And we're off!!!

Well we are spending our last night in Florida and have already packed up the RV and headed to the top of the state! Unfortunately the last 24 hours went nothing as planned (Micah was up until 3 a.m., Zoe woke up at 5 a.m., Nathan peed the bed at 5:30 a.m., it started raining at 9 a.m. and ruined our outdoor day plans...such is life with three littles!), but we are nevertheless on the road and so excited to be on our way HOME!

If you've been confused on why we're still in Florida if Micah was discharged on Thanksgiving, there is a small "detail" after you adopt a child out of state called Interstate Compact agreement that basically means the state you're adopting from and the state you reside in agree that you can legally transport your child home. As we mentioned on Facebook, Florida cleared our paperwork this week after just four days, which is incredible these days as they generally take 10-14 working days. Our agency expects us to clear Indiana early this week; in the meantime we are free to travel anywhere in the U.S. (even Alaska, haha!), as long as we don't go back to Indiana :-). So we are getting ready to meet our newest nephew, 1-week-old Samuel, tomorrow!! We will spend a few days there, and hopefully head back home at the end of the week, as long as all lights are green with paperwork! If not we'll be poling you for the best places to visit in the country with 3 children 3 and under--HAHA!

We can't wait for all of you to meet sweet Micah! We know so many of you have prayed with us for his adoption over the past couple years, and we were so blessed this morning to be sent of in a circle of prayer from our host family just before hitting the road. We are so excited for all the Lord has done in Micah's adoption--we have seen the Lord working in every area, and we are so thankful!

As you continue to pray us home, please pray this week for Nathan and Zoe's endurance with being away from home. They are struggling a lot with being out of routine, not in their own beds, and not in familiar environments. They have enjoyed some fun moments, but they are really ready to be home. We are ready also, as the travel has taken a toll on all of us with the kids' sleeping habits falling apart away from home. We trust the Lord will strengthen us for one last leg of this journey to get all FIVE of us home for Christmas :-)

Oh yes, and and for the record, I have no idea how to format pics on our blog--but I will do my best here for those of you who aren't Facebook users and have seen no pictures yet :-). Meet Mr. Micah James--our newest sweetie!

 

Songs of Thanksgiving

While contemplating what to post on our blog tonight, I stumbled upon this verse on a friend's Facebook page: “The Lord is my strength and shield. I trust him with all my heart. He helps me, and my heart is filled with joy. I burst out in songs of thanksgiving.” (Psalm 28:7 NLT)

If you read my post from November 16, you'll know I blogged about really struggling spiritually with discouragement and anxiety. The Lord had been working in my heart over the previous months, encouraging me specifically to transform my thinking according to Philippians 4:6, “Don't worry about anything; instead pray about everything...” but I had recently been allowing Satan to speak lies into my heart. After asking for your prayers that Sunday, just two days later on Tuesday we received the call that Micah was going to be born. After about 45 seconds of panic, we chose to pray instead of worry, and just three days later we were suddenly guardians of a beautiful baby boy we'd prayed for over the course of two years.

In reading Psalm 28:7 tonight, I really just want to burst out in songs of thanksgiving to the Lord! Even in his few days of life, God has been Micah's and our strength and shield each day. So tonight I just want to list a few ways we have been thanking the Lord for helping us and filling our hearts with joy.

--Our sweet Micah James was born 4 weeks early on November 18. Despite being 4 weeks early, he has, as of today, passed his birth weight by 4 ounces :-). The Lord was watching over his delicate body, and we are thankful!

--Due to some health concerns, we had planned to be spending 4-6 weeks in the NICU with Micah. We were instead discharged on Thanksgiving Day after an 8-day observation with a couple days spent just waiting for him to gain weight. Though concerns could still surface, we are trusting the Lord that He has indeed healed Micah's little body in answer to many of your prayers! We were especially excited to tell Nathan that his daily prayers for Micah's health have been answered. The faith of a three-year-old in a powerful, healing God has truly humbled us, and we are thankful for the spiritual lessons we learn from our children.

