OH BOY!

"Every little boy needs...

a Daddy
to play catch with in the warm summer sun
to tell funny stories too when the day is all done
to fish off the dock as little men like to do
who'll give him shoulder rides at the park and the zoo
who'll make him feel proud of all that he's done
and make him excited about what's yet to come
who'll teach him to love others and God first in his life
be an example of what a loving man is to his wife
give him more joy and comfort and praise
while protecting and nurturing him all of his days.

a Momma
to hug him so close when he's hurting inside or out
to kiss his "ouchies" all better and erase all the doubt
who'll tuck him in and watch over his sleeping
encourage his heart and cherish dreams in her keeping
to pray over his life and help him to see
all that Jesus has created him to be
who'll be there to catch him while he's just learning to fly
and stand there with smiles while he soars really high
to tell him he can when he thinks that he can't
teach him to believe and embrace what God grants.


a Big Brother
that makes him belly laugh and roll on the ground
cheer him on at his games and toss a ball around
be proud of all that he's learning to become
while giving him guidance and strength to overcome
who'll send him running away in a fun game of tag
then make his heart soar just listening to him brag
about all the things his little brother can do
and all the moments he's helped him shine too
who'll scoop him up high and then wrestle him down
change his face to a smile when he's wearing a frown
who'll teach him to pillow fight and dive really deep
and who'll be there to congratulate him when he takes the big leap.

a Big Sister
to play pretend with and make-believe
to watch him grow up and help him achieve
all of his dreams both big and small
and standby to catch him should he ever fall
who'll read him books over and over and over again
and who'll cuddle him close when the thunder rolls in
to play in the kitchen while having tea at high noon
wearing silly costumes singing loud out-of-tune
she'll baby him more than he wants or he needs
and he'll be content to go where she leads
she'll love him completely and let him go first
and when he succeeds her joy will just burst.

And he'll know he's adored from his head to his toes
by the best, loving family that God could have chose."

© Shelly L. Watt April 25, 2011 {all rights reserved}

We just can't WAIT to bring our BOY home!

One more step...

The journey feels more and more real as we complete each step! Our agency emailed us last night to let us know that are dossier is officially logged into the "system" in Ch*na! Which is an answer to prayer as it means everything arrived safely in Beijing and is now accounted for by the C C A A.

Our Log In Date {LID} is 04.14.11! So we have been waiting on our Letter Of Acceptance {LOA} since April 14th {unbeknownst to us}. YaY! I love when you are waiting and progressing on the journey and don't even know you are! ha! ha! :)

The last part of the email said: "That means approximately 2 months until LOA and 5-6 months until TA {Travel Approval}."

I guess we might have to change our expectations about having Mason in our arms before his 2nd birthday, but we know God is in control and our plans are not His plans, although it would have been so nice to hold him sooner! :)  We'll just have to wait and see that the Lord is GOOD! :)

Happy Easter! God bless you and your family as you celebrate God's Love for us! And as we rejoice in the Risen Jesus who through His death and resurrection we have HOPE and NEW LIFE, I can't help but think about my sweet Hayden. The grave that was conquered that beautiful day - that my baby boy might also be risen to new life - it brings my heart such hope knowing I will see him again! And even now, I picture him singing with the angels in heaven around the throne of the King of Kings!

HOSANNA, HOSANNA! Blessed is He who comes in the name of the LORD!

So Loved

"for God SO LOVED the WORLD...that He GAVE."

What a pleasure it is to give to the Kingdom of God through donating to families who are working toward bringing their precious little ones home! One such family is in the process of adopting TWO little girls from China, and they have an amazing journey that they share on their blog Ni Hao Ya'll. Right now they are fundraising through a terrific donation/give-away. Just click on the button to learn more about how you can be a part of bringing these two treasures home to their forever family.

HOORAY for TODAY!

After all the paperwork has been processed, and notarized, and state certified, and authenticated by the Ch*nese Consulate, we are so excited to announce that we are DTC! It has been 5 months since we received PA (pre-approval to adopt George Mason) and we are so ready for today! Yes, our dossier is finally in an airplane headed on its way to Ch*na! Praise the Lord! Please pray that it will arrive at its final destination safely and on time! Next step...LID (log in date - entered into the system). Hooray for today!

