Oh boy have we been waiting to announce this great news! On Friday, November 16th, 2007 we received "the call" from Rachel at Acres of Hope. Ellie answered the phone and knew right away who it was. I was upstairs cleaning the toilet and completely caught off guard. Not expecting it...not even daring to hope anymore. I had shared the night before at a mom's meeting that I wasn't even sure the paperwork had actually been turned in and I was trying to make peace in my heart with that thought.
So what a surprise it was! I know God loves to surprise His children like that. Not with a stone but with something beautiful...something we hardly dare hope and pray for. I feel 10 lbs lighter! Giddy almost. We're having triplets! :)
Now for the kicker...we're still PRAYING and EXPECTING and KNOWING that God can work it out to have us travel to pick them up before the end of the year. Humanly it is absolutely impossible--all three passports have to be applied for and received (Liberia side) visa appointments and interviews need to be set up...and the kids need to be approved by the Consular to get their Visas. Many times they won't get done together so there's a wait. Or they might need more info...or a roadblock might come up. In fact we can't even presume they are "ours" until we're flying in that big plane home. So many, many details out of our control. But God is bigger than red tape...He is in control of it all. He has His plan and it will be perfect whether we travel this year or next year...or they don't come home at all. (I dare not even go there in my thinking)
But will I praise Him if this all falls apart? Will I praise Him no matter what? Do I believe He is sovereign in ALL things...the good and bad? The blessing and trials? I have to. He's God..and well, I'm not.
We are praising Him for this news that has encouraged our hearts!
Sunday, November 18, 2007
Monday, November 12, 2007
What does Jesus look like?
Well...today Jesus looked like my friend taking all five kids for the whole day AND night so I could have time just to "be".
He also looked like my friend who skipped staying home to get things done to meet me for a 2 hours plus lunch where we talked, laughed and discussed the frivilous to the spiritual. She had stashed away in her purse for me Sara Groves new CD (she and Sara are tight!) We've even met Sara...no kidding...have a picture to prove it :)
She's my "gift giving" friend who loves to LAVISH others with her kindness and love by suprising them with something they'd never buy for themselves....like the $25 dollar candle she bought for me on Mother's Day. I love it and had it lit tonight.
Tonight Jesus is silence...and the little dog that pads behind me reminding me how much he misses the kids.
He's my husband who called to say "hi"...and that he made it safely to Omaha on his business trip.
He's in the color of the sky when the sun was setting tonight.
He's everywhere. I just have to be looking for Him.
He also looked like my friend who skipped staying home to get things done to meet me for a 2 hours plus lunch where we talked, laughed and discussed the frivilous to the spiritual. She had stashed away in her purse for me Sara Groves new CD (she and Sara are tight!) We've even met Sara...no kidding...have a picture to prove it :)
She's my "gift giving" friend who loves to LAVISH others with her kindness and love by suprising them with something they'd never buy for themselves....like the $25 dollar candle she bought for me on Mother's Day. I love it and had it lit tonight.
Tonight Jesus is silence...and the little dog that pads behind me reminding me how much he misses the kids.
He's my husband who called to say "hi"...and that he made it safely to Omaha on his business trip.
He's in the color of the sky when the sun was setting tonight.
He's everywhere. I just have to be looking for Him.
Friday, November 9, 2007
Gentle Ways...
I am amazed and usually humored in the way God tries speaking to me. It takes me several times of hearing a verse over and over...or a friend mentioning the same verse in conversation...or reading it myself to see "ahh...this must be for me, huh God?"
I am floored that he takes the time to do this...to speak just to me in song or words or people. To care about what I'm dealing with. That Lavish Love!
Some thoughts from Him to me this week: His mercies are new every morning!
I do not need to be stuck in the past or even yesterday. He makes each day new...and gives strength to the weary. He gives wisdom without finding fault....and will give GENEROUSLY to anyone who asks!
And this is the funny one....a telephone caller from Mitt Romney's campaign called yesterday...right when I was going to take a nap. I had told the kids NOT to bring me the phone if anyone called...but Chloe either didn't hear or didn't obey. This lady was SO sweet. I'm not sure what made me take her "poll"...which was one question. But then she went on to praise my 6 yr old for the way she answered the phone and then went on and on about how good homeschooling is.....I told her thanks I needed to hear that and about did the ugly cry on the phone with her! A message from God through a campaign caller! :)
I have some pretty special friends who are Jesus' hands and feet. Thank you.
