The Concept of the Unexpected

Although statistics would say we have a 12 month wait to match and aboat 15 months to hold our child in our arms we are claiming for quicker and thinking 2009. We could be wrong, what if we are, what if we missed God? Oh the pride in looking foolish, but then I realized this during a corporate prayer when I felt God was ministering to my very soul...."would you rather miss me stepping into me or shreaking back. When will you trust me? So much I have for you yet you shrink back. I challenge you to trust me and not any person. Take your eyes off those to your right and yoru left. Listen to me. If I don't speak be still and wait. You will hear, you already have you just don't trust it!" Oh Lord forgive my unbelief. I want to trust you. Join me please as there is strength in numbers. Deuteronomy 33;20 says "one can put a thousand to flight, two can put ten thousand" 10x the power by 2 joining in prayer what more can we do joining all of us together. Warfare and worship are powerful weapons for us in this journey.

Then another friend says to me this week that she felt the Lord saying it doesn't matter what it looks like in the physical because the Lord has let you know what he's doing and that is happening. Oh my goodness she had no clue my struggle. I am feeling 2009 but statistics say 2010 this makes no sense, but has any of this? ha! She said I was to speak truth.

Then my devotion today "the concept of the unexpected" - God employs it all the time! It said God will wait til the very last second when the people who are going to lose hope have lost it and the people who haven't are holding on with their last strength, and then, in completely amazing ways he will step in and ave the day and the climax wil lbe perfect. Afterwared, his people are left with nothing but head over heels exhuberant radical love and praise for Him, as we ll as a small, subtle thought in the back of their minds: Why Didn't We Trust Him More?

Seeing with the Eyes of an Eagle

Well the shift has occured and it looks very different than we ever imagined. We have decided to transition to the waiting child program (special needs). I would never have imagined this if you would have ever asked me but again this isn't our plan right. Kelly had been feeling for the past year that maybe we were to consider but I had not been opened. Well guess what over lunch the day after Thanksgiving at PF Changs lettuce wraps and lemon pepper shrimp, Kelly brought it up again. She said have you at least prayed about it. I said "no". Wow that was powerful - and sounded awful, so I committed to pray right then as I drifted away for a few moments at relunctantly but sensiourly began to pray and tell God to show if this was his will I wanted what he wanted and if not what I could bear to change my heart. He spoke almost before the words left my lips and so directly to my heart I began crying right there at the table. He must have just been waiting for me to surrender my will completly. Now we had to get our husbands on board. Well that was easy, believe it or not. The Lord I felt had said "give her eyes so she can see" though feel like that might be spiritually. As I shared with Guy he had just come off a weekend retreat and that said that is a song they song all weekend "give me eyes so I can see". We played the song and God united our hearts...and there we began the next leg in our journey.

I flipped my calendar over to December and the scripture and picture was of the eagle...and yes my favorite scripture...Psalm 91:4 "He shall cover you with his feathers and under his wings you shalt find trust" The eagle has the best seat in the house and he soars high above and can see things from a different perspective, our prayer is we can see with the eyes of eagle through this journey.

So our medical checklist was completed and logged in to CCAI on 12/4/08. The next leg of our journey begins. We are now completing our homestudy and hope to have it approved and our immigration paper submitted by end of next week. Will keep you posted.

Cool Confirmations as A Shfit Begins to Occur in the Process..

Back in September as we hit our 2 year mark since the start of this process I began to get more of more from the Lord on Grace. A friend told me to worship - God's mnisters have been sent to aid in a speedy delivery and Grace would be delivered on time that we were not to give into the process. Hold firm and tight to our promises...I am to be like Hannah and to persevere. As I worshiped the process would speed up.

Then a couple weeks later in September a prophet came and spoke at our church. At the end he felt the Lord giving him a word for a few people. I had never met this man before, he was here for California. He came up to me and spoke several things and at the end I broke he said "Where the light has been red it is turning green. He says I am putting you on the starting line and saying baby go. No longer look at it from afar. But I will cause the nations to hunger for the very love that is in you. You have had a desire in you since you were a child to travel the world. You have a missionary understanding that you would go to the nations and teach a generation. I see Africa (he had no clue I had just come back from my first mission trip and it was to South Africa in June and I fell in love with them) and I see parts of China (oh my gosh I about fell over as I began to weep) crying out for you. I see the land of the red clay and God says of daughter of Zion I have annoited you for this purpose and you will fulfill it. You shall see the promises I have for you to a generation bringing and proclaiming life. The Lord says I ain't forgotten what I spoke to you as a child. You will got to the nations and bring forth life!!!!!!!!!!!!

