A Great Link We Should All Read!

The day I first read this article I also saw some videos of starving children in Africa. I had a broken heart day for the hungry children of the world. God let my heart break and I cried as visions of tiny little hungry bodies filled my head. I just wanted to pray that God would send down food for each of them so they would never be without. Sometimes I feel so sad that my garage is a bigger and better shelter than many people's homes. As I sit here and type this my 1 1/2 year old daughter is looking out the window saying "Big houses...big windows" how right she is, we are blessed. I'm grateful for our opportunity to help give at least one child a home where he will never no hunger or poverty, what a blessing, I just wish we could do more...and I'm sure in some way we will.

1 Homestudy Visit Down

We had our first homestudy visit today for about 2 1/2 hours. It went really well, and Aspen was even really good for the short time she was here with us. Our social worker is very nice and said she was impressed with the amount of adoption prep reading that we had done which is good. We have one more visit on Friday, and then possibly one more with just me at a later time. She told us that there is another couple here in town that is also adopting from Ethiopia. This is exciting because now there are at least two other families here to connect with. Anyway, we are excited to be making progress again after a month of waiting. Thanks for all the prayers!

Let's Thank Him in Advance

This post is one I wrote over a week ago, just have not had time to post it. Our Sunday message was about how we connect with God, and I was inspired to write about how I've been connecting with Him lately. I have never felt more connected to the Lord than on this journey of adoption. To quote a movie I like "Food has lost its taste...colors seem dull." This is how I have been feeling about "ordinary life" Even though Christmas was fun its magical allure was dimmed this year compared to the excitement of being "on duty" for God. My life has never felt more meaningful and purposeful than it does right now. Don't get me wrong, this doesn't mean we aren't experiencing or expecting trials. Quite the opposite is true; we know this journey will bring extra challenges but we aren't as afraid of the hard times because we have to be so reliant of God. I have been filled with the joy that comes from seeing God in action and thought I'd just share that joy with all who care to read our blog. boc

The title of this post comes from a radio sermon that I heard a few weeks ago. There was a story about a man who heard the call to become a missionary in a cannibalistic part of Africa. He left is wife and children at home and as he boarded the boat to leave he wrote a letter to his wife. He talked about his plans and how hard it would be, but then he said "Let us thank Him [God] in advance for what he is going to do.” I thought that was very powerful, and a great way to view our mission! So we are thanking Him in advance for the financial, safety, and timing provisions He is going to give us.

Homestudy Dates!!

Yeah! We finally have our homestudy interview dates set up. This will be exciting to get going. Please pray that we come across as baby worthy ;) (I'm not too worried) Anyway, that's the scoop for now!

A chance to make a difference for an orphan

To all of you who are not at a place to take on the journey of adoption but would still like to have an impact on the orphans, here is your chance. Our adoption agency is sending staff members over to their Ethiopian orphanage, Hannah's Hope, and will be taking much needed supplies. If any of you have something you would like to donate or if you would like to make a monetary donation they would be truely blessed. You can look at the list of needed supplies under our links list. All donations must be sent by Friday Febrary 8th. Any donations can be sent to:

All God's Children International
3308 NE Peerless Place
Portland, OR 97232

Thanks and God bless you all!

Prayers for our boy and his birth mom

God has been laying on our hearts and the heart of one of our friends lately that we should be doing a lot of praying for our little boy and his birth mom. We would appreciate prayers for their health, safety, birth if he isn't born yet, and that our homestudy would get going so we can turn in our dossier on time. I have also been praying specifically for God to take care of our baby just like we would until we get him home.

Got it!

Not much to report except that we finally got our letter, so our dossier is complete. We are still waiting for our last reference letter to make it back to our homestudy agency.