Life is Good

So I just couldn't wait any longer and I broke down this afternoon and called USCIS to see if our I800A had been processed yet, and not only did she tell me it had been processed, but we were approved YESTERDAY {3.10}! woo hoo! She said we should be receiving the official approval in the mail sometime next week. Which means I will be frantically checking the mailbox each and every day! lol! Life is Good!

Finger Printed

We had a smooth day of completing yet another step in the process to bring George Mason home. Today we were fingerprinted electronically for the USCIS immigration process. Since we've been anticipating this step for sometime, David and I prepped in advance by lathering our hands up with lotion each night. Yes to Carrots! lotion is by far THE best lotion I've tried! It soaks into your skin and doesn't leave a sticky film and it softens and actually healed my badly cracked hands. The problem with cracked hands is that they make cracked fingerprints which can end up jeopardizing USCIS approval. Well all that time spent lathering up worked! We not only did not have to have them redone over and over again, but they took the first time! Hopefully, we will receive our I-800A approval in the mail within the next couple weeks and be that much closer to sending our dossier to Ch*na. For those wondering what the next steps are here is a breakdown of where we've been and where we have left to go. The bullet points in red are the steps we still have left to complete.

• Referral Photo 10.07.10
• AAC Grants Permission To Adopt 10.12.10
• LOI 10.26.10 {Letter Of Intent To Adopt Mason}
• PA 10.29.10 {Ch*na Grants Pre-Approval to Adopt}
• Home Study Complete 01.04.11
• Dossier Docs State Sealed 01.06.11
• Fed-Ex Dossier Docs to Agency 01.09.11
• I-800A Received 01.14.11
• I-800A Notice of Action 01.20.11
• Received Finger Print Notices 02.07.11
• Finger Print Appointment 03.01.11
• I-800A Approval
• DTC {Dossier Mailed To China}
• LID {Log In Date}
• LOA {Official Approval  - Letter of Acceptance/Confirmation}
• I-800 Approval
• Cabled to Guangzhou
• NVC {National Visa Center}
• Article 5
• TA {Travel Approval}
• CA {Consulate Appointment Assigned}
• Make Travel Arrangements!

Waiting

The Waiting Child

I saw you meet your child today
You kissed your baby joyfully
And as you walked away with her
I played pretend you'd chosen me.

I'm happy for the baby yet inside
I'm aching miserably
I want to plead as you go by,
"Does no one want a child of three?"

I saw you meet your child today
In love with him before you met
And as I watched you take him out

 I knew it wasn't my turn yet.

I recognize you from last year!
I knew I'd seen your face before!
But you came for a second babe.
Does no one want a child of four?

I saw you meet your child today
But this time there was something new
A nurse came in and took MY hand
And then she gave my hand to you.

 Can this be true? I'm almost five!
And there are infants here you see?
But then you kissed me and I knew
The child you chose this time was me. ~ Debbie Bodie

 While it is hard to wait to embrace our son, it is harder still to think about the children who do not have someone waiting anxiously to hold them. We wait to bring home our little boy, yet I can't help but think of the thousands of other boys and girls who are waiting in orphanages in China. Waiting for a Mommy and Daddy to love them as their very own child. Waiting for their turn to hold a hand and know it is forever. During the first several years of Jessa's transition to our family, it was hard. I'm not gonna lie - it was brutally hard. Nightmare comes close to describing it. There were many times that folks stopped me to ask me about adoption and about our calling, and I'm not proud to say I was "done". Famous words of mine when I get fed up with something. "Done" with adoption. "Done" with God's heart for it. "Done" with telling others what a blessing it is. "Done" because it hurt to much to keep on keeping on. Ashamed that these words actually left my lips, "I am NOT an advocate for adoption."

Yep, I said that.

More than once even.

Why?

I'm not sure. Maybe I was bitter from having gone through everything and realizing that my expectations were NOT even close to being met. I know I was hurting. Still not sure that God realized what He was doing. Wanting the easy way and always, ALWAYS, getting stuck with the harder path. Just seems like God has a plan to stretch me and grow me whether I like it or not, whether I ask for it or not, and whether I want Him to or not. And believe me, if I could choose, I would choose NOT.

