Happy Birthday!

Happy Birthday Asher!

This handsome guy turned 10 yesterday!

We love you Asher. You are such an amazing young guy.

7 Months Ago

7 months ago we saw a picture of the most beautiful little girl!

Bright eyes, chubby cheeks, amazing hair.

From the first glance we knew she was our daughter.

For 7 months we have been praying for her daily.

We have been falling more in love with her.

She has already become part of our family.

We have become more fervent in our prayers.

More specific about our desires to have her home.

We are believing God for good news this week.

Girls Weekend!

On Friday I had our bags packed. I picked up my daughter from school and headed to pick up my dear friend Sharon and her daughter who is Autumns best friend!

Sharon and I had been planning the weekend for months.

We got a room in a fun resort in Palm Springs, with a great swimming pool.

Our plan was to pour into our girls. To let them know how amazing they are and who God has created them to be.

Autumn and Kailey had a blast swimming, and shopping!

On Saturday night we took them out to a nice dinner and gave them purity rings.

They were so excited and couldn't wait to get them on their fingers.

We had videos about purity to watch with them and had some really great conversations.

We used Pam Stenzel curriculum, and highly recommend it!

Before we came home we gave the girls love letters from their daddys and brothers.

It was SO awesome! A weekend I hope they will never forget!

I know I never will!

Choices

^{Okay so it's time to get real honest here. I have allowed myself to be distracted by what is going on in the Ethiopia adoption process. The enemy is a master of distraction. Granted this is BIG, but our God is BIGGER!}

^{I don't know about you, but I have been negative, I have been grumpy, I have been overly-sensative. I have been a train wreck! I have not been a very good mother to my kiddos, and I haven't been a very nice wife. I am usually a glass half full kind of person, but I have just been overwhelmed with negativity.}

Now I don't think there is anything wrong with grieving. I have certainly had some emotional and angry conversations with God in my prayer closet over the last couple of weeks. But people do we or do we not believe that our God is IN CONTROL?!

I have experienced the grace and goodness of God in my life. I KNOW that He works ALL things for the good of those who love Him. That IS His business.

So I am going to choose to trust Him right now.

I will petition Him on behalf of my daughter and the other lonely children. I believe my job and your job right now is to position ourselves in a way to HEAR Him. We must be so close to Him that we will not miss it when He says I want you to move, I want you to act. But that means to BE STILL and wait, now!

Change does not happen when we are comfortable. And I don't know about you but I want to change. I want to be more like Him.

So I am going to choose to say thank you God for changing me.

I know that if I can be grateful and find joy in this process and work with God and not fight Him, the greater the change will be.

God is God, and I am not. God is not surprised by any of this. He knew it was going to happen. He allowed it to happen.

So the choice is do I believe God and His Word or not?

Do I know through my life experiences that He is good? Do I know that when I have suffered He has brought me through, and in the end I have been grateful.

I choose uncomfortable! I choose change! I choose joy in the pain! I choose to trust in the midst of the unknown! I choose worship and praise and prayer and fasting! I choose God!

U.S. Dept. of State Announces Delay

Ethiopia Adoption Alert

Adoption Alert

U.S. DEPARTMENT OF STATE
Bureau of Consular Affairs
Office of Children’s Issues
_______________________________________________________________________________________________________

Government of Ethiopia Plans Major Slow-Down in Adoption Processing

March 9, 2011

Citing the need to work on quality and focus on more important strategic issues, the Government of Ethiopia’s Ministry of Women, Children, and Youth Affairs (MOWCYA) will reduce to a maximum of five the number of adoption cases it processes per day, effective March 10, 2011. Under Ethiopian adoption procedures, MOWCYA approves every match between prospective adoptive parents and an Ethiopian child before that case can be forwarded for a court hearing. The U.S. Embassy is working with Ethiopian government officials and adoption agencies to learn more about this change in procedures. We will continue to share information as it becomes available.