--Many of you prayed with us for provision of housing and childcare while we were away. As you know, a sweet family is letting us stay in their RV, and to date we figure we've saved somewhere around $1500 already from the accommodations, which often include unexpected (and amazing) dinners :-). We are so thankful for the Hogue family! (P.S., for those who have asked how you can help us in our adoption expenses—please consider visiting the Hogue family's website here and donating to their orphan care ministry! We would love to see any funds that would have been donated to our travel expenses be put right back into orphan care!)

--We are thankful for my sweet Mom who drove all by herself 16 hours to get to my sister's to watch our kids the first week and then drove another 4 hours with our kids (by herself—gold metal status earned!!) with plans to stay with us for the coming weeks. Unexpectedly, my sister also had her baby 4 weeks early last night, so Grandma had to leave hastily yesterday morning and we're now flying solo. We are so thankful to have had Grandma around to help us get settled together under one roof!

--We are thankful for the Lord's continual reminders of “this is the way; walk in it” throughout our journey to adopt Micah. I could share countless ways the Lord has reaffirmed His call to adopt Micah, but one specific instance recently involved Micah's middle name. We had actually landed on a middle name for him together as a family, but then we really felt we would like to involve his birth family in naming him, so gave his birth mother and siblings the honor of choosing his middle name. After much deliberation and a majority-rules “vote” between his sisters, they decided they wanted his middle name to be James. We laughed in awe of God's hand at work yet again, because our family had also desired the middle name James. We are so thankful for the Lord's small reminders that He is actively working in our lives and calling us to follow Him daily.

Thank you so much for your continued partnership in prayer for our family as we parent all three of our children! We are indeed blessed, and we are exceedingly thankful :-)

The story of Micah

Well, God sure has taken us on a wild ride since my last blog post :-). I've tried to post Facebook updates here and there, but I think it's time for a blog post on what exactly has happened in the past three days.

Tuesday morning, November 18, we got a text at about 9:15 a.m. saying something like, “Guys, we don't know anything yet, but birthmom has an appointment right now and blood pressure is high. We'll know more in a few minutes.” Somehow Daniel missed the text, because the one he saw about 7 minutes later said, “Get your bags together—it's BABY DAY!!!” We got a phone call a minute later from our agency letting us know we needed to head south immediately—our son was on his way!

For the next 45 seconds I panicked :-). Then, we quickly began calling friends and family who needed to know what was happening, and within about 2 minutes of posting on Facebook, we had someone to help us clean and load, someone to watch our kids for a couple hours, and a trailer for our van coming within the hour (thank you SO much, Kimberly, Andrea, Pastor Michele, and Jay and Kelley!!).

Packing actually went fairly quickly as I'd been practice packing for nearly 4 weeks already—we had everything packed except for our last-minute items. My house, on the other hand...well, we are only coming back to a semi-clean house thanks to friends :-). We quickly felt the presence of the body of Christ as we were able to hit the road to Florida just 2.5 hours later—record time for starting a road trip with two little ones!

The next 21 hours were a complete blur of exhaustion, but somehow, we managed to drop off Nathan and Zoe at my sister's in Georgia around 3 a.m. Wednesday morning, after getting a text and photos of our son's birth at 5:20 p.m. Tuesday night. We arrived in Florida at 9:30 a.m. Wednesday and met our agency social worker, birthmom, and son for the first time at 10. We were so completely exhausted at that point, and the whole thing was so surreal. I don't know if either of us said anything intelligible to anyone, but we were able to hold Micah for the rest of the day. Our birthmom had decided not to keep him with her in her room, so when we arrived, he was waiting for us in the hospital nursery—we were the first to embrace him and hold him for hours on end—such a special time for us knowing that the Lord had absolutely appointed this time and this boy to be our son and for us to be his Mommy and Daddy.

