and some more books! Brent and I are going to a marriage retreat soon and we will get to go to IKEA! Maybe we will find some goodies for their rooms!

We have a lot go get ready around the house so we have got to get moving!
We are still waiting to hear back from Immigration. They said it could take up to 5 weeks. I think this starts week 2 of waiting. So we are okay.

Here are the only pictures from the shower. I wanted to take more, but with all the people to see and talk to, I forgot.

Ethiopia

Well I got a text message today from Sharon! Ethiopia has everything in order - at least getting everything in order in the area of their adoptions. It looks like Sharon and Tim will be able to proceed as normal!! Thank you for your prayers!

Pray for our friends

Our friends are adopting from Ethiopia. They need your prayers right now. Ethiopia needs your prayer. Tim explains their situation well on his blog. Please pray for them, so their dreams can come true too! Thanks!

"Children Of God" - Official Music Video

Sitting still is not an option.

It's 10:30 at night and I can't sit still. I haven't been able to sit still for 2 days now. Friday night there was a women's conference at church and I finally had to leave for a second and ask God to help me calm down enough to listen. On Saturday, work was good, but the 4 hours lasted forever. Then I locked my keys in my car! ha! So I just paced around in front of the bookstore waiting for the locksmith. My mom and I went to Huntsville and then her car started smoking! Not a good car day! It also rained all day, but I love the rain. So I didn't mind at all.

But I can't seem to stay in one location very long. I gotta keep moving.
Why? Because we have the MOST BEAUTIFUL pictures!! They keep coming! I wish you could see them! Big brown eyes, adorable smiles from all three kids! Every picture is filled with laughter and smiles!
WE CANNOT WAIT TO MEET THEM! We wish we could have left yesterday!

Brent and I went through our pictures on our facebook last night trying to look at them through the eyes of people who haven't ever met us, WOW! The picture of us HILARIOUS! We laughed till water was pouring out of our eyes!
Brent is always making a funny face or being silly. I love him. :)

I feel like I have been attached at the hip to the computer looking at pictures over and over, waiting to see if there are new ones. I guess I think if I look at the pictures enough, we will magically be beamed over to Peru! haha!!

Sitting still will not be an option for awhile. Ecclesiastes 3 says "There is a time for everything, and a season for every activity under the heavens." Well this is definitely a time to LAUGH and a time to DANCE!!

"Our mouths were filled with laughter, our tongues with songs of joy. Then it was said among the nations, “The LORD has done great things for them.”
Psalm 126:2

"He will yet fill your mouth with laughter and your lips with shouts of joy." Job 8:21

"Not to us, LORD, not to us but to your name be the glory, because of your love and faithfulness" Psalm 115:1

"..so that people may see and know, may consider and understand, that the hand of the LORD has done this, that the Holy One of Israel has created it." Isaiah 41:20

Thank you for rejoicing with us! Keep dancing!

A story while you wait part 2

So we drove home December 15 feeling pretty low. What happened? Did we hear wrong? What was going on? There was not a booming voice from heaven with an explaination. So we just waited. We didn't really do anything with the adoption for the next few weeks. Christmas and New Years kept us busy!

Then one day, we got an email from our agency. It contained a list of children waiting for a home. There was very little information. Just names, ages, and a sentence or two about the child/group. One group of 3 caught our eye. Honestly, it was because of their ages. So we decided to inquire about them. About a week later, we got a bit more information. A reference card if you will. Containing basic, non-detailed information about each child.....and a picture. Whoa. Cuteness was everywhere! We thought for a while and decided to tell our parents that we were considering these kids. By now it was the middle of January. The snow came and went and Brent's hand had been bothering him greatly for a few weeks.

