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Sunday, December 19, 2010

All I really want for Christmas...



I remember hearing this song with Erika back in 2005. We were sitting in a Lowes parking lot in Mt. Pleasant, SC. To say I had a lump in my throat would be an understatement. I cannot confirm or deny that tears may have been welling up in my eyes. The lump in my throat and watery mixture in my eyes were not out of complete sadness, but more of pressing that these words are supposed to impact me in a special way. And of course they have.

You can make a difference this Christmas in a child's life. There are many great causes to help orphans this time of year, but going to www.compassion.com is a great place to start. Sponsoring a child is an eternal gift you can give this year.

Wednesday, December 15, 2010

Been awhile...

We are so sorry that it has been so long since we last posted. We actually made a video post but have had difficulty getting it to publish and still haven't figured out the glitch. We also received word about 3 weeks ago that Mark's company was going to do lay offs and his job was in jeopardy. SO....we have been waiting and praying. We didn't want to push too far ahead because we can't adopt without an income:) Praise the Lord Mark's job was spared and so we are excited to send in our initial application in January! We are definitely pursuing adoption from Uganda through Night Light adoption agency. We are hoping to adopt a little girl, but are open to a sibling group as well.

We had a very successful yard sale and made enough money to pay for the application fee. It was hard work but even with no real advertising and only 2 weeks word of mouth we had 11 families donate items to sell. It was a great experience. We had some neat families come to the yard sale that had adopted children themselves and some were even adoptees! One family even came and simply made a donation to help with the adoption.

We have also been blown away with the ways that the Lord continues to confirm that His hand is in this process and He will provide all that we need on this journey. Three different people have committed to financially help us with the adoption. We are amazed and humbled at people's generosity and obedience to the Lord's leading.

There are still days where this seems surreal and we question if God really believes we can do this. Those are the days and the moments where He steps in with a Scripture, a blog, a song or a phone call that gently reminds us that He is in control, not us. He is so good about those quietly reassuring us when we become fearful.

Thank you for your prayers and support. Thank you for walking this road with us.

Saturday, November 13, 2010

From Mark

Apologies for the picture and sound quality. I will work on this for future posts.




compassion.org
worldvision.org
147million.org

Monday, November 8, 2010

Big News!!!!

“Hope deferred makes the heart sick, but a longing fulfilled is a tree of life.”  Proverbs 13:12

This verse seems so appropriate at the end of one journey, and at the beginning of another.  Why in the world are we starting another blog?  Over the past year I (Erika) have felt the desire and calling for our family to adopt.  Mark and I discussed the possibility even before marriage during premarital counseling.  We agreed that if we were unable to have biological children of our own, that adoption would be an option for us.

We were blessed with our three boys so we didn’t “need” to adopt.  However, the discussion of “what if” came up at different times.  With the craziness of life though, truly considering adoption seemed crazy.  God seems to be into crazy. 

I couldn’t shake the feeling that we were supposed to “someday” adopt.  Over the past couple of years I have learned that most of the time in marriage the best thing to do when Mark and I aren’t on the same page is to keep my mouth shut and pray.  So I asked my two close friends to commit to pray with me that if the Lord wanted us to adopt that at the right time He would move Mark’s heart to that place.  That was about 8 months ago.

There are many more neat details to the journey from that place to where we find ourselves...and I will share those in later posts.  I want you to come back:)  Where we find ourselves now is on the edge of what feels like our first base jump.  Have you seen videos of that insanity?  I’m feelin’ it!

We are beginning the process of international adoption.  We desire to adopt from Africa and are currently praying through the decision of whether to pursue Uganda or Ethiopia.  We met with Nightlight Christian Adoption agency last week and believe that is who we will go through.  We have not officially applied yet because we are still saving towards the application fee.

We are requesting to adopt a little girl, with the hopes that we will be approved for two children.  We are open to adopting a sibling group.  We are hoping to adopt a little girl that is anywhere from 6 months to 3 years old.  That has not been set in stone and if we adopt a sibling group then we are open to an older child as well.

We have so many, many more questions than we have answers.  We do know however, that this is right and this is good:)  We are so excited!  We have no idea how long it will take, how the funds will come about, or truly just about anything else.  This is God’s idea though so we are looking forward to watching Him come through BIG time.  I hope Mark will share in the next post some of his perspective. 

There will be more to come on the process God used to move Mark’s heart to a place of initiating this journey.  We will share progress and details as they come...as well as how you can be involved in this journey.  But first and foremost please, please pray over this for us!  Please pray that we are obedient, surrendered and discerning.  And please pray for our little girl and if she has a sibling.  They may be out there right now, probably are.  Please pray that the Lord will shelter and protect them.  That He will place His servants around them to care for them and that they will feel secure and loved no matter what their circumstances.  Please pray that He will speed the days and the details so we can bring them home:)