That afternoon, we went to “check in” to the RV where we'll be staying as long as we're in this area. The family that is hosting us, orphan care missionaries Steve and Sandra Hogue, are some of the most gracious, generous people I've ever met! Sandra had fixed up the RV with everything we needed and also invited us for dinner our first night. When I got sick Wednesday afternoon (apparently a mean combo of exhaustion and stress!), she also brought me a get-well care package :-). She made us supper last night as well and had it ready in to-go containers at her door as soon as we had our evening break. We are super blessed by their generosity and really hoping Micah does not have to be transferred to a different hospital as we're really enjoying our accommodations here :-).

Speaking of Micah's health, we simply ask for your continued prayer for his health. He will be in the hospital at least four more days as originally planned, but there is potential need for him to be transferred to a bigger city hospital with a higher level NICU in the coming week. We are basically in a “wait and see” stage right now, with some hours looking great and others looking more likely for transfer. Please pray with us especially through the next several days. He definitely seems to enjoy snuggling with Mommy and Daddy and has enjoyed every moment of cuddling :-).

Yesterday we got an early surprise that it would be the big day when adoption consent was signed by Micah's birthmom, and we enjoyed a lengthy visit with her just prior to discharge. She is an awesome mamma to three sweet girls, and we feel so blessed to have been able to meet her. I will always treasure our time together.

At about 1:40 p.m. yesterday, November 20, Micah James became our son on paper! He will not have our last name until the adoption is finalized after post placement visits (sort of like the ending home study of an adoption), but he is free to be our son! We chose to name him Micah because it means, “Who is like our God?” so the moment we heard this news was such an exciting time for us—it was like the Lord shouted down to us, “See? I had a plan. I've had Micah James purposed to be your son for over two years now. Here he is—My son Micah--now show him My love!”

I'm sure this post has been a bit disjointed due to our lingering brain fog from the 21-hour drive, but I hope you can hear through these word the amazing story God has been unfolding in our adoption journey. We have watched God redeeming brokenness through adoption, and we can't wait to see what His purposes are for Micah in the years to come! May the Lord be glorified in Micah's story, and may you each continue to seek the King of all Kings, the Lord of Lords, who has a beautiful redeeming purpose for each life and a sweet path of truth and grace for each of you! :-)

When I am weak, He is GOD!

Most of our blog posts recently have pretty much been facts and tangible prayer needs and praise updates. Tonight I want to share a more personal, less tangible way you can be praying specifically for our family.

From the beginning of our adoption journey, we have experienced a much greater awareness of spiritual warfare than ever before. The Lord clearly called us to adopt in July 2012; shortly after, the ceiling collapsed on our rental house, the shed at the rental property blew over the fence to the neighbor's property, and the pipes froze at the rental and had to be replaced. We know now that the Lord planned for the sale price of that house to fund a large portion of the adoption, so it's very easy to see why Satan was targeting that home. Even just a month prior to its sale, the central air unit was stolen, causing us additional unplanned financial loss for “no reason.” One of our first hurdles in trusting the Lord in adopting was in trusting His financial provision, and we have seen His exceeding, abundant provision playing out in ways that we definitely didn't imagine.

My greatest personal spiritual battle took place when we found out we were expecting Zoe in October 2012, the month that our home study should have been finished. Welcome, morning sickness. Her pregnancy took me through a valley of depression due to physical exhaustion (pregnancy hormones and a 20-month-old) during which Satan attacked my emotions and my thoughts, causing me to doubt God's call to adoption and doubt whether I was even cut out to be a mother at all when I could hardly make it to the end of the day without my son (not yet 2) watching way too much TV (screen time before age 2=mamma fail, I believed). But THE LORD is so much more powerful than Satan! Through a couple months of desperately seeking Him through His Word and through the encouragement of other believers, He brought me to a place where I realized what it meant to rest in Him and wait on Him. He taught me to trust who He IS, not just what He does. At that point in our adoption journey, I desperately wanted to be fundraising like crazy, seeing our home study finished, and working on our family profile, but instead I was crashed on the couch. The Lord really freed me with this truth we discussed in mom's group at church: my children don't need to see a super mamma—they need to see a mamma who needs a super God. Yes, I was crashed on the couch. I was NOT a super mamma. But God was--and IS--a super God, and He taught this exhausted mamma how to rest in His presence and let Him be her strength.

