Happy Easter!

Happy Easter weekend!!! This weekend I'm just trying to focus on God's faithfulness. He is the only truth. He is the only thing I can put my trust in. I really struggle in doubting His goodness and find myself constantly trying to "make things happen" for myself. It seems that most of my life I have been able to work hard and achieve what I want to achieve. Recently I have found that there are a lot of things in my life that I really have no control over and really don't have the answers to.  I know God has me here to strip me of my self-reliance.  I'm not in control and I don't know what's best. For example and to be completely honest, I have been like a ship tossing in the ocean over the fact that we are adopting from Ethiopia with all of the slowdowns and uncertainties in this program.  When I hear of families switching programs because of the extreme slowdown in the Ethiopia program, my desire is to join them and switch countries to avoid the wait and uncertainty. Thankfully, my husband has continued to remind me of God's specific call to adopt from Ethiopia. I know he wants us there. I'm just scared to be honest. I'm scared that in 2 years we will still have no idea when our children will be home. While adoption is moving quickly in these new countries and orphans are joining their forever families, I can so easily talk myself out of the fact that God wants Paul and I to stay in the Ethiopia program. So here I am, praying for God to give me the grace to trust Him. I know He's good. Thank you Lord for a husband who is unwavering in you and reminds me of what you desire from me..trust in you.

On a different note, I never posted that the dollar offering ended up being around $950!! AND two of our best friends (Kelly and Andy Huddleston) have offered to support our adoption by donating 10% of sales from their "Kohlston Designs Home Show" to bringing our children home. To check out their awesome hand-made picture frames you can go here:

www.kohlstondesigns.com

The show is this Thurs. April 12 from 1-7 PM 
at 7505 Lawford Road Knoville, TN 37919
Come by and check it out. We'd love to see ya!


Currently in the process, we are waiting to receive our approval from USCIS and our fingerprinting date.  We have to get fingerprinted in Atlanta and then everything on this side of the adoption process is complete...which means we will just be waiting on Ethiopia to clear the paperwork and send us a referral for our children. We could use a lot of prayer during that time. =)


Happy Easter! Praise God for his faithfulness!

"We know that our old self was crucified with him in order that the body of sin might be brought to nothing, so that we would no longer be enslaved to sin." Romans 6:6
 

February updates

So much exciting news to share!!  This past Saturday, Paul and I met with our social worker for the last time which completes our Home-study visits! She said it will take about a week to write up our Home-study and send it to us.  After that, we can send our paperwork into USCIS and get fingerprinted. Next step....sending our Dossier to Ethiopia!! We're so close =) Also, Dr. Russell (the pastor from our church growing up) interviewed us at church and showed a part of our video.  He challenged the church body to support us in this call on our hearts.  The church responded..REALLY responded.  We sold over 50 shirts (which raised around $1,100) and they took up a dollar offering for us. He haven't heard how much the offering was yet, but we will this week.  God is good.  God is going to literally carry us through this process. Now my prayer is that we don't wish away this time of waiting.  God wants us to serve him and love him now.  Even though I wish we could hurry this waiting up and bring the children home, I do not want to miss the NOW. Love you friends!

A life worth living

As a part of our adoption, Paul and I are required to do on-line training and read certain books that go into detail about possible medical/social/emotional issues that adopted children may come with.  As I read about all these issues that children who have been in orphanages sometimes face, I have found myself worrying alot. "What will they be like? Will they be healthy? Will they be unable to love because they have been through so much and can't trust anyone?" I know this worrying is a result of unbelief in my heart.  I know God is whispering in his small voice, "trust me". This brings me to my point and what God is so graciously teaching me.  God has not called me to a life of ease and comfort.  God has not called me to the "American Dream".  God has called me to live for His glory.  Jesus tells us to love God first and our neighbor second.  Honestly, nothing in this life is supposed to be about me. Why is this soooo hard? Everything in me wants this life to be about me.  Everything in me wants a comfortable, easy life.  Thankfully, JESUS in me reminds me that the only life worth living consists of dying to myself and my desires and living for Christ.  Loving and following Christ is my only hope for a life worth living. This is where God wants Paul and me.  He never promised following Him would be easy. He did promise it would be worth it, and He will shower us with his grace even in the midst of our unbelief. 

