Responding In Faith

Our Pampered Chef Fundraiser was a BIG success. Our Pampered Chef consultant, Robin Stone, made it a wonderful event. I do believe she is one of the best Pampered Chef consultants I have ever had. We had over a thousand dollars in sales. Pampered Chef donated 15% of the sales and Robin donated 5% of her commission. We brought in a little over $200! Not to mention we got to eat some great food, learn how to “Power Cook” and had a fun time of fellowship. Who could ask for a better evening!! Of course I forgot to take pictures!!! I’ve been doing that a lot lately! Thanks so much Robin!

This is the flyer that Robin made for us.  It is a scan of the original so the boys’ pics don’t look all that great….but she did a wonderful job!  Thanks so much Robin!

Our Smoked Chicken Dinner and Yard Sale event followed the weekend after MayFest and the Mother Daughter Banquet.  I think it took our family the entire week to recover from all the energy we had put into the MayFest!  This event’s funds were split between our adoption fund and the mission’s team that is going to Stormer Lake in Canada this summer.

I was a little nervous about this event at first.  Not really sure of what to expect after the previous weekend’s events.  I helped get things set up for the yard sale Friday evening.  Russ was up to the church at 4:30 a.m. with the men to learn how to prepare the smoked chicken.  The kids and I were up to the church by 5:30 a.m. to start setting up all the yard sale stuff along with members of the mission team.  We also set up our craft table to sell items that were left over from the MayFest.

The event was long and our family was exhausted, but it was all worth it.  With our craft table and the split of the monies brought in from the chicken dinner and the yard sale, the adoption fund brought in a little over $800!!  Praise the Lord.  We owe so much thanks to so many people!!!  Thanks for all the hard work from everyone to make it a HUGE success!

I guess I was feeling a little uncertainity from the previous week, but was reminded quickly in my heart by God that He had told us not to worry.  That He would provide the funding needed for this adoption.    I just needed to continue to walk out in faith and trust in my Lord.  I was reminded of a prayer that Paul said for the Colossians:

“…[S]ince the day we heard about you, we have not stopped praying for you and asking God to fill you with the knowledge of His will through all spiritual wisdom and understanding.  And we pray this in order that you may live a life worthy of the Lord and may please Him in every way: bearing fruit in every good work, growing in the knowledge of God, being strengthened with all power according to His glorious might so that you may have great endurance and patience, and joyfully giving thanks to the Father, who has qualified you to share in the inheritance of the saints in the kingdom of light.  For He has rescued us from the dominion of darkness and brought us into the kingdom of the Son He loves, in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins,” (Colossians 1:9-14).

Such powerful words!  How can I not be encouraged!  Through the fundraisers that are successful and through those that are not, we are still bearing fruit in every good work!  God’s light must shine through me as we go through this process.  Every event is a success in some way.  Our family has been growing in the knowledge of God and being strengthened by that each day!  Through this process we are gaining endurance to push through and make it to the finish line!  We are learning  so much about patience and waiting patiently upon our Lord and His timing!  And through it all we are learning with each day to be joyful and to give Him the praise!  I know that there are some of you who are reading this that are in the adoption process and wondering how in the world you could ever pull together the funding.  I also know that there are some of you out there that have just been waiting on the Lord to make something extraordinary happen in your life. 

Let me encourage you as Paul encouraged the Corinthians, “Do you not know that in a race all the runners run, but only one gets the prize?  Run in such a way as to get the prize.  Everyone who competes in the games goes into strict training.  They do it to get a crown that will not last; but we do it to get a crown that will last forever.  Therefore I do not run like a man running aimlessly; I do not fight like a man beating the air.  No, I beat my body and make it my slave so that after I have preached to others, I myself will not be disqualified for the prize,” (1 Corinthians 9:24-27).

Keep striving forward.  Keep looking ahead and up towards your eternal reward!  God calls each of us differently, but it is all for the same goal!  We can easily be taken astray and look away from the goal that God has laid out before us.  So I encourage you to hold on to your “courage and the hope of which we boast,’ (Hebrews 3: 6).  It is hard to walk in faith when we can’t see the end result.  Find strength in God’s word!  Continue to look heavenward.  Continue to put your trust in Him!