Gifts:
6. my 3yr old telling me "mom, you're BOO-TIFUL!
7. the same 3 yr old sitting as CLOSE to me as he can when I'm reading to him
8. my 8yr old son being concerned about how I'm feeling that day
9. my 12 yr old being THRILLED with her hair-cut! (and thanking me)
10. hearing the girls sing spontaneously together-trying to harmonize
I am floored that he takes the time to do this...to speak just to me in song or words or people. To care about what I'm dealing with. That Lavish Love!
Some thoughts from Him to me this week: His mercies are new every morning!
I do not need to be stuck in the past or even yesterday. He makes each day new...and gives strength to the weary. He gives wisdom without finding fault....and will give GENEROUSLY to anyone who asks!
And this is the funny one....a telephone caller from Mitt Romney's campaign called yesterday...right when I was going to take a nap. I had told the kids NOT to bring me the phone if anyone called...but Chloe either didn't hear or didn't obey. This lady was SO sweet. I'm not sure what made me take her "poll"...which was one question. But then she went on to praise my 6 yr old for the way she answered the phone and then went on and on about how good homeschooling is.....I told her thanks I needed to hear that and about did the ugly cry on the phone with her! A message from God through a campaign caller! :)
I have some pretty special friends who are Jesus' hands and feet. Thank you.
Gifts:
6. my 3yr old telling me "mom, you're BOO-TIFUL!
7. the same 3 yr old sitting as CLOSE to me as he can when I'm reading to him
8. my 8yr old son being concerned about how I'm feeling that day
9. my 12 yr old being THRILLED with her hair-cut! (and thanking me)
10. hearing the girls sing spontaneously together-trying to harmonize
Sunday, November 4, 2007
Gifts from the Giver....
I have SO enjoyed reading a blog by Ann called Holy Experience (holyexperience.blogspot.com) and have been encouraged to start my own list of 1,000 gifts I'm thankful for.
I'm not going back...I am starting in the present and will try jotting them down every fews days and maybe figuring out how to keep them in their own little file so I can go back frequently and be reminded of each simple blessing.
I love what Ann says: My list is different than another's for a reason: God has made me uniquely me. The Gift List is about gratitude... but it is more. It is about what defines me and my own personal identity. I am thankful for the things on it, yes, but I am also thankful that He has given the gift of me; that God made me who I am and I am one who sees and experiences the world in a way uniquely her own. The Thousand Gifts list is about the gifts Abba gives this child every day... and, ultimately, about the very gift of self, life as I know it.
I am seeing things I have never seen before, atuned and aware of this constant, endless stream of gifts from His hand. I am one waking from slumber....from the stupor of indifference and ignorance. I have sight, fresh and keen---the world is new and full of His gifts.
Too often I miss Him, oblivious, blind. I don't see all the good things that He is giving me, gracing me with, brushing my life with. True, He is everywhere, always. But maybe, before The Gift List, I thought of Him as further off, not so close. When I started to see all the things that I love bestowed upon me, I started to see Him as near, present, everywhere, showering me with good things. Seeing the things I love all around me gives me eyes to see that I am loved, that He loves me.
George MacDonald wrote, "No gift unrecognized as coming from God is at its own best...when in all gifts we find Him, then in Him we shall find all things."
It is the season of lists. Care to begin a list of a Thousand Gifts? You'll find Him in all things---the very best gift of all.
Father, You are the Giver of all Good Gifts. They are everywhere. I can hardly jot them down fast enough. How You love!
(doesn't she have such a way with words???)
Not my gift :)
So.......here's to the beginning.
1. an amazing golden sunset--My favorite part of the day is just before dusk.
I always want to call up my dear friends John and Jody and share the beauty of it with them. They are an amazing couple...a story for another time (which leads to..)
2. John and Jody-they show love, love, love like no one but Jesus himself!
3. my hardworking farmer/husband who has spent the afternoon cutting wood up to keep us warm this winter
4. freshly baked brownies from the oven...and a little 3 yr old who messes with the timer telling me "they're done!" before they are ready :) It's ok, I like gooey brownies!