Given MOWCYA's current caseload, the U.S. Embassy anticipates that this change could result in an overall decline in case processing of some 90 percent. If this change is implemented as proposed, we expect, that parents who have begun the process of adopting from Ethiopia but have not yet been matched with a child could experience significant delays. It is not clear if this change in procedures would have any significant impact on cases in which MOWCYA has already approved matches.

Prospective adoptive parents should remain in close contact with their adoption service provider to obtain updates on individual cases.

The Embassy's Adoptions Unit can be reached at consadoptionaddis@state.gov.

Please continue to monitor http://adoption.state.gov/ for updated information as it becomes available.

We have not heard from our agency as to how this will affect our case, but things are looking very bleek.

Please continue to lift our daughter and our family in your prayers.

Here is the link to the announcement.

We DO believe that our God is bigger than all of this. And we do know that this has not come as a surprise to Him.

We believe that He is in control, He sits on the throne, and He is good ALL the time!

Divine Appointment

My friend Melanie is in Ethiopia for her court date. Her daughter is in the same house as Miss B. This is what she said when she met her today.

"Oh, so I think God had a divine appointment for me today. My friend, Lynsey, is adopting a little girl, too, and is waiting on a court date. She and my daughter are in the same foster home, so she asked me to grab a photo. When we got there, we realized that the kids were in different rooms and we were only allowed in the room where ESD was. I thought, uh-oh, there’s no way I’m going to find Lynsey’s girl. Well, Miss B found ME! I sat down on the floor by the kids, and this adorable girl makes a BEELINE for me, barreling past the other kids and sits in my lap. I actually thought, hmm, she’s the right age and looks like she could be her, but no way, that would be too much of a coincidence. Alex asked the caregiver what her name was and she said it – it was her! Miss B sat in my lap over and over, ran around playing with bubbles, would come back over to hug me really hard, played with my camera, and had me pick her up. She wanted to give up snack just to have me hold her. So Lynsey, today while my eyes were locked on my daughter, I was holding yours tight. I got to be your arms today and love on your little one. She’s such a delight – a leader, a force of nature, strong and healthy and loving and she knows what she wants. She’s curious and independent and HAPPY. I got some great pics."

I thought I had run out of tears after the last few days, I was WRONG! Oh my heart!

Keep Praying!

I wanted to share a wonderful blog post by Tom Davis of Children's HopeChest.

Some of us mothers have committed to fast every Friday till our babies are home. We would love for you to join us! And if you are willing please let me know!

Ethiopia's Plan to Cut Adoptions: A Prayerful Response by Tom Davis

Over the weekend I confirmed with some contacts in the adoption community that the processing of adoptions is slowing down in Ethiopia. Partners of Children's HopeChest have been unable to process adoptions since mid-November.

From what my sources are saying, there is some activity between the Ethiopian courts and the Ethiopian government about the future of their inter-country adoption program. I am not sure it is completely over and done with just yet. And that is why we must pray through this until there is more news.
Again, there's nothing official posted on the U.S. State Department Web site or any other official indication from Ethiopia. But this is all pointing toward a drastic reduction in the number of Ethiopian children being placed with U.S. families.

I want to start a continuous prayer movement on behalf of the children of Ethiopia. Please pray for the following:

1. For God's will to be done on earth as it is in heaven.God is in control. For those of you who are facing being stuck, remember that God is in control.

2. For God to breakdown strongholds of the enemy.Every child deserves the right to grow up in a health family, and adoptive families provide that for thousands of children each year. Pray that God would demolish the strongholds that are set up against adoption.

3. For God to fulfill His promises.God defines Himself as the Father to the Fatherless. He declares He will set the lonely in families. He warns those who would interfere with His plan to bring justice and mercy that is due to them. Find the orphan scriptures, pray them to God, and ask Him to fulfill those promises to the children of Ethiopia now.

4. For the courts and judges and government officials making this decision.
Ask the Holy Spirit to permeate the courtroom and convict the hearts of the judges and other government officials. Bring the power of the Holy Spirit into these discussions and proceedings--not that we would get our way--but that God's perfect will would be fulfilled in these decisions.