Despite my adult-sized temper tantrums, God was gracious and sustained my marriage and our adoption. He has showered me with forgiveness, mercy, and grace. And the reward has been an amazing, beautiful healing between my daughter and me. Love has come - softly. It is deep and wide now. It stretches over the landscape of both of our hearts and is so intertwined with our past and our present that I am blessed to say it feels like "it has always been this way." But, I know that it hasn't. And I'm realistic about these things. Truth be told, there was a time that I cringed to read blog posts like the very one I'm writing today. Adoption. Waiting children. God's heart. All of it seemed to put added pressure on me and made me feel like I'm not doing "enough" for God. Like 1 adoption isn't nearly as good as 2 or 3 or more! There is an attitude out there that unless you are currently adopting, you aren't serving Him.

hmmm. Humbly disagree with that one.

God's love for us is not based on performance or good works, and He created each of us with a special and very unique plan. Many of us have been called to adoption, but many are called to serve Him in other areas of the world. We are all the Body of Christ. Each of us a part that makes up the whole. There is no heart that is purer or more righteous {right with God} than another. God is our Father. God is our judge, and it is not our place to put limits on His ability to work in us and through us in whatever way HE CHOOSES. It is His choosing.

So while things in my own heart have changed 180 degrees, and I have repented and once again embrace God's passion for the orphan and know that He is choosing us to adopt again, I do not in any way want to pressure a family to do something that God, Himself, is not preparing their hearts to do. The first step in any journey of faith is prayer. I'm talking down on your knees, faces in hands, lifting up heartfelt cries of desperate seeking - prayer.

Then, and only then, can you faith walk out onto the raging waters knowing HE is going before, behind and beside you. Because He has promised He will. And believe me, without God's calling to look back on when we adopted Jessa, without His tangible and clear signs validating our journey, when things got TOUGH and beyond me to cope, if I didn't have an "Ebenezer Stone" erected in my heart, I would have given up. I would have been "done". That stone of remembrance was a testimony to God's faithfulness and calling and solidified what my current trials and surroundings would not bear witness too. He had called us to go. We had gone. It is not what we expected. But it was what He expected. It was long. It taught us long-suffering. It was hard. It taught us hard fought love. It was dying to love her. It taught us to love her while dying to self. Without her presence in my life and her struggle to open these places in my heart, I would have never been able to truly taste the unconditional love of the Father. She has changed me - for good. He has changed me - forever.

I know that we are called to care for the orphan. God's word is clear. But even more than caring, what if God is calling you to love them - love one - as your child. If you are feeling led to adopt a waiting child, perhaps you don't know quite where to start. There are many in the adoption community who are advocating for waiting children. Some children have special needs - both major and minor - depending on your perspective. Some children's only "special need" is that they are older, no longer an infant. Before we can decide in our hearts that adoption is not God's plan for us, shouldn't we ask Him first?


Have you asked Him?

God, what is your plan for my family?

What is Your purpose for my life?

Am I fulfilling all that You've created me to do?

I read that Your word calls me to act on behalf of the fatherless.

Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself from being polluted by the world. ~ James 1:27

Once our eyes are opened, we can't pretend we don't know what to do. God, who weighs our hearts and keeps our souls, knows what we know, and holds us responsible to act. ~ Prov. 24:12

What role do You want me to play in this Kingdom work?

Dear Father, break my heart for the things that break Yours.

If you are seeking Him and His will for your life, I know He will show you how to reach out to these waiting children and help bring them hope and possibly a forever home. Whether through your finances are your prayers, isn't it time you got involved and touched God's heart by loving and helping a child that has no home? I want to encourage you to visit one of the sites below, and print out the photo of a waiting child. Place it on your fridge, or your bathroom mirror, or in your Bible. Then pray for that child as though they were your own. Pray for their family to find them. For God to give them a hope and a future. Pray until your heart begins to ache for them, and then...pray some more.

Wonderful Waiting Kids  (blog created by an adoptive mother to weekly advocate for China's waiting children)

Rainbow Kids (an exhaustive list of children from various countries and various agencies: in order review the photo listings you must first register a username and password - it is FREE. I was printing off children from this site last year to pray over when God called my heart again to adopt and found us our son!)

