Why now? And how?

For the past few weeks (ok, really since we found out we were expecting again back in October), I have been pondering these two questions: Why has God placed such a tremendous burden on our hearts to adopt right now? Why did He not instead give us peace about waiting a few years? And how in the world are we, as a young family with now two little ones already under our responsibility, supposed to dedicate time and energy to raising funds, completing paper work, and travelling to bring our third little one into the family while changing diapers, shaping little wills, and dealing with pregnancy, nursing, and newborn sleep deprivation?

When I started this blog, I really thought this would be an exciting way to keep you all updated on how God was providing in amazing ways to bring our little one home quickly. What I didn't expect was to instead be sharing with you each week how the Lord is shaping our hearts and causing us to surrender our wills, plans, and timing again and AGAIN to His perfect plans, perfect will, and perfect timing. I knew this adoption journey would require trust and surrender and obedience, but I didn't realize how much of the journey would be about growing deeper in these areas and not about adoption at all.

One of the first verses I learned as a child was Proverbs 3:5-6, "Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and do not depend on your own understanding. Seek His will in all you do, and He will show you which path to take." Entering into our adoption journey, I have been so thankful for scriptures I learned as a young child as well as scriptures given to me by others to encourage us along the way. Proverbs 3:5-6 are packed with truth: words I grasped even as a little one but which speak to the very depth of my heart now. This journey really has been all about the Lord teaching me to trust Him with all my heart--not just once at the beginning of a journey, but along the entire path. That my understanding is not His, and that He WILL show me which path to take as I continue to seek Him.

Along with learning how to trust the Lord, I have also been challenged with this verse from Psalm 37:7, " Be still in the presence of the Lord, and wait patiently for Him to act." Being still has never been easy for me--as a young child I was always on the go, doing or creating something, and as a student I always threw myself completely into the task at hand. I'm an achiever--I love to have a goal, a plan, and put all my energy into making it succeed. The problem is I forget about being still in the Lord's presence. When I do focus on being still in His presence, I begin to see His will and His plans unfold, but I forgot to CONTINUE being still. Instead I latch onto the initial limited vision He gives of His will and run with it, depending on my own understanding. The Lord is teaching me through this adoption journey that trusting Him requires continually being still before Him. It is not a journey of doing and achieving; it is a journey of trusting, seeking, and waiting.

And so to answer the questions why now and how? Why adopt now--because the Lord loves His little ones in crisis now and desires to set them in families now, and because I need to learn to trust the Lord now and be still in His presence now. The months or years it takes for us to complete our first adoption are irrelevant--I must learn to seek the Lord and be still in His presence. And for the how--I don't know HOW the Lord will act, but I do know as we remain still in His presence, He WILL act. The Lord has recently given me these words from Exodus 14: 13-14, "But Moses said to the people, 'Don't be afraid. Just stand still and watch the Lord rescue you today. The Egyptians you see today will never be seen again. The Lord Himself will fight for you. Just stay calm.'" What an awesome God we serve who requires nothing more of us than to stand still in His presence and watch Him fight! He will fight to bring one of His dear little ones into our home in His perfect timing, according to His plans.

Take some time today to be still in His presence and wait patiently for Him to act!

El Elyon: Ruler of the Universe, God Most High!

So this week has been anything but "normal" in our lives. We began the week as you know finishing up our first blog giveaway, which the Lord blessed greatly by providing the remainder of the first $10,000 needed for our adoption! Yahoo! But, as we all are well-aware, the enemy did NOT approve of God's working and felt the need to add in his own attempts to discourage us, cause doubt, and dishearten us.

Here is the breakdown of his attempts, all happening within 48 hours of celebrating the Lord's blessing:
1) on Monday night, we came home from a short trip into town to discover that all of our all-season tires for both vehicles (rims included) had been stolen out of our back yard. The approximate value of the tires and rims was around $1000. (And on a side note, the police car in our driveway terrified Nathan so much he wouldn't sleep for hours but shook with terror screaming "Police! Police car!!" despite our attempts to convince him that the police are the good guys and our friends. Thankfully he has mostly gotten past this apparently terrifying experience :-).

2) On Tuesday, we found out that during our home study, a local medical office entered the billing wrong for one of our physicals and charged us for not a preventative health checkup but more of a specialized visit, resulting in an extra $100 fee that we have to pay out of pocket.

