Friday, July 29, 2011

Simply Love and Man Up for orphans!!!

We have still got some shirts to sell!

If we sell the rest of the shirts we have, we will have enough $$ for the visas we will need to bring these babies home.


If you're like I was before I embarked on this crazy ride, you might be wondering, "What would I do with an Africa t-shirt?"

I have the answer. 

You can wear it and remember to pray for the children there. 

Pray for our babies while they wait. 

You can pray for those who don't have a family yet. 

You can pray for those who never will. 

And you can share the need to pray with others!

Because folks will be curious about your shirt.

And when they ask, the floodgates of the gospel will open up as you share with them why Christians should care for orphans.


Please share this on your blog or your facebook page. 

Thank you so much for all of your support!!!

Tuesday, July 26, 2011

It's Official!!!!!







"You're their family." 


Those are the words that we have been waiting to hear for 6 1/2 months. 


And they finally came. 


We have received the referral for the twins. 


The next step is to send all of our documents to Ug@nda and then our attorney will file for a court date. 
The "expected" timeline is 2-4 months from now until court. 


Thank you all so much for your prayers and your encouragement. 

Tuesday, July 19, 2011

This could be the week




This week marks 26 weeks that we have been looking at precious pictures of the babies without an official referral. For those of you in the adoption world, you know that this is uncommon. Usually if the kids are "waiting'  there is very little wait time for an actual referral. 

We trust God's timing, but I would be lying if I said we weren't anxious, weary, tired, sad, and beyond ready to hear the words "You're matched with these children!!!"

We are told that everything is done and we are just waiting on someone to email someone with one final piece of paper. Once this happens, we will still wait. But it will be different. When we become "officially" matched, the baby home will start showing our pictures to the kids and letting them listen to the story book with our voices that we made for them. We will 'hopefully' get regular updates and new photos during the rest of the wait. 

So please pray that this will be resolved quickly and that we will get "The Call" about the babies that we have been waiting for. 

Thursday, July 14, 2011

How undeserving




are we???

"I am the nail in your wrist, but you love me anyway."
You love me anyway, Sidewalk Prophets




We are weak. 


We are wrong. 


We are ugly. 


We are wicked. 


We are selfish. 


We are unworthy


And He loves us anyway!! 

Oh Lord, teach me to love others the way that you love me. 

Sunday, July 10, 2011

Typical day in the life....



This is how we roll around here. 

We need a desk for our room. One way that we are accommodating two more children is to turn our office into a bedroom. So, we need a small desk to put our computer in our bedroom. I would like to find something old/vintage/funky. I went to a couple of antique stores on Sat but I totally struck out. 



I have a friend who told me about a great antique store in Ringgold and I had mentioned it to the man a while back. He got a wild hair after church on Sun, and decided we would take a road trip. I did mention to him that it may not be open on Sundays. I also mentioned that I didn't know exactly where it was or even the name of it and I couldn't find it online. But he thought we would be fine without any of that info.  

He takes the girls to Chattanooga a couple of times a year, and he was sure that Ringgold is about an hour from our house. So we borrowed our neighbors trailer and headed off. 


Just for any of you in the area, Ringgold is not an hour from us. It's more like almost 2 hours. Even if you know the name of the where you're going, none of the antique store are open on Sun. And Ringgold sustained quite a bit of damage from a tornado that hit back in April. So if you decide to drive two hours to an antique store that's closed, there will be no where to stop and eat. 

Just some facts you may want to know. ;)

Friday, July 8, 2011

Life






Jeremiah 1:5
"Before I formed you in the womb, I knew you. Before you were born, I set you apart."

Psalm 139:13
"You created my innermost being. You knit me together in my mothers womb."

Psalm 127:3
"Children are a heritage from the Lord."


Children are a blessing.

Today I am not talking about having a bunch of kids.

I am not talking about the offensive comments you get when you have more than what's "typical."

I am talking about life.

It's a precious gift God has given us.

Period.

I watched as our nation was outraged by the Casey Anthony trial.

How dare they find her innocent?

How could a mother act like she did when their child had died, especially if it truly was at her own hand?

Our country was horrified.

As they should be.

Based on the details that I have heard, there was no earthly justice for this child.

But how many people would have been horrified had she decided to terminate her pregnancy?

Would our nation have been outraged?

Would we have wept over a precious life?

In 2008, the year sweet Caley died, 1.2 million babies were also killed.

We absolutely need to mourn the death of this precious life that was snatched away at such a young, vulnerable age.



And as a nation, we need to regard ALL life just as precious.

Thursday, July 7, 2011

How are you growing in your faith?



Is your life conforming to the image of Christ?


I love this devotion for today.

How easy is it for Christians to look like the world?

We need to be constantly conforming to be more like HIM and less like the world.

Tuesday, July 5, 2011

Where we are in the process......




Sorry to have gone so long without an update. 

Things have been happening but they have been hard to talk about, so we haven't said a lot. 

Over the last several months, the folks at our agency have been investigating the twins lives. Trying to determine if international adoption is the best things for them. They have talked with their relatives to see if there's any way that they can go home. 

There isn't. 

So we are expecting the official paperwork any day now. 

The next step is to send mountains of paperwork over to the attorney and then they will file for a court date. 

The best estimate is for us to be traveling sometime in late fall. 

Please, please keep praying. 

Friday, July 1, 2011

Why does adoption take so long?



I get asked this question often.

And I think it every day.

This is a great post by a fellow waiting mama.