A.A.C.'s Waiting Special Focus Children (children from China & Korea listed with our agency)

Reece's Rainbow (children waiting with down syndrome)

Lifeline (adoption agency with special focus list - advocating for waiting children in China)

WACAP (adoption agency with special focus list, must request password and register - free)

New Day Foster Home (a wonderful organization that works in China fostering waiting children)

New Day Foster Home blog (blog that shares the journey of the children and their amazing impact)

Not every child I pray for is meant to be mine, but I know that God works through the prayers of His people, and there are many children who have found a family because God opened hearts through prayer. You see, I know, because this is how He opened ours - and George Mason is no longer on the list, he is no longer labeled as "waiting", because he has a family!

Our children arrived exactly as they were designed. There was no mistake here. They are a direct and unmistakable gift from God. He has given us children capable of copious amounts of unconditional love because we haven't been open to receiving the more indirect ways He's been showering it on us for the previous years of our lives. ~Courtney Heigele 

Maybe, just maybe, God has an unmistakable gift for you too!

Today marks the beginning of the Chinese New Year celebration! On the adoption yahoo group I joined while waiting for Jessa's referral, I've made so many friends and the group owner has been encouraging us with 14 days of Love Challenges. The challenges are very inspiring and today's challenge was doing something special for CNY with our family. The kids and I had already made paper lanterns yesterday and David helped hang up their masterpieces on a string across the kitchen table! It was the first time we've done this to decorate for CNY. Since it is such a major holiday in China and celebrated in the hopes that the New Year will bring each family: luck, health, happiness, and wealth. There are many traditions to reflect on and some we can actually replicate! One of the traditions is wearing a new set of clothing. Red is the lucky color! Apparently the donning of new threads, red in color, shows the "gods" that your family is prepared for the year ahead with "more than enough" wealth and luxuries to go around. We are celebrating in our own little way, making paper lanterns, wearing new Chinese silks, eating a wonderful Chinese dinner complete with noodles (long life) and dumplings (gold ingots), and handing out red envelopes with lucky money (even amounts only) inside to the kiddos. But besides the traditional aspects of this holiday, this year, we are also reminded of the promises that the one true God has for our family. The Something New He has given to us and the promises to bring George Mason home!

So while he is not here to celebrate, he is in our hearts. So I thought I would post his "something new" for this CNY. We received the bedding for his room and it is ADORABLE. I can't believe that we were able to find Curious George toddler bedding at Pottery Barn! I guess the Chinese would call that "lucky"! The sheets go so perfectly with the toddler quilt although we purchased that from Target. It looks like they were made to go together, but the quilt is actually from a different brand entirely. I'm so excited to put his room together.

And in case you were wondering...the girls are getting new bedding too! We found the perfect compromise for the girls who wanted PINK and PURPLE. This bedding has BOTH and yellow too, so we won't have to repaint the room entirely. YAY! They were soooooo excited to see their NEW blankets! And they will be even MORE excited when we get their bunk beds put together! Well, that's all the NEW we have for today. :) Checking the mailbox daily to see if our fingerprint appointment papers have come from the USCIS. Nothing yet. We really wanted to be DTC in February. That may be more like March now.


All in His perfect timing. Funny what YEARS of waiting for Jessa's referral gave us - a new perspective on waiting and patience for sure! Happy Chinese New Year! Gung Hay Fat Choi!

What's In A Name?

The other day the kids were playing with the ABC magnets on the side of our fridge. The girls have been learning how to spell their names, and they both decided to use the magnets. It was really cute! AJ was home sick from school and with his help they managed to find enough letters to spell out everyone's name in our family - including our dog! lol! I'm not sure what it is, but there is something that makes my heart so happy to see all the names of my children listed like this. I guess I've always loved personalization. Maybe it's because my name is always hard to find on those little kiosks full of key chains and mugs and what-not. I don't know - there is something just special about seeing one's name scrolled out for the world to see. Whether monogrammed or beautifully embroidered in full script, a name is a child's first piece of identity. A gift from their parents. A treasured keepsake.