This brings me to our current, deepest family prayer need—spiritual victory, yet again, for me as mamma to my kids. The past few weeks I have wrestled with great anxiety and discouragement. Satan has been attacking my thoughts regarding myself as a mom and as an individual, and I have been believing His lies despite knowing the truth about who God says I am and the truth of who God is. I've been struggling with losing the physical presence of a dear friend moving across the globe, struggling with having family spread all over the country, struggling with unplannable details of our adoption travel, struggling with consistent discipline with my children, and struggling with patience with my toddler. I have been feeling like a hopeless failure as a mom; weak, yet too proud to admit my weakness. I have forgotten that my kids don't need a super mamma but need to see a mamma who needs a super God.

And yet, I serve a super God. In fact, while we're not sharing his name publicly until after his birth, our son's first name is going to mean “Who is like our God?” as a reminder of the journey the Lord has taken us on spiritually through his adoption. I may be a struggling mamma, even failing in the world's eyes, but my God is so strong. He is strong enough to replace my untrue thoughts with His Truth. He is strong enough to take this weak mamma and strengthen her for even daily toddler battles :-)

As our family comes to mind in the next few weeks leading up to our adoption, please pray that I will know deep in my heart that in my weakness, He is strong—He is God. Amen!!!

November update

Well since it's been over a month since I've posted a blog update, I suppose I'd better write something (what use is a blog if there aren't ever any posts?) :-). This past week we got to take a “practice” road trip in preparation for our adoption travels as we drove to Louisiana to visit Daniel's family for a week. We packed all of our adoption travel items as well, “just in case,” as we've approached 34 weeks already. We didn't need them this time, but it was useful to know how travel would go with some of the ideas we had since we'll be traveling with the kids now. We learned 1) Zoe absolutely LOVES her Kidco travel tent, which was a HUGE relief to us knowing she'll sleep well wherever we put her as long as she's in her tent. 2) Taby Trays are absolutely amazing—Zoe ate an entire McDonald's breakfast sandwich without getting more than a few pieces on the van floor. Nathan used his tray the entire time for playing, coloring, and eating. 3) A travel potty is an essential van floor decoration for the next several years. 1,854 miles later, we're glad to be home but excited that the kids seem to be a bit better at handling road trips than just a few months ago!

On the adoption front, we got exciting news that we now have a scheduled c-section date of December 9! We are hoping to travel to my sister's a few days in advance to get the kids settled in with grandparents while Daniel and I travel the rest of the way alone for the first week, but the plan is for the kids to join us for the second week and following. We will have a minimum 5-day stay in the hospital with our little guy for observation, which will likely be followed by a 4-6 week NICU stay. Please keep us in prayer as we juggle spending time bonding with him, caring for Nathan and Zoe (thankfully with Grandma's help), and getting a few hours of work in for Daniel here and there (his work-from-anywhere job is just a HUGE blessing in this!!!)

Please continue to pray for:

1) Our son's health—join Nathan in praying for “our baby brother to be born all the way healthy!”

2) Safe travels—we'll be driving many miles, in order to have transportation available for the entire time we'll be away, as well as our supplies for our RV camping :-)

3) Financial provision—we are fully funded for actual adoption expenses, so we're trusting the Lord to continue blessing for extended stay travel expenses and any unplanned expenses. He has blessed “more than we could ask or imagine!” and we are so thankful!

4) Our expectant mom and family—we love her dearly and pray for her daily—please pray for a blessed time together with her at our son's birth.

Answered prayer

"Serve the Lord with reverential awe and rejoice with trembling." Psalm 2:11.

Today I just have to share an awesome answer to prayer with you. Many of you have been praying with us for details in this adoption to fall into place with our need to stay in Florida longer than expected. Well, the Lord has far exceeded our expectations and has provided for one of our huge needs—He has orchestrated a totally free place to stay for AS LONG AS WE NEED while we're there, beginning as soon as we need!