I was asked to speak at our church’s mother daughter banquet.  I was asked to tie our adoption journey in with footprints.  Here is my speech:

  Billy Graham once said, “No matter where we look, we see God’s footprints.”  His fottprints are all around us.  “Some people come into our lives and quickly go.  Some stay for awile and leave footprints on lur hearts.  And we are never, ever the same,” (anonymous).  When God place those people in our lives and makes sure that those people leave footprints on our lives, He expects us to do something with them.  God is leading each of us on a journey and places the path out before us, wheter we choose to be obedient or not is up to us.

Through out the Bible there are stories about God speaking to individuals and giving them the direction and the path that they are to follow.  Abram is one of the first to come to my mind.  Genesis 12:1 states, “The Lord had said to Abram, ‘Leave your country, your people and your father’s household and go to the land I will show you.’”

I had read this verse many times, but on one particular day I read it and something stirred up inside of me.  I knew that God was speaking to me.  I could feel it in my heart.  Have you ever heard God speak to you?  It is a hard thing to explain…most unbelievers would just look at you and wonder if you were “hearing voices” and take two steps back!  But on this particular day, May 2004, God wanted me to know that that particular verse was for me.

In my heart I could see certain details, but the whole thing wasn’t completely laid out.  I heard Africa and children.  That was it.  Then underneath that verse in my bible there was a commentary.  This is what it said:

“In such ordinary things comes the roar of God.  The quaking world is reborn in the name of nameless people who obeyed the extraordinary claim God held on their lives.  They were faithful, and in following their faithfulness they were swallowed whole by God’s blessings.  Did you once hear a whisper of simplicity?  Did it seem an unimportant thing?  Did it seem unreasonable?  Listen up!  God waits to bless you.  He longs to bless you.  All you have to do is say, “Yes, Lord, I will!”  Then act upon the whisper.”

I was ready to act!!  “Yes, Lord!!  I will go!!”  I was so excited.  I didn’t know the details, just Africa and children.  I shared my excitement with Russell, needless to say, he did not share in my excitement.  Actually, he put his foot down and said, I like it here.  I like it where I live.  I like having a roof over my head….

I have to admit, my timing was not good and I didn’t know all the details.  God was just preparing my heart.  Just five months prior to this, we had added to our family through the wonderful world of adoption.  These were footprints that God had placed on my heart when I was just a child.  Let me share with you the footprints that lead us up to this point.

I always knew that I would adopt.  When I met Russell I had told him that I wanted a large family some day and that I wanted to adopt.  Well, that didn’t scare him off and soon after we were married.  We had three beautiful children, Anthony, Hannah, and Hailey.  After Hailey was born we moved to NC and before we knew it we were taking classes through social services so taht we could start the adoption process.  After we had completed our course work, we waited.  The wait seemed to last forever.  But then one beautiful January afternoon, I received the phone call.  “We have a little girl.  She is almost two.  She has blue eyes, blonde hair.  Very small.  She is legally free and needs to be placed this week.  I can email you pictures…”  I didn’t need pictures.  This was teh path that God had placed me on long before.  These were the footprints I had been following, waiting patiently to see what would be revealed.  My heart skipped a beat.  I immediately fell in love.  Aubrey was birthed from my heart at that very moment!  I knew that God had meant her for us!

Not even three months later, Anthony was praying for a brother.  I guess there were too many girls in the house!  Well, one night I went to his room to do his evening devotijonal with him.  I sat down beside him on the floor and God spoke loud and clear.  It was almost as if He were sitting right there beside me whispering in my ear:  “Your son is coming soon!”  My heart skipped a beat.  My eyes were flooded with tears.  Anthony looked at me and asked, “Why are you crying mom?”  I looked at Anthony and told him that God was preparing our hearts for his new brother.

