Give this Christmas Away

We got a fun little surprise last week in church. Matthew West came in (as a surprise) to sing a his new Christmas song. I had not heard it before, but it seems to fit our Christmas this year perfectly.

Please PLEASE PLEASE watch this video and let the lyrics sink deep into your soul. Take it to heart and allow the message to make a difference in how you spend your Christmas.

It's feeding the hungry
serving the poor

It's telling the orphan
"You're not forgotten anymore"

one of the reasons we are doing what we are doing

Just a reminder that most of our adoption posts are being posted on our Sweet Pea blog (HERE). This video is worth watching, take the few moments it takes to view. My prayer is that God uses us in some way to further His kingdom. My eyes have been opened and I will not be the same. God has burdened my heart for His children who have needs. Please continue to pray for our family and our journey and our Sweet Pea.

****Sharing the good news that the homestudy is DONE and has been sent to our agency and USCIS (immigration). That is a BIG check off the list. ****

Understanding God's Heart for Adoption

Chuck and I were blessed this weekend as we had the opportunity to attend an adoption conference called Together For Adoption. We sat and listened to speaker after speaker, sermon after sermon about learning to care for orphans, about having a heart for the nations, about God's passion for adoption and how it is His idea and His plan. This was not an adoption conference that teaches someone how to adopt or what agency to use. No, this was digging into the Word of God and understanding what He has to say about His children and the importance of caring for the orphans. We came away both blessed and encouraged and yet heavyhearted.

I quickly want to share about the passage in James 1:26-27. A verse that is very familiar with those in the adoptive world.

If anyone thinks himself to be religious, and yet does not bridle his tongue but deceives his own heart, this man's religion is worthless.

Pure and undefiled religion in the sight of our God and Father is this: to visit orphans and widows in their distress, and to keep oneself unstained by the world.

Notice how there are 3 parts of true religion.

1. bridling the tongue
2. visit orphans and widows in their distress
3. keep oneself unstained by the world

How can we practice true religion when we are neglecting one or more of these 3. I have a passion for the orphan (obviously) and yet I often fail when it comes to bridling my own tongue. Not to mention, being worldly and living with performance based living, that is being stained by the world.

Like I said, I was challenged and brought to a humble place before God to examine my heart before Him. The messages are going to be available for listening on the Together For Adoption website (HERE). It might take a day or two before they are available. Hopefully you can also find encouragement.

Hard to believe...we had a yard sale in the pouring rain !

We ended up having our yard sale on Saturday morning (well...technically, it was a GARAGE sale). We never really had enough break in the weather to put our things out in the driveway. But we had gathered our donations and I spent the week pricing the items, so we figured we should give it a try. I am bummed that I was too busy to take pictures. I will try and remember next time. And YES, there will be a next time. We have some left over things and I am going to start taking more donations of items for the next yard sale.

When Chuck was putting the signs out early in the morning, he said he was doing it in faith that people would come and the effort would be worth it. And God blessed the effort. We were swamped with people and sold almost everything. We were not prepared to display the items in the garage, but that didn't stop our shoppers. They dug through boxes of items and clothes and didn't seem to mind the mess. It felt a little crazy and messy, but all in all it was a good day.

The girls sold baked goods (that my dear friend donated) and we had signs up that said it was an adoption fundraiser and people were very encouraging and many were generous. We raised $500 !!! We were thrilled and shocked that it went that well. Worth the effort it took and we are going to try and do another one in a few weeks. This last one we pulled off in just one week (no wonder I am tired).

I just love it how it was another reminder that even though the circumstances were not ideal, God isn't held back by it. I am grateful for the wonderful reminder that He is STILL in control.

The Lord Provides

His mercies are new every morning.

His timing is perfect.

He is trustworthy.

He is faithful.

I will trust in Him.

Again, I am blown away by God's provisions. I just want to give HIM the glory. Yesterday I was blessed by a devotional from this site (HERE). It was a great reminder that stepping out in faith requires a risk. Part of it read: If we could see every detail about where God was leading and how He would provide, we wouldn't need faith.

How true is that? We can not see every detail of how life will turn out and that keeps us depending on God. We need to continue to have faith in our Mighty GOD. And as we step out in faith to follow where He leads, we don't have all the plans worked out. We will need God to provide in His timing and in His way.

