Psalm 100: 4- 5
Enter His gates with thanksgiving and His courts with praise;
give thanks to Him and praise His name.
For the Lord is good and His love endures forever;
His faithfulness continues through all generations.
Well we have been and are continuing to enter His gates with thanksgiving in our hearts. We are entering the Lord's courts with not just praise but LOUD praise! The past few weeks have been AMAZING!!! First of all our church & family have poured out an abundance of love, encouragement, and prayers on us. We had a baby shower at our church on Sunday, February 13th. Let me just start off by saying it was the BEST baby shower I have ever been to. I'm so glad it was ours. The corsages were a hoot! I had a little crown with some fur trim on it and it stated "princess". The had given me gloves, and an adorable pink purse. In addition, they even gave me a tiara! I always knew I was a princess and now I could share that with the world. :0) Joseph had a crown that matched mine but of course I had all of the bling on my crown. The shower started off with a friend of ours giving us a book and of course it was a "princess" book. In it was a copy of our blog. She started reading from the very first blog. Joseph and I just started balling when she began to read. We were just totally overwhelmed by what the Lord has done in our lives and on this adoption journey. Then instead of the guests signing "the book", she asked everyone to write prayers for us. But the next part was absolutely the BEST part of the shower. All of the people gathered around us and laid hands on us and covered us with prayer. Oh my gosh......the water works were going. It was such a sweet and tender moment....words can't adequately explain how we felt. It was so awesome to hear people go before the throne and intercede on our behalf. Joseph and I know that without our prayer warrior friends this would not be happening. We are so thankful that we have people in our lives that go before the throne and just ask the Holy Spirit to intercede on our behalf. Wow! That was a special time! The one thing that we have enjoyed the most is seeing our church family really unite over this adoption. It's exciting to see how excited everyone is around us for Elizabeth Grace to arrive. Joseph and I not only think this is "our" baby but she is really here because of everyone contributing time, energy, money, prayers, and encouragement and without all of our friends and family she would never be coming home with us. So in some aspect she is really all of "ours". We thank you for being willing to say prayers on our behalf, for saying encouraging words, helping us financially, for giving us advice, for just being there for us. Ok back to the shower......After the prayers were lifted up, it was time for some good ole fellowship as we like to say in the Baptist church. We would open up all of the beautiful gifts and show them to everyone. I felt like we were in the middle of Wheel of Fortune by all of the ooooooo's and ahhhhhh's and Ohhhhhhh's. It was a great feeling. We were very blessed because we did not have a thing for this little one except for a crib without a mattress. We now have have everything she needs. We still need bottles, and everyday things but we were truly blessed by the gifts we received on Elizabeth Grace's behalf.
Then our next adventure was this past weekend! On Sunday, February 20th, we met the birth mom. Talk about needing prayers that day. I was very nervous.....would she like us, what should I wear, what will we say, will we have anything in common, will she be ok with us having this baby....all of these things and many others were going through, at least my mind. Believe it or not....I get very quiet when I am nervous. On the way to meet her, I must have said about 5 words to Joseph. I just keep praying the entire time we were headed that way. Let me just say it was AMAZING to meet her. The birth mom was very sweet, funny, had a good laugh, likes Disney, is very smart, and has a tender heart. We talked about all kinds of things with her from family life, to church, to the adoption, and to everyday life. We spent about 5 hours with her on Sunday. Once again we saw the hand of God in this adoption. We got to hear her side of the story of how she decided to go with adoption. It was so cool to see how God was working on her end and how He was working on our end and orchestrated all of us coming together in this moment. I know I have said it before but it needs to be repeated. God perfectly places people in our lives. God perfectly places us in a position to do what He wants us to do. If we are obedient, His will .....will be accomplished. God's timing is perfect. We may not know today why we are where we are, but God sees the entire picture. He is working on this puzzle that we call life. God knows with whom we need to be connected to and what the big picture is and how it should look when it is completed. We just have to say, "OK Lord. Here I am connect me with whom you want me to connect with. Let me accomplish what you want me to accomplish for you glory." We know this to be true not only through this adoption journey but in our journey of life. Joseph and I can go back and look at each place that we have lived and tell you why we think we were there. We can tell you the people that have made an imprint on our lives and what lessons we have taken with us to be where we are today. God perfectly placed all the jigsaw puzzle pieces and we can look back and see what the big picture was. I am sure if you look back on your life, you will see that too. When you look back, remember that even if your not "feeling" like you are being used by the Lord or you don't "feel" like being used, God is still in control and He has the plan. He is working on your big picture....
The last part of the verse states:
For the Lord is good and His love endures forever;
his faithfulness continues through all generations.
Through all of our showers of blessing we know that the Lord is good and His love endures forever. We also know that His faithfulness will continue through all generations and it will be continued through Elizabeth Grace and the generations that come after her. We are truly blessed!
Thursday, February 24, 2011
Tuesday, February 8, 2011
REJOICE!
Rejoice in the Lord always. I will say it again Rejoice! (verse 4) Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything by prayer and petition with Thanksgiving, present your requests to God. And the peace of God which transcends all understanding will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus. (verse s6-7) from Philippians 4.