5. For the children and familiesThat God would shorten their wait times. Fortunately, God is bigger than these obstacles. Pray that waiting children would receive comfort. And pray that waiting families would experience peace, grace, and love from those around them.

While things are uncertain, our best response today is prayer. I will post more news as it comes available to me. Please pass this on to all your friends and contacts who care and are concerned about orphans and adoption.

Hope Deferred

Today, as many of us fasted

Ethiopia's Ministry of Women's Affairs issued a directive saying it will process a maximum of 5 inter-country adoptions a day. This is down from 50 cases a day, about half of them to the United States, this according to VOA News. The change is effective as of March 10.

Just last night at Catalyst Judah Smith spoke on Proverbs 13:12

HOPE DEFERRED MAKES THE HEART SICK.

That is how I feel. It is how I imagine many of us feel right now. My heart aches.

But I have to believe that God is just setting the stage for His glory!

We must stay on our knees crying out to the Healer of sick hearts.

Judah Smith also said- 'Jesus is the sum and substance of ALL God's promises'.

We can ask in the name of Jesus, according to His will, and it will be answered.

Because the rest of Proverbs 13:12 says

but a LONGING FULFILLED is a TREE OF LIFE.

So I choose to believe in and hang on to the tree of life. Today I may be barely hanging on to a flimsy limb, but tomorrow I hope to be wrapped around the trunk!

Because God is good ALL the time. It's all He knows! Good gifts for His children.

So thank you to everyone who joined the fast today, I KNOW our prayers were heard.

LOVE

I have been spending a lot of time on my face in my prayer closet.

I thought of my daughter getting older in a country that I love, but a country that will harshly judge her because of a disease in her blood. Then I thought of those in this country who will do the same.

God did we do the right thing being so open about her HIV?

And God clearly answered me- those who do not love her because of her HIV cannot love.

WOW! It's that simple! If you cannot love my daughter because of a disease in her blood, or the color of her skin, or because she was adopted into my family, it is only because YOU CANNOT LOVE.

If you are afraid of HIV after you have been educated about it, it is because you do not know LOVE. Perfect love drives out ALL fear.

LOVE is a person, LOVE is God, God is LOVE!

Body & Soul

I find myself, along with many others, in a 'grievous sacred moment'. Circumstances outside of our control are keeping my daughter, and many other children, from coming home.

God made it clear we were to fast in this moment.

We are asking you to join us in a 24 hour fast from Thursday evening after dinner, until Friday dinner.

I think fasting is the most misunderstood ancient practice in the Christian church today.

A lot of us get to the end of our ropes and think 'well I guess I'll fast and then God will have to do something'. But fasting is not an instrument of manipulation to force God into giving us our own way. Fasting is our hearts RESPONSE to what breaks God's heart!

Fasting is our body joining with our soul to cry out to God in response to disaster, lack of love or holiness or compassion, the impoverished in the world, sin, death, or the absence of justice or peace or love. Fasting is our bodies NATURAL response to 'grievous sacred moments' in life.

In America we tend to separate our bodies from our spirit, and that's just not how we were created.

I love how Scot McKnight puts it in his book FASTING.

"We will fast because we will sense God's response to the very conditions around us, and it will lead us to join in the good work of God... and joining God is all we really wanted anyway"

I was reading Esther this morning at the suggestion of a dear friend. What stood out to me was that God could have had the king summons Esther, instead of having her go to him at the risk of her own life. Her fear would have disappeared, and the outcome would have been the same. But God waited. He allowed His people to mourn and fast and weep and wail. I bet if you could ask them if they would have preferred for God to come in and save the day immediately, without their hearts breaking, they would say- NO WAY!

Weeping at the foot of a Savior who understands is life changing.

What a beautiful thing to approach the throne of God as a whole being, crying out for the ones that He loves! And truth be told- joining God is all we really wanted anyway!