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!

Joy to the world!

Today for the first time ever Zoe and Nathan have been sleeping for over an hour at the same time. (YAHOO, play the Hallelujah chorus!!!) So, for the first time since Zoe was born, I had some quiet afternoon moments to read Scripture and reflect on the past year. In our MOMS group at Brookhaven, we've been reading the book Grace for the Good Girl: Letting Go of the Try-Hard Life by Emily Freeman. By the way, if you ever have a chance to read this book--READ IT! I'm only half way through, but the Lord has been challenging and convicting me through every page. Today as I was reading through a chapter the Lord took me on an incredible journey through His Word, highlighting His amazing gift of love and grace, and I just can't help sharing one very awesome passage of Scripture with you today. So in light of this Christmas season as we celebrate the amazing gift of Christ's birth, here are the words of peace, love, and joy that the Lord overwhelmed my heart with today.


Therefore, since we have been made right in God’s sight by faith, we have peace with God because of what Jesus Christ our Lord has done for us. Because of our faith, Christ has brought us into this place of undeserved privilege where we now stand, and we confidently and joyfully look forward to sharing God’s glory. 

We can rejoice, too, when we run into problems and trials, for we know that they help us develop endurance. And endurance develops strength of character, and character strengthens our confident hope of salvation. And this hope will not lead to disappointment. For we know how dearly God loves us, because he has given us the Holy Spirit to fill our hearts with his love.

When we were utterly helpless, Christ came at just the right time and died for us sinners. Now, most people would not be willing to die for an upright person, though someone might perhaps be willing to die for a person who is especially good. But God showed his great love for us by sending Christ to die for us while we were still sinners. And since we have been made right in God’s sight by the blood of Christ, he will certainly save us from God’s condemnation. For since our friendship with God was restored by the death of his Son while we were still his enemies, we will certainly be saved through the life of his Son. So now we can rejoice in our wonderful new relationship with God because our Lord Jesus Christ has made us friends of God.

Romans 5:1-10 (NLT)

Today I am SO SO SO thankful that "while I was utterly helpless, Christ came at just the right time and died for me." Let's rejoice in God's deep love this Christmas season :-).

David Enoch Piette

Dear friends, for those who have been praying for my sister, I received word yesterday that her little baby has gone to be with Jesus at 16 weeks. She delivered him at the hospital last night; a little boy named David Enoch, who was taken directly to be with God.

Please pray for continued peace for their family in the coming days. Thank you for praying with us. We are thankful for the Lord's mercy in quickly bringing our little nephew into His presence, and we rejoice looking forward to spending eternity with him some day!

A full heart

Today I am thankful for so many things, and since I haven't done the thanksgiving Facebook posts everyday, thought I'd share a few things I'm thankful for as we travel to visit Granny and PawPaw in Louisiana.

#1) The joy of little ones
This past weekend we were blessed to visit my sister Bethany, brother-in-law Tim, and the cutest nephew in the world, Elijah. Saturday was Elijah's first birthday, so we were so excited to be able to share that special day with them as we don't get to make the long drive south very often. Nathan and Elijah had a ton of fun playing together, and Zoe spent most of her time giggling or sleeping, so we had many moments of joy.

#2) Peace in storms
My heart is also full from some heavy moments we shared together this weekend. As I've written before, Bethany and Tim are expecting their second baby in May but have been given a diagnosis which will send their little one directly into Jesus' arms without a divine intervention of healing. Yesterday I was able to go with Bethany to see an ultrasound. It was surreal thinking this may be the only chance I get to see my niece/nephew in action, but my heart has also been filled with peace knowing that this precious little one will enjoy her/his mommy's love and protection until the Lord so tenderly calls her/him into His presence. What a great promise we have in Christ! This life is such a short time in light of eternity--and the hope we have waiting if we give our lives to the Lord is so great!

#3) The joy of the Lord!
Yesterday I was also able to worship with my sister and family at her church. My heart was filled to overflowing hearing my sister beside me and watching my brother-in-law in the choir singing their hearts out to the Lord. These two are displaying the joy and peace of the Lord in the midst of trial in such a beautiful way. Only in the Lord can we find such great strength, peace, and hope! He gives great joy in the midst of suffering.

#4) The Lord's provision
Three times in the past week our battery has died in our new-to-us van. Today I'm thankful it died while we were at Bethany's and not in the middle of Mississippi or Alabama somewhere. I'm also thankful for the great guys at AutoZone who replaced it for us quickly.

#5) In-vehicle DVD players
Yep, not spiritual at all, but oh so wonderful as we're driving, driving, driving, and DRIVING! The kids have loved watching and listening to the Wiggles, Toy Story, and Jay Jay the Jet Plane (and I have enjoyed a few mostly-quiet moments!)

Today I'm finding joy in the midst of circumstances. Praise Him today for His goodness!

Through the valley

Wow, what a year this has been. When we started this blog over a year ago, its primary purpose was to keep you informed of our family's adoption story. Which, at the time, we assumed would be pretty straightforward--complete home study, raise funds, apply to agencies, wait for a match, drive/fly to meet child, bring child home, finalize adoption. Our time frame, we expected, would be around a year.

About 1.25 years later now, we are sitting on an expired home study, simply waiting out our agency's mandatory "wait" period before we can resume paperwork in March due to our unexpected little Zoe entering the family in June. We love her to pieces and can't imagine life without her--and we also think our agency was quite wise to require us 9 months to adjust to this little bundle of spunk, energy, activity, loudness, hyperactivity...well...you get the picture. Her name means "full of life." So she is.

In the past year, the Lord has walked me through some deep lessons of faith and obedience and has taught me that God is who He says He IS, not just what He does. My view of God has been deepened so much to see that His character, at this present moment, is so incredibly AWE-some. HE is worthy of worship, not just His acts. I have come to love an awesome GOD, not just His awesome works (and how awesome they are!!!)

I have wanted so desperately to relish in this recent faith lesson, but the Lord does not allow us to become content after periods of growth. Instead, He continually draws us into a deeper walk with Him. Most recently, the Lord is taking our family into new territory of faith and trust--through the valley of grief.

Last week, my dear sister Bethany had a routine ultrasound, and suddenly things became not so routine. Her doctor believed there was something called a cystic hygroma growing on her baby's neck--something that could indicate a range of things but could likely cause an early miscarriage. This news was so sad, and she was scheduled to see a specialist last Thursday to get a more exact diagnosis.

On Thursday, they received some of the worst news a parent could hear: their baby will grow to full term and be delivered straight into the arms of Jesus. There was no cystic hygroma as originally thought. Instead, their child is not developing a skull and will not survive outside of the womb. In the best case, they will have a few brief moments to meet their son or daughter before having to say goodbye.

So here our family's faith journey enters a deep valley--a valley full of heartbreak, sadness, and loss. Yet a road covered completely in the peace of Christ and the hope of eternity! A road that we know ends in renewed faith, steadfast hope, and a deeper love for our God who will carry us through. Are we praying for a miraculous healing? You bet! Our God does the most amazing things EVER! Yet we pray that through the circumstances He's allowing, others will see His deep love, peace, hope, and comfort displayed.

Please pray with us in these days. Emotions are running high, yet the unexplainable peace of Christ has been guarding our hearts and minds each day. In all that happens in the coming months, may His great name be lifted high and be praised in the lives of all!

-Mae