Russell was late getting home that evening.  I tried to figure out how I would tell him about this new path that God was taking us on.  I didn’t know any details.  I only knew that our son was coming soon.  I chose not to say anything to Russell at the time.  After all would he think I was crazy??  Hearing voices?  I chose not to say anything to Russell at the time.  Two weeks later I received a phone call from my aunt in NY.  She called to congratulate us on Aubrey and said that she heard we were wanting to adopt again.  I told her yes we were.  I explained to her that we were hoping to adopt a little boy next.  Anthony had really wanted a brother.  My aunt replied, “That is why I am calling you!”  She had a friend who was a foster care mother for a number of years and one of the girls she raised had a little boy named Austin that she was looking for a home for.  Could she give them our number?  Yes, of course.  This would give us time to pray in between.  Well, now I was really in a rut.  I had to say something to Russell.  I was very nervous.  I was aftraid he would say no.  Whe I shared everything with Russell, he was very unsure about the whole thing.  Aubrey was still so new and we were still adjusting to her.  I asked him if he would just pray about it and he said he would.  I prayed continuously for two weeks.  We had not heard anything.  I felt like I was supposed to do something but didn’t know what.  It was on a Saturday evening that I prayed again to God.  “Lord, I just don’t feel any peace about this.  I know I am supposed to do something, but don’t know what.  Lord, please give me a sense of peace.  If you have another family for him, that is ok.  Just give me peace.”  The very next day, we received a phone call from the birth mother and her foster care mother.  We talked a long time.  Then I got off the phone and spoke with Russell.  He had more questions.  So we called back and spoke with the foster care mother and she told us the birth mother’s history and what was going on in a little more detail.  Russ and I talked some more and prayed.  Russ had so much uncertainty.  Finally, I know God had to do this if it was meant to happen.  I read Hebrews 11 to Russella dn just talked to him about all the people that had to step out in faith in their walks with God.  I talked to him about how clearly I had heard God’s voice.  But I told him, that he was the head of the house and I would support whatever decision he made.  We prayed some more and then Russ said, “We will leave tomorrow after work.”  God had given me the message and Russell chose to follow the footprints taht God had laid out before him.  He was uncertain of what would lie at the end, but he chose to follow.

God rewarded Russell for his obedience.  Austin did not know that he was going to be adopted, but somehow, God let Austin know that when Russ walked in the room that he was his daddy.  Austin took one look at Russell and immediately called him daddy.  No one had prepared him or told him what was going on.  When we left the next day with Austin and all his belongings, Russell looked at me and said that he could look back over the past view months and see that God had been preparing him for Austin.  He  was glad that he stepped out in faith even though at the time he couldn’t see the end result.

Austin arrived to his new home on April 12.  Non one could believe that someone would just give up their child like Austin’s birth mother did.  But they didn’t know her and they didn’t know her heart.  She knew she couldn’t give him what he needed.  She knew that he needed something better.  God placed that on her heart.  God led her to us.  She is a good mother because she gave her son what she knew he needed and she couldn’t give.

This brings us up to the moment where I left off.  Going to Africa.  Children.  On May 1, 2004, Russell lost his job.  We had no income.  Our family had just grown by leaps and bounds.  Our business was just getting started and Sony thinks we are suppose to move to Africa!

It was after my revelation to Russell that we went to visit a friend from our church.  He had someone that he wanted to pray over us and speak with us about our situation.  When we were speaking she had asked if there was anything that we wanted to share.  Russell looked at me and said, “Go ahead, Sonya.  Tell her what God told you.”  I told her about Africa and Children.  Not knowing any details.  She looked at Russell and told him that it didn’t mean we were going tom orrow or even next year.  God was just laying out the footprints on the path for us to follow.  When we were getting ready to leave, she ran up to Russell and I and said she had a verse that God wanted her to give to us.  It was from Psalm 32:3, “I will instruct you and teach you the way you should go; I will consel you and watch over you.”

