The Drunk Man

I can't sleep. It's Sunday, 12:15 a.m. and I have to work tomorrow. God's speaking to my heart. LOUDLY. He's been speaking things to my heart for several months now, but tonight it's blaring so loud I can't hear anything else.

Tonight we were sitting on our porch reading our books when an old man came walking up the sidewalk. He was mumbling to himself. As he got closer we both realized he was very drunk. He nearly fell over into our bushes in the front of the house and wandered back and forth on the sidewalk making his way to his house a few doors down. For a moment, my focus was directed inward. "What if this guy can't find his home and tries to go into ours instead?" But soon a huge wave of compassion swept over me.

We spent the afternoon getting to know a couple in the church we've been attending. He used to be a heavy drug user, alcoholic, abusive. Then, Jesus delivered him. He's a new man, a new creation. It was an amazing testimony of God's healing, saving power.

...So back to the old drunk man. Maybe a few years ago I would have chuckled a bit as he wandered down the sidewalk. Maybe I would have shook my head in disgust at his lack of self control. Not tonight. Tonight, I wept inside. I wept for a soul that's lost. I wept for those who are wandering. I wept for those who are chasing after things that will not fill their empty hearts in the end.

I've been pondering a message I heard several weeks ago. A specific question was asked and I cannot shake the thought or the answer to. 100 years from now, the ONLY thing that will matter is "what have you done with Jesus?"

As I listened to that incredible testimony this afternoon, I rejoiced. God IS still in the business of delivering people. He is the Great Shepherd and He is so gentle. He goes after the sheep that has wandered from the flock. He has an incredible, unending love for us.

Realizing the love that Christ has for me spurs me into action. All of a sudden, my heart starts to want what His heart wants. It grieves for things that grieve Him. Then He starts asking me to do things that might be a bit scary at first. But He is 100% trustworthy and soon the uncomfortable things He's pushing me towards become real possibilities.

He's working on my heart and that's a good thing. He's asking me to take another step of faith and that's a good thing too. What is He asking you to do?

Road Trip

I was trying to save every minute of my allotted vacation for when we got the call to come get our kids, but......

Sometimes, you just gotta leave. So we hit the road after the parade and a nice lunch with the in-laws.

We arrived in the cities and checked in at The Depot. We were just two blocks from the Mississippi River where fireworks would be displayed that evening.

I have three words for you: hot. stinky. humanity.

We managed to find a small patch of grass to sit on and people-watch as the sun set. The fireworks were good, but they made me proud of our little town who manages to put on a pretty impressive show. Granted...this is just one show of many that are held in the city.

The next day we explored the downtown area and ate some phenomenal food. Sorry, no pictures of us on this trip. Trust me, it wasn't pretty. Do Minnesotan's sweat? They all looked incredibly calm, cool and collected. I had leg sweat dripping into my flip flops people. It was nasty.

Salsa three ways? Yes please...

My goal was accomplished. For a few hours my mind was off work and the adoption. We had a lot of fun together despite the excessive heat.

Yesterday we finished our long weekend getaway by roaming The Mall of America.  I didn't really have any purpose for going there as I purchase most of my clothes second-hand but we did find a few things for Stephen. I don't even know why I try finding pants that fit him. It's impossible. The man is a giant. 

We ate a late lunch at Bubba Gump, I got a pedicure and ended up buying a dress 50% off at Eddie Bauer. It was a good day and a good way to get our minds off things for a little while. I still had a teary moment when I checked email on our way home to find no updates, but God is faithful and He will complete what He started. 

I'm uncool too

Many years ago, I made a decision to not watch rated R movies anymore. I got a lot of flack, but I've never felt like my life was lacking because of this decision. Recently, I came across this blog post. This is not meant to be a "holier than thou" message, but an encouragement from one sister-in-Christ to another to BE CAREFUL!

Many "Christians" really aren't interested in hearing the truth of God's Word lately. We've made excuses to live like we want to live despite what the Bible says how we are to conduct ourselves. We all struggle with our sin nature, but God gives us the tools to win!

You can read her post HERE.

Birthdays and chicken pox

Lydie and Samson have celebrated their last birthdays in Haiti. Samson turned 2 and Lydie is 3.  We were very fortunate to get a picture of Samson on his actual birthday!

There was also a professional photographer at Maison recently. She captured some gorgeous pictures of our kids.

The last picture above was taken with Lydie sitting on my dear friend, Mandy's lap. Mandy and her husband Russell were able to spend time with both of our kids and share a photo of us with them. We are so grateful. 

We found out on June 8th that Samson had contracted chicken pox. Several of the children in baby room 2, where he stays, had come down with it. We are thankful to the loving nannies for nursing him back to health. 

Drought

I know I've been rather silent this month. I'm sure you are all eagerly waiting at the edge of your seats to hear the announcement that we have passports. I'm sorry I don't have any news to give.

It's been extremely dry here. The tender shoots of corn have recently appeared and we were starting to worry if we didn't have rain soon, a lot of farmers would be in trouble.

So it's summertime and our kids aren't home yet. Part of the reason I haven't written is I haven't really had anything good to say. It's very difficult to go weeks on end and hear absolutely nothing about our progress. I've tracked several families that were a bit behind us in the process and they have sped ahead. Not that this is a race by any means, but the feeling of standing still is disheartening.

Stephen is done with school. He has his new assignment for next year and has a positive outlook. In our minds, the perfect time for Lydie and Samson to be home is right now. We had it all planned out in our heads. Stephen would have the whole summer off to be with the kids.