Well all I can say is REJOICE!!! We have so much to rejoice about. First of all a friend of mine from back home...her name is Andrea has been waiting to adopt a baby. She got a call about 3 or 4 days ago that there was a baby waiting for her and her husband. Today is her birthday and she got the call from her attorney that today is the "official" placement day for her child to be in her family. Wow! How cool is that! What an awesome gift from God. Now all they have to do is wait for the adoption to be finalized! REJOICE!!
REJOICE! Elizabeth Grace's due date has been moved up to March 28th!! REJOICE!! REJOICE!!
REJOICE! We have finished the homestudy! Now we can trash the place again...just joking....we keep it clean most of the time! We were so blessed by our homestudy worker. We know that God sent her to us. It was like we were talking to an old friend. She was a Christian and even let us know that she is praying for us in the adoption process. Never did she try intimidate us or feel like she was intruding in on our lives. She made us feel comfortable from the get go! REJOICE!!
REJOICE!!! We have given all of the information needed to our attorney so he can file a petition for adoption in the courts. He also has all of the information to draw up the papers for the birth parents to relinquish their rights! In addition, the birth parents are going to let us name the baby from the get go! REJOICE!!!!
REJOICE!!!! We will have to stay in Arkansas for 10 days after the baby is born due to the fact that this is the grace period in case the birth parents have a change of heart. Also this has something to do with the Interstate Compact and all of that paperwork. God has blessed us with family that is only about 30 - 45 minutes away from where the Elizabeth Grace is going to be born. So we will have a place to stay!! REJOICE!!!
REJOICE!!! That God has been working on the financial need in this adoption! We are almost there! We have been blessed by renting out our Disney Vacation club points, tax returns, fundraisers, and God just intervening! We have been blessed by working with a group of men who are mission specialists. They are helping us do a fish fry. They do this all the time to raise $$$ for missions. They are going to donate their labor. All the ask is that we pay for the cost of the food. On Friday, March 4th we are selling fish plates. You will get a half pound of fish, BBQ beans, Slaw, & cake for $8. Of that $4 will go towards our adoption. $1 will go to their mission work. That is pretty cool! So call us up if your interested and we will be delivering them that day. If you would like to help us deliver them on that Friday, let us know that too!! REJOICE!!! We know that God is going to provide the funds! We have seen His hand in every step of the way! REJOICE!!!
REJOICE!!! That we actually listened and obeyed God in our call to adopt! The one thing that has amazed me the most...and I always get choked up when I talk about this.....is that I love to encourage people in their faith and walk with the Lord. I share with people how God is always working in us, around us, and through us. I want them to have the personal knowledge, the first hand experience of what it is like walking with God on a daily basis. I think for a long time, I have forgotten about what God is doing in my life. I have forgotten that He is using me and Joseph on a daily basis, He is being seen by the people around us, and He is being seen by the things He is doing in our lives. Wow! I can actually see God's hand at work in this from beginning to end. You know I was talking to a teacher the other day and she said what if you never moved to Monroe ten years ago and met Bobby. Then Elizabeth Grace would never be happening at this moment. Only God can intersect our lives like he has. God has perfectly positioned every single person in our lives for this moment for us to give Him the glory and impact eternity. I can't help but to get overwhelmed at the love of Christ. It amazes me. It encourages me. It makes me want to know Him more. REJOICE!!! REJOICE!!! REJOICE!!!
REJOICE!!! That we have such loving family, church family, and friends. They have been so encouraging. The adoption ride is a lot like a roller coaster. You are climbing up that hill thinking that you've made it. You've got the answers to this question, or that question or you have this for the liaison to talk about to the birth parents, and then you go down the hill ninety to nothing...and then you wait for the answers, you get the answers and then you climb another hurdle. The good news is that once again God has placed all of the right people at the right time to encourage us! Now don't get me wrong. There are the negative Nellies out there and there is spiritual warfare going on trying to mess with our minds and our emotions. The good news is that we have prayer warriors from all of the above groups getting us through this! REJOICE!!
Now onto the rest of the verse...If you are reading this...I am proud of you that you made it this far! REJOICE! :0)
It states do not be anxious about anything but in everything by prayer and petition with thanksgiving, present your requests to GOD. And the peace of God which transcends all understanding will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.
So please keep us in your prayers. Please pray that we will not be anxious. Please pray for the birth parents as well. Pray that they will not be anxious either. Please pray that God will give us all a peace that transcends all understanding. Please pray that God will give others in our path a peace too. We all know the risks involve in adoption but our God is in control. He will give us that peace. We don't need to worry or allow ourselves to worry. When we do those types of things...we are saying that our problem is bigger than God. That is absolutely NOT TRUE!!! God has got it together. Please pray that we will remember that in all of this! Please pray that God will give the birth parents the peace that transcends all understanding about what they are doing for Elizabeth Grace. Please pray that God will guard all of our hearts and our minds. Spiritual warfare is all around us and pray that we are wearing our Armor daily.