We decided to send a letter of intent. Our updated dossier was translated and re-submitted. This took about a week. The consejo for January was the last weekend. We were told that our dossier was held up and did not make it to that consejo. We were pretty thankful for that. The doctor scheduled Brent's surgery for the middle of February and recovery was either going to take 1 month or 3 months depending on what he found during the surgery. According to the MRI and the doctor, Brent had DESTROYED all the cartilige in his wrist. He could not even pick up a bottle of water and was in EXTREME pain and had not slept through the night since before Christmas. He usually only got about 2 hours of sleep a night. We were both having a very hard time spiritually and emotionally, Brent physically, we were struggling really bad. In fact, moving to Antartica was very appealing! So if we had been assigned the kids in January, there may not have been enough time for Brent's recovery nor our spiritual/emotional recovery.

So we were ready set for the February consejo. :) We decided not to mention to anyone except our immediate family that we inquired about the 3 siblings. Just wanted to keep it on the down low since the last time it didn't go so well. It was hard when everyone would say, "well how are things going with the adoption?" My usual response was that we were just waiting. Which was true, we just didn't specify that we were waiting on a certain 3 kids.

My birthday came - I am now 30! Wierd! Brent's surgery was the next day after my birthday. That was the best day. Ever. He was instantly out of pain (except for normal surgery soreness) and he has slept through the night since the 2nd night! PRAISE THE LORD!! Also the Sunday before our pastor preached on Psalm 55. It was great. In the Psalm, David says he wants to have wings like a dove so he can fly away. Funny - so did we! Then at the end David still places his trust in the Lord, even though his own son is trying to kill him. God used that in our lives. Hope was reborn!

This brings us to present day! Sunday came and we told our Sunday school class - hey we might get kids Wednesday. So we had a few more prayer warriors with us. Then Wednesday came, the day of the consejo. I was off from work and headed to the doctor. Wow. I didn't even know what to pray. The only thing that kept coming to mind was "Your will be done on earth as it is in heaven." There were 2 other families in our agency who had requested children and Peru does not like to show favortism by giving children to more than one family in the same agency. So we knew there was a possibilty that we would not get placed with the children this time around. Then Brent got an email around noon saying it was very possible that we were getting them. Then at 4:55, I got a phone call. It was not my area code, so I debated on whether or not to answer it - could have been a wrong number and I have our agencies in my phone and their name was not popping up - but I answered. It was P from our agency! What?! She had just gotten a call from her daughter! Peru had just posted everything on the site! It was offical! We had the 3 kids. They never post anything early - it's usually the next day. P said she and her daughter usually have a race to see who can check the site first the day after the consejo. Wow! Amazing! I called Brent.

We had to print off our acceptance letter. So we also printed the picture we had a few times and after church headed off to our parents to show them the picture of their new grandchildren!

I emailed P today, just to make sure it was till official and that they had not changed their minds. It's official! We got the docutments today.

We are so excited. We don't have a clue what to do next. The next few months are going to be a whirlwind I think. Thank You Lord!

"Tonight’s the night......Two worlds collide in a beautiful display
It’s all up tonight
When we step across the line.......We can sail across the sea"

A story for you while you wait.....

My friend Sharon and I have been chatting a bit the past couple of days. She and Tim are adopting from Ethiopa. They will be adopting 2 for sure. We both realized that it takes a while to get where you are going in adopting. You can read about her experience here.

But here is ours:
When Brent and I started all this it was 2008. We were getting ready to leave seminary and staying with some friend for a couple of weeks. They were also considering adopting. An adoption camp from the Ukraine was passing through the church we attended. We also found out that Brent's mentor and his wife were starting to adopt from Nepal. It's so neat how God puts you on the same road with other people, even before you know that you are going on that road! Brent finally told me that during his time with God he was really being impressed upon to start adopting. I was just waiting on him to tell me. I had been praying for a few weeks about it myself. But I did not want to tell Brent and then have him just agree with me. It needed to come from the Lord.

We arrive here in August and I called the pregnancy center that I volunteered at for some months years ago to ask if they knew of any adoption agencies. I only knew of one and their office was in Texas.
They pointed us to Lifeline. We made an appointment to meet with a domestic social worker and an international social worker, just see what all this adoption stuff was about. :) I can't really remember anything about the meeting. I guess I knew this was where we were going and we just had to figure out a place. At the time Lifeline only worked with about 5 countries. We weren't old enough for China, the Ukraine wasn't for us, Guatemala is closed, so there were just 2 left. Should we go with a different agency with more countries? I asked Brent if he could adopt from anywhere in the world where would it be? His answer: Brazil. Brent has been to several South American countries and Mexico several times. So we landed in Peru. It was the only South American country that had a contract with Lifeline.