Usually by this time we hear the words, "it's all in God's timing."

Mankind has a tendency to blame God for everything that doesn't go their way. Try to tell two sets of adoptive parents who were matched with the same child that this was God's plan. I'm sorry, that's just not going to fly with me. This child was not from our orphanage. 

The world is corrupt and broken. Plain and simple. And as much as I love Haiti, the country has it's fair share of corruption just like we do. We are fighting a battle. That's why prayer is so important.  Please remember to pray for Pierre, he is on the front lines in his difficult battle.

Don't get me wrong, I know that through the battles and heartbreaks that we face God uses those to mold and shape us. He has taught us so much through this. His promise is to carry us through. Our job is to be faithful to Him, despite the hardships. And please know that I am not writing off the importance of God's timing. God has appointed specific times in scripture for specific things. But to tell an adoptive parent that "God's timing is perfect"when they have been waiting for years for their child to come home, comes off as low-budget encouragement and feels like we don't know God is able.

He is faithful. He is. And the rains will come. This has been a season of drought. But the Lord is gently leading us through.

The rain finally came this week. I took this with Stephen's iPad driving 70 MPH down the interstate. The rainbow was very faint, but it was a good reminder to me about what God promises.

"Be strong and courageous! Do not be afraid and panic before them. For the Lord your God will personally go ahead of you. He will neither fail you or abandon you".

Soon.

Tidbits

Have I told you how amazing our friends, Ron & Lora are? Well, I'm going to say it again, they are HUGE blessings in our lives. The more time we spend with them, the more we love them. They visited their girls at Maison for the first time last week. They were so gracious to take loads of pictures and video of our kids. Last night we got together at Panera and talked about their trip. It's an amazing journey we are on. God has put these 2 families together and I just can't wait to see our lives unfold!

Here are my favorite pictures and a video I knit together late last night from their trip. Enjoy!

A little story about faith

(Matthew 13:58) And he did not do many miracles there because of their lack of faith.


(Matthew 15:28) Then Jesus answered, "Woman, you have great faith! Your request is
granted." And her daughter was healed from that very hour.


(Matthew 17:20) He replied, "Because you have so little faith. I tell you the truth, if you have faith as small as a mustard seed, you can say to this mountain, 'Move from here to there' and it will move. Nothing will be impossible for you."


(Matthew 21:21-22) Jesus replied, "I tell you the truth, if you have faith and do not doubt, not only can you do what was done to the fig tree, but also you can say to this mountain, 'Go, throw yourself into the sea,' and it will be done. {22} If you believe, you will receive whatever you ask for in prayer."



Stephen and I were married 5 days before Christmas, 1997. He had rented an apartment almost exactly one hour each direction from both of our parent's homes. We didn't know a soul in our new town.

We enjoyed honeymooning after our wedding and came home Christmas day to celebrate with our families. After the holiday festivities were over, we came back to our new home, a small one-bedroom apartment. The first night in our new place we were so exhausted we actually fell asleep on the living room floor and couch.

Around midnight, we woke up to loud banging on our front door followed by our neighbor yelling "FIRE." We were both confused and disoriented. Finally, Stephen woke up enough to realize this was real and not a bad dream. We bolted upright and out the door and down the stairs. Yep, our apartment complex was in flames! It was so cold that night, I believe it was around -20. As we stood outside, we watched the firefighters spray water that almost instantly turned into ice. All we had was our keys. We had no identification and just the clothes on our backs. We had to make a decision. We couldn't stay there, we didn't know anybody. The best thing to do would be to drive to one of our parent's houses.

We thought about our new apartment with all of our belongings in it. Then Stephen, spoke these words. "If Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego can go into a blazing furnace and not even smell like smoke, God can do the same for us." We left that night standing on the promise that God could, and would protect our place.

We weren't allowed back in our apartment for several days. We had heard there was smoke damage throughout. Four apartments were completely destroyed. We later found out the fire sparked from the laundry room. Finally, they let us back in. We opened the door to our section of apartments and we could instantly smell smoke in the main hallway. We walked up the stairs and opened the door to our place and took a big sniff. No smoke. Not even a hint of it. We quickly shut the door so as not to let any smell in from the hallway and we began to rejoice in the fact that God protected our place. He was faithful. Our neighbors across the hall, beside us, and below us all had smoke damage. Figure that one out.

It's healthy to remember the times God did the miraculous. We have so many examples in scripture of how God moved because of the faith of his people. This adoption is a battle. There is a myriad of obstacles in this journey from bad weather, occasional impassible roads, civil unrest, to actual organizations who make it extremely difficult for adoptions to even happen, i.e. UNICEF.

We are choosing to stand in faith yet again. We have decided if anybody asks us how long, our response is and will be, "Soon!." No more excuses, no more doubting that this might not happen. They are coming home and it will be soon. Would you stand with us in faith, without doubting? Dear friends, we would love it if you would.

One of my friends has our family picture on her desk and next to it is a sand timer. It indicates that time is up. I love that. Her little son and daughter pray every day that Lydie and Samson would come home. The thought of them praying brings me to my knees.

Here is your reward for reading all of this! New pictures of our gorgeous kids. Thanks for standing in faith with us. We love you!

My sweet boy

Love

Oh, my heart.

God's gifts to us, Ron and Lora Mayland holding our babies!

Such a big girl!

I'm so happy Lydie doesn't appear to be afraid of strangers anymore

Lora showing us how big Samson's hands are

This one made my year!! Beautiful smile!