Today we got our PA (pre-approval)
Whoo-hoo!
Isn't she beautiful!
Family picture
Monday, November 29, 2010
Thursday, November 25, 2010
Sunday, November 21, 2010
We have a daughter!!
Oh my, oh my!
Do we have news!
We just got word today that we were able to lock in
a beautiful little seven-year-old girl . . .
Praising God for the very exciting news this morning
out of Beijing . . .
We now officially have a daughter half way around the world waiting to come home!
Thursday, November 18, 2010
Ahhh, happiness is . . .
Happiness is . . .
God's love in your life,
The love of a family,
A warm and comfy place to sleep,
to play, to live,
And a full belly . . .
All of this and more is Elijah's now!
Tuesday, November 16, 2010
This and That
The other morning the boys and I met up with two families from Philip's China travel group. We played in the park and ate lunch together. It was such a sweet time being with them.
Mary Rose, Elijah, and Philip(Rachel was hiding from our camera)
Sweet ladies - Cathi and GloriaIt was a little cold outside that day!
Philip loves to pretend "airplane" and made this planefor us to fly to China. He is quite the little world traveler.
Those seats sure look a whole lot more comfortable than the real thing!
Tuesday, November 9, 2010
A bittersweet birthday
November 10th would have been my dad's 83rd birthday on earth.
But he is celebrating his first birthday in Heaven this year.
Oh Dad, how we miss you!
Today we will be remembering how very much you mean to all of us.
How very special you were.
How very precious life is.
And today we will be celebrating in our hearts (mixed with tears) how very blessed we are to have had a dad and grandpa like you that your passing would leave such a hole.
We truly were blessed to have you love us!
We love you and always will.
Happy Birthday Dad!
Sunday, November 7, 2010
MEMORIAL MONDAY
Our friend Linny from A Place Called Simplicity and our friend Jocelyn from Wolfe's Home do a post every so often called Memorial Monday. In the book of Joshua, Joshua has the Israelites bring twelve stones from the Jordan River to set up in the camp. This would remind the Israelites about God's power and provision for generations to come. Both Linny and Jocelyn even have a shelf or box to place items in to remind their family of how great our God is and what He has done in their families.
I have a story for Memorial Monday that shows God's power and supernatural might in our ordinary human lives. It happened a couple of weeks ago.
As I mentioned in the post about our garage sale, we had been praying for enough money to begin our home study. We needed $1,000. Our garage sale started out slow, very slow. In fact, the lack of traffic at our sale caused Kevin and me to pray even harder. We felt sure we had been led to go through our home, clean it out, and sell things to bring in funds for our third adoption. We had done that, and here it was garage sale time.
Our friend Britt stopped by at the end of day one and even prayed with us that God might bring more people to our sale the next day. When I checked our blog later that evening, I saw a comment from Suzanne that said she was praying for God to bring a boatload of people to the sale as well.
And another thing happened that day.
At the end of the day the last customer was someone who looked very familiar to Kevin, but he just couldn't remember where he knew her. He kept whispering to me behind her back that he knew he knew her but could not remember where!
This sweet lady and I got into a conversation about why we were having this particular sale. I shared with her that it was to raise money for our daughter in China to come home. She shared a story about God's leading and provision by telling us how her church had just purchased a new building after a long and stressful time of looking for just the right place. It was a story that showed God's power and provision. She promised to pray for us and took out a pencil and pad of paper to write down our names. When I told her what our last name was, she said, "Oh, I know your husband. He was my son's wrestling coach years ago!" Talk about a divine appointment. Her promise to pray for us bolstered our spirits.
The next day, we were so busy that Kevin had to stay home with me to help man the sale because we had a steady stream of people coming to look. Many things were bought that day, and by day's end, we had made $500. A great garage sale - to be sure!
But,
We still needed to come up with another $500 to pay the first installment of our home study by the Friday after next. We prayed and we prayed throughout that week and into the next week. It seemed that God was once again silent. It was our prayer that if He didn't want us to continue, He would shut doors. I e-mailed our homestudy agency on Thursday morning and explained that even though we felt God would provide if He wanted us to go further, He had not provided the entire $1,000. We were supposed to attend one of their meetings the next day, Friday, October 29th. Would they want us to come even though we could not pay?
