Powerful statement

"Sometimes I would like to ask God why He allows poverty, famine and injustice in the world when He could do something about it...but I'm afraid He might ask me the same question.
Anonymous

Christmas blessings

This Christmas we had ten days of the dreaded stomach virus...but time shared with those we love makes up for it! To see my children, nothing but PERFECT blessings from God, reminded me that I have soooo much to be thankful for and that we as Americans have soooo much we can give! Our children are blessed beyond measure and it was a little difficult to see them getting so much while I wondered if our baby in China is alive yet, and if so, was spending Christmas in an orphanage. Every happy moment they had, I was grateful for and thankful to God that I have them. But I was also praying that my China baby was happy and cared for and loved too. Boy I can't wait till our wondering is over!!!
By the way, I changed the title of this blog because a lot of people thought it meant we already knew who our baby was....sad....we don't yet. Still waiting. But prayerfully content right now that God knows what He's doing.

God provides!!!!!

If you want to grow in your faith in God, ADOPT!!! I cannot tell you enough how through this process, God has provided us with EXACTLY what we need to make this happen. And the funny thing is, I'm shocked!!! I am sooo lacking in faith that I am continually shocked at how He is graciously providing for this baby that we don't even know yet! It feels like nothing short of a miracle to me at times! And He has done it through using His people here on earth in soooo many ways. We keep getting the encouragement we need, the strength, the finances, the peace, the contentment, the love, the reassurance, and I could go on and on at how He is providing for us! So it got me thinking about how he tells us in His word about how He will provide.....
He provided the ram for Abraham in Genesis. In I Corinthians 10:13 we read how He will provide a way of escape from temptation. In Psalm 68:10 we read of how God provides for the poor and in 111 he provides redemption for His people. Also in Psalms He provides food for those who fear Him. In Jonah he provided a great fish to swallow Jonah and keep him safe and He again provided a vine to protect Jonah from the sun. In Hebrews we see how Jesus provided purification of sins. And I Timothy 6:17 pretty much sums it up for me: ...but to put their hope in God who RICHLY provides us with everything for our enjoyment! And there are obviously soooo many other times He provided for His people in the Bible and He continues to do that today!!! I want to be one of those people He uses to "provide" something for someone in need! What about you?

What is the GREATEST Christmas gift of all?

We live in a very consumer driven country! A place where there is no delayed gratification and a "I want this now" mentality. People are constantly giving gifts to our children of which we have no control! Our houses are bigger, our clothes are nicer, we have so many toys we don't know where to put them all. The worst part about this to me is that we have let consumerism into Christmas. It has become more about what we are going to buy and who we are going to buy it for, than what is REALLY important!! There are children in the world who have nothing. Babies starving and no one to care for them. There are mothers who have had to relinquish their children because they don't know how they could possibly feed them. People without homes at all, and no shoes to put on their feet. But the interesting part about it is that those people are usually the ones that remember what the greatest gifts in life are. There some people that don't like to think about Jesus at Christmas. They apparently have something that is MORE important to teach their children about at this time of year. But I don't care what actual day Jesus was born. He WAS indeed born!!! And HE IS THE GREATEST GIFT OF ALL, ANY SEASON, because salvation is free to ALL who will except His love and obey Him. That is the comfort I have at this time of year. That Jesus will care for those people that are less fortunate and He wants US to be their helpers here on earth!!!! We can choose to make this time about others, and about showing the love of Jesus to all those that need Him the most!!

What does God do with someone like me?

