Psalm 5:1-3 "Give ear to my words, O Lord; consider my groaning. Give attention to the sound of my cry, my King and my God, for to you do I pray. O Lord, in the morning you hear my voice; in the morning I prepare a sacrifice for you and watch."
This in itself is my prayer! And my cry is for our child in Africa to be covered by God's grace, even if we are thousands of miles away physically from them. Not knowing what they look like, their age, anything about them can absolutely drive us crazy (and honestly sometimes it does), but then I remember that the Lord has said, "Before I formed you in the womb I knew you..." and He knows our child. He knew, before that child was even born, that they would be a part of our family in an incredible way. They are our child, even if we don't know them just yet, they are out there...somewhere in Malawi. And there isn't a day that goes by that we don't cry out to God for protection for them, for provision of food and shelter and I believe in my heart that He hears our cry "And my God shall supply every need...according to his riches in glory in Christ Jesus." We strive daily to instill in our children the need for prayer and to live according to God's will for their lives. And even at a young age, I believe Hannah and Noelle see that faith in us (even though, I know we fall short). We are not perfect parents, but we want to live a life that GLORIFIES GOD and shows our children how to live for a GREAT GOD!
So, we ask that you would pray with us that God would continue to open doors daily for our adoption. Here is a quick update on where we are today with our Malawi Adoption:
-3/4 of our paperwork is filled out for our Home study (it will all be completed by next Thursday)
-Thursday March 31st we have our 1st home visit for our Home study. This is a 3 hr long visit with our social worker in our home (paperwork, interviews with every family member, and viewing of interaction between us and Hannah and Noelle)
-Contact has been made on the ground in Malawi with both a IMB missionary couple and a Scripture Union Malawi worker, all of which have agreed to help us in all they can. The Scripture Union worker, Laura (who we guess is around my-Ashley's age) is wonderful. I spoke to her this morning and she told me that she knows the director of the Crisis Nursery and would love to be a part of our adoption (both in traveling to the orphanage and meeting with the children and directors for us to guiding us in other areas of our adoption from the Malawi stand point.)
-T-SHIRTS ARE COMING! A great designer friend of Trey's is working on a T-SHIRT to help us raise money for our adoption. We will post pictures and prices of the T-SHIRTS on the blog when they are completed. This will be a way that everyone can be a part of our adoption journey in a special way!
We know that with our adoption we're not able to share new information everyday (as the process is slow), but we thank you for keeping up with our family and this incredible journey! We will continue to keep you all posted!
Thursday, March 24, 2011
Friday, March 18, 2011
"FILLED WITH WONDER, AWESTRUCK WONDER
...AT THE MENTION OF YOUR NAME"
What does His name do for you? Does it fill you with wonder? I wonder at how MATICULOUS God is in His perfect plan for our lives. First, let me begin by saying that I serve an AWESOME and WONDERFUL Savior, who has called us to expand our family through adoption. This blog, up to this point, has been the journey of our adoption to Ethiopia. Due to the events from the past couple of weeks, which I will share, we have a new direction in which God has taken us....here are the events that have led us to this point:
Sunday March 6th- Bro. David (a local pastor) came to our church and spoke on his recent trip to Malawi, Africa, where his church had drilled a well. I was unable to be there that evening because our two little ones were sick, but Trey came home and told me all about Bro. David's trip, the work in Malawi, and the living conditions for Malawi children and their families (if indeed they had families). The high % rate of death in Malawi due to the AIDS epidemic leaves thousands of children orphaned. When Trey told me all of this, I immediately felt a feeling I had never felt before. I can't explain it, but all I said to Trey was, "This is our country, I don't know why I feel that way but it is." That night I was up to, well 3 am Monday morning doing research on adoption to Malawi. There were no adoption agencies that worked in Malawi, I couldn't find any blogs on families that had adopted any children from there, and I was getting no where. But still I felt like it was the right thing, that this was something God was showing me-showing us.
Monday March 7th to Now- Everything that I couldn't find I have. There may still be no agencies that work with Malawi adoption, but we are working hard on our end to do everything the agency would normally do. God has also put people in our paths to help with other aspects of the adoption including: the Malawi Embassy in Washington, D.C., our Malawi lawyer, and now our new found IMB missionary friends who are our liaisons in Malawi. Our home study process has begun, including all of the tedious paperwork (which we have almost fully completed) and our home visits (first of which is Thurs. March 31st-please be in prayer for us).
MALAWI! A country we knew almost nothing about or had never even considered for adoption, up until 2 weeks ago. While God was opening the door to Malawi, he was closing the door to Ethiopia (as Ethiopian adoption has slowed down due to some inter-country adoption changes). So, here we are in the midst of God's awesome plan for our family's life and we are so excited about what is in store. As we wait for the child God has already hand picked for us, to be identified by our new friends and contacts in Malawi, we continue to pray for patience and continual direction
Please continue to journey with us...to MALAWI!