Now I bring you to the present.  In November of 2006, I felt God calling me to fast.  I thought I was fasting for one of my children in my home, but as I was going through the process, God revealed to me that there were three children that were not yet home.  You would think that I would learn that  God only gives me small pieces at a time.  He wants me to be patient and wait for His plan to be unveiled.  Well, I went to the  adopt US kids website and saw a new sibling group on there.  They just happened to be a sibling group of three.  So I thought I was going to Russell with all the info in hand and ready to present God’s case.  When I came to Russell, he knew that I had something up my sleeve.  I presented to him the three children and about how I had fasted and what God revealed to me…Well, one thing lead to another and all doors were closed on this sibling group.  In a way, I think it was supposed to happen that way because God was preparing Russell’s heart for something bigger and the idea of three was placed on his heart.  Both Russell and I knew that we were supposed to adopt again.  We were searching for the path that God wanted to take us on.  I was desperately searching for God’s footprints around me.  Finally, I threw my hands up in the air.  I told Russell I was going to quit searching,  The desire is so heavy on my heart, I know I have more children out there, but I don’t know what to do.  So I prayed to God and said, “Lord, I give all this to you.  You are in control.  Not me.  If there are more children, you show the way.”  So the idea of three was tossed aside for a little bit.

In January of 2007, I was looking on the Proverbs 31 Ministry’s website.  While I was on there, I saw that Lysa TerKeurst had adopted children from Liberia.  Well, I love to hear other people’s adoption stories.  Well, one thing led to another and I was soon reading the story of this family in Louisville, KY  who had seven biological children and had adopted six children from teh same orphanage as Lysa.  Their story was great.  I read it to Russell.  God must have been stirring something in Russell’s heart.  He wanted to know more about these Liberian Adoptions.  So I researched and shared.  Before we knew it an agency was asking us to fill out a questionnaire.  I asked Russell if he wanted me to do this.  Yes.  Let’s see what we can find out.  Well, before we knew it, they sent us pictures of four different sibling groups that they were referring to us.  Whe I received the pictures, I looked through all of them.  The last pictures were of Joel, Jeremiah and Samuel.  They spoke to my heart immediately.  I knew they were my missing children.  I didn’t say anything to Russell.  I let him look at teh pictures.  The boys spoke to Russell and well.  But there were three.  That would put us out of our vehicle.  Just like a man to be thinking in those terms!  But God knew what Russell needed to hear.  We prayed.  I asked himn what he thought.  They are beautiful.  But there are three.  Several days later he came home and proclaimed, “We are bringing our boys home.  I can get a fourth row seat for the excursion and we can seat 12!!”  God knows our hearts!

And now I take you back to that original scripture, Genesis 12:1, “The Lord had said to Abram, ‘Leave your country, your people and your father’s household and go to the land I will show you.’”  You see it was back in May of 2004 that God started laying out the footprints for us to follow for this adoption.  He showed us Africa!  I was willing to say YES LORD at that time.  I acted upon that whisper that God placed upon my heart.Charles Stanley once said, “As you walk through the valley of the unknown, you will find the footprints of Jesus both in front of you and beside you.”  I can not tell you how true that is.  God wants all of us to follow His footprints.  He longs for us to.  God will take us on journeys and not give us all the details.  It may take years to complete the journey, but God will always be right beside you.  God has placed this heaviness on my heart, this desire to adopt.  Russell remained faithful to God because he knew God was speaking to me and not him.  But both of us together have been following this path not knowing what the outcome would be.  Because of this, God has blessed us greatly.  Our walk with Him is closer then it has ever been.  Sometimes we can get side tracked and go in the opposite direction that God wants us to, but He is quick to close the doors we are not supposed to be going into.  And through it all, He receives the GLORY because it is all about Him.

God has allowed our family to make a difference in the lives of children who were born in our hearts.  This path that God has taken us on has not always been an easy one.  We have had some difficult times, but the good times far out number the difficult ones.  Adoption is not for everyone.  But that does not mean that you can’t be a part of it.  Our Liberian adoption has not been about our family, it has been about this family and the community.  We are all working together to make this happen.  That has been what has been so exciting about it.  The footprints that God laid out for us to follow have crossed paths with yours.  God has blessed us so much just by seeing all of the love and support that we have had from this family of Christ.  Your involvement with adoption is making a difference in Samuel, Jeremiah and Joel’s lives.  God hears your prayers for them.  I encourage you to pray for other orphans as well.  Let God place the footprints of an orphaned child on your heart.  Be an advocate for that child by praying for him or her.  God may take you on a whole new adventure!  God calls each of us as believers to care for the orphans.  Praying for just one child can make a difference. 

