I'm Still Here

Just wanted you to know that I am still around, in case you were wondering.

There is so much to write, I really don't even know where to begin. And to even know what to share.

We are adjusting. It is taking work, but we are making it. I am very tired, physically and emotionally. But God is good.

I believe that the transition is going well. Adding a 5 year old with that many years of different upbringing and baggage, isn't easy, but I believe that God is giving us the grace that He knows we need. I am declaring my dependence on Him and He is faithful.

We would appreciate your prayers as you think of our new addition. Because of other things going on in our church, Jathan has been very busy. That has been difficult for me, but God knew what was going on when He timed it this way, and His timing is perfect.

Found: One Crib and One Mattress

Well God has truly blessed us. This week, I was on crib search. I checked Craig's List, with not too much luck. I also went to a special town sale with my friend, where they had used baby and children's items for sale. They had one crib. And it was $450. For a used crib! I thought that was a little high and a lot out of my price range. That night, as I was once again on Craigslist, I get an email from my friend (the one that I went to the sale with) and she found us a crib. Not just any crib though, a free crib! She had a friend who had given a crib to another friend that didn't need the crib anymore and was getting rid of it, so the friend called the other friend and found out that she hadn't gotten rid of it yet, so she is giving it to us!

Then I just needed the mattress. So here is the dilemma. Do you buy a used mattress that you don't know where it has been? I love buying used, it is just mattresses I am a little scared about. But a new one is a hundred bucks, but what if we don't get a baby and then the crib won't be used and the money would be wasted. But even a used mattress is $25 and that would be a waste too if it isn't used because the child we get is too old for a crib. So what to do? Well, my neighbor calls yesterday afternoon to ask to borrow our bike trailer. So I get the trailer and take it to her. I am in her garage to show her how to hook it up and there against the wall is a crib mattress. I asked, "Is Nolan out of the crib already?" He will be one next week, so I was a little surprised. She said, "No, one of my clients gave me a bunch of baby stuff including the mattress but we didn't need it, do you need one?" I said "Well, actually I was going to ask to borrow it if you are not using it for our inspection." She then said "You can have it, it is a very nice mattress, we just already had one."

Praise God!!!!!

We will get the crib Tuesday, get it set up and call our social worker to come out and look at it so she can put on our file that we can take a child under the age of two! Then we will most likely take it down, because I do not want to look at an empty crib not knowing when or even if it will get filled. But I am praising God for providing in such a neat way.

Garcias Together

In this previous post found here, I asked for prayer for our dear friends the Garcias. Their boys were in Haiti waiting to be united with their forever family. There were months and months of prayers and tears of waiting on all of the paperwork and red tape. Then when it looked like their visa appointment was finally set to bring the boys home, the earthquake hit. God protected the boys and allowed the visa appointment to happen a few days earlier than previously scheduled. Ian and Alec were united with their parents in Florida last Tuesday. Today the entire family was united in Chile. All seven of them!

Adoption is hard, I won't sugarcoat it. It involves heartache, patience and day by day, moment by moment dependence. But in the end, as you see in the Garcias' story, the blessings abound when that little one (or little ones) are placed in your arms. When you see the miracle that God does when he brings a child from around the world or even from the other side of town to be in your care, in your life, adopted into your family to be your child. It is a picture of what he did when he sent his son over 2,000 years ago. Jesus purchased us with his precious blood and those that are his are adopted into God's family. We can call him Abba Father.

I praise God for the miracle of adoption both horizontal, us caring for the orphans in this world, and vertical, him caring for us, who were once orphans.

Check out the Garcias' blog post here to see pictures of all of the children together.

Foster Care Meetings

We had our first of nine foster meetings last night. I was excited to go and a bit nervous at the same time. I came away nervous and a bit excited. The past several weeks I have forgotten about my initial fears of the foster system (you can read about that here), I was really getting excited. I bought a baby gate to block off our new staircase and a lock to put on the laundry room door. We already had cabinet locks from our first homestudy we had in this home, so I figured that was covered. I have even started thinking about when might we get the call, the classes end in March, how soon after would it be? But then going to the meeting, I was reminded that reunification was the goal. Please do not get me wrong, I want families reunited, if it is best for the child. That means, however, that we may have a child for months or even longer and then have to say goodbye. So the anxiety started to begin again. Last night I woke up in the middle of the night and had a hard time getting back to sleep. My mind was racing. Thankfully, I finally got to sleep and stayed asleep until this morning. So this morning, I am faced with the decision on what I am going to let my mind focus on. The fears and anxieties that I have, or the truths of God. I am leading a Bible study by Elizabeth George called "Loving God With All Your Mind". So now is time to practice what I preach. We came to the decision of the foster system with much prayer. I am following Jathan in this, who is the leader of our home. We believe our desire to adopt is from God and that He will be with us guiding us every step of the way. I also believe that following God is not always going to be easy, fun or pain free. But I also know that following God results in blessings and best of all bringing him glory. So right now I am clinging to his promise that "God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose." (Romans 8:28) He will be with us in this. And with His strength, we can do it.

Rainbows in the Sky

For whatever reason this winter has seemed a little grayer than usual. The sun hasn't peeked out as much as I would like. But Saturday was different, it was out full force. Gorgeous day and we took full advantage along with a few other neighborhood kids that came over!




It was great to have the break in the grayness, especially since this week is all rain, we do need the rain though, and if we didn't have rain, we wouldn't get to see this:



Unfortunately, I couldn't get it all in the picture, but it was a full rainbow. Drew spotted it from his bedroom window, so the next thing you know, we are all out in the front yard. A great time to remember what the rainbow means. God promised Noah that he would never again flood the whole earth. And as the kids and I talked about, we know that what God said is true, because God ALWAYS keeps his promises!

