Paperwork Foibles

So, because my excitement got the better of me, I stayed up late the other night to get started on our adoption paperwork. Problem was, I stayed up a little too late.

My eyes blurred.

I forgot our wedding date.

I misspelled my daughter's name.

I gave up.

Sigh.

I'll continue the paperwork when my eyes stop crossing.

(I think it would be in our best interest.)

Week of Prayer

In December of each year, our church dedicates one week to prayer. For seven days we meet together, study together,

and pray together. On the last day of the week, Saturday, we give a love offering to God, fast, pray, and praise.

Today my heart is full. I feel like God has given me this week of prayer to draw me closer to Him in preparation for the arrival of our host daughter. God knew I needed the extra strength that only He can give. I just didn't have enough to give her from my meager resources. This week, God has filled me up with His grace and goodness and my cup is overflowing with gratitude.

And This is Where it Begins...Again!

In January of this year we sent our heart back to Latvia in the form of four beautiful children we had hosted for a month. Our one and only thought was how to get them back into our home as fast as possible. We filled out an application and were ready to mail it in when we received word that our four did not want to be adopted. As our dreams crashed down around us, we tucked our application away in an almost forgotten corner of the house. Life returned to normal and our dream died down to a mere flicker of a flame.

November is National Adoption Awareness Month and the time when many adoption agencies drop their application fees. Not really having a definite plan, we decided to take advantage of a $200 savings, dust off our application, and mail it in. Today, we received this ...

It is the first packet in a series of packets to get the ball rolling towards adoption.

Do we know where we are going with it?

No. Nope. Not at all.

We are heading down an open road, trusting that God will lead us exactly where He wants us to go.

Let the paperwork begin!!!

What is She Thinking?

Today our host daughter braved frigid temperatures and an early morning trip. Along with a carload of other orphans she traveled two-and-a-half hours from her orphanage to the US Embassy to receive her visa to come to America. I so wish I could know for one minute what she is feeling inside.

Is she nervous? Worried? Excited? Or, like me, a combination of all of the above?

I wonder what her expectations are of us and what she wants to gain from this trip. Do her eyes sparkle as she tells all her school friends about her upcoming adventure? Does she bite her lip in nervous anticipation? How often do we cross her mind.

I wonder if she will find us a fun family to be with.

I wonder what her story is and why she was never adopted.

I wonder,

oh, how I wonder,

how to share Jesus with this precious girl.

Because, as much as I wonder about what she is thinking right now. I know what God is thinking about her. He loves her. She is His princess. I want so much for her to understand that.

Please pray with me and for me that while she is here, her heart will be touched with the warmth of God's love.

Stepping Blindly

We submitted out adoption application.

And I don't know how to feel right now.

I am not excited.

It is a long and uncertain journey on which we are embarking.

I am not nervous.

God has shown me too many times that NOTHING is impossible for Him.

I am not feeling anything -- which is for me, a very strange way to be.

Or, maybe, it's because I feel perfectly content with however God wants to lead us.


One year ago, I knew exactly where we were going.

We were going to adopt the four children we had hosted from Latvia ...

And live happily ever after.

Duh!

But then they said no.

Simple.

N-O.

Our cart of dreams came to a screeching halt.

We disembarked in some strange new place we'd never visited before and, after stumbling around in a fog for awhile, discovered one stepping stone at a time leading us to yet another unknown destination.

The fog still swirls about our feet, and we sometimes teeter uncertainly on our single step, not knowing where or when the next step will appear. But there are also moments of breathtaking beauty when we catch glimpses of the intricately detailed work God is doing in our hearts and for our situation.

We don't know where this new road is going.

We only know we must follow ... and trust.

One.

Step.

At.

A.

Time.

The $10 Bridge Just Got a Little Longer!

I'm doing the happy dance today!

And I'm hopping mad!

Why?


First, the good news...

The $10 bridge from that orphanage in Eastern Europe to Bobby's doorstep in America had a few more stepping stones added to it.

How many stepping stones?

No less than ONE HUNDRED AND TWO ... and a half. :)

Woohoo for 102 (and-a-half) new stepping stones to bring this sweet little boy to his forever home.

At the rate of $10 per stepping stone that means $1025 was raised. Yaaay!

$3475 is still needed to reach the goal for foreign fees.


And now for the reason I'm so mad!

Someone told Bobby he was naive to think this money could be raised.

Grrrr!

I bet we can prove this someone WRONG.

Let's give this someone overwhelming evidence of God's love for the orphan - even the special needs orphans.

Let's build that bridge!

Please donate $10 here.

Please share this blog entry and link with all your friends and ask them to donate $10 as well.

Please ask your friends to also share on their blogs or on Facebook.

I donated on Thanksgiving Day and I will donate again.

I want this little boy HOME!!!

Thank you so much for your help!

God bless you!

The $10 Bridge Home

Today is Thanksgiving Day.

It's a day for family and friends to get together to share love and laughter with each other.

It's a day to thank God for all He has blessed us with.

It's a day to share those blessings with those who are less fortunate.


Today, a little boy in Eastern Europe longs for all of the above. His host dad, Bobby, is in the long process of fundraising and working towards adopting him ... but this little guy doesn't know that. He's not allowed to be told yet. Each Saturday, he gets a phone call from Bobby and listens to his loving voice on the phone and cries. Both hearts are breaking.

Bobby has multiple fundraisers going ... trying desperately to raise the necessary funds.

Today's fundraiser is outlined below and I really love it. I donated today. I'm praying many others will also.