Each sheep is important to his shepherd.  JESUS SAID: “What man of you, having an hundred sheep, if he loses one of them, does not leave the ninety-nine in the wilderness, and go after the one which is lost until he finds it? And when he has found it, he lays it on his shoulders, rejoicing. And when he comes home, he calls together his friends and neighbours, saying to them, ‘Rejoice with me, for I have found my sheep which was lost!’ I say to you that likewise there will be more joy in heaven over one sinner who repents than over ninety-nine just persons, who need no repentance.”(Luke 15:4-7).  God considers us His sheep.  To save one life is an important life whether it is a child here in the states or a child over in Africa.  We are to practice this “pure religion”.  Where is God leading your heart in all of this?  I pray that it is leading you to a deeper understanding of adoption and how important it is.  After all, we are all adopted, each and every one of us.  We are God’s adopted sons and daughters.  Isn’t our goal to be more Christ-like.  Shouldn’t we follow from example?I would like to close with a story by Loren Eisley entitled: “A Single Starfish”. One day an old man was walking along the beach. It was low tide, and the sand was littered with thousands of stranded starfish that had been washed ashore. The man began walking very carefully so as not to step on any of the beautiful creatures. Since the animals still seemed to be alive, he considered picking some of them up and putting them back in the water, where they could resume their lives. The man knew the starfish would die if left on the shore, but he reasoned that he could not possibly help them all, so he chose to do nothing and continued walking. Soon afterward, the man came upon a small child on the beach who was frantically throwing one starfish after another back into the sea. The old man stopped and asked the child, “what are you doing?” “I’m saving the starfish,” the child replied. “Why waste your time?… There are so many you can’t save them all so what does it matter?” argued the man. Without hesitation, the child picked up another starfish and tossed the starfish back into the water. “It matters to this one,” the child explained.

Following the banquet, a love offering was taken for the adoption.  We collected around $236!  Praise the Lord!!

Hannah sang a song at the banquet entitled, “When I Grow Up.”  I wish I had recorded it so you could hear her beautiful voice!

Here are some pictures from the banquet:

 Aubrey (face is swollen because she was bitten by an insect)Grandma, Mom and Mandy

Hannah

Hailey Rose

Sorry it has taken me so long to post on our MayFest event!  I have actually back dated this event for the purposes of our time line!

First of all I would like to thank everyone that helped us in preparing for MayFest and those that helped us with our booth on the big day.  I am not going to put names down because I am afraid I will forget someone.  We appreciate so much all the time and energy that everyone put into this event.  We feel so blessed to call you our friends!  Thank you!  Thank you! 

Well, the local newspaper said that “MayFest was a huge success.”  I applaud the committee that pulled the whole thing together.  It was very well organized, the music line up was great and there were vendors galore.  I was surprised by all of the Christian and Gospel Music that was performed.  Even the mayor spoke of God in his opening speech.  Praise the Lord!!

If you were to have spoken with the vendors that were there, you would have probably heard a different story.  The people were only there to window shop.  There were some vendors who lost money because of the $35 booth fee.  We were blessed enough to have made $100 after our booth fee.

I must confess, I was discouraged at first.  We had all worked so hard.  Anthony and Hannah were working the booth that day.  Anthony had gotten decked out in his clown outfit to sell balloons to passing children.  Hannah had her basket of spoon dolls and stood in front of our booth.  We even named our booth, “Handcrafted for Adoption.”  We were ready for the crowds to come into our booth buying things left and right.  It ended up being our crowds of workers that helped man the booth that ended up pulling us out of the hole!

