Finding God's Will

I've been thinking a lot about how to truly decifer God's will! A few minutes ago, my friend Beth & I were talking about how hard it is to figure out God's will in our lives. When we first switched to Ethiopia, I had this huge peace, but now that the dust has settled (so to speak) & we're in the grove of it, I have had my moments of "is this right"? For one thing, I think Satan knows that it is hard for us to see God's will & knows that this is one way that he can get to us. Even after we make a decision that we think is the one God wants us to make, we will have those second thoughts. The place where I have come over the past 24 hours is absolute surrender & knowing that we can only do the best we can to follow His plan, & then we just have to trust that He will close doors, change our hearts, or do whatever to keep us on the right path!

Blankets from B.J.

My sweet Aunt B.J. just sent our daughter these beautiful blankets that she made. They are so soft & absolutely beautiful! Aunt B.J. has always been very special to me & has been through so much this past year. Last July, we nearly lost her. I spent several days in the ICU waiting room praying for a miracle in her life. Every few hours, when we were allowed to go back to see her, her best friend, Dianne, would tell me to make sure that I talked to her about our daughter. That was always a way to get a reaction from her & seemed to make her happy. Everytime I went back to see her I would say, "You've got to hang in there, so you can meet our little girl" & talk about how much fun we were going to have with her. During those scary days, Dianne shared with me that B.J. had already bought O an outifit. She knew my rule about not buying anything until we had a picture b/c just a couple weeks prior the boys & I were able to go shopping with her while she was in the mountains for a conference. While we were shopping, she laughed & laughed b/c every store we went into, the boys found things to buy for their sister & my answer was always the same..."Not until we have a picture". Aunt B.J. didn't obey the rule...she went ahead & bought O a strawberry outfit (Aunt B.J. has always had a strawberry fettish!)...that same strong, stubborn spirit helped her make it through the past year! God ended up working a huge miracle in her life & she has made it through many months of sickness (including her last hospital stay of 3 months)! Throughout our adoption journey, she has been a huge support & encouragement to me. She & her husband adopted their son when he was an infant, so she has experienced the joys of adoption first hand. She is so excited about our daughter. Even when she has been sick, sick, she would always ask how things were going with the adoption. I can't wait for our daughter to meet Aunt B.J., a special woman who has been waiting & praying for her for a long time!

The Age of Our Daughter

When we were in the Vietnam program, we were waiting for a girl ages 0-36 months. As we have been doing the paperwork necessary to change countries, we have been thinking we would also change the age to 0-24 months. However, God has really been showing us that we need to stick with 0-36 months. We had been thinking about how it would be nice to get our daughter at a younger age & how it would allow her more time to adjust, etc. before school & such. However, we had forgotten that from the beginning we felt God was calling us to a little older child who might be harder to place. So, after wrestling & trying to sort out our wants from God's desires & the needs of all the children, we have decided to stick with 0-36 months. I just finished reading "There's No Me Without You" & it really reminded me about all the older children who are waiting for families. We feel much peace & relief to have decided to leave the age right where it has been for the past 9 months & wait to see what God has for us! We know that He already knows what He has planned for us! It's so good to know He's in control!

Missing My Dad

I haven't done this in a while, but today I was suddenly overwhelmed with grief & found myself missing my dad. I think it was a song on the radio that just caused it come rushing in. I didn't try to avoid it or squash it...instead, I just felt it & thought about how much I wish he could be a part of my life. I wish he could know my husband, our three sweet boys, & the daughter we hope to adopt soon! However, I know that God is going to use the loss I have experienced of my own father to give me a glimpse into the grief that our daughter will experience. Shortly after my father's death, God showed me the following verse & I knew then that His hand was in my loss & promised to use it in my life. "Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of compassion and the God of all comfort, who comforts us in all our troubles, so that we can comfort those in any trouble with the comfort we ourselves have received from God" 2 Corinthians 1:3-4 Isn't God good!!!

Praise the Lord!

We completed the one correction that needed to be done on one of our dossier documents, & it's on it's way to AGCI. We've gathered many of the documents that our homestudy social worker needed for the update, & we're waiting on the last two. Hopefully, those will be finished tomorrow! Also, we just got word that the fingerprints we already have are going to be sufficient! Yea! We are very relieved & excited that we're almost on the waiting list!!!!

Lots of news

Look at the sweet towel that my friend, Sarah, personalized for our daughter. The boys have towels that N's aunt gave to them from LL Bean that have light skinned boys on them with their names. So, I tried to order a towel with a dark skinned girl, only to find out that they only do light skinned children. Hello! Is this 2008 or 1958? Anyways, Sarah came to the rescue & did one for us! Isn't it cute!

Our dossier made it to AGCI & Kate said it looks great other than one small wording change to do on my homemaker letter. We are thrilled. We also heard back from our homestudy social worker, & we do have a few updated documents to gather for her. Hopefully, we will have those to her tomorrow or the next day. She is emailing AGCI about our FBI clearance...hopefully, fingers crossed, our ones that we already did will work & we won't have to start that process all over. Please pray for that! So, on the dossier front, everything is coming together!

Tonight we had dinner with the Ancelets who just brought Abel home from Ethiopia in February. They are a sweet, sweet family, & we really enjoy hanging out with them. They showed us their pictures & video from their trip. Hannah's Hope is absolutely amazing...just like everyone always says. The peacefulness is what amazes me the most...with all those children...there still seems to be such a sweet peace...that has to be from the Lord! We can not wait to walk down the road that leads to Hannah's Hope!

My Bracelet

I had to share my bracelet! I love it...not because I think I'm an expert bracelet maker, but because everytime I look down I see our daughter's name & it makes me smile & remember to pray for her & her birth family. Quick dossier deliver update...thanks to our UPS tracking number, I know it made it to Portland yetserday but is waiting for delivery on Monday. Note to self, either overnight a package or ship it regular ground. We tried to compromise & choose 3 day delivery...that made it be scheduled for delivery in 3 days no matter how fast it made it out there! Oh, well! Kate did just call to confirm that we indeed are finished with our dossier & she said our speed was definatly record setting! Woohoo! Now, we'll just pray that our updated homestudy finishes soon & that we don't have many (or any) changes to make to our dossier!

Guess what!

While the boys were at preschool today, I was thinking it would be fun to make a bracelet with our daughter's name on it. When I was pregnant the first time (which ended in miscarriage), I went to a "Family Strands" party & the bracelet I did ended up being a very special reminder of our road to parenthood. So, I headed over to Lily's Bead Box & was totally in the bead zone when a father & his daughter came in the store. I immediately thought they looked like a family that adopted from Ethiopia which was featured in our homestudy agency's newletter. I tried to mind my own business, but I couldn't help but ask....I was right! He was super nice & she was absolutely adorable. I just wanted to hug her & squeeze her up! Needless to say, I got all giggley & excited about our little girl!