I was blessed by a mailbox moment. You know the kind, you open a card and out drops a check for the exact amount you need. That is right, for now, the exact money that we needed to continue on showed up as a delivery from God. How fantastic that a member of the body of Christ was tuned into the Spirit and responded in obedience.

I have been trying to figure out how to come up with this particular sum of money and God had it all worked out. He knows our needs and if it is His will, He will bless.

What an amazing thing to be blessed in this way. May God only receive the glory in all that we do.

JEHOVAH-JIREH:



The Lord will Provide

Eyes Wide Open

Scroll down and let the video buffer while you are reading the post. The video is worth the few moments it takes to watch.


We have been in full swing of trying to get our adoption paperwork done for our homestudy. Just a little background for those of you new to the idea of adoption, we are required to complete a homestudy in order for our state to approve us to adopt. It is more than just someone coming to our home and snooping around. Though the history of it is from when in the mid 1800's and the orphan train was popular, it was a small inspection to make sure that home had an adequate water supply. It is a series of meetings with a case worker who will write a report about our family. In order to do this, we fill out lots of paperwork and questions about ourselves, our feelings on adoption, our marriage, child raising, we complete medical exams, finger printing, background checks, financial reports...the list goes on. We also are required to take a 5 session education course to help us better understand adoption and how to prepare for it and hopefully help us succeed in it.

All that to say, last night was our first education class. We sat in a room with 6 couples, all adopting internationally (4 from Ethiopia, 1 from Nepal and 1 from Uganda). We were so blessed to come together with others who also have the heart of adoption. We had a genuine open discussion on different aspects of adoption and it gave us much to think about and should help us form our adoption plan.

We were reminded that it is our job to educate those around us that will be part of our new child's life. We need to set the tone and attitude for those around us of positivity and confidence. We have already in our hearts committed to this child and we are hoping to find support from our friends and family.

One of the benefits we have of emotionally being where we are is talking with other adoptive families, reading books and articles, and following blogs of others who have gone before us. We have spent months and even years doing this. God has opened our hearts to this call and we desire to follow in obedience to where He leads. We are going into this with our eyes wide open, we are beginning to understand that this will not be an easy road. Both emotionally and financially, even spiritually. We will be stretched, but it is there where God prunes us to be more like Him.

I wanted to share a youtube video that blessed me as I was searching the web one day. I hope that it will help be part of your education as you learn more about adoption through us.

I can see God's mighty hand working already

One of our hesitations for finally taking that leap of faith and starting the adoption process has been finances. Let's be honest, it costs a LOT. And not many families have large amounts of cash stashed between the mattresses. I thought that I had it all figured out that we could use our extra money from our last home sale to help begin the financial part of the adoption process. Well, let's recap. Like everyone else in the country, we took a huge hit when we sold that house. We did not walk away with our adoption "nest egg" like I had hoped we would have.

God continued to call our family to step out in faith, not resting on our own ideas of how we could fund an adoption, but completely trusting Him. We recently started filling out paperwork and getting more specific quotes on what different stages of the process would cost. I knew the first large sum of money would be spent on the homestudy. We would have to complete that first before we could really do any other paper chasing.

Now to get to back to the mighty hand of God working part...

Somehow when we closed on selling our last home, we failed to cancel our homeowners insurance. We had recently discovered this mistake and canceled it and then we were notified that we would be getting a refund for the extra that had been paid and not used. When our refund check came in the mail it was for the same amount of the cost of a homestudy. A beautiful, gentle reminder to trust my Maker. Just a few days later we filled out our application (after MUCH investigating of different agencies) for the Ethiopian program with an international agency.

I was so blessed and amazed at how God provided our need. How could I doubt that He would provide in His way, not mine? I surrender to doing life God's way, not mine. He never shows up late. His timing is always perfectly on time. May God receive the glory !!!

Proverbs 16:9
A man's heart plans his way, but the Lord determines his steps.

We are approved !!!!

We are stepping out in faith.


Following where God leads.


Starting a journey.


If the Lord wills, we are growing our family.

praying for wisdom and discernment

My mind is full of swirling thoughts.

Seeking God for His discernment.

Desiring to follow where He leads.

Prayers appreciated.

THESE LITTLE CUTIES...

Will be spending the day with Daddy on Saturday while I go to an all day adoption conference.