Passport safely in hand

We got Paul's passport in the mail yesterday but, long story short, couldn't get to the bank before it closed to notarize our documents. We were tempted to get them notorrized at UPS but it costs $5.00 a document and we have 6 so we will just save that and get it done for free at our bank Monday and then mail off the last of things. It's hard at times, like when you recieve a document, not to be obsessive about getting it sent off but I have to let things flow sometimes and it would have been hard and more money to do it. I want to be patient, rest in God's timing and know that ultimately two days will not make or break us getting our baby. It's hard to keep things in perspective sometimes because this is such a huge thing in our lives and we are so excited and in love with the child God has for us so I am thankful for God's grace showing me how often I can make things an idol by feeling like: "I won't be satisfied if I don't do this now" or "I will obsess about this and think about it all day until..." or "I will inconvenience my entire family so I can get this thing I want done" which all show my lack of trust in God through this process. HE has called us to this and HE will provide means and ways for me to do it in a God-exalting way while still being able to serve my family and not sin. And more than that, HE is enough to sustain and satisfy me. It's very hard to believe after this next mailing, we are done. I wonder how long our wait will be? I am glad God knows and is the one to offer rest and peace for anxious, awaiting parents! The picture above has nothing to do with passports and all to do with an adorable 3 year old that is so cute I could just eat him up.

No Passport Yet

Well we don't have Paul's passport yet (it's been almost 2 weeks) but hopefully we will get it by the end of next week at the latest. We are learning more patience as we wait but it's very exciting we are so close to getting on the waiting list. I had no idea things would move this fast! Now I look at Phin (my 15 mos. old) and he is going to be the big brother sooner than anticipated! He will be great. Both my boys LOVE babies and are going to make some Ethiopian peanut out there great siblings. I also want to make a shout out to Gladney. I cannot say enough good things about them, they have done such a good job of keeping us up to date, letting us frequently stalk them with questions in the form of emails and phonecalls and just all around been very pleasant to deal with. Things have thus far gone very smoothly. Some programs are taking much much longer and Gladney is doing a great job! When I talked to Kate at KBS she said us getting our CIS approval was really early and that most families wait longer than we did between the time of getting fingerprinted and getting their CIS approval. On another note I wanted to post a couple childrens bibles we love that you may not be familiar with. My boys (especially Job who is 3) adore. One is called The Jesus Storybook Bible. It's really Christ-centered and helps our children (and us) to think about Jesus in the Old Testament because it always refers back to how God was revealing the plan of redemption in the Old Testament. The other ones are called The Read Aloud Bible Stories (volumes 1-4). These are lots of fun and short enough for your 2 or 3 year old to start memorizing. Well hopefully my next post with be that we have our passport items notarized and are just inches from that waiting list!

CIS APPROVAL!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

What do I find in my mailbox today my friends???! OUR CIS APPROVAL LETTER!!!!! It completely caught me off guard and we are thrilled its finally here! This is the last big thing we need to be done for the dossier and get on the waiting list for that sweet baby. It has been less than a month since our fingerprints so I am so jazzed about us moving so quickly. It certainly shows me God is orchestrating all things for that perfect baby out there who is meant to be ours! He is working here on our end to get us ready, get through everything that needs to be done and meanwhile across the world there is a little one being born, being given up or abandoned, we don't know, but God sees this little one and will bring us together at the perfect time. So our next step is to get Paul's passport (which should be in the next week) and then we have two forms to redo because his passport number changes. Then we will send our stuff to KBS Dossiers and she will make sure all is in order with that and send it to Gladney, who will send it to Washington and then Ethiopia, I believe. Lord-willing we will be on the waiting list for our referral within two weeks! I am still in shock! I was hoping for at least the end of August but this is so exciting! Thank you Lord for your perfect plan for us and our baby! May you get all the Glory! "I love the Lord, because he has heard my voice and my pleas for mercy. Because he inclined his ear to me, therefore I will call on him as long as I live...Gracious is the Lord, and righteous, our God is merciful. The Lord preserves the simple; when I was brought low, he saved me. Return, O my soul, to your rest, for the Lord has dealt bountifully with you." (Psalm 116:1-2;3-7)

Grant Applications....check!