They said to come ahead to the meeting, and they would roll over the fee when we felt we could pay for it. That didn't feel right, and so still we prayed, wondering if God was indeed shutting the doors to our Sophia.
When Kevin came home that afternoon, less than 24 hours before we needed to attend our homestudy meeting, he said that his friend had paid him his share of the house they had just finished painting.
The amount he had in his pocket?
$500!
I guess you could say God is still opening the door to our bringing home Sophia! What do you think?
Oh, by the way, there was a shelf in our garage sale that didn't sell, just the thing that would be perfect for a Memorial Box. I think we will bring it back into our home, hang it on the wall, and put a garage sale price tag in it to remind us of God's power and provision for that first installment of our homestudy.
I have a story for Memorial Monday that shows God's power and supernatural might in our ordinary human lives. It happened a couple of weeks ago.
As I mentioned in the post about our garage sale, we had been praying for enough money to begin our home study. We needed $1,000. Our garage sale started out slow, very slow. In fact, the lack of traffic at our sale caused Kevin and me to pray even harder. We felt sure we had been led to go through our home, clean it out, and sell things to bring in funds for our third adoption. We had done that, and here it was garage sale time.
And yet, we had hardly sold anything by the end of the first day.
Our friend Britt stopped by at the end of day one and even prayed with us that God might bring more people to our sale the next day. When I checked our blog later that evening, I saw a comment from Suzanne that said she was praying for God to bring a boatload of people to the sale as well.
And another thing happened that day.
At the end of the day the last customer was someone who looked very familiar to Kevin, but he just couldn't remember where he knew her. He kept whispering to me behind her back that he knew he knew her but could not remember where!
This sweet lady and I got into a conversation about why we were having this particular sale. I shared with her that it was to raise money for our daughter in China to come home. She shared a story about God's leading and provision by telling us how her church had just purchased a new building after a long and stressful time of looking for just the right place. It was a story that showed God's power and provision. She promised to pray for us and took out a pencil and pad of paper to write down our names. When I told her what our last name was, she said, "Oh, I know your husband. He was my son's wrestling coach years ago!" Talk about a divine appointment. Her promise to pray for us bolstered our spirits.
The next day, we were so busy that Kevin had to stay home with me to help man the sale because we had a steady stream of people coming to look. Many things were bought that day, and by day's end, we had made $500. A great garage sale - to be sure!
But,
We still needed to come up with another $500 to pay the first installment of our home study by the Friday after next. We prayed and we prayed throughout that week and into the next week. It seemed that God was once again silent. It was our prayer that if He didn't want us to continue, He would shut doors. I e-mailed our homestudy agency on Thursday morning and explained that even though we felt God would provide if He wanted us to go further, He had not provided the entire $1,000. We were supposed to attend one of their meetings the next day, Friday, October 29th. Would they want us to come even though we could not pay?
They said to come ahead to the meeting, and they would roll over the fee when we felt we could pay for it. That didn't feel right, and so still we prayed, wondering if God was indeed shutting the doors to our Sophia.
When Kevin came home that afternoon, less than 24 hours before we needed to attend our homestudy meeting, he said that his friend had paid him his share of the house they had just finished painting.
The amount he had in his pocket?
$500!
I guess you could say God is still opening the door to our bringing home Sophia! What do you think?
Oh, by the way, there was a shelf in our garage sale that didn't sell, just the thing that would be perfect for a Memorial Box. I think we will bring it back into our home, hang it on the wall, and put a garage sale price tag in it to remind us of God's power and provision for that first installment of our homestudy.
Friday, November 5, 2010
Two little funny boys
Taking a ride in a wagon is always an adventure . . .
Especially when you have funny eyeball glasses . . .
And a new Cousin Eddy hat that keeps getting in your eyes!
Monday, November 1, 2010
Cute little trick-or-treaters!
There were some pretty cute goings-on
at our house for Trick-or-Treat night.
Spiderman and his side kick Thomas the Train
They are a sight!
Checking out the pumpkin innards!
Elijah was not too impressed with scooping out the insides.
Finally, Eli felt a little bit more comfortable and beganto enjoy carving the pumpkin.
Once Elijah and Philip started going from house to house getting candy, Eli REALLY began to enjoy the evening. Amazing what a little candy can do!
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