But no matter what REJOICE!!!!!
Well all I can say is REJOICE!!! We have so much to rejoice about. First of all a friend of mine from back home...her name is Andrea has been waiting to adopt a baby. She got a call about 3 or 4 days ago that there was a baby waiting for her and her husband. Today is her birthday and she got the call from her attorney that today is the "official" placement day for her child to be in her family. Wow! How cool is that! What an awesome gift from God. Now all they have to do is wait for the adoption to be finalized! REJOICE!!
REJOICE! Elizabeth Grace's due date has been moved up to March 28th!! REJOICE!! REJOICE!!
REJOICE! We have finished the homestudy! Now we can trash the place again...just joking....we keep it clean most of the time! We were so blessed by our homestudy worker. We know that God sent her to us. It was like we were talking to an old friend. She was a Christian and even let us know that she is praying for us in the adoption process. Never did she try intimidate us or feel like she was intruding in on our lives. She made us feel comfortable from the get go! REJOICE!!
REJOICE!!! We have given all of the information needed to our attorney so he can file a petition for adoption in the courts. He also has all of the information to draw up the papers for the birth parents to relinquish their rights! In addition, the birth parents are going to let us name the baby from the get go! REJOICE!!!!
REJOICE!!!! We will have to stay in Arkansas for 10 days after the baby is born due to the fact that this is the grace period in case the birth parents have a change of heart. Also this has something to do with the Interstate Compact and all of that paperwork. God has blessed us with family that is only about 30 - 45 minutes away from where the Elizabeth Grace is going to be born. So we will have a place to stay!! REJOICE!!!
REJOICE!!! That God has been working on the financial need in this adoption! We are almost there! We have been blessed by renting out our Disney Vacation club points, tax returns, fundraisers, and God just intervening! We have been blessed by working with a group of men who are mission specialists. They are helping us do a fish fry. They do this all the time to raise $$$ for missions. They are going to donate their labor. All the ask is that we pay for the cost of the food. On Friday, March 4th we are selling fish plates. You will get a half pound of fish, BBQ beans, Slaw, & cake for $8. Of that $4 will go towards our adoption. $1 will go to their mission work. That is pretty cool! So call us up if your interested and we will be delivering them that day. If you would like to help us deliver them on that Friday, let us know that too!! REJOICE!!! We know that God is going to provide the funds! We have seen His hand in every step of the way! REJOICE!!!
REJOICE!!! That we actually listened and obeyed God in our call to adopt! The one thing that has amazed me the most...and I always get choked up when I talk about this.....is that I love to encourage people in their faith and walk with the Lord. I share with people how God is always working in us, around us, and through us. I want them to have the personal knowledge, the first hand experience of what it is like walking with God on a daily basis. I think for a long time, I have forgotten about what God is doing in my life. I have forgotten that He is using me and Joseph on a daily basis, He is being seen by the people around us, and He is being seen by the things He is doing in our lives. Wow! I can actually see God's hand at work in this from beginning to end. You know I was talking to a teacher the other day and she said what if you never moved to Monroe ten years ago and met Bobby. Then Elizabeth Grace would never be happening at this moment. Only God can intersect our lives like he has. God has perfectly positioned every single person in our lives for this moment for us to give Him the glory and impact eternity. I can't help but to get overwhelmed at the love of Christ. It amazes me. It encourages me. It makes me want to know Him more. REJOICE!!! REJOICE!!! REJOICE!!!
REJOICE!!! That we have such loving family, church family, and friends. They have been so encouraging. The adoption ride is a lot like a roller coaster. You are climbing up that hill thinking that you've made it. You've got the answers to this question, or that question or you have this for the liaison to talk about to the birth parents, and then you go down the hill ninety to nothing...and then you wait for the answers, you get the answers and then you climb another hurdle. The good news is that once again God has placed all of the right people at the right time to encourage us! Now don't get me wrong. There are the negative Nellies out there and there is spiritual warfare going on trying to mess with our minds and our emotions. The good news is that we have prayer warriors from all of the above groups getting us through this! REJOICE!!
Now onto the rest of the verse...If you are reading this...I am proud of you that you made it this far! REJOICE! :0)
It states do not be anxious about anything but in everything by prayer and petition with thanksgiving, present your requests to GOD. And the peace of God which transcends all understanding will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.
So please keep us in your prayers. Please pray that we will not be anxious. Please pray for the birth parents as well. Pray that they will not be anxious either. Please pray that God will give us all a peace that transcends all understanding. Please pray that God will give others in our path a peace too. We all know the risks involve in adoption but our God is in control. He will give us that peace. We don't need to worry or allow ourselves to worry. When we do those types of things...we are saying that our problem is bigger than God. That is absolutely NOT TRUE!!! God has got it together. Please pray that we will remember that in all of this! Please pray that God will give the birth parents the peace that transcends all understanding about what they are doing for Elizabeth Grace. Please pray that God will guard all of our hearts and our minds. Spiritual warfare is all around us and pray that we are wearing our Armor daily.
But no matter what REJOICE!!!!!
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