Okay does that give you chills or what, that is just how personal and intimate a God we serve. He loves us so much he continues to encourage us with his truth and he loves Grace this much!

Then I was doing my devotion a week later in a book I was reading "The Deborah Company" it said praise brings breakthrough...a breaking annoiting is just what we needed for Grace and Lily! So Kelly and I began to praise! And we encouraged our husbands to do the same. There is a battle in order to attain a victory so we set our minds to battle for our girls!!!!!!!!!!!!

But at midnight Paul and Silas were praying and singing hymns to God and the prisoners were listening to them. Suddenly there was a great earthquake, so that teh foundations of the prison were shaken; and immediately all the doors were opened and everyones chains were loosed...Acts 16:25-26

This was symbolic. Kelly and I were just like Paul and Silas and as we prayed and worshiped the chains would fall off our girls and the other children. You see a breaker annoting doesn't just receive the answer for her own personal needs, but receives a breakthrough that opens the way for others to receive as well.

So you say, wow! Well it gets better...so then Kelly and I went to church the next night, and what song was playing when we walked in "Amazing Grace, My Chains Are Gone" Well you can imainge we were toast!

Oh We Went...

So off we went from September 2006-March 2007 was what seemed to be a never ending paperwork trail. We got all the papers together for our dossier, all notorized, certified and authenticated. We expedited everything! We were so eager, so excited. What was a gruesome process was made exciting and fun as my best friend, my sister Kelly and I ventured this together. With two trips to Raleigh and of course two trips to PF Changs while we were there, our favorite place to eat we shared our dreams of our girls over lettuce wraps and lemon pepper shrimp and this still stands out as a high of this journey. We were on our way to making it offical and on 3/20/07 we received our log in date. Now the waiting began. This has be a hard part of the joureny. The wait time continued to increase. We monitored the matches of children every Wednesday on CCAI's site. It was so slow. All of sudden our daughter seemed so out of reach. Oh God, we cried out your timing is not our timing and again your ways not our ways, but oh Lord show us your plan here. We felt so helpless. But through it all we continued to journal every month in our daughter's journal as God never ever stopped speaking and showing us to stand firm, that he does not ever change his call. Just because storms come does not mean the call has changed it is just a reminder that sometimes we need an umbrella, a reminder of who our covering is in, but never ever does God change his mind. The extended waits might be discouraging to us, but they did not surprise God. So we continued to press in and pray for our daughter and God's plan. As did our family and our friends which have been incredible support.

How We Got Started?

It was dream of mine for a while to adopt a little girl from China, yet I wasn't sure if it was a selfish longing or a dream God put in my heart. I felt very blessed. Guy and I had 4 children. 4 BOYS and the world would say that is ENOUGH so I surpressed this desire. Yet it continued to grow despite the fact that we were getting older, our boys were getting older and it didn't fit into my plan. You all know I am a planner. Ok Lord, I said this was not how I planned it! I am sure He just laughs at me - exactly He must say. I think He might actually enjoy me having to let go of what I think makes sense and realize his ways are not my ways they are BETTER! So I said okay Lord you are going to have to make a way because at the time Guy would not even entertain the thought after all it really made no sense in the natural.

So what next, my sister, Kelly, and I were talking and got on this subject and what we discovered was the Lord had put this on her heart too for a while and like me she surpressed it and Fred, her husband, was not seeing it in their future either. We wondered what this was all about, what God was doing? So we sat at one of Christian's baseball games one afternoon and Kelly said, I release Fred to you Lord because if it is your will you can show him I can't. How simple huh? But profound! So....

The next day at church during worship God spoke to both Guy and Fred about our girls! About our call and they were overwhelmed. God worked fast! All of a sudden it was their idea and they believed without a doubt that God had called them to this. I can still remember standing in the laundry in complete shock after church my hands shaking, saying Guy are you sure? I couldn't believe it was really happening. It had been a dream for so long, but after all the Lord says he wants to give us the desires of our heart right? I still remember Guy (who had really been concerend about his age with this) saying if Abraham can do it so can I? God has called us to this and I can not say no to God. That day began this Journey to Grace...