For this past week I've just been in awe of God's provision, and today I talked with the sweet family who will be offering their 35-foot ministry travel RV to our family for the entire time we're in Florida as much as we need it. They've offered for our children to play in their toddler play area, use their pool, and enjoy their 3-acre-property, as well as allow Daniel to use their wifi for work as much as needed. They have 8 children themselves, so we're thrilled at the chance for our kids to have some play mates during the long time away from home.

The Lord has just blown us away with His care for our family as he's showered His love upon us in caring for our tangible needs. Take a moment to praise Him with us today :-)

Praise and Prayer Update

I know it's been a few weeks since we shared our first very brief announcement that we'll be adopting a baby boy in December, so tonight we wanted to share a few things with you so you can thank God with us and pray with us more specifically.

First, we want to thank all of you who have been praying with us throughout this journey! We've sensed your prayers, especially recently as we've been overwhelmed with peace about moving ahead with adopting this little guy despite some information requiring consideration. Your prayers are coveted in the days ahead as well, as we have many arrangements to figure out.

We have been praising God for all He's done in orchestrating His plan for us to adopt this little guy. As you know, Daniel lost his job in January, but with the blessing of his new job, we have been able to save more than we expected toward our adoption costs, and his job is a work-from-anywhere job. Both of these are becoming huge blessings as we're looking at higher costs than originally “planned” (though, of course, not a surprise to the Lord!) as well as the ability for Daniel to do some work while we're away for the adoption. When we started this journey in July 2012, we had no idea how amazing and perfectly timed God's financial provision would be—our funding was 100% complete just two weeks before we were matched!

Our prayer needs moving forward are these: first, we're requesting prayer specifically for our baby boy to be born 100% healthy! We are likely looking at a 2-6 week NICU stay with him after birth, but we would be overjoyed to find him in need of no extra care after birth, allowing an earlier travel date home.

Also, as we're anticipating spending about a month in Florida, we ask that you'd pray for us to find a travel companion(s) to help us with Nathan and Zoe's care. Originally we'd planned to leave them here in the care of friends or family, but we feel that a month away from Mom and Dad might be a bit much for a 1- and 3-year-old. We are hoping to find someone with flexibility to travel in either November or December as babies have their own sense of timing (our baby's due December 13). If you or someone you know would be interested in spending a month at the beach this winter (with two little ones in-tow), please let us know (compensation will be arranged :-)).

Finally, please pray with us for financial wisdom and patience moving forward. We will be gone for an unknown length of time at an unknown time, which is a bit difficult to arrange until last-minute—I love planning ahead. Thus the need for patience ;-). We have a financial plan in place to cover the expected extra travel costs, but as the area we'll be traveling to does not offer a Ronald McDonald House or similar extended-care family housing, please pray we'll be able to find reasonably priced housing accommodations while there.

We are so thankful for the Lord's provision that has allowed us to say “yes” to adopting this little guy! We are so excited to meet him in a few months, and we thank you again for your prayers :-)!

The extraordinary ordinary day

Some days are just ordinary days until something spectacular happens and turns them into extraordinary days. Today was one of those days.

Most of today was filled with laundry, dishes, more laundry, more dishes, and trying to referee toy disputes. Cheerios were thrown on the floor, Nathan and Zoe giggled together and then screeched at each other, and the dog wanted to go in and out repeatedly. All part of an ordinary day at our house.

But around 3 p.m. our ordinary day turned extraordinary--today we received “the” call. The call saying an expectant mother in Florida would love for us to parent her child. The call revealing the expectant mom and baby we've been praying for for two years now. The call saying “you're matched!”

Instead of many words to share, we only have an overwhelming flood of excitement, peace, and sense of God's direction in a passion He placed in our hearts two years ago. For tonight, we'll simply say, “We're matched! We'll be adopting a baby boy in December.”