What does His name do for you? Does it fill you with wonder? I wonder at how MATICULOUS God is in His perfect plan for our lives. First, let me begin by saying that I serve an AWESOME and WONDERFUL Savior, who has called us to expand our family through adoption. This blog, up to this point, has been the journey of our adoption to Ethiopia. Due to the events from the past couple of weeks, which I will share, we have a new direction in which God has taken us....here are the events that have led us to this point:
Sunday March 6th- Bro. David (a local pastor) came to our church and spoke on his recent trip to Malawi, Africa, where his church had drilled a well. I was unable to be there that evening because our two little ones were sick, but Trey came home and told me all about Bro. David's trip, the work in Malawi, and the living conditions for Malawi children and their families (if indeed they had families). The high % rate of death in Malawi due to the AIDS epidemic leaves thousands of children orphaned. When Trey told me all of this, I immediately felt a feeling I had never felt before. I can't explain it, but all I said to Trey was, "This is our country, I don't know why I feel that way but it is." That night I was up to, well 3 am Monday morning doing research on adoption to Malawi. There were no adoption agencies that worked in Malawi, I couldn't find any blogs on families that had adopted any children from there, and I was getting no where. But still I felt like it was the right thing, that this was something God was showing me-showing us.
Monday March 7th to Now- Everything that I couldn't find I have. There may still be no agencies that work with Malawi adoption, but we are working hard on our end to do everything the agency would normally do. God has also put people in our paths to help with other aspects of the adoption including: the Malawi Embassy in Washington, D.C., our Malawi lawyer, and now our new found IMB missionary friends who are our liaisons in Malawi. Our home study process has begun, including all of the tedious paperwork (which we have almost fully completed) and our home visits (first of which is Thurs. March 31st-please be in prayer for us).
MALAWI! A country we knew almost nothing about or had never even considered for adoption, up until 2 weeks ago. While God was opening the door to Malawi, he was closing the door to Ethiopia (as Ethiopian adoption has slowed down due to some inter-country adoption changes). So, here we are in the midst of God's awesome plan for our family's life and we are so excited about what is in store. As we wait for the child God has already hand picked for us, to be identified by our new friends and contacts in Malawi, we continue to pray for patience and continual direction
Please continue to journey with us...to MALAWI!
Wednesday, March 2, 2011
"I Will Follow"
Where you go, I'll go
Where you stay, I'll stay
When you move, I'll move
I will follow...
All your ways are good
All your ways are sure
I will trust in you alone
Higher than my side
High above my life
I will trust in you alone
-Chris Tomlin "I Will Follow"
It has been awhile since our last post, but God has worked in our lives tremendously over the past 2 months and the time away was time well spent in prayer. God paused our adoption process to reveal, yet another step forward in our call to missions. As many of you might know, Trey and I have felt called to International Missions (Africa) for a very long time. God has instilled in us a desire to build and run an orphanage in Kenya in the near future. We haven't left yet, only because God has things in store for us here and now (right now). We are anxious to be in Kenya, but we are more excited to always be in God's will! His will for our lives today is for us to move to New Orleans for Trey to finish his schooling at Seminary and to continue and finish our Ethiopian Adoption. Sometimes it's hard to wait on God to reveal things to us; and to be honest, when we felt God calling us to put our adoption on hold, it was very hard for us to imagine our child sitting and waiting for us to bring him/her home. There were many tears shed, but at the same time God used that time to focus our attention on another part of His unique plan for our lives...Seminary! We are excited to have a wonderful opportunity for Trey to finish his degree while still in the states and excited for the opportunities to minister to many people in New Orleans, La. It was after the surrender to the call to move and leave our comfort zone here in Amite, La that God began to bring us back to the adoption process. "Woo-hoo" is all I felt inside! We are now on His track, once again, and even more in love with our Savior Jesus Christ. It's so neat to look back and see what situations God used to reveal His plan for our lives, to us. So, as we continue in our adoption process we daily seek His will for our lives, our family's lives, our future children's lives, and our current and future ministries!
Where you stay, I'll stay
When you move, I'll move
I will follow...
All your ways are good
All your ways are sure
I will trust in you alone
Higher than my side
High above my life
I will trust in you alone
-Chris Tomlin "I Will Follow"
It has been awhile since our last post, but God has worked in our lives tremendously over the past 2 months and the time away was time well spent in prayer. God paused our adoption process to reveal, yet another step forward in our call to missions. As many of you might know, Trey and I have felt called to International Missions (Africa) for a very long time. God has instilled in us a desire to build and run an orphanage in Kenya in the near future. We haven't left yet, only because God has things in store for us here and now (right now). We are anxious to be in Kenya, but we are more excited to always be in God's will! His will for our lives today is for us to move to New Orleans for Trey to finish his schooling at Seminary and to continue and finish our Ethiopian Adoption. Sometimes it's hard to wait on God to reveal things to us; and to be honest, when we felt God calling us to put our adoption on hold, it was very hard for us to imagine our child sitting and waiting for us to bring him/her home. There were many tears shed, but at the same time God used that time to focus our attention on another part of His unique plan for our lives...Seminary! We are excited to have a wonderful opportunity for Trey to finish his degree while still in the states and excited for the opportunities to minister to many people in New Orleans, La. It was after the surrender to the call to move and leave our comfort zone here in Amite, La that God began to bring us back to the adoption process. "Woo-hoo" is all I felt inside! We are now on His track, once again, and even more in love with our Savior Jesus Christ. It's so neat to look back and see what situations God used to reveal His plan for our lives, to us. So, as we continue in our adoption process we daily seek His will for our lives, our family's lives, our future children's lives, and our current and future ministries!
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