Little Glitch

We had a little glitch in the adoption process that we fretted over - but we received word from our SW that we are still in the game!  Once again, we are convinced that this is totally a "God thing" and that He is working out every detail along the way.  Why do we doubt?

How Did We Get Here?

Sometimes, when I take a moment to reflect, like I did at a small group meeting this past weekend, I look back on the last few years and ask, “How did we get here?”. When I begin to think back, I don’t think I would have ever predicted the details of my life the way that God has sorted them out. And I am thankful for that…very thankful. And I know that I would have messed things up bad if I had done things more my way in the past.

To give some background, we (Camille and I) left Sikeston in 1989, and swore never to return. We attended college in Mississippi, eloped in Kansas in 1992, worked and lived in Kansas, Texas, and Illinois, and in December of 1994 did the unthinkable…we moved back home to Sikeston. We quickly fell into the typical traps for young professionals. We lived around ‘the Joneses’ and did our best to keep up. Our house, our vehicles, our hobbies, and our social calendars all were bent around ‘the Joneses’ and the allure of the world. We proclaimed Jesus on Sunday mornings, but had one foot deep into the world on the other side of the fence.

Scrubbing Toilets For Jesus

As a part of my duties at work, I have to speak a lot in public settings. To aid in this area of my work, I belong to a local public speaking club known as Toastmasters. A small group of about 15 or so meet every other Thursday at our district office. It draws local businessmen and women who hope to develop their skills at speaking. The one hour meeting consists of different exercises including impromptu speaking, as well as, prepared-in-advance speeches.

Yesterday during the impromptu portion of the meeting, a question was asked that people were given an opportunity to respond to. The question, and I’m paraphrasing, was ‘what valuable lessons have you learned recently?’ It could have been about work, or home life, or whatever. In our group, we are blessed to have a woman that comes that is truly a breath of fresh air. She loves the Lord, and it just oozes out of every pore of her body. She stood up and gave her answer for the question.

Full Swing

The Home Study is in full swing.  We've been seen by our doctors, fingerprinted, tested for HIV, TB, etc.  Thank you, Lord, for our healthy bodies.  Jay talked to our wonderful Judy at Holt yesterday and she seems very positive about our application and ability to see this through with Lori.  Upon recommendation by the Oberhauser's who are adopting from the Ukraine right now - we began reading Adopted for Life by Russell D. Moore this week.  Truly insightful - to think of each of us as being picked up out of the muck of our own dirty, hopeless lives as orphans and placed in the family of God Himself.  We don't just know Him - but are counted as His sons and daughters, with full rights of kinship, and able to call the Christ "brother".  More on this later......I'm only on chapter 2! 

The Beginning of the Story

One of my concerns with the adoption of Lori is that as we tell the birth stories of our biological children - how will we ever fill in the unknown events surrounding the beginning of her life.  Well, God knew my heart because I received an amazing phone call today.  A lady from California who has previously adopted from the Foster Home where Lori is - was given my name from the founder of the Home.  One year ago, she and her husband had chosen Lori and were seeking to adopt her.  Through a series of events - when their paperwork became ready, Lori's papers were not completed, so they ended up adding another precious little girl to their family instead.  However, in April of 2009 - when Lori was about 6 months old - this couple made a trip to the Foster Home and because their hearts had been set on Lori - they took tons of pictures, decorated her crib, provided her with beautiful outfits and wonderful toys, and even videotaped the story of how she came to the Home told by one of the ladies who found her and cared for her as a newborn babe.  So, you see, there are no more holes in Lori's story.  Thanks to the sovereign timing of the God we serve, He orchestrated Lori's story and made sure we knew about it so we could share it with her.  Thank you, God, for Your gracious provision in all ways.

Children Are A Blessing!

Something new to our family as you will see on the right hand side of our blog is our intent to adopt a little girl from China.  Her name is Lori.  She is 15 months old...she is hearing-impaired...and she presently lives at Harmony House in China awaiting her forever-family.  We have discussed adoption for give-or-take seven years, but it didn't fall into place until recently.  Camille had known for a long time, but something in me knew the timing was not right yet.  Then, in or around the same recent weekend, it all seemed to fall into place. 

First, we found Lori.  Camille found her at the Harmony Outreach House website, which can be found at http://www.harmonyoutreach.org/.  Camille was immediately drawn to her.  We have talked many times about how we envisioned ourselves adopting a little girl from China.  If finding her on the website did not convict us enough, the same weekend, our blessed pastor, William Marshall, preached a sermon on the Sanctity of Life and the Blessing of Children.  It was wonderful!  In fact, "wonderful" does not do it justice.  I still can't stop thinking about it, and how the Holy Spirit jolted me that day.  I HIGHLY recommend you check it out.  You can download the mp3 at http://www.tbcsikeston.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=453&Itemid=9.  In a nutshell, God has already revealed to us in His Word that children are a BLESSING!  So often in scripture, when He 'blessed' people...He did so by giving them children. 

The Search for the Real Mt. Sinai

Recently, a friend of mine told me I needed to take a look at a set of videos on YouTube.  She said that they had watched the videos the previous night at their Wednesday night church service.  So I checked it out when I got home.

Wow!  It was fascinating.  It was an older video of some different explorers that had set off to find the real Mt. Sinai.  Although, you can find  Mt. Sinai in the back of most bibles at the bottom of the Sinai peninsula, you often will find its location bearing a question mark.  These explorers were not satisfied with what was considered the location by tradition.  It just didn't seem to fit the description in the Bible.

Their journey takes them into Midian or modern day Saudi Arabia, where they locate some incredible finds including what they presume to be the atlar of the golden calf, as well as, many other interesting finds.  All seven of us huddled around the computer last night and watched it as a family.  It was truly fascinating.  Even our 7 year old Chloe enjoyed it and asked questions.

The link below is the first of five 10 minute clips.  Once you watch the first one, it is easy to find the next one.  It is usually the next one that pops on the screen.  I hope you and your family enjoy this documentary.  I know it was a huge blessing to our family.  Watch it one night as your time of family worship.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A08_oRBAVPA&feature=related

Mistaken

I used to think that adoption would be easier than having a child naturally because you wouldn't have 9 months of pregnancy and morning sickness.  However, I was mistaken.  Adoption comes with 9 months of paperwork!  I think our notary public is going to feel like one of the family when this is over!!  But - just like those long, sickly months of pregnancy - it is so very worth it in the end!

FAQ: Are you guys going to Trinity now? I thought you were planting a church…

Lately, this seems to be one of the most common questions we hear. So, I wanted to take a moment to explain where we are on our journey, and how we got here.

For the past 10 years, we have served at Miner Baptist. We were intimately involved in a number of ministries there, and loved our fellow church people dearly. Sometime in late 2008, we began to both sense that our time at Miner was coming to a close. In July of 2009, a very clear moment came where

Pray for the Orphans

If you are following our blog - you will notice a reoccuring trend including the mention of orphans.  That is just really on our hearts and minds these days - and therefore, one of the frequent things we will probably post about.  At the same time  we are trying to get Lori, several others out there are traveling their own adoption journeys.  Lottie from China, Vanya from the Ukraine, Unwanted Baby from Missouri......all of these children are hopefully coming to families we know personally - but are currently seperated by 1000's of miles, 1000's of dollars, and about a 1000 pieces of paperwork!  Please join us as we begin to pray for God's provision as he orchestrates the miracles of adoption in all these cases.  We will keep you posted.