We finally mailed in our application in May of 2009. A social worker called me the next day and we talked about a few things on the application. A few weeks later talking with the social worker for Peru, we thought there were some red flags and maybe we should consider a different route.

Enter the domestic portion of our adoption.

We began our home study meetings in August of 2009 with Renee. We loved our domestic social worker, she is a fabulous social worker. But Peru would not leave us alone. October came and we were headed to Lifeline for the last meeting for the home study. We made it through the last of the normal home study meeting and took break. Next we were to begin discussing the information that was just for domestic adoptions. After the break, we took a deep breath and told our social worker that we really needed to switch back to Peru. Whewww! That was actually more nerve-wracking than you would think! But you must understand, we felt very wishy-washy. We had just switched from Peru to domestic and now we were changing back? What was going on with us! But our social worker was incredibly understanding. She even told us that through-out our whole home study with her, she thought there was just something not quite right.

Enter the Peru home study. We pretty much did our entire home study again, only this time with our Peru social worker! We worked with her from October 2009 to March 2010. Unfortuantely, we did not really click very well with her nor the director of the program. We usually left very discouraged from the meetings with them. So we made the decision to switch agency and we have a new placing agency. We instantly fit with them! It was great. They helped make the switch and getting documents sent over very easy and understood what was going on. They have also had a Peru program for 23 years! They helped us with our dossier documents.

After all the switching around our dossier finally made it to Peru in August 2010! A few weeks later an email came to our inbox with the information of 4 siblings needing a home. I sent the email to Brent as a joke asking him if he wanted 4 kids. He took me seriously! So we pondered and talked and emailed our agency telling them yes, we would take them. Our agency was very excited. I thought they would tell us we were crazy, but they went to work, emailing the lawyer in Peru and getting information.
But we discovered that we were too young. In Peru, you must be 18 years older than the oldest child you adopt. In our case, we would have only been 16 years older than the oldest child. We were totally okay with this information and went on about our business.

Fast forward to November 2010, another email hits my inbox. This time Peru is telling us that if we still wanted to adopt these 4 kids we could. WHAT!?!?! This is crazy! Wow! So for some weeks, we thought and prayed and thought and prayed and discussed this idea with our parents and some other families who adopted 4 or 5 siblings at one time. We made the decision to go ahead. Our letter of intent was submitted on December 1. That same night we received a phone call from someone saying they wanted to make a donation to our adoption fund. Another person set up a page with information for our friends to give to our fund as well. We thought, "surely this is the Lord blessing this decision! We are headed in the right direction."

With updating the home study for 4 kids, we also had to have a new psych evaluation (i think to make sure we really weren't crazy! haha!) We drove down on December 15 to meet with the psychologist. The meeting went well. She asked for pictures when we got the kids and we walked across the hall to our agency where they told us an email was sent to them from Peru that morning saying our letter of intent was rejected and we could not have the kids. I really didn't understand was she meant when she told us. I thought okay, so we just submit it again. Then she said it again and I realized - "oh, we can't have them at all. Okay. Well now what?"

Too be continued........

OH. MY. WORD.

So tomorrow is the consejo. Oh. my. word. We could have kids. WHAT!?!?!?! This reality hasn't hit me until now. My heart is pounding with excitement! Calm Down! :) The crazy thing about adoption is that you totally have to trust the Lord. There is absolutley no control over anything. So....I'll let you know soon. =)
Psalm 46:10.

I know how she feels.....

So...I may have written this before, but I can't remember.
Sometimes it seems like we are not really adopting. Almost as if one day we will jump out from the behind the curtain and shout "surprise! Just kidding!" Especially during this time of waiting. We are waiting on an email or a phone call for our referrel(s).