Today I got an email from a mother of nine, six of which came from China, and one that she is waiting to bring home right now! I have been reading her blog and am AMAZED at how much faith she has. Not just faith, but courage and persistence and incredible strength. She tells all about her adoptions in her blog, and her stories are incredible. God has led her family to adopt under the craziest circumstances. Once they had been home for only three months when she felt God was calling them to go back and get another child. She said they had NO money in the bank to do this....but God provided. With each of her stories she talks about how God has provided. I wrote to her asking her if my emotions were normal and telling her how in awe I am of her faith!! Her response was in short that by the end of this process, I would be in awe of HIM!!!!! She gives ALL the glory to God in her life and he has RICHLY supplied for this family that keeps blessing children with a wonderful christian home!! She knows God is with her each step of the way and is totally trusting Him to guide her life as she gets and raises these beautiful children. I know what God does with people like her....He uses them to transform faithless people like me!!! He uses others who have gone before me as an encouragement to me to REALLY live like I believe He is all powerful and almighty and to put my life here on earth in perspective! This life is but a vapor, so I better be making an eternal difference in as many lives as I possibly can!!! What better place to start than with a baby who has no family! My prayer today is that I will stop needing reminders from others to be in AWE of God!!!

Leaving it in God's hands...isn't always easy!

Today I have been thinking a lot about my lack of faith! God is SOOOOO much better at being in control of my life, but for some reason I sometimes lose sight of that fact and lose faith that HIS will is going to be done in my life no matter what. While waiting on this baby, I have come to understand that this whole process is completely out of my control. I can't control when our baby comes. I can't control what baby I will get or how it will be treated before it comes home with us. I can't know what it's going to feel like to hold the baby for the first time and I can't imagine how the two kids we already have will respond to the baby either! But one thing I DO know, that I may lose sight of sometimes....GOD DOES!!!! He knows it all before it has even happened! And it is my job to trust that HIS plan for my life is sooooo much better than anything I can dream up for myself! So today I am praying for the faith to live my life like I truly believe it!!! And wait...on Him...

Insurance Approved! And Queen Esther was an orphan too...

Well, after lots of rounds with the insurance, they finally conceded to insure our adopted child!!! Although I will be a little skeptical until we receive the paper in our hands telling us so!!! But by phone, they did agree to it! So that is another obstacle that is hopefully handled!
I really wanted to talk about what I have been reading this week! We think of Esther as such a hero in the Bible. She was brave, selfless, and beautiful! But she was also an orphan. Her cousin, Mordecai took her to raise when her parents died. She had no father or mother. But she had the love of a cousin who was willing to give her a life that she could be proud of! And she lived a life of character pleasing to God! This is SUCH an example to me of God having a plan for the lives of his people! Here is Esther, an orphan, who becomes the Queen who rules over 127 provinces, risks her life to save God's people, and shows us that we can be women of courage and faith in God! That we can do wonders here on earth to help God's children if only we can have the faith that HE is in control of our lives and has a plan for us! He used Esther and her circumstances to accomplish His purpose, and He can use us too if only we will give ourselves over to Him! Pray for the hearts of all God's people to reach out to the orphans of this world just like Mordecai did!

Waiting on insurance!

Today I hate to tell you that I NEVER thought what would end up holding our adoption up the most would be medical insurance!  If you are starting this process, I would HIGHLY recommend that before you assume your insurance will take your child on, that you MAKE SURE!!!  This has given us a ton of trouble!  Our social worker said that before we agree to doing special needs we needed to make sure our insurance would not deny a child with special needs.  Our baby may need lots of surgeries so this is really something we have to consider!  She told us it would be crazy for us to accept a baby that we may not be able to support medically!  Which of course is true!  So right now we , I should say Matthew,  has had ROUNDS with the insurance because they are telling us they don't have to cover an adopted child and the Colorado commissioner is telling us they do!  To us, our new baby should be viewed just like our birth children and there is NO difference!  So right now I feel like that is discrimination at its finest!!!  So, long story short, please pray that our insurance situation gets worked out so we can get to our baby as soon as possible!!!  Thank you! 

Road to Special Needs...