We mailed off two more grant applications today: Caroline's Promise and God's Grace Adoption Ministry. I have to tell you it feels great to be done with these. We have everything needed for Shaohannah's Hope except our pastors letter which will hopefully get within the next week or so. I have to be honest, it was hard to get motivated to fill these things out and they need a lot of paperwork! After a few months of what seems like one piece of paperwork after another the last thing you wanna do when your done with your agency application and dossier items is fill our more forms BUT God was gracious and gave us the motivation to do it. So, in all we will have applied to 5 organizations for financial aid and then our church, which we are in the middle of doing. We also applied online with: Gift of Adoption Fund and National Adoption Foundation. Praise God that there is assistance our there. It's so encouraging that God has laid it on people's hearts to be involved in adoption by providing the funds for families with open homes and who are desirous of adoption and lack resources. I was just thinking - "How in the world could we finish this journey without these resoures?". I am so grateful we also have a church body who is very supportive and desires to help us in any way. We have several couples who have adopted which is also helpful as we have had people to go to and ask questions, gain prayer and encouragment and see these families thriving with their adoptive children. Another helpful site was Affording Adoption. Please pray God will give us favor with these agencies as they go over our applications.
On a different note we sent off for Paul's passport to be renewed and expedited that so hopefully we will get it back within the next two weeks, and we will have to redo a few of our dossier forms that had to do with his passport because the number will have changed. We are excited about each step that brings us closer to our wee one and we are clinging to the Lord each step of the way.

I Would Die For That

This is such a sweet video, may it remind us all what a gift it is to me a momma!

All I owe

I was so encouraged by this hymn this morning so I thought I would share. It was originally written by a Scottish pastor of old, Robert Murray McCheyne, but then later revived and mixed up a bit by current musician Matthew Smith (love his cd's). The lyrics are Matthew's Smiths version. I pray it blesses your heart this morning and causes you to further glory in all that Christ has done for us!

When this passing world is done,

When has sunk yon glaring sun,

When we stand with Christ in glory,

Looking o'er life's finished story,

Then, Lord, shall I fully know,Not till then, how much I owe.

All I owe you paid for me

From all I owe I’ve been set free

And all I owe proves your great mercy to me

When I stand before your throne,

Dressed in beauty not my own

,When I see you as you are

Love you with unsinning heart,

Then, Lord, shall I fully know,Not till then, how much I owe.

All I owe you paid for me

From all I owe I’ve been set free

And all I owe proves your great mercy to me

Chosen not for good in me,Wakened up from wrath to flee,Hidden in the Savior's side,By the Spirit sanctified,

Teach me, Lord, on earth to show,By my love, how much I owe.

All I owe you paid for me

From all I owe I’ve been set free

And all I owe proves your great mercy to me

New Family Pics

I wanted to post some of the great family pictures we had taken a few weeks ago. It was so fun and even funner I got to use them for my dossier. My boys are growing so quickly and it's so precious to have good pictures of them. As a mom you take a lot of pictures of your kids but it's so nice to have family pictures where all of you are in the shot. I hope you enjoy! On a sidenote a popular photography blog I visit from time to time had a neat project happening that will help Africa, to see more info on that click here.

Passport woes

Well we found out Friday that we have to get a new passport for Paul. His passport expires in February of 2008 and with dates being up in the air with international adoption they really want your passport not to expire within 6 mos. of travel. Since our travel dates are not set in stone it's cutting it too close. So we will be mailing off Paul's renewal stuff this week but we are going to expedite because Kate said she has people who have been waiting over 3 mos. for a passport! If we expedite then we should recieve it within 3 weeks (Lord-willing). On other adoption updates we have applied for quite a few grants but have to follow up with the applications by sending tax forms, agency reference forms and a few pastoral recommendations. Please pray that we will recieve some grants!
Me and the boys had a fun week and were able to go to the pool a couple times and had a blast listening to our latest great find: The Seeds Worship CD's. These are awesome! I had seen them a while back on the girltalk blog but had borrowed them from a friend who had actually bought them and we LOVE them! I Love it...we are all jamming while in the car or at home and it's all scripture. I really think that This company has done a great service to the body of Christ by providing quality, masterful music singing the word of God. It's a perfect example of how the arts should be used to bring glory to God. If you go to the site you can download some stuff but seriously you won't regret getting them and they have helped me and my kids hide the word in our hearts. I hope everyone has a wonderful Sunday!

