We're in!

We received a call yesterday to inform us that we have been accepted into the Ethiopa adoption program! Let the paperwork begin!

I've debated on whether or not I want to write on the adoption blog that Duane set up and has done such a great job with www.oneprayerlater.blogspot.com . I think I've decided to let him go with it, as he is a much more eloquent communicator and I would feel like I was messing it up :)! Plus I think it could be confusing, so I will let that be his thoughts and I will continue to share some of my thoughts on this blog.

I've been wanting to share some of the scriptures that played a part in our conviction that our family was being called to this. This is not intended to be "preachy", but just a glimpse into how God prepared our hearts for this journey.

Ephesians 1:3-5

All praise to God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly realms because we are united with Christ. Even before He made the world, God loved us and chose us in Christ to be holy and without fault in His eyes. 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.

Deuteronomy 24: 17-18

True justice must be given to foreigners living among you and to orphans...Always remember that you were slaves in Egypt and that the Lord your God redeemed you from your slavery.

Psalm 10:14

The helpless put their trust in You. You defend the orphans.

Psalm 68:5

Father to the fatherless, defender of widows - this is God

Psalm 82:3-4

Give justice to the poor and the orphan; uphold the rights of the oppressed and the destitute. Rescue the poor and helpless.

Isaiah 1:17

Learn to do good. Seek justice. Help the oppressed. Defend the cause of the orphan. Fight for the rights of widows.

Hosea 14:3

In You alone do orphans find mercy.

Psalm 140:12

He will give justice to the poor.

James 1:27

Pure and genuine religion in the sight of God the Father means caring for orphans and widows in their distress and refusing to let the world corrupt you.

Amos 5:21-24

I hate all your show and pretense - the hypocrisy of your religious festivals and solemn assemblies. I will not accept your burnt offerings and grain offerings. I won't even notice all your peace offerings. Away with your noisy hymns of praise. I will not listen to the music of your harps. Instead, I want to see a mighty flood of justice and and endless river of righteous living.

Proverbs 24:12

Don't excuse yourself by saying "Look, we didn't know." For God understands all hearts, and he sees you. He who guards your soul knows you know.

I don't share these verses as if to imply that I have managed to embrace all these things and put them into practice in my life. I'm overwhelmed by how far I am from having pure and genuine religion. But right now I'm faced with the reality that He knows I know. I know that there are 147 million orphans in the world. I know He has called me to defend them and to rescue them. I know I'm going to have to do so much more than take one of them into my family to love forever. But it's a start. And I'm excited to be starting.

8 days

At around 2:30 this morning, Duane left for an 8 day trip to Honduras. He took around 25 students to build homes for the people in Gualaco. Please pray for their safety and that God will equip them to deliver relief and hope to the people there.

Ofcourse, their gain is our loss. I had to explain to the boys this morning that we are blessed to have such a wonderful man for a husband and father everyday and that we need to share him with others this week. I probably needed to hear this more than they did! The first day has been a little long, but church and lunch with our sweet friends the Breedloves helped it pass by more quickly. Only 7 days to go!

Mother's Day has traditionally been a bit of a bust around here because Duane is almost always gone on an end of the year mission trip somewhere. Not so today. My sweet Noah surprised me with a precious gift. Every month at church the kids have the opportunity to earn "memory bucks" by reciting the month's memory verse. Noah really gets into this and saves up his bucks to purchase things in the "store". I knew that he had several saved up in his bible. When he met me in the auditorium this morning he had something behind his back. With a huge grin he pulled out the most beautiful pink alabama ball cap I've ever seen :). He used his memory bucks to buy ME a mother's day gift!! Happy Mother's Day to me! I can't think of anything I would've wanted more. I needed that pink ball cap more than he knew.

I knew it was going to be a long day when Micah asked me on the way to church this morning "Mommy, who is Satan? Where do these little people get such questions? I'm pretty sure that when I was 3 my deepest question was probably "where's my barbie doll?" I don't know! I do know that I need to be praying for more wisdom than ever.

Pray for us this week!

We're what?????

Adopting from Ethiopia! That's right. I just threw it right out there :). We have a seperate blog for this story and this journey. If I've peaked your interest you can check it out at http://www.oneprayerlater.blogspot.com/ .