But mostly I feel unequipped for this task. We have several friends who are adopting or have completed their adoption, but they all live in different states. So sometimes I feel alone on this journey. Brent and I will be first time parents, most of our friends who have adopted were already parents, so Brent and I are going brand-spankin' new to this whole new world of parenting. Granted, sometimes I feel like we have 40 kids with our youth at the church. But we send these kids home!
We are not able to talk much with our out-of-state friends, so I don't know how they feel or their emotions.

So, it leaves me wondering - isn't this adoption thing for real adults who have their ducks in a row and don't have to wonder if they can make it on one salary? Do they have to fund-raise and then run out of ideas and people or does the money just appear on their doorstep? Do they have an adoption support group and resources available all over their city or not?

I don't know. I just have to believe. Even if I don't feel it.

My friend Kelly sent me this link to a new blog. I laughed when I read a post from her Big Adoption Series, here is the excerpt:

"I noticed right away that most of the other couples
seemed infinitely more knowledgeable about adoption.
They all looked like real adults - capable, earnest,
not especially given to the whims of fashion or style.
They were sensible and generous in the exact way that
parents, in my mind, should be. I tugged at my cute cardigan,
probably found in the Junior's department, and wished
I hadn't even bothered with make-up. I did my very best
to appear mature and motherly and all the while, I felt
like an impostor. We nodded our way through muddy terminology
dossier, referral, home study. We sat up straight and drank
Sprite from paper cups as we swatted imperceptibly at
nagging thoughts - we are too young, we don't know how
to be parents, who would ever give us a baby? The swinging
seat lurched ever-so-slightly, for the very first time
as we came to understand all that would be required of us,
when all I wanted was to sign a paper and order up my baby."

I know how she feels!

- you can check her blog out: www.flowerpatchfarmgirl.blotspot.com

Adoption and the Bible

"In the process of adoption, an individual assumes parental responsibility for the child of another, as Mordecai adopted his young relative Esther after the death of her parents.

Joseph adoped Jesus to be recognized as his own sone in the eyes of God and man. This gave all legal inheritance rights traceable through Joseph to Jesus - see Matthew 1:1-25 - assigning Him to legal claim to the Davidic throne. Spiritually, we are the children of God by adoption just as Jesus was the child of Joseph by adoption. This process of adoption give to the one adopted full family standing and rights - Romans 8:15-17. This transacation is a divinely authorized, God-blessed, and legally binding means for adding to the family unit and passing on the family inheritance - Galatians 4:5 and Ephesians 1:5.

Though the Bible does not present explicit legal process or rights and responsibilities demanded for adoption, Old Testament examples are found in Esther's adoption by Mordecai - Esther 2:15. Also from Moses' adoption by Pharaoh's daughter - Exodus 2:10 and in addition to the use of the adoption motif in explaining God's relationship to His people Israel - Deuteronomy 14:2. In the New Testament, adoption describes the believer's relationship with the Lord - Galations 4:3-7 and Ephesians 1:1-6.

When an individual accepts Jesus as Savior, the Holy Spirit completes a transaction of adoption of their behalf. The individual becomes God's child and He becomes his/her Abba. As God's adopted child, we will inherit a perfect home with Him and in the meantime we have immediate access to Him for comfort, direction, provision, etc. He adopted us with pleasure and will never revoke our adoption."

(Taken from an excerpt from the Women's Study Bible)

Here's the Deal......

So here's the deal....we almost adopted 4 kids...again. The same 4 as before. We had a to have our medicals updated. They added a few tests and and x-ray. When we sent in our medicals, it was necessary to have our dossier reviewed again. This time we were told if we wanted the 4 siblings we could have them. What? Shock.

So okay, we thought and prayed about it for weeks. I mean sincerely prayed. Sometimes I say I pray about things and then I really don't. This decision affects too many lives to count, mainly 4 or 6 if you count us, and I have learned my lesson about not praying about things in my/our life. I am perfect at messing up my own life, so I didn't want to mess up four other lives. Especially since thier lives have been such a mess already! I was even doing Pricilla Shirer's study "Discerning the Voice of God" during this time. Everything Brent and I were reading and talking about seemed to lead to make the decision to adopt the 4 kids.