One thing that has always been endearing for me is choosing the names of our children. It is such a sweet wonderful experience to search out the perfect name for the child I'm longing to love, to thoughtfully consider the combinations, to ponder over meanings and origins, and to pray for God's leading. Making lists, writing down all the possibilities, somehow the very act of it brings me closer to the Father. How excited He must be in planning a new creation - each child so full of possibilities and promise. Knowing He knows from the very beginning the names of our blessings.  And, while God certainly sealed names in our hearts for each of our kiddos, out of all the names we've given, George Mason is the only one that God actually gave to us.


We have a special book of names that not only includes the origin and meaning of each name, but also explores the spiritual significance of each name and provides a verse to go along with the entry. I LOVE that about this book!

GEORGE

• Origin: Greek
• Inherent Meaning: Land Worker
• Spiritual Connotation: Walks With God
• Scripture: Genesis 5:24 NRSV
• Enoch walked with God; then we was no more, because God took him.

MASON

• Origin: Old French
• Inherent Meaning: Stoneworker
• Spiritual Connotation: Overcomer
• Scripture: Revelation 2:17 NIV
• Everyone who is victorious will eat of the manna that has been hidden away in heaven. And I will give to each one a white stone, and on the stone will be engraved a NEW NAME that no one knows except THE ONE who receives it.

An OVERCOMER who WALKS WITH GOD. I can't imagine a more perfect name for our son than the one the LORD has chosen! :)  For all that little Mason has gone through and will have to go through in his life - to know that God walks with him and that He has given Mason the power to overcome is beyond comforting! But what I think I like the most about his name is that verse - Revelation 2:17.

In the Ch*nese adoption community, there is something magical about discovering what your child's Ch*nese name means. To accurately explore the meaning of a Ch*nese name - one has to know more than just the spelling. Each Ch*nese word can have layers of meaning depending on which symbol was used and what time of year it was and what season. You see, the Ch*nese do not just name their children - they weave a poetic meaning into each name by purposefully choosing a combination that gives blessings throughout their child's life. For our daughter, we rejoiced to see the beauty in her Ch*nese name! She was given a name by the orphanage director that graciously bestowed on her a life of shining beauty. It was, in the words of the Ch*nese, a good and lucky name. For that we are grateful.

However, not all orphans are as lucky. Some orphanages deem a life of "bad luck" on a child from the moment he/she enters their institution simply by giving a child a name without meaning. A name that either has a meaning that makes no sense, or a name that the combination immediately identifies them as an orphan, or creates such a weird juxtaposition that the hearer of the name immediately recognizes it as one that is not truly "Ch*nese". In other words, just by the act of naming a child, their fate is determined - literally. Orphan children who age out of the institutions at 14 years are often unable to advance in their education, finding work is difficult as many think they are "bad luck" or "cursed", many are not respected, and most discover that though they are Ch*nese in birth, because they are orphans, they remain outcasts in society despite their new independence - once again, they find themselves unwanted.

My heart ached as I read the words on our son's medical file. There is so much he has undergone in his little life - how I wish somehow I could have saved him from all of it. Pouring over every measurement and tracing the history of how he came to be - my eyes suddenly stopped over his name. His Ch*nese name. What did it mean? Who had given it to him? The sad reality hit me. He had been named not as a blessing, but he had been named as a number. Much like "John Doe" is used to track an unknown person.

The orphanage had named him for the month and zodiac year he was admitted and identified him as a boy. Nothing meaningful. Nothing poetic. My child was a number. My son was anonymous.

Perhaps they thought he wouldn't survive. The odds were certainly stacked against him. Maybe they use a system of names - and this was just the next one on the list. Certainly, my heart aches knowing what his future would have been in Chin@ living a life with that name and I fear, without meaning.

Whatever the reason, my son's name is part of his story, and a huge part of him. We will treasure his heritage and we will embrace his Ch*nese origins just as we have our daughter's. Still, I fear he will know the difference, and I pray even now that God will show Mason the miracle that he is! How much he overcame to survive and how much promise God created in him to live!

