God Speaks, God Provides

My Lord is alive! My Lord leads and directs His children. It is such an awe-ing thought! God, creator of every star in the universe, Lord of all creation, King of Kings and Lord of Lords, directing, SPEAKING to, and loving us. He is so good. I cannot imagine claiming to serve a God who I never knew was near- whom I merely went through motions and routines of devotion to- without ever feeling the breathtaking peace of His presence...without ever knowing without a shadow of a doubt He was with me.

God has continuously reminded us of His hand in our lives lately- in so many ways.

A few weeks back when we went on our trip to Six Flags, I had a very neat encounter with a woman while I was waiting on the boys to get off of a ride. The ride was a rotating sombrero and I couldn't decide whether I should go for it or not. I was determined to ride every single ride in that park with Josiah and Isaac. When we approached this ride, which also happened to be the very first ride we saw upon entering the park- I knew it would probably be a bad idea. It brought back the wonderful memory of me vomiting all over my friend at the state fair in ninth grade. Yum. I sat down at the table right in front of the ride. A lady soon walked up and asked me if she could share the table with me. She sat down, and before long she began talking with me about the Lord. She had five children, and we really hit it off. Somehow, our conversation led to the fact that we are going through the adoption process. When I told her that we were adopting from Peru- her eyebrows lifted in surprise. She then went on to tell me that she grew up in Lima, Peru. Her family lived there as missionaries. She asked me if I had ever been to Peru- and seemed curious as to why we chose Peru as the country to adopt from. All I knew to say was, that the Lord has directed us there. After us talking more on that, she said very "matter of factly", "Well, I suppose that is just where the cries are coming from."

That really floored me. She hit the nail on the head. That is where the cries are coming from! I hear them in my spirit loud and clear! Danny hears them. I find myself looking at the New Life Children's Home site about once a day. Oh how I wish they would update their pictures on that site! I look at those little children and wonder where they will end up. I wonder if one of them could possibly be mine. I cannot wait to wrap my arms around that precious little child and welcome them into our lives. I cannot wait to tell them the numerous stories of the extent Jesus went to to place them right into our family. Who could ever doubt His love? Who could have ever known that when that sweet little baby was left beside a dumpster, on a doorstep, or simply dropped off at an orphanage- probably dirty, afraid, and feeling abandoned, that the God of all creation heard those cries and pricked two hearts thousands of miles away!? Who knows what was going on in our lives at that time? Was that the moment that God began pouring into us and dealing with us so strongly about this issue? It will be amazing to watch what God does here. Why did he call us to this- and what is he going to do through it? He is God- so it will be amazing- no doubt.

Life has been moving at a million miles a minute it seems. Adoption Home Studies is almost through with our homestudy. We are waiting on two final documents (an FBI background check, and my AR check). It has only been one month! We feel ahead right now. I am praying for those checks to be back in miraculous speed! Then we will begin working on our next set of documents.

I have been making aprons like crazy lately. I am praising God for the orders that keep coming in! As of this week, I have been able to raise about $550 of our adoption funds in apron sales! I am so happy and joyful about it. I also may have the opportunity to sell them at the New Orleans Baby Fest on October 1st. I hope to be able to do this- so my prayer is for God to enable me to have the time and energy to sew enough between now and then. I am having to work extra hard to balance my schedule these days.

                                              
We have had so many blessings in the last week! Someone who is close to us as a family, gave us a card, and inside was $1000 that they believe the Lord showed them to give us towards the adoption.  Danny got a few surprises of cash and scrap iron to sell.  In a matter of a few weeks we have been able to add a little over $2500 to our adoption account. There have been numerous friends who have been so eager to help in any way they can to raise money, donate stuff for a garage sale, or even hold a tupperware party and give all the proceeds towards the adoption. The body of Christ is truly amazing. We feel so blessed to have the wonderful friends and family we do, who support and help us in everything.

If you read my blog, please pray for us to be able to raise the necessary funds. I believe God is teaching so much about prayer and faith through all of this. He is answering these cries!

We began school last week.  The best way I can describe our schooling is juggling apples. LOL I get one child going, and help the other, then stop to play with another. It keeps me awake- that's for sure! Every now and then all of the apples hit the ground, so we have to stop and take a breather and then get it all going again. It has worked well to do all of my one on one time with Josiah in the afternoons while Amaus and Isaac nap. Isaac is really enjoying doing big boy school as well. He has really come out in the last week. He has proven to me that he can actually draw and write objects that I can see and make out. That is something I've been concerned about. He has never had any interest in drawing or writing. Any major attempts at getting him to try have ended in tears. I guess the tracing lines, and connecting dots (the only thing that he seemed willing to do as far as writing was concerned- last year) must have helped more than I felt like at the time.

Amaus likes to work on wooden puzzles and loves it when we stop to dance for a few minutes. He also likes to color! He sits down at the table or at a desk and scribbles around and then brings me his paper. It is so precious.

I am actually looking forward to Monday- and schooling! I hope next week goes as smoothly as last week did! We plan to finally begin Rosetta Stone next week- and our Hague training required by anyone who is adopting in a Hague country.
My prayers for this week:
- That God enables me to balance our schedule so that I am able to be the mom and wife I need to be, and also able to get some sewing done
-That our FBI and my AR background checks would come in!
-That God will continue to lead us and show us how to go about getting the remaining funds for the adoption
-That the boys would grow in Jesus in leaps and bounds- truly knowing Him and His love for them, even as children
-That God would bless Danny with wisdom and he would be full of the Holy Spirit as he leads our church, and our family
-That I would walk in joy this week- no matter how much whining goes on- no matter how much doesn't get accomplished that seemed important to me- no matter how messy the house gets! These things aren't the source of my joy- so they shouldn't phase it either! Lord, help me.

This is one of many loads of peppers we have gotten from the garden this year. I think I may actually have enough chopped and frozen for the entire winter! I do alot of cooking with bell peppers!

Miss Magnolia and I- we've become good friends!