3) On Wednseday our garbage disposal bit the dust, resulting in nasty water leaking all under our sink and causing us to decide if we will replace it (for another $100) or simply run pipes in place of it.

So, humanly speaking, by Tuesday night we were starting to get quite disheartened, thinking about how we'd been blessed with several hundred dollars toward our adoption, only to be hammered with over $1000 in loss so quickly. The devil began planting thoughts in our minds like, "Did God REALLY ask you to adopt? I mean really, this is not going well. You can't even get "ahead". What are you doing?" and "You're having a baby in June. Just give up on this whole adoption thing for a few years until life is more settled and stable. Did God REALLY say you were to take this journey now?"

But the Lord is so SO faithful to "outspeak" the devil in moments like this. Through His Word, reflecting on the "stones of rememberance" He's placed in our lives to this point, and through encouraging small group discussion last night, He reminded us that He is indeed El Elyon: the Ruler of the universe, God most high! Our midweek small group has been studying the names of God, and this was one featured several weeks ago but is resounding in our hearts today.

We'd like to leave you with this passage of Scripture today as we're praising the Lord for WHO HE IS! He speaks truth into our hearts as we trust Him, and He is so faithful to guide us in His paths as He rules over all! May you be encouraged by His Word today:

Give thanks to the Lord and proclaim his greatness.
    Let the whole world know what he has done.
Sing to him; yes, sing his praises.
    Tell everyone about his wonderful deeds.
Exult in his holy name;
    rejoice, you who worship the Lord.
Search for the Lord and for his strength;
    continually seek him.
Remember the wonders he has performed,
    his miracles, and the rulings he has given

Psalm 105:1-5

Giveaway winner: CONGRATULATIONS!

First of all, I'd like to say a HUGE thank you to each of you who participated in our blog giveaway! Many of you donated, shared, and blogged about our adoption during the past week, and we are so grateful! We were able to surpass our goal of $10,000 and now have $10,125 in our adoption fund! Thanks again for your involvement. And now...time to announce the winner:

Congrats to Andrea Vinluan!!! She will receive all the amazing items that were part of our giveaway! A special thanks again to all our friends who donated items:

Brenda Romine of The Paper Rose for the beautiful metal work bracelets
Lindsey Hawk of Lindsey Hawk Designs for the family photo session/design work
Kimberly Cromer for the beautiful basket
Melissa Jo Smith for the awesome handmade washcloths
Leanna Pagdin (visit her Etsy store here) for the lovely handmade necklace and earrings
Jewel Romdenh for the Cambodian jewelry, scarf, and wallet and the handmade journal

THANK YOU, THANK YOU, THANK YOU ALL for partnering with us! Please continue to pray with us as we move forward in this adoption journey as we continue fundraising, applying for grants, sending applications to agencies, and waiting for a little one to be placed in our family!

Goal 1 MET!!!! 24 hours left in giveaway!

Well, the first VERY exciting bit of news is that our goal of hitting the $10,000 mark has been MET! We are currently standing at $10,100! Praise the Lord with us for His continued rich blessings, reminding us of His call to us to pursue this adoption journey. This means we are at 33.7 percent of the anticipated funds needed to complete our adoption!

The second exciting bit of news is that it's not too late to be entered in our giveaway! It is open until tomorrow, Monday, March 11, at midnight. Remember you can be entered in these ways:

1) Donating just $3 to our adoption fund will earn 1 entry. Click the PayPal link to the right to participate.
2) Donating an amount of $10 will earn you 4 entries, $15 will earn 6 entries, and $25 will earn you 10 entries!
3) Sharing this post on your Facebook page or Twitter will earn you an additional entry, and you may share the post up to 4 times during the week for 4 additional entries. Simply leave a comment on the blog here and let us know you've shared the giveaway info!
4) Blogging about our giveaway will earn you an additional 3 entries. Leave us a blog comment letting us know you shared :-).
5) If you don't have Facebook, Twitter, or a blog, simply share this via email with a few friends and let us know via a blog comment, and we'll also give you an additional entry.

If you haven't had a chance to view the fabulous items available in the giveaway, click here for a list of what you could win!

Thank you all SO MUCH for your participation! We have been so blessed to have you partnering with us on this journey.