This name - this number - is what they call him now, but God, God had something NEW planned! And in that plan, that miraculous, glorious plan, God decided before the beginning of time, that our son would be named MASON and his verse, Revelation 2:17, sings so clearly the plans God has - to prosper him and give him a HOPE and a FUTURE.

And I will give to each one a white stone, and on the stone will be engraved a NEW NAME that no one knows except THE ONE who receives it.

Do you see it? Do you see the significance? A white stone - a clean slate. A new beginning to engrave a whole new set of memories in. God has not only given us a new son, but He has given our son a NEW NAME!

George Mason.

And Overcomer who Walks With God.


And for that, we are rejoicing!

Things Unseen

All around us God's miraculous plans are unfolding in things unseen. Our lives are orchestrated to a symphony that only The Great Conductor can measure in rhythms and chords. Our journeys intertwined among His thoughts and Higher reasons.  And all through out the daily melody of our life song, His divine sovereignty remains the ever constant cadence. The music of life is composed by the faith we have in things unseen - one note at a time.

What is faith? It is the confident assurance that what we hope for is going to happen. It is the evidence of things we cannot yet see. God gave his approval to people in days of old because of their faith. By faith we understand that the entire universe was formed at God's command, that what we now see did not come from anything that can be seen. ~ Hebrews 11:1-3 NLT

David and I both were surprised by God's call on our lives as He began opening up our hearts to the idea of adopting again. We had much to pray over as we pondered the weight of this new call. We have dedicated our lives to Christ, and our lives are His to use for His glory, but still, it was difficult to process the how? why? and when? part of the journey. Armed with faith and little else, we jumped in with both feet and full hearts to see what God's plans included.

And how miraculous our God is to supply all of our needs! He is faithful to fulfill His promises in His ways which are always higher than our own. This miracle of faith begins back in 2007 when we joined our adoption agency's yahoo group while waiting to adopt our daughter, Jessa. Little did we know the amazing friendships and encouragement we would receive from these wonderful Christian women! From the beginning, I quickly connected with a wonderful mom who was adopting a little boy. Her heart so tender for the plight of the orphan. She not only has been called to adopt, but is sacrificially advocating for those children who are waiting still to find their forever families.

As the years went by, we both ended up traveling to bring our children home from Chin@. Every now and then we would connect through emails, and then one day something very happy happened for her family. They brought home an adorable puppy. But not just any puppy, a King Charles Cavalier puppy! She had no idea that we had been researching  breeds of dogs for months and that David and I had agreed to purchase a Cavalier puppy as well. This would all be just a happy coincidence if it didn't lead to something more - some thing unseen!

Several more months went by and Sarah shared with me that they would be purchasing another Cavalier in the hopes of some day breeding the dogs to have their own litter of pups. The day came that she had prayed for - Kai Kai was expecting! We were thrilled to hear the good news as there is nothing cuter than Cavalier pups! The next couple of months would be hard for Sarah as she prayed over Kai Kai. Several times it seemed as though she might have miscarried, but each time Sarah prayed and Kai Kai recovered. It came time for her to deliver and she gave birth to three adorable puppies. And this is where God's life-song for both of our families began to play.

Sarah wrote me a beautiful email explaining that the reason she was so distraught over Kai Kai's puppies was that their family had decided long ago to give to the Lord a "first fruits" offering from the sale of the pups. They had planned from the beginning to purchase dogs to breed so that the sale of the puppies could provide financial assistance to an organization that advocated for orphans or a family that was currently believing God to bring home their child. She had prayed and God had answered. "God is laying your family on our hearts - this first fruit offering is to help Mason come home."

My heart leapt with JOY over the way God had woven our stories together. For it is then that I emailed my sweet friend back and shared that God had laid on our hearts to adopt a son with special needs, and that it was their faith to adopt their son with a limb difference that opened up my heart to the possibility to pursue Mason's adoption. Somehow seeing their son thrive in their amazing care softened my heart and took down barriers of fear that I had in adopting a child with special needs. I explained to her that when we stepped out in faith to trust God to provide for our financial needs to adopt Mason that we believed that God would lay our family on the hearts of those He had purposed before time began to intercede on our behalf. I explained that while they were contemplating which family to offer up their "first fruits" too that our family had been praying for God to provide the "first fruits" of our faith showing us that He would provide. We both wept at the others news! Only a God like ours can orchestrate a symphony of faith so beautiful!