In my mind I imagine each $10 donation from all the loving donors paving a bridge, one of those beautifully arched bridges, from Eastern Europe to America. As each donation comes in a new stepping stone is laid and the bridge arches higher and farther until it stretches across Western Europe ... across the vast expanse of the mighty Atlantic Ocean ... and touches down softly on the doorstep of Bobby's house. And then my dream continues as a little boy dashes out of his orphanage and dances across that bridge -- each footstep home lightened by the accumulated love of every $10 donation that built this bridge. Finally, I see that little guy take one huge leap off the last step and fly into Bobby's outstretched arms -- home at last!!!

Do you have $10 to help build a bridge home? Do you have $10 to make this Thanksgiving Day special for a little boy and his waiting Dad?

Read on...

"Thanks-By-Giving" Day!!!

Here's an opportunity to show "Thanks" for all the blessings in your life "By Giving" to help bless a little boy with a forever family.

$10 is all we are asking!

Our goal is by Thanksgiving Day to raise the remaining $4500 needed for the total $6000 foreign fees.

If we can get just 45 people who would be willing to each get 10 people to give at least $10 our goal would be met!

In today's social networking world this is so doable!!

Please pray that if it is God's will we will meet our goal!

Here's how it works…

First – donate at least $10 if you are able.

Second – share this post on your own Facebook page.

Third – private message certain friends and family who you think would be willing to post the message on their Facebook page and/or donate at least $10.

Together, with God's help, we can be part of a true Thanksgiving Day blessing!

JUST CLICK to donate!

Have a blessed and happy Thanksgiving!

Popping Back for a Quick Hello

Hello?

Anybody out there still?

I stepped out of blog world for about six months.

Can't believe it's been that long!

Read some old friends' blogs and got all teary-eyed.

Their kids are growing.

Their families are expanding.

They're sharing God's love in powerful ways.

So inspiring!

So wonderful!

Such amazing people!!!


As for us...?

God has been busy with us too.

I had so hoped we would have adopted another child by now - or three or four. I look at our friends' HUGE adoptive families and think to myself, "We've only adopted five? Really? Only five? Our family picture looks so puny compared to others."


Instead, God asked me to start an online Christian academy.

It has been an enormous, mind-boggling amount of work,

but it is growing ...

children are enrolling...

and families are being blessed.


I am also writing a book ... which also happens to be an enormous, mind-boggling amount of work. But, it's coming along too.


And, I landed a job working for my church. Wasn't expecting this one at all! But, ya'know, I wasn't really doing much else at the time...


Oh, yeah, and I'm still teaching part-time.


(On second thought, it's probably a good thing we haven't adopted anyone. We'd probably lose them or something.)


Last year at this time we were preparing to host a sibling set of four from Latvia. We wanted to adopt them but they said no. It's been a roller-coaster ride with them since then, which I can't really share the details of publicly.

This December we are planning to host a young lady from Ukraine. She is too old to be adopted, but we hope to be her long-distance family and be there for her as much as we can for as long as we can. Yup! We make long-term commitments with every child that walks through our doors -- just not always on paper.


So, this is where my crazy life is as of this moment. We're still walking by faith and not by sight! Still trusting that God knows what He's doing, even when everything to us looks so upside down. Still believing that God is good, even when everything seems so wrong!!!

Wanted!

Grinning from ear to ear, he gripped the boldly marked welcome sign. “KOLYA!” it read it large, bold letters. Surrounding him in the photo was his host family, also grinning broadly. My eyes welled with tears. Too old to be adopted, Kolya wanted desperately to be a part of a family this summer. But not just any family. Kolya recently accepted Jesus Christ as his Savior. He wanted to be a part of a Christian family, even if it was just a visit, so he could learn and experience the joy of living with Christ in the home.

I had prayed and advocated so hard for this young man. I would even wake up at night and plead with God to find someone to take Kolya. I took his picture to church and told his story. And then God gave me a special gift. On my birthday, I logged on to the New Horizons’ website and discovered that Kolya had been hosted. God surprised me with the perfect birthday gift.

Wiping my eyes I skimmed to the next picture in the line-up of recent New Horizons' hosted kids arriving in America and my heart jumped when I recognized another green-shirted boy as one I had prayed for before the winter hosting program. “Praise God!” I smiled as tears slipped down my cheeks. This young man was ready to age out of his orphanage. Obviously a favorite, his orphanage director begged New Horizons to find him a forever family. At 15, he finally had a family to call his own.

I flipped through the other photos of smiling families holding large welcome signs and a thought began to form in my mind. These children live the most special part of their lives on the edge of society – not included, not remembered, not wanted. Suddenly, they arrive in a new country and are met with the sounds of people shouting their names and clapping. Host parents, who have sacrificed and prayed, strain to catch a glimpse of “their” child. Cameras flash and welcome signs are hoisted high so children can see their own names written in big, bold letters with the word “WELCOME” next to it. After living so long on the sidelines of society, they are suddenly wanted! How must that make them feel?!

My imagination carried me off to a distant place in time where another grand welcoming reception would be played out. I thought of Jesus, who has sacrificed and prayed for each of one of His redeemed, placing a crown on my head, looking lovingly into my eyes, and saying, “Welcome home, my child! You are wanted here.”

Yes, indeed! Adoption is a very real example of salvation.

New Horizons for Children will be having their next hosting session in December. You can find more information here.

When I Grow Up, I Want to be a Mommy!

Happy Mother's Day to all the wonderful mothers out there.

This is for YOU!

Thank you for all you do!


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TO ALL THE MOM'S