Psalm 62:5

My soul, wait in silence for God only,
For my hope is from Him.

We try to lean on our own power and understanding, but cannot. We found out today that this process of adopting our daughters might take a lot longer than we think. After many conversations with many different people involved in the process, we have come to this conclusion. GOD IS IN CONTROL. No agency, no ministry, no doctor, no government, no man can make this happen. Only the One who is at the center, only our Lord can make it happen. We have decided that we must continue to put our trust in Him and Him alone. Yes, that might mean waiting for 6 more months, but we are fervently praying that mountains will be moved and we will be traveling to Ethiopia very soon.

Our girls have been set apart. Selected to become daughters, sisters, grandchildren, cousins, and friends to the Vlaming family, the Kincaid family, and Harvest Baptist Church. We are claiming this today and ask that you would too. Pray for our sweet girls. Pray that whatever strongholds that have been placed before them would be removed in Jesus name. They have a mom and dad, a sister and brother waiting.

Bedtime prayers

Who do you want to pray for tonight Grace?

Grace: I want to pray for M and G, and Kerby because he might have fleas. (our cat)

Okay, how about you Jack?

Jack: Chewbacca, r2dootee and C3PO.

Thanks to my hubby and our humble pastor, the obsession continues. Is there such thing as Star Wars rehab?

The future...

Bling for a cause...

I got this for my birthday.



Junkposse at etsy.com makes these sweet little "Heart for Africa" necklaces to raise money for her daughter and son-in-law's adoption of a babe from Ethiopia. I was so excited to recieve this as a gift knowing that 100% of the money will go towards the adoption of a precious child. As I wear it, I am reminded of my "hearts in Africa" and try to wait patiently for the day when I can hold them close.

On a side note, if you haven't discovered etsy.com yet...you need to check it out!! I have wasted away many evenings "window shopping" on this fun site. We got some creative gifts for the kids at Christmas time through a shop on etsy. I am currently saving my pennies for an adorable print for the girls room from sarahjanestudios. How cute is this...

Some people have commented that this adoption is our mission field. It is, but we believe that being parents to our children biological or adopted is our mission field. It is an honor and blessing to teach our kids about Jesus and teach them bible verses to hide in their hearts. Most recently we have had to re-visit Luke 6:31- Do unto others as you would have them do to you. Since we home school, Grace and Jack spend a lot of time together and for the most part they get along really well. But on occasion we have a knock down, drag out and mom or dad is called in to referee. The other day the kids were upstairs playing while I prepared dinner, and I could tell that things were starting to get a little heated. I leaned into the stairwell and said "What's going on guys?!" Grace stomped over to the stairs, crossed her arms and with brows furrowed stated, "IT'S SO HARD TO DO UNTO OTHERS!"
I couldn't help but chuckle, but I think that deserves another Amen sister! :)

Pray for our little"M"...

After receiving the exciting news and pictures of our girls, we were able to speak with our caseworker who had additional news about miss M. She has a "lipoma", or cyst on her chest. It is pretty big for a tiny, little 8 year old girl. The growth seems to be about the size of a potato, under her left nipple. We have pictures of it and it seems to be soft and spongy to the touch. It really doesn't look that bad, but the size is a bit shocking. They apparently took her to a local lab to have a sample drawn from it. We have the lab results and they are pretty much inconclusive. Chris and I have a complete peace about this and are believing in prayer that this is just another detail the Lord has covered. Our agency has suggested we meet with our pediatrician to get his opinion and follow his advice. We could end up getting his authority to apply for a medical visa for her. Could this be a blessing in disguise? That could mean a faster processing time for all of our paperwork. With that said, if the issue is not life threatening and our second daughter would not be able to come along, we would most likely stick to the original plan and let the paperwork go through together. We see our pediatrician on Wednesday evening.

All the information we have looked up on the good ole' Internet has come back as this being a benign issue (what the heck did we do before GOOGLE!). If she does need medical attention though, we would much rather her get that care here in the US. We are praying for healing for our little M. We pray that she is not in pain or in any discomfort. We also pray that the doctors here and in Ethiopia would have the wisdom to deal with the issue at hand and make the best decisions for her. Please join us in this prayer for our Ethiopian daughter.

The girls know who we are!!

The orphanage where our girls are waiting....

I just received an email with new pictures of our girls! They are opening their gift bags and photo albums from us and look SO BEAUTIFUL!. Oh how I wish I could share their precious faces with you. I am in complete awe of the Lord pulling all this together. There our little girls stand, holding ziploc bags from all the way across the world. The small stuffed puppies, the photo albums with hand written descriptions of who we are, the "hello kitty" puffy stickers, and the butterfly t-shirts. In the first few pictures they look a bit confused, then curious, maybe scared, like "Who are these white people?!" and "especially that chubby little angel haired boy? Is his hair for real?!" In a few they have very serious faces. The final picture is the most precious, they are both holding their new treasures close, smiling from ear to ear. It warms my heart to see that one.
Now the hard part starts. The real waiting. We have known them, but they now know us. They are waiting to be taken home. Waiting for a shoulder to snuggle their heads on, a mothers hand to stroke their hair, a fathers warm embrace, a family. Do they long to meet us as we do them? I am praying that God would give all of us peace and rest; rest in His timing and perfect will.

Greater than the universe....

If you have five minutes to spare and wonder why we are doing what we are doing, watch this by John Piper.....

Blessing!

Thursday we made the trip to Baltimore to attend the Steven Curtis Chapman concert and to appear alongside him to talk about our adoption! We went not knowing what to expect and boy were we blown away! The whole night was full of not only phenomenal music, but a testimony of adoption and SCC's passion for serving the orphans of the world. He spent a good part of the night sharing his personal testimony and how adoption has changed their lives. It was an emotional night to say the least.
All night I thought of our girls. I prayed for them, and praised God for putting this adoption on our heart. A few of his songs are specifically about adoption, what a blessing to be able to worship to that music.
Towards the end of the concert we were to meet up with the David, the road manager and he led us backstage. We got to stand in the wings as the band performed their last song. It was SO COOL! Jack and Grace were mesmerized and as the band came off, the drummer gave Jack his drumsticks. How cute is that!?
We were led onstage and well, you can watch the rest here...

Thanks to all who prayed for our peace and non-hurling on stage! :) We are praising God for His abundance and provision!

Use the force Luke....

Ever since our "conversation", Jack has had a slight obsession.
Some friends of ours brought this mask over for him to play with. A certain little boy has been wandering over to the dark side since Saturday night. We might need to have an intervention.

Exciting News!

I think we have shared this with most of the people who probably read this blog....but I had to post it! Last week we received a call from Shaohannah's Hope. We had applied for a grant from them back in December and have been anxiously awaiting some news.

"Now to HIM who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to HIS power that is at work within us...."
Ephesians 3:20

We have been asked to come to Steven Curtis Chapman's concert at the Lyric Opera House in Baltimore this Thursday, March 6th. His grant organization chose our family to come up on stage at the end of the concert and share a testimony of what we are doing and how we are acting in obedience to what the Lord has called us to do. We will get to share our story with possibly thousands of concert goers in Baltimore! What a blessing! We are blown away by God's plan for this adoption. He continues to confirm for us that we are on the right path. We continue to believe in prayer that our girls will be home soon and only when we put ALL our faith in the Lord, will miraculous things happen.