Encouragement?!?

I always told myself not to post anything unless it was encouraging or positive. I didn't want to use this as a venting place, my prayer journal gets enough of that, but as a place of encouragement to show how God is working in and through me. Sometimes I need to remind myself that He is working even when I "feels" like He's not.

So I will try and drudge up some encouragement like...

the sun will come out tomorrow...or...God will never give you more than you can handle...or...Jesus loves the little children, all the children of the world...or...good always triumphs over evil? Some of those are pretty weak, but the simple truth is,

"Consider it all joy, my brethren, when you encounter various trials, knowing that the testing of your faith produces endurance. And let endurance have its perfect result, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing." James 1:2-4

Truly Humbled

Jesse was showing me how to review my blog history and I was truly humbled. There is a button that shows me stats of how many people have read my posts and from where. There have been over 4,000 hits on my blog since I started last year sometime. Amazing! My blog has been looked at 54 times from South Korea, 27 times from Germany, and 11 times from the Ukraine. Praise God!

If you all think that I have anything worth reading to say then praise God because it all comes from Him. Now a days everyone and their dog has a blog, but many of you have chosen to take 5 minutes of your day to read about our household and I am truly humbled. It definitely makes me thankful for spell check! If only my high school English teacher could see me now.

My greatest hope is that I portray our family and adoption honestly and that God gets all the credit for the good things in our home. I do pray for those who leave comments and please know they are greatly appreciated and cherished.

Jumping through the HOOPS

I was reminded of the Book of Joshua in the Old Testament this morning and how God commanded the Israelite warriors to march around Jericho for so many days then blast their horns and shout. The walls came down and the Israelites won. Why would God make them do all that? It's not a formula for warfare and it definitely didn't make them look intimidating or aggressive.
SO...
Why would God open our hearts to adopt from Rwanda have us spend a year doing all the crazy paperwork to then close the door tightly. Then when a year has gone by God opened this closed door and is again guiding us to adopt from Rwanda. I have spent a lot of time thinking about this in the last two weeks. The only answer I can come up with is because He said so. When God speaks I listen. If He tells you to march around a city wall to overcome your enemy then you do it. If He tells you to serve at the local rest home or teach at a Christian school for peanuts or travel across the world to spread the gospel then you do it.
BECAUSE...
This world is about Him and my life belongs to Him. If God wanted to humble the Israelites to show His power and glory by being the only reason they overcame their enemy then He gets to because it's His world. I feel blessed to be shown His glory and power in my life everyday as I live in Crazytown. Who adopts 4 kids in one year, both domestically and internationally??? I am nooooo super woman, I am a sinner saved by grace, but I serve an amazing God!

The Number Game

My head already hurts from counting kids all the time. Everywhere we go I count heads. Sometimes I start with 8 and just think of who's not with us then subtract. Just when I was getting the numbers down God threw us a curve ball. Now I'm going to have to start with 9 and subtract.

We have been approved and been given a referral for a child in Africa. This wasn't supposed to happen. That door had been closed last summer. But God..... He is amazing and does amazing things when we are asleep, or not looking, or pursuing other things, or just plain tired. God closed that door and then designed for it to be opened at His appointed time.

This was an out of the blue blessing. I know many may think I'm in over my head and I would agree with them. But one has to ask the question, "Is God sovereign or not?" I believe He is in control of all things and works them together for His glory. So if God has entrusted three boys from the state to us plus my children that I gave birth to then He has a great plan for this family as He delivers one more from Africa. Oh boy, here we go!!!