I was very discouraged.  Behind my smile my tears were swelling up.  Then I looked over at my two beautiful children.  They had worked so hard for this day.  Discouragement was setting in on them.  “The Lord Himself goes before you and will be with you; He will never leave you nor forsake you.  Do not be afraid; do not be discouraged,” (Deuteronomy 31:8).  God was with us.  I couldn’t let discouragement pull me down any further!  I looked at my children who were so full of sadness and I told them that God had us there for a reason.  Maybe today God was only asking us to be fishers of men.  In some way we would touch someone’s heart.  Maybe it would be to encourage someone to pursue adoption.  Maybe it would be just to share our faith walk with God.  We may never know, but God knows.

So at that moment, I pulled myself out of the hole that I had fallen into. “This is what I have asked of God for you; that you will be encouraged and knit together by strong ties of love, and that you will have the rich experience of knowing Christ with real certainty and clear understanding,” (Colossians 2:2, Living Bible).  I did have the rich experience of knowing Christ with real certainty.  It was at that moment that I thanked God for the day.  His name was to be glorified.  Whether we brought in money or not, His name was still to be glorified!

There were people who were very interested in hearing about our adoption and our faith walk with Christ.  I was able to give them a card with more info on it about this blog and asked them to pray for our boys and our adoption process.  Maybe in some way we were able to encourage them.  There was one lady who did catch me off guard.  She had lingered for a while in front of our booth.  So I walked up to her and shared with much joy in my heart about our boys.  She looked at me and said, “I do NOT support adoption.  There is one mother and one father for each child.  I do NOT support adoption!”  Well, I was taken quite back.  I actually didn’t know what to say.  I just smiled and said I was sorry to hear that.  What was I supposed to say?  Later as I thought about it more, I wondered if she truly understood what adoption was.  Did she know Christ?  Had she allowed God to adopt her into His family?  I may never know.  She had a very hard heart.  I only pray that someone may be able to soften it someday.

So our day was not a loss.  It was a day to give God the glory.  It was a day for us to share God’s amazing love with those who were willing to listen.  It was a day to be encouraged in our walk of faith with our Lord Jesus Christ.

Below are some pictures from MayFest.  I hope you enjoy!

One of our fearless workers…Amy Wolfe??

Joyce Moyer Hostetter author of BLUE.  Thanks Joyce for donating the raffle basket and books!!

Mandy and Amy modeling blankets by Stacey Main.  Thanks so much Stace!!  I love ya!

Amy modeling designer t-shirts by Ben Hostetter and Amy Wolfe!  Thanks for your creative work!

Mandy modeling purse made by one of our employee’s mom.  Has matching checkbook and change purse.

Amy modeling Aprons for Adoption by Mandy. 

Amy working hard!

Josh Shook.

Mandy???

Kathleen Hartzler.  Thanks for being one of our biggest customers for the day!

Anthony ready to join the Kazoo band!

Special appearance by Will Rejoice

Mandy our race car fan!!

Our booth.  Sonya, Mandy and Hannah

Hannah and Mandy

Hannah’s spoon dolls

Sonya and Mandy

Setting up our booth

Hannah and Sonya

Austin modeling balloon for Anthony’s balloon poster

One of Anthony’s balloons

Here are pictures of me putting together our Adoption Story Board:

American and Liberian flags

Our goal!

The finished product!!

Here are some pictures of Mandy and Amy working on our Aprons for Adoption!

This is a chart of where we are financially with the adoption and where funding has gone. 

We are getting there slowly but surely.  Please keep this upcoming MayFest in your prayers!!!  The next fundraisers coming up with be our Pampered Chef Party, Chickfila Spirit Night, Car Wash and Hot Dog sale, Smoked Chicken Dinner at our church, Belks (still working on this one!)

Thanks again for all the support.

Russell and I sat during the weekend trying to figure out how we were going to raise the “extra” monies that we thought we needed with the change of the new agency.  I went back and read our memo again.  I read it to Russell.  Maybe we were reading it wrong.  Just maybe we didn’t need to pay ACFI $7500 more.  Maybe the $2000 per child represented that fee.  Just maybe…..