5. watching the girls ride or work with our ponies Joe-Joe and Lucy (I love the way horses smell!)
I'm not going back...I am starting in the present and will try jotting them down every fews days and maybe figuring out how to keep them in their own little file so I can go back frequently and be reminded of each simple blessing.
I love what Ann says: My list is different than another's for a reason: God has made me uniquely me. The Gift List is about gratitude... but it is more. It is about what defines me and my own personal identity. I am thankful for the things on it, yes, but I am also thankful that He has given the gift of me; that God made me who I am and I am one who sees and experiences the world in a way uniquely her own. The Thousand Gifts list is about the gifts Abba gives this child every day... and, ultimately, about the very gift of self, life as I know it.
I am seeing things I have never seen before, atuned and aware of this constant, endless stream of gifts from His hand. I am one waking from slumber....from the stupor of indifference and ignorance. I have sight, fresh and keen---the world is new and full of His gifts.
Too often I miss Him, oblivious, blind. I don't see all the good things that He is giving me, gracing me with, brushing my life with. True, He is everywhere, always. But maybe, before The Gift List, I thought of Him as further off, not so close. When I started to see all the things that I love bestowed upon me, I started to see Him as near, present, everywhere, showering me with good things. Seeing the things I love all around me gives me eyes to see that I am loved, that He loves me.
George MacDonald wrote, "No gift unrecognized as coming from God is at its own best...when in all gifts we find Him, then in Him we shall find all things."
It is the season of lists. Care to begin a list of a Thousand Gifts? You'll find Him in all things---the very best gift of all.
Father, You are the Giver of all Good Gifts. They are everywhere. I can hardly jot them down fast enough. How You love!
(doesn't she have such a way with words???)
Not my gift :)
So.......here's to the beginning.
1. an amazing golden sunset--My favorite part of the day is just before dusk.
I always want to call up my dear friends John and Jody and share the beauty of it with them. They are an amazing couple...a story for another time (which leads to..)
2. John and Jody-they show love, love, love like no one but Jesus himself!
3. my hardworking farmer/husband who has spent the afternoon cutting wood up to keep us warm this winter
4. freshly baked brownies from the oven...and a little 3 yr old who messes with the timer telling me "they're done!" before they are ready :) It's ok, I like gooey brownies!
5. watching the girls ride or work with our ponies Joe-Joe and Lucy (I love the way horses smell!)
Friday, November 2, 2007
Another One Down....
So another week has gone by...another month gone by. I think in the "adoption waiting world" Fridays with no news are called Black Fridays.
We were told the kids would be in the October finalization group. Obviously, it didn't happen. So we're into November. And I'll keep checking e-mails and waiting for a phone call.
When it does finally happen I'll probably say "Rachel WHO?" (she and her husband are the new AOH people in charge of all the adoption "stuff" in the U.S.) They are newly adoptive parents as well (VERY newly) so I know they know what all this waiting feels like.
I just read on someone's blog that adoption is much harder than pregnancy. I think I'm with them. There's no "due date"...no Dr appt to check how things are going...no movement...nothing but this thread of hope that maybe sometime we'll be actually flying to Liberia.
So again I just say...Lord I know it's not the right time. Your ways are perfect. You don't have to explaing anything to me...I can rest that you are in control of every little detail even across the Ocean (but please check to make sure our paperwork is not getting over looked?? :)
We were told the kids would be in the October finalization group. Obviously, it didn't happen. So we're into November. And I'll keep checking e-mails and waiting for a phone call.
When it does finally happen I'll probably say "Rachel WHO?" (she and her husband are the new AOH people in charge of all the adoption "stuff" in the U.S.) They are newly adoptive parents as well (VERY newly) so I know they know what all this waiting feels like.
I just read on someone's blog that adoption is much harder than pregnancy. I think I'm with them. There's no "due date"...no Dr appt to check how things are going...no movement...nothing but this thread of hope that maybe sometime we'll be actually flying to Liberia.
So again I just say...Lord I know it's not the right time. Your ways are perfect. You don't have to explaing anything to me...I can rest that you are in control of every little detail even across the Ocean (but please check to make sure our paperwork is not getting over looked?? :)
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