This brings us to December 1. We drove down to our agency to talk with them and tell them we had decided to move forward. This meeting set all kinds of things in order. Write a letter of intent, get a psychology update, print off a few forms to fill out, find a organziation in which to send tax deductable donations, etc. Even that night we had a man call wanting to know where to send their donation - we hadn't told him that we had decided to go ahead in the process. A few other events were happening that we thought was confirmation from the Lord. Everything is going smoothly, except, my spirit is twisted. That's the only thing was so weird. It was not the feeling I expected after saying yes to them. I literally felt as though my spirit was being twisted around inside me. I couldn't figure it out.

Fast forward to December 15, we are meeting with our psychologist. The 15th just happened to be the last appointment she had open for the year.
It was a cold, snowy, rainy day. I love days like that! The meeting went so well. I actually thought she would say we were out of our minds! haha!
Our agency is right across from her office, so we stepped over to say hello. Pat saw us through the door and motioned for us to come in. It was the kind of motioning where you instantly know something is wrong. We walked to the office and Anne told us that our letter of intent had been rejected. At first, I wasn't sure what she meant. I just thought, okay, so we write another one? No. That was not the meaning. There were some changes in Peru. Without disclosing all the details, there seem to be some political moves when our letter of intent was submitted and it was rejected. We had been told this was a done deal. But now there was no deal at all! We weren't really sure what to think about the news. What do we do now? We didn't know, we still don't really know.
Confusion was the main feeling of the day. Had we "heard" wrong? What about all the things we thought were confirmations along the way? What does this mean? It is still confusing and sad that children's lives seem to be in the hands of political parties. However, I know the secret: children's lives, all lives, are really in the hands of the Creator. He holds this world. Nothing happens unless He says yes. Charles H. Spurgeon has great quote:"Wherever God in His providence guides you, let it be your joy to know that He is too wise to err - too good to be unkind." ---
You, we, must believe God. So what did we decide?
We decided to keep our home study update the same - adopt 1- 4 children (siblings) and change the ages to 0 - 11. Who knows what will happen next? We just keep going and waiting and sincerely praying.

We still have the organization set up in which to give tax deductable donations. If you would like to give, please leave me a comment and I'll send you the info.

I know this is long! Just wanted to let you know what was going on with the adoption.

Tuesday Highlights

It's Tuesday. I am off a half day today and I should be getting the house cleaned. Instead it took me an hour to compose 2 facebook messages. One to the youth girls about their Bible study and one to their mothers. Then I was tired of looking at the sidewalk on this blog, so I decided I need to make a few new posts. I guess the house can wait.

Since it's been a month, I'll spare the details and just tell you the highlights.

**Jewelry shows seemed have gone into cease and desist mode. But that is okay. We have been so incredibly busy that I don't think I could have made it to the shows!

**Work is fabulous, we have 2 new gals, but it has been overwhelming. We have a new system to learn. It's been interesting. Yesterday was the first normal day in weeks!

**Brent started a 6 week dodgeball league for the youth. They are having a great time!

**Our adoption has taken a surprising twist! It's so exciting! We have a new decision to make, but we don't know what to do! But it's okay that we don't yet. We are learning to wait and listen. Be patient, go slow.

Habakkuk 2:3 says:
For the revelation awaits an appointed time;
it speaks of the end
and will not prove false.
Though it linger, wait for it;
it will certainly come
and will not delay.

So here we are waiting. I keep remembering this verse, praying and trying hard to listen. I have a study by Pricilla Shirer that I am doing about discerning the voice of God. It's been a great help during this time to help me to remember to go slow and be patient.
Our agency recently put us in contact with two families that have adopted from Peru. We had great conversations with both families.
Maybe by Christmas, we can give all the details! But it may not even happen.
So be on the look out!