The Global Slave Trade

We recieve a magazine called Mission Frontiers, that is put our by the U.S. Center for World Mission. The current issue is called The Global Slave Trade. I really encourage all of you to read it! You can go to their website and read various articles on this topic, you can even download the entire issue from their site. One article says: "National Geographic estimates that there are approximately 27 million slaves in the world today." And again, speaking of human trafficking, "According to the U.S. State Department's 2005 Trafficking in Person's Report , the illegal industry of worldwide human trafficking generates about $9.5 Billion dollars each year." It really opened my eyes to something that is happening NOW, not just something that happened in the past. I think it also pertains to adoption issues because a great deal of the countries where such things are happening we as Americans are able to adopt children from. It broke my heart and also reminded me just what the Lord has done in our lives to free us from our Debt (Matthew 18:21-35 so clearly displays this, though the passage directly speaks to the issue of forgiveness...). It's my hope that as we read things like this our hearts will be in prayer for individuals in these situations and then act in ways that we are able to relieve their suffering.

Off to run some errands

We are off to run some errands for the adoption this morning. I awoke with a sense of motivation and encouragement to redo a couple things we were notified of last week that have to be redone (2 items) and also officially start applying for our grants, so that is what we are going to do. My boys are so cute!! When I hear a door open this morning and go upstairs to find my oldest son, Job, peeping at me with those big eyes, my heart flood with affection. He then opens up his arms really big and gives me a tender bear hug (I know, I know it sounds like a dramatic love film!). I am so thankful God has chosen motherhood for me. Though he is often purifying my heart from selfishness and sin, which is very hard at times, that purifying work is coupled with intense joy and sweetness. I am humbled to have been given such a grace, not just for my children but that God has given me an obvious way to bring him glory and honor: by clinging to the cross for grace to complete this task each moment. I realize more and more as a mom just how much I need a Savior! If left to myself how could I ever raise my children to fear and delight in Christ? How could I be a godly example? How could I value them for the treasure they really are, instead of viewing children as the world views them ("more money", "inconvenient", "too difficult", etc. etc.). Listen to how the word of God defines our little ones (biological & adopted...just children) "Children are a heritage from the Lord..." "Like arrows in the hand of a warrior..." "Blessed is the man who fills his quiver with them!" (all taken from Psalm 127). We listened a while back to a wonderful sermon from our pastor on this very topic. If you would like to listen to it, here's the link: http://www.fbcdurham.org/sermonArchive.php?search=children&andOr=1. Scroll to the bottom for the sermon on Psalm 127. I will leave you with a challenging verse found in the same chapter, "Unless the Lord builds the house, those who build it labor in vain. Unless the Lord watches over the city, the watchman stays awake in vain." (v.1). It is the Lord who builds our houses and chooses for us our little ones, with all their personality quarks and sin struggles. He alone is the one from who we can gain all the grace, wisdom and strength we need to accomplish this great task or being parents. It amazing to think of adoption in this light, that God will help me in every tough thing and that the word of God makes no distinction to the gift and blessing of adopted or biological children. This can really encourage me when others ask "Why are you adopting if you can have children?" Haven't we been adopted into God's family through Christ work? Don't we desire to portrait this forth to a lost world? And secondary, God's word says a CHILD is valuable and a gift to us, it doesn't have to come from your body to have value in your family before God. I praise God for the gift every one of my children will be to my own soul and I pray, for God's glory, among the world.

Gospel-centered parenting

My husband and I read this great little article on keeping the gospel the center of your parenting and discipline. I thought I would encourage you to read it and find the refreshing perspective so needed in our own hearts if we are to display the gospel as something to be desired to our children. Here's the link: http://www.eucatastrophe.com/blog/archives/2005/04/23/keeping-grace-in-place-by-tedd-tripp/ and also some GREAT dvd's on Sheperding your child's heart by Tedd Tripp (or you can just read the book), we found the best deal on buy.com : http://www.buy.com/prod/Shepherding_a_Childs_Heart_Video_DVD/q/loc/273/202711822.html. Another great book is Don't Make me count to three by Ginger Plowman. I pray these resources will bless you as much as they have us.