:-)

Adoption Fund= 100 PERCENT!!!!

Well, today's the day we've waited for for a LONG (long, long) time--our adoption fund is 100 percent funded! Our little house closed at 11:45 this morning, and we were able to transfer the funds immediately into our adoption account, bringing us to a grand total of OVER $30,000 available for our adoption. With this sale, the actual adoption costs as well as travel costs should be fully covered. We are so thankful that the Lord helped us pay off our little house early and also prevented us from selling it when we first moved out of it three years ago, as He had not yet called us to pursue adoption at that time. God's timing in prompting us to sell and in locating a buyer (just FIVE DAYS after listing it for sale) has been amazing as we're exactly at the point of needing our funds immediately upon getting a call for a placement.

Please pray with us in these coming days, weeks, months--???--we have no idea on a time frame, as we'll be in the presenting stage until we are matched with an expectant mom. Pray that we'll have patience and peace as we'll likely be presenting frequently. One big reason we chose to work with Christian Adoption Consultants is because they have contact with agencies across the country that have a great need for adoptive families. We have already had opportunity to present our family profile to several expectant mothers in just the past week, so your prayers are coveted as we wait to find out the child God would have for our family.

As you pray, please also join us in praying for the expectant moms who are choosing families to parent their children. Each time we receive information on an adoption situation, there is always a story. Always brokenness, pain, strained relationships, strongholds of addiction, or hopelessness. Please pray for these women who are making such a great choice for their babies to give them life and hope through adoption. Pray for people to come into their lives and share Christ's love and hope with them in the midst of their difficult life circumstances. Our hearts break reading these women's stories, and we pray they will find hope, grace, and freedom in Christ.

Thank you for partnering with us financially and in prayer on this adoption journey! We thank God for each of you!

July 2014

Since 2010, every July something eventful happens in our lives. July 2010 brought about job change, a move, and a discovery we were expecting Nathan. July 2011 was the least eventful year as we were "just" adjusting to life as first-time parents. Then, after praying for months about adoption, we felt the Lord clearly calling us to pursue domestic adoption on July 14, 2012. On July 15, 2013, Isaiah James Cromer was born and adopted by our great friends Nathan and Kimberly. Isaiah is such a joy to his family and friends!

Now it is July 2014. Every July I get excited and anxious for what's going to happen this year :-). With our home study complete, we have been sending applications to adoption agencies and attorneys with the assistance of our adoption consultant. This week we started to get our first calls about presenting to situations. For those not familiar with domestic (U.S.) adoption, "presenting" is kind of like the interview stage of applying for a job. Any time we are presented, that means our family's profile is shared and discussed with an expectant mother looking for a family for her child. The next part of the journey is called a "match," which means an expectant mother will choose us to parent her baby. These first days in the presenting stage have been exciting to us as we not only wait for a child who needs us to be his/her family but also hear of other families being formed through the blessing of adoption! We praise God each time we hear of a successful match being made as we know one more little one is being given life and hope!

This July is also bringing another HUGE exciting event in our adoption journey--our little house is going to CLOSE this coming Tuesday, July 22!!! We are so thrilled about this as once our house sale is complete, our adoption fund will also be FULL! After Tuesday, we should be financially ready to say "yes" to nearly any situation. We are so excited and praising the Lord for His awesome orchestration of this sale--the house was just 5 days on the market before we received an offer that we accepted.

As you think of us, please pray for our family being presented in the coming weeks and months. We will not be posting each time we will be presented, but just know we will likely be presented often until we are matched. We have been blessed to have an adoption consultant helping us navigate the waters as well as such a great network of adoptive families here in our local area who have been great encouragement! Thanks to all of you who have been praying with us on this journey. We're 2 years and 3 days in, and we're so excited for what the Lord is preparing us for! 