As the weekend went by, I kept feeling more and more comforted.  God was speaking to me ever so gently.  I had to really quiet my thoughts so I could hear Him.  This was God’s dream for our family.  He wasn’t going to pull the rug out from under us.  There are reasons for all of this change and there are reasons that God had our family go through them.  Lysa TerKeurst says it well, “God’s dream must be experienced God’s way.  If you settle for anything else, you’ll never be satisfied,” (from What Happens When Women Walk in Faith). 

“Yet the Lord longs to be gracious to you; He rises to show you compassion.  For the Lord is a God of justice.  Blessed are all who wait for Him!” (Isaiah 30:18).  God wants us to wait on Him.  Verse after verse speaks of waiting on the Lord.  “I am still confident of this: I will see the goodness of the Lord in the land of the living.  Wait for the Lord; be strong and take heart and wait for the Lord,” (Psalm 27:13-14).  “We wait in hope for the Lord; He is our help and our shield,” (Psalm 33:20).  “I waited patiently for the Lord; He turned to me and heard my cry,” (Psalm 40:1).  This one is my favorite:  “I wait for the Lord, my soul waits, and in His word I put my hope.  My soul waits for the Lord more than watchmen wait for the morning, more than watchmen wait for the morning.  O Israel, put your hope in the Lord, for with the Lord is unfailing love and with Him is full redemption.  He himself will redeem Israel from all their sins,” (Psalm 130:5-8).

So this weekend I waited upon the Lord.  It must happen in His time and not mine.  Yesterday afternoon, He revealed to me why He was comforting my heart.  I received a phone call from Susan at PLAN.  If you remember in my previous post I stated that we still needed to confirm some things regarding the fees.  Well, it turns out that we don’t need to pay ACFI the second installment of $7500.  Now the final talley is this:  $3800 for the agency fee; $6000 for the remainder of the legal fees for all 3 boys; $195 for the application fee; $150 for the international adoption course that is geared towards African children; approximately $7000 in travel expenses (this is over estimating).  Praise the Lord!!!!  This seems so much more attainable.

We have filled out our application for PLAN and sent in the $195 application fee and the $150 course fee.  Last week we had received two donations that totaled $500.  So this will cover this expense and then some.  The application is being put in the mail today!!!  Praise the Lord!!

Waiting patiently upon the Lord is sometimes a hard thing to do.  Sometimes we can lose hope.  But God doesn’t want us to do that.  He gives us His word to cling to.  He speaks to our hearts.  God gives us the shield of faith; use it to fend off all doubts and fears!  He is strong and mighty and there is nothing that He cannot do.  God hears our cries and wants us to trust in Him and His unfailing love.  Yesterday when I was at the doctor’s office, I sat in the waiting room for almost an hour.  During that time I had my Bible with me and read from God’s word and read the passages in Psalms that I quoted above.  God is so good.  He knows what I need to nourish my spirit and my inner most being.  Praise be to God. 

Each day as I walk through life, I discover something new about my heavenly Father.  He has a dream for each of us.  In todays world we want everything NOW because we are so used to having everything NOW.  But God’s timing is different.  Second Peter 3:9 says, “The Lord is not slow in keeping His promise, as some understand slowness.  He is patient with you, not wanting anyone to perish, but everyone to come to repentance.”  God is so patient with us, yet we can be so impatient with HIm.  God wants us to be ready.  He wants us to be ready for His return.  He wants us to be ready for the dream that He has envisioned for each of us.

Psalm 37:4 says, “Delight yourself in the Lord and He will give you the desires of your heart.”  Actually, I would encourage you to read all of Psalm 37!  God wants us to delight in Him.  When we delight in Him, we become one with Him and see His ways.  Then the desires of your heart become His desires!  His dreams for us!  Even when things seem to look down, continue to seek out the Lord.  Fill your heart with His precious word.  Let it grow in you so that you may delight in the Lord!

We continue to send praises up for each you.  We appreciate the prayers and financial support.  I will pull together another financial report after our upcoming MayFest.  Please pray that this will be a huge success and that God will touch people’s hearts to come to our booth so that we may share our story!  What a great opportunity not only for us to raise money for the adoption, but also to take the opportunity to share God’s love with those around us!  If you would like to help us run our booth, please email me!!! 

Blessings to your day!