Looks like Matthew spread the news today that I now have a blog about adoption!!  I'm glad because I really love hearing from people who have adopted or who want to learn more about it!  Today, I thought I would tell you some about how we were led to think about special needs adoption.  I told you about the wait being close to four years, so naturally you might think that is why we looked into special needs.  And in part it is!  But that is DEFINITELY NOT the reason to think about adopting a child with special needs!  But when we began looking at those children who are already waiting for a family, it started to become really difficult for me think about them all staying in China in an orphanage with NO family!  The greatest thing I have ever read about special needs adoption was on the blog of another mom who has adopted 5 times from China.  She said that when her family began looking at special needs children, they realized that the BIGGEST special need a child has is a family!  SO true!  God is still molding our hearts and preparing our family to find out who will be that special baby for us!  Please pray that we will have the faith in God we need to wait on Him and that the perfect child for our family will soon be in our arms and an orphan no more!

Deciding on China...

Once we made the decision to adopt, we then had to decide where we wanted to adopt from!  After lots of discussing and prayer, we felt like God led us to China!  It all seemed to fall perfectly into place with the agency and we have actually met TONS of people who also adopted using the agency we chose!  NOT A COINCIDENCE!  Then we began!!!   The mounds of paperwork people told us about was oh so true!!  We were constantly working on documents and this was when I realized that adoption is NOT the easy road to a child!  It is the road less taken, but a road that leads to a MUCH deeper faith in God and reliance on Him to guide me, regardless of what I want!  But we did the paperwork and finally finished our dossier and it was sent to China!  For those who don't know, that means that all our paperwork went to the Chinese government and they actually received it and we got a date that was logged in as the day they got it.  Then we began talking about the four year wait!!!!!!  It never occurred to me that it would be a maddening wait that I couldn't stand!!!  We discussed how the wait would be good because we could enjoy the children God has already blessed us with and would then have more time to devote to the baby when it comes because our children would be older.  We also talked about how financially we could save for the adoption and not have to come up with TONS of money within the year...which is another issue with adoption that people don't realize until they begin!!!  But all the reasoning did not prepare me for how I would feel once my paperwork was done and we were waiting...it is miserable!!!  I want to know RIGHT NOW who my baby will be, where he or she will come from, and what he or she is doing RIGHT this very minute!!!  The unknown is so hard for me!  It is completely out of my control and I know God is leading our minds through this whole process, but it is hard just the same. But for now we are praying....and thanking.
     I will write more later to catch everyone up on where we are now, and what led us to look at children with special needs!  Thanks to my 2 followers!!!  That was kind of shocking to me!!!  Didn't think I'd have any...
"I have prayed for this child, and the Lord has granted me what I asked of Him."
I Samuel 1:27

Our adoption journey began....years ago!!!!

This is the very first time I have written a blog post of any kind!  I decided I wanted to start one when I began reading sooo many other people's blogs about their adoption journeys.  They have been such an encouragement to me and such a source of comfort.  Loaded with information, I decided that maybe I could do that for others, or at least join with others in sharing our story to inspire others to adopt too!  That said....here is the beginning of our adoption journey!
   I have always had a place in my heart for children without parents!  I have always wanted to go get them all and bring them here and take care of them!  But that wasn't really in the workings of my family until after my second child, Noah, was born! Several factors were involved in us looking into adoption for our next child.  And I will have to say that once you begin to research it and look at all those babies without families, it can become overwhelming and also obsessive!!!  I became somewhat crazy over looking at those babies and feeling for them spending their little lives looking out through the bars of a crib not being loved at all and rarely feeling another human's touch, while MY children were being spoiled and nurtured and loved beyond measure!!!  That wasn't right to me and I spent, and continue to have sleepless nights wondering how I could live with myself if I didn't at least bring one of them into our family.  But that's not to say I am not doing it for the selfish reasons of wanting more children to love and raise also!!!   And so, God began working on my heart!  And working on my life and Matthew's life, and even the lives of our children to prepare us to be ready to take a leap of faith and go get a baby!!!!  That's all for tonight!  I'll post more later...if I can remember how to get on here!!!  But one thought I have to leave you with is one I heard several years ago...If every Christian family adopted one baby, there would be NO more orphans!!!  Not less, NONE!!!!