Here is the story from her blog post in Sarah's own words:

I knew from the time we brought Kai Kai home that the first puppy of every litter sold was God's and not ours. It didn't matter if she had 1 puppy or 7 or how much the first puppy sold for. After we bred Kai Kai there were 2 times that I was sure she had lost her puppies. I cried out to God not because we were going to lose the money from the puppies but mostly because I knew there was a family that needed this puppy to help bring their child home. We honestly didn't even know until 3 weeks before she had them that she was pregnant.

Kai Kai has 3 beautiful, beautiful puppies and oh I will have a hard time letting them go to their new homes.

I prayed and prayed over which family would receive the money from this first puppy. I was kind of pushing a friend to start an adoption and get them to take it but I knew that wasn't right. I then prayed and prayed about giving it to some good friends of ours that are adopting but every time I tried to make plans for this puppy God kept putting another family on my mind. I can't even begin to tell you how many times God put this family in my head letting me know the puppy was to help bring their son home.

I wrote the mom one day and I told her that I couldn't believe I was telling her this because I wasn't going to say anything until we had the money to give them, but I felt God wanted me to tell her. The mom wrote me back an amazing letter that clearly showed why I was to tell her and that we had the right family.

I wasn't going to share the family on here but I want to because I would love for you to read their amazing story on their blog. This is a family that stepped out in COMPLETE faith, and God is moving mountain after mountain for them to get this beautiful little boy home who just happens to have a limb difference like Jaxson.

I wrote this because I want people to know that if God has given you a passion for something or a desire to adopt don't be afraid to ask God for creative ways to make things happen. Don't be afraid to ask God to multiply your money to do good things, your family or even your boundaries. Ask God to help you think out of the box and get creative.

So today, received in our mailbox was yet another amazing miracle - creative? yes! like only the Creator of the Universe can design! out of the box? for sure! The card reads so simply, yet with such profound purpose,

This is a gift from God, not from us.

Have a good day! :) 

And with trembling hands, understanding once again the full measure of God's amazingly beautiful love for me, for Mason, for the orphan, for the families desiring to follow His will and adopt a precious chosen child of His making, for each and everyone of us who believe Him in faith - I hold a monetary gift from the sale of their very first puppy! We have been praying for God to provide for the remaining cost of our home study update. Praise God He has given us the amount we needed! To Him be all the glory!

Some may be reading this and thinking to themselves, well yes, of course, God would do that for their family, but that's not how God operates in mine. I just want to encourage you, do not let go of your faith so easily. God is no respecter of persons. What He has done for us, He will do for your family as well! Step out in faith - trust Him to provide - seek Him first. So you might be wondering how? How do I believe like that? The Scriptures tell us that all we need to do is believe that Jesus died for our sins and allow Him to be your Savior, King of your heart, God of your life. Bow your head, fall on your knees, and humbly ask Him to come into your heart, be the one who guides your paths, that you long to follow Him all the remaining days of your life, ask the Holy Spirit to anoint your life with His power and strength, and then prepare to change your life allowing His Word - the Bible to transform you making you a new creation and to bless you with the faith to move mountains.

We do this by keeping our eyes on Jesus, on whom our faith depends from start to finish. (He is the author, originator and perfecter of our faith!) ~ Hebrews 12:2 NLT

David and I have faith so small that it literally is unseen! Often times are hearts fail us despite God's promises to provide. We hope and pray and wait. There are days we question whether we have embarked on the journey wisely knowing the cost both emotionally and financially. Those days are hard. And yet, God always finds a way of reminding us that this is not our plan - but His.

So take a new grip with your tired hands and stand firm on your shaky legs. Mark out a straight path for your feet. Then those who follow you, though they are weak and lame, will not stumble and fall but will become strong. ~ Hebrews 12:12-13 NLT

He will make a way. He will provide. He will direct the hearts of His people and guide their steps to bless those that are doing His Kingdom work. He is ABLE. Today has given us the first fruits of our faith for we hold in our hands "the evidence of things unseen!"