PRAISES!!!!

Of course I am on cloud nine because the Colts won their first playoff game (round two). But that doesn't compare to the blessing of finding out as soon as I got the kids to bed after the game, that our dear friends, the Garcias, received word today that their boys were granted their visas to leave Haiti. That was the final step in getting the boys home. Now they are waiting to find out the logistics of flights and so forth. Praise God, this has been a long, long wait. Now they are almost to the end. Please pray for all of the details to come together, so the boys can be in their forever family very soon.

We do need to remember, that as they are rejoicing, there is a lot of destruction in Haiti due to the earthquake. Please pray for the country, for the Christians in the country that are serving hard to save physical lives and share of the Gospel to save spiritual lives. Pray also for adoptive parents that are still waiting for their children's visas to be granted and the children themselves. Pray also for the adoptive parents that might have lost their child in this earthquake.

If you would like to know more about what is going on in Haiti or read about the Garcias' adoption story, visit their blog, just click here.

The Day After Christmas

I remember when I was a kid the day after Christmas was a huge let down. Not that I was disappointed with Christmas, just that I looked forward to it for so long and then in a flash it was over. There weren't any more presents under the tree, in fact the tree was about to go back in it's box, we would say goodbye to cousins and grandparents and head back home, lights came down from our house, decorations back to the attic, it was over. A months preparation and then it was over in a day until the next year. So sad. The month leading up to Christmas day was so busy, filled with cookie making, decorating, Christmas programs, wrapping presents, peeking in presents (and I have to admit I was terrible about that, my mom had to double wrap gifts and use code to mark who they were for, but I always seemed to figure it out anyway, I was so naughty!) looking at lights, listening to Christmas carols, not to mention the night before when I would lay awake for what seemed to be hours trying so hard to listen for hooves up on the roof. Looking out the window anytime I thought I heard something or saw a flash of light, hoping that I could catch Santa. The morning seemed like it would never come. So when it was over it was disappointing. For some reason though as I have gotten older, I don't feel that way anymore. I don't think I am grinch and just don't care much about the holiday anymore. Maybe it is because we are out of routine and I like things in order so I look forward to the day after so that order can return to my house. Or maybe I can finally feel finished with all of the preparations and just relax a little. Or that I finally get to see the kids enjoy what we have been hiding from them for a while. I don't think it is any of those things though.

I would like to think that it is because I have realized the reason for the season. God gave us his perfect son. The perfect gift to us. And after celebrating his birth on Christmas we can celebrate his perfect life and his perfect sacrifice for our sins. So the day after Christmas shouldn't be a let down, because it should be us celebrating the beginning of God's work of redemption that he had been preparing the world for since the beginning. So if we are truly focused on Christ's birth and all that that entails, the day after should be a time of joy as we continue to celebrate this gracious gift of the Savior.

So, I pray as the Christmas season has come to a close, that the true meaning will be in the front of your thoughts and produce a grateful heart of joy. We are celebrating Jesus, his gift of salvation doesn't end on December 25.

"Do not be afraid, Mary, you have found favor with God. You will be with child and give birth to a son, and you are to give him the name Jesus. He will be great and will be called the Son of the Most High. The Lord God will give him the throne of his father David, and he will reign over the house of Jacob forever; his kingdom will never end."

Luke 1: 30-33

Please Pray

***Edited: I wrote this post this morning. This evening another family in our church received a call that their youngest son died this weekend. He was in his late 40s or early 50s. It seems that it keeps coming. But we do have a mighty God who is with us. Who loves us. Who comforts us. Who gives us strength. Even in times like this when we say 'What is going on?' 'How much more can we take?' We know that he will not give us more than he will give us the strength to handle. But please pray for us. Specifically the families that are directly touched. ***

This month has been amazing. Not a month I would like to repeat, but still, I have seen God so clearly. A friend from church and I were talking earlier last week. It seems like our little church is a lot like Job. We are a small church and have been hit very hard with pain. But if I look at the story of Job, I know that God is right there. To give you a little background, in the last month we have had one of our three elders diagnosed with brain cancer, a family in our church take their 10 month old son by ambulance to a children's hospital for several days, not knowing whether he would live, once that trial was mostly over and they were able to take him home, they came home to their 6 year old needing to be taken to the ER. On Monday, another family in our church lost their 25 year old son suddenly. That is on top of a few ongoing trials that other families are facing. It has been hard. But I have to say, we have felt God's presence through it all. I would be lying if I said we aren't tired, but God has continued to sustain our church family and the leaders as we face these trials. And through it all I think we are all still rejoicing in God's goodness. I am praying for God's glory to be magnified through all of this. And that we would continue to lean completely on Him as we face each day.

Please pray for the families that I mentioned above. Please pray for God to continue to give them the strength that only he can give and the comfort that passes all understanding. There still is hurting. Also, pray for the Elders as they lead and care for our church family. As you saw in the post below, Jathan is sick, the bug is in our house, but he has gotten run down, so please pray for healing for him so he can minister with full strength.

Please also pray for my sister, Mandy. Right now she is in the hospital, unable to walk and in a lot of pain. She has been sick for over a month, the doctors still do not know what is causing all of this. Please pray for healing and strength.

Lamentations 3 verses 19 through 24 says, 'I remember my affliction and my wandering, the bitterness and the gall. I well remember them, and my soul is downcast within me. Yet this I call to mind and therefore I have hope: Because of the Lord's great love we are not consumed, for his compassions never fail. They are new every morning; great is your faithfulness. I say to myself, "The Lord is my portion; therefore I will wait for him.'" Praise God! He is everything, He is all we need. Those that are called by his name can look to Him with confidence and know that he truly is our All in All.