Almost There!!!

So, we're just three days into our week-long giveaway, and we can't wait to tell you that we are just $29 away from $10,000!!!!!! How awesome is that? We started the week needing $204 more to reach the goal, and we are so very close! Thanks so much to those of you who have donated. Don't forget, a $3 donation earns you one entry into our giveaway drawing! Visit our blog post here to read all the details of other ways you can be entered in our drawing. One of you will win some pretty great stuff!

$29, four days left. I think we can do it! Thanks again for your continued financial and prayer support! Your encouragement has been invaluable to us in this journey.

Quick give-away update

Hey everyone,
I just wanted to post a couple quick notes regarding the giveaway (click here to read all about the awesome stuff you could win!).

1) YES, you may enter the giveaway if you live outside of our local area :-). We will gladly ship the items to the winner!

2) Please let us know if you share our blog giveaway link via Facebook, Twitter, your blog, etc., even if you are unable to personally donate: we will be sure to get you entered just for sharing our update! The more the merrier :-).

Thanks so much for all of your continued encouragement! We are so excited to see the Lord continuing to work in our hearts along this first adoption journey He's taking us on. His plans are so perfect and wonderful--we can't wait to see how they unfold :-).

Exciting Update and GIVEAWAY!

Today's the day! We are excited to announce our very first adoption blog GIVEAWAY! First, we'd like to announce another exciting update in our fundraising: to date, we are now standing at $9,796, a whopping 32.7 percent of the approximate total we need to raise! Praise God for His amazing blessings as we continue trusting His timing and provision.

Now, here's the next exciting part: we need just $204 more to reach 1/3 of our goal, or $10,000! Will you help us? We will be running this giveaway for one week, ending next Monday, March 11, at midnight. One of you will win these beautiful items by earning entries through the following actions:

1) Donating just $3 to our adoption fund will earn 1 entry. Click the PayPal link to the right to participate.
2) Donating an amount of $10 will earn you 4 entries, $15 will earn 6 entries, and $25 will earn you 10 entries!
3) Sharing this post on your Facebook page or Twitter will earn you an additional entry, and you may share the post up to 4 times during the week for 4 additional entries. Simply leave a comment on the blog here and let us know you've shared the giveaway info!
4) Blogging about our giveaway will earn you an additional 3 entries. Leave us a blog comment letting us know you shared :-).
5) If you don't have Facebook, Twitter, or a blog, simply share this via email with a few friends and let us know via a blog comment, and we'll also give you an additional entry.

That's all there is to it! And now for what you will WIN if your name is selected. We can't wait to announce the winner next Monday! We hope it's YOU!

Handmade Bracelet Set by Brenda of The Paper Rose

Family Portrait Session or $100 in design work by Lindsey Hawk Designs

19" pearl and crystal necklace and earrings by Leanna Dawn Adornment

Handmade woven basket by friend Kimberly

Handmade journal by friend Jewel

Handmade cotton washcloths by friend Melissa Jo

11x14 poster by Mae V Design

Cambodian scarf in pink and orange

Wallet from Cambodia

Cambodian bracelet and ring

Giveaway: Starting SOON!!!

Well, tonight was the planned launch of our very first BLOG GIVEAWAY, complete with some very awesome  hand-made items donated by some pretty great people! However, part of our adoption story includes the story of our existing family members, and we have spent the entire evening getting our son Nathan to stay in his big boy bed. In fact, we have been spending between 1 and 2 hours EVERY evening (and every nap time) attempting to achieve this same feat with limited success. Therefore, the giveaway launch is going to be postponed for this evening since we're all quite weary :-).

BUT I did want to give you a quick teaser for the items that will be included:
-Handmade bracelet set "Walk By Faith" (The Paper Rose)
-Handmade jewelry set (Leanna Dawn Adornment)
-Family portrait session or design value equivalent (Lindsey Hawk Designs)
-Handmade journal and Cambodian bracelet, ring, and scarf
-Handmade basket
-Handmade wash cloths
-11x14 Psalm 1:2-3 poster print

You won't want to miss your chance to participate!!! Watch our blog tomorrow (HOPEFULLY) for an awesome fundraising update as well as a full description of how to enter the giveaway, complete with photos of the items one of you will be blessed with! Stay tuned :-)