Quick Family Update

With two active little ones, we hardly have time to sit down long enough to write blog posts these days, but we definitely wanted to post a family update soon as many of you are probably wondering where things are with our adoption. I think I'll just keep this to bullet points since both my kids are supposed to be napping (but aren't) :-)

1) We are in the middle of our home study update. It is supposed to be written this week, which means it will be finished THIS MONTH!!! This is big news :-)

2) For those who haven't seen our Facebook updates, we are so very close to fully funded, pending the sale of our little home that we've been renting out for the past several years! We have a purchase agreement and are waiting on the financing and closing details to come together. We thank those of you who've helped us financially prepare for the coming of this little one into our family! We knew God would have to divinely provide funding for His calling to come to fruition, and He has continually amazed us in this area as we've had little energy for "fundraising," yet funds have been coming in continually. Please pray with us that the sale of our home would come through as expected so that our funding will be in order soon!

3) What's next? We will be applying to agencies that have been recommended by our adoption consultant and wait to be matched with a expectant mom. Please pray with us as we wait for the match the Lord has in store for us!

4) Please pray specifically with us for travel plans, as we could need to pack up to travel quickly to anywhere in the U.S. at any time. We are praying for wisdom in either traveling with our two little ones or having them spend some time with family or friends.

THANK YOU for your prayers for our family in this journey! We have learned so much about the Lord this past year and have been amazed at His provision and His guidance in this process. We're excited to see what He has planned for our family!

-Mae

Full Steam Ahead!

 It's here--finally--the end of March 2014. Zoe has just turned 9 months old, and we are officially able to update our home study!!!! We are so, so excited about this and are about 2/3 of the way through our paperwork already! Appointments have been just falling into place, and we will likely be done with everything but our home visit by next week.

We have learned so much about the Lord and seeking HIM instead of just His plans, and we desire to keep seeking Him as our focus moving forward. As we've been seeking Him, we have sensed lately that He's telling us to "get ready and buckle our seat belts" for His adoption plans for our family. He's confirmed repeatedly that we are to continue pursuing adoption, so here we are, filling out more financial profiles, background checks, and physical forms.

Please pray with us as, of course, our enemy Satan does NOT wish us to continue these plans. Our home has become a war zone recently, with spiritual attacks coming in the form of doubt, discouragement, despair, and anxiety. We've faced and are facing some major changes in our lives this year, and Satan has been working diligently on our family, trying to distract us from focusing on Christ above all else. Pray that we will NOT lose sight of our Lord as "life" happens around us.

The Lord has blessed us financially as we near adoption time, and we are thrilled that a large chunk of the finances could be covered even today. Please pray with us moving forward for the remaining balance to be raised in God's perfect timing! We have been feeling like it's time to sell our small little house that we've been renting out for the past few years, so we are praying that a quick sale may fill in the financial gap.

God is good! We have waited (mostly impatiently) for this time to be able to "do" something again. Through our impatience though, God has shown us how to trust Him more deeply, rest in His presence, and experience His peace, and we wouldn't trade those valuable spiritual lessons for anything. May His name be praised!

The Good, The Bad, The Ugly

The Good (no, downright awesome!)
Well, since I've posted, we have SO much to praise the Lord for in our home! First, Daniel has secured full-time work--working from home as an independent contractor for a digital asset management group (yeah, I didn't know what that meant either). He is now working out of his new bedroom office, with frequent unexpected visits from a certain little boy who finds sneaky ways to visit Daddy "at work!" The Lord could not have orchestrated this any more beautifully. Daniel's severance pay from his former employment finished up on March 6. That same day, we received our tax return in the bank, and the next day he received a full time job offer. The Lord is so good!

Also with this job comes enough income to more speedily grow our adoption fund. While we are so tired at the end of every day with two energetic little ones, we are so excited to keep following the Lord's leading into adoption! We will be able to start our home study update at the end of March, so we hope to add to our family even this year through adoption!

The Bad
Winter. Winter is, as my grandpa says, full of dirty, filthy, rotten snow. Daniel calls it dirty winter. And so it is. Our family has been sick for about 2 of the last 3 months. We are SOOOO ready for spring and health! Anyone with us?

