Wednesday, January 11, 2012

Rejoice!

"Praise the Lord; praise God our savior! For each day he carries us in his arms. Our God is a God who saves! The Sovereign Lord rescues us from death." Psalm 68:19-20

Reflecting on all that God has done in the past year is humbling. I am so thankful for the many opportunities Chad and I have had to serve and grow in our walks with the Lord. All the while, we have been blessed beyond what we could ever measure. There have been many moments where we could not contain our joy or sorrow. We have had many highs and many lows. Through all of it, God used it to show us more of who He is and stretch our faith, ability to love others, and bring our family closer together. While I cannot publicly share everything in our lives, I can share some great moments we’ve had since Sarah came home in May 2011.

We celebrated Ethan’s 3rd birthday.

Ethan's 3rd Birthday
Lots of fun, family time at the splash pad and pool!

Splashpad

Splashpad

Family trip to a local children’s museum and zoo.

Children's Museum

Some of our first months as family of four we tough. However, God has been using our time together to strengthen our bonds for life.

Bonds for life

The Lord blessed us with a new roof and siding at no cost to us.

New siding and roof


Our little princess doesn’t need any surgeries. After SEVERAL appointments, tests, and examinations, we have found that Sarah is completely healthy, healed, and miraculously thriving. She has not needed any surgeries or treatments for her feet or heart. She also does not have arthrogyroposis after all. She is receiving other therapies for core strength, sensory issues, and speech. However, this is nothing compared to what we originally were told about her physical needs.


Bonds for life


We’ve had lots of firsts for Sarah. We’ve particularly enjoyed celebrating our family holidays with her this year.

July 4th

Halloween

Christmas

We were elated to celebrate Sarah’s 2nd birthday, first with us.

Birthday Cake

Birthday Presents

On December 10th, we celebrating Ethan’s 3rd Sum Hop day. It’s been 3 years now since we traveled around the world to get him.

Sum Hop

Looking ahead, we are also excited to share that we are beginning the process to adopt our third child from Russia. A few months ago, Chad and I decided to commit to praying over the future of our family and more adoptions. At first we thought IF we adopted again it would be a long time from now. We thought it would be more convenient to wait until our toddlers were a little older and we recovered a little more financially from the costs of adopting the first two times. However, God’s plans are not always our plans and his timing is not always our timing.

"You can make many plans, but the Lord’s purpose will prevail." Proverbs 19:21

Through our prayers, God began to transform our hearts and minds day by day. In early November, Chad sensed a deep call from the Lord to adopt again and I was in complete agreement with him. From that point on the serious conversations and prayers over where we could adopt began. We decided we wanted to stay in Asia (like our other two children) and began looking over the options. Within a day or two, we both knew God was calling us to adopt again...now not later. So, we obeyed and have had several confirmations of this decision along the way. We both know we have a son in Russia and are anticipating the wonderful day that we can bring him into our family forever.

“God decided in advance to adopt us into his own family by bringing us to himself through Jesus Christ. This is what he wanted to do, and it gave him great pleasure.” Ephesians 1:5

It’s amazing how God intervenes isn’t it!? Russia is the one program we always said we never EVER wanted to adopt from. It’s more expensive than most programs, requires 3 trips, and many children come from understaffed and underfunded orphanages. In addition to all of this, FAS complications that go undetected are very common in adoptions from this part of the world. Those reasons were always enough to keep us away from that program. But God started to tear away our “concerns” and show us His heart for these children and this area of the world. Now, we are truely heartbroken for the orphan crisis in Russia and are developing a great appreciation for their rich and diverse culture. We are trusting God completely, step by step to provide for us financially and to work out all the details.

“What shall we say about such wonderful things as these? If God is for us, who can ever be against us?” Romans 8:31

We just completed our first homestudy visit yesterday. We only need two this time around. We should be filing our immigration papers, approvals, and fingerprints by the end of this month or early next month. That is all the information we have right now. When we get more updates or things start moving, we will update you all.

Thank you for joining us in our journey to become a family of 5!

"And whatever you do or say, do it as a representative of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks through him to God the Father." Colossians 3:17

Family together

2 comments:

Bob said...

God is amazing and it is so awesome to see him at work in your family! I will be following your new journey of adoption through Russia and celebrating each milestone with you guys!

Blessed Mommy said...

Wow, CONGRATS!! Sounds like you've been busy and will continue to be :) Can't wait to follow your journey to your son in Russia!!