"If anyone would come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross and follow me.  For whoever wants to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for me will find it." Matthew 16:24-25

December Updates

As of 2 weeks ago, I am officially a licensed K-6 teacher and looking for a teaching job.  In the mean time, I will be taking full advantage of my free days by completing all of our paperwork to send to Ethiopia ASAP!  Since my last posting, we have continued to receive tremendous support, sell more t-shirts, and fill out more papers.  We also met with our social worker for the first time to begin our home study.  We will meet with her 3 more times and continue collecting documents to add to our dossier (what we actually send to Ethiopia) throughout the next couple of months.  Our goal is to have all of the paperwork finished and sent off by April.  It's crazy to think that our children may already be alive and waiting for us to bring them home.  The thought drives me to keep on when the paperwork becomes overwhelming.  Our friend Evan also created a video to capture God's calling in our hearts to adopt from Ethiopia.  He did a great job! We are so excited to share it with you.  Thank you friends and family for your TREMENDOUS support. 

He always provides.

God provided $10,000 for our adoption!!!  An extremely generous couple followed the Lord's call to help us by donating this crazy amount of money. Needless to say, Paul and I have no words for this act of kindness.  All we can do is praise Jesus that He is constantly showing us mercy and moving in our lives. WHAT A BLESSING!!! We have also set up our first home study visit for Dec. 7th and are beginning to gather documents for our Dossier. I'm very happy that school will be over in 2 weeks and I will be able to focus my attention on getting some of this paperwork going. More to come when school ends! =)

Step One.. Success..Thank you Jesus.

Last week Paul and I got possibly the most exciting phone call we've EVER received...America World accepted us into their Ethiopia program. We are OFFICIALLY in this process.  The best part was that when they received our application, they e-mailed us to let us know that everything looked great and they had NO follow up questions. This might not sound like a big deal, but let me explain.  I'm sure our application was far from ideal. After all, we really have no clue how we will pay for this and can't prove that we WILL be able to pay for it. Therefore, I was a little nervous that a follow-up question might be "Really....How do you plan on paying for this?" No follow-up questions?  That was from God. All I can tell you is God brought us here and He will provide for us.  It makes no logical sense, but we trust Him. So the next step is to fill out some more papers for the agency and wait for a family coordinator to call us and explain the dossier process (which is a 4-6 month process usually). We are currently waiting on that call. YIPEEE! Also, I have posted information about where we are in our fundraising.  I am listing all of the expenses we will have and how much money we have raised for each expense.  Thank you again for your prayers and generosity.  We are so thankful!

The First Step!!!

We turned in our application to America World this week!!! Even though this is the very first step in a LONG process, we were so excited to even get to start this journey that God has called us to. Paul's birthday was Thursday, so we sent our application on Wednesday since by the time they got it he would be 25, and we would be allowed to start the process of bringing our child or children home!! YAYYY!! God has been preparing my heart for a long road with many ups and downs. I know that this is often one of the most trying times in couples' lives who adopt, but at the end when we meet our children for the first time, it will all make sense. For those of who who don't know, Ethiopian adoption is a little shaky right now. There has been a big slow-down of children being referred to families', rumors of families who have accepted referrals of children being taken away from them, etc. With all of this in the news, of course I am terrified. However, God has assured Paul and me that He will carry us through this process, and this is exactly where we are supposed to be right now. Am I positive that Ethiopia won't close down adoption completely? Unfortunately, no. I DO know that whatever happens, God is in control of, and He will continue to lead us where He will get the most glory. Friends, that might sound like I have it all together, but believe me I don't, and I will need your encouragement and reminders that He will work this all out for our good and for His glory. That would be much appreciated..especially when we get further along in this process. =) So, we should hear back from the agency in the next week or so to see if we have been accepted into the Ethiopia program. Please be praying for our acceptance! On another note, God has completely blessed our t-shirt fundraiser! We have sold/set aside almost all of the first shipment (all XL's left over for some reason). We are waiting on our second order of t-shirts to come. Hopefully they will be here this week! If you would like a t-shirt, let me know! Paul and I continue to thank God for working in His children's hearts. We have had many people just send checks in the mail to go towards our adoption. This blows me away. I love watching people who have abandoned their heart to the Lord and His will and let Him lead them to places that our world can't understand. It doesn't make sense to send a $500 check when you make close to no money...it doesn't make sense to give money to a couple you hardly know..and it doesn't make sense to send money to someone else when you have your own family to worry about. In God's kingdom however, it makes perfect sense. God is generous. He showed us His generosity by sending His son to take our place and become a sacrifice so that we can have a relationship with the Father. Thank you generous friends for following His lead. We appreciate you so much!