The Ugly
Parenting. Sometimes parenting small children is simply downright ugly. This week has been filled with WAY too many explosive diapers, cups full of juice thrown at baby sister, unending whining, and a tornado wrecking our house (wait, I think Nathan was actually in the middle of that blur). When mammas don't lean on Jesus' strength, it becomes even uglier! In moments when I throw myself desperately into His presence, the Lord has been encouraging me to find rest in Him and experience His peace in these crazy days. I'm so thankful for my Savior who does provide strength and endurance when every ounce of me is downright exhausted.

Please pray for us as we continue seeking the Lord as a family! Pray that Satan will not have victory in discouraging us or causing us to feel defeat as parents. Pray that we will always fall on our knees in the Lord's presence and seek His strength, not rely on our own limited strength. May the Lord's peace rest on each of you as you seek Him above all else!

Snow days, rest, and adoption

Well I haven't blogged in over a month, mostly because our family has been sick, traveling, and busy shuttling around town for this, that, and the other thing. Getting the kids bundled up and in and out of the minivan in the winter is a chore that I'm not a fan of, so these past few weeks as we've had snow, ice, and more snow, I've been so thankful for some time to breathe and load up the minivan a few less times on snow days. (Oh yes, and there is also the 7-month-old Miss Zoe who hates sleeping; thus the lack of blog posts :-).)

As many of you know, this past Friday, we were forced into a time of rest we were not anticipating. Daniel was called into his boss's office and told his position was being eliminated immediately; he could spend the day how he wished and head home as soon as he wanted. I distinctly remember just a few months back sharing with some friends in my MOMS group at church how blessed we felt with his employment; a steady, secure job that was more than providing our family and allowing us to work financially toward our call to adopt. The Lord has provided nearly $11,000 toward our upcoming adoption costs, and we can't stop thanking Him for continuing to bring in funds when we had no physical ability to do the hard fundraising work (did I mention that sweet baby girl who hates sleeping?)

So when we heard the news of Daniel's immediate layoff, we were definitely surprised. We were disappointed in the loss of a job he enjoyed that was "providing" for us. But we also felt overwhelmed in our spirits with peace that ultimately the Lord is our Provider and has definitely been with us to this point and also knows what He has planned for us next! We have felt extremely blessed with a network of friends and family who've immediately set to work helping us find connections, and we've been relieved to have been working hard on Dave Ramsey's Financial Peace Baby Steps for the past five years (seriously--if you don't know who Dave Ramsey is or what the baby steps are, go here and start NOW!)

With this recent job loss combined with several snow days and cancelled events, we have had time to slow down, enjoy relationships in our lives, and seek the Lord more diligently. As we've prayed and sought direction, one thing continues to burn in our hearts--a clear call to pursue adoption and care of children in crisis. We started this blog nearly two years ago for the purpose of updating you on our adoption journey, and the Lord has reaffirmed that call in our hearts yet again over the past few weeks. In fact, last Sunday the Brookhaven missions month keynote speaker Dennis Wright spoke on the impending need to reach the unreached people around the world with the great truth of Christ. Miss Zoe was not cooperating that day, so I had to keep her with me in service and had to leave halfway through the message. While holding her in my arms in a side room and listening to Dennis speak, the Lord impressed upon my heart yet again, "Your family is to reach the unreached children--those with no one to love them, those who have no one to speak My name and My love into their lives. Welcome them into your home. Be their mommy and daddy as I am your Daddy. Teach them to know My name."

Since Zoe's birth we have wrestled with exhaustion and a feeling of "crazy" in our lives, stemming from sleepless nights, lots of activities, and a full work schedule. This month we've had time to enjoy the snow and rest. We are so thankful the Lord continues to speak truth and purpose into our hearts when we are quiet in His presence. We can't wait for the end of March when Zoe turns 9 months old and we will be allowed to update our home study again and see what the Lord has in mind for our family as we actively pursue adoption again! Please pray with us as we wait for employment to open up, and rejoice with us at the Lord's extreme blessings in both the calm AND the storms of life!