The Girls' Beds

I posted earlier about the beds being on the way...well here they are :) We finally have this room put together. It has been so much fun preparing this room for Ellie and Betsy to share. Betsy's bed is the one on the right with the pink teddy bear sitting on it. The bear is one of the first things I bought her. I bought two of these bears actually. One to send in a care package, and the other to be waiting for her when she comes home. I thought that if she was attached to the bear we sent her, but didn't get to bring it when she leaves the orphanage, then she would have the very same bear at home. Ellie slept with the bear for a long time after I bought it saying when she hugged it, it was like she was hugging Betsy. She hoped for a long time that we might get some pictures of her with the bear, but so far none:( Now that we have their room ready Ellie placed the bear on Betsy's bed. She has also forbidden(in a very sweet way;) anyone from sleeping on Betsy's bed.  She dreams of the day her little sister will be sleeping in the bed next to her. She can't wait to play with her and read her stories! Ellie put Bitty Baby's bed at the foot of Betsy's bed. She hopes Betsy will enjoy playing with baby dolls. As I said earlier, it has been fun preparing this room. The day I was putting all the bedding on Betsy's bed the Lord whispered to my heart a treasure. He reminded me  that once I was an orphan too, but he redeemed me through his Son and adopted me into his heavenly family. He is preparing a place for me in heaven right now. As I spread my hands across her comforter I praised God in my heart for this precious child he is allowing us to adopt into our family here on earth. What a blessing it has been to prepare this room for my daughter. Thank you Lord for the home you have for me in heaven!

Hugh's Big Day!!

On Sunday, February 20, 2011 Hugh was baptized and celebrated his 7th birthday! What a blessed and very special day it was:) I am so thankful Hugh has trusted Jesus Christ as his Savior and Lord. I shared in an earlier post that he prayed to receive Christ on February 14th. He realized very quickly that the coming Sunday would be his birthday. He was thrilled to be baptized that day! It was such a blessing to watch as Todd baptized another one of our children. God is so good!! After the service we went home to enjoy pizza, cake, and ice cream! We are so thankful our family and friends could share in this happy day! My parents, sister, Todd's mother, and cousin Nathan were able to come and celebrate with us. Granny and Nathan  had to leave before I could get a picture of them:) One of Hugh's best friends, Jing Jing was also baptized on Sunday by her daddy, who is a minister at our church. What a great day!! Praise the Lord!!

Letter from NVC!!!

We have our letter from the National Visa Center! I talked to Karla, our social worker, last week after our 797 came in the mail, and she told me to be looking for a letter to come in about ten days from NVC. As day ten was getting closer I couldn't wait to check the mail everyday! We knew it could come in less than ten days because we have friends who have adopted from China and knew one came in 6 days. Well, yesterday was day 6, so I ran out to the mailbox and there it was! Todd scanned the letter when he got to work this morning and sent it to Karla. We are now waiting for our Article 5 to be picked up, which is about a two week wait. After this we will be waiting on our TA!!!! Karla said it is a 3-4 week process for Travel Approval, but it could happen in 1-2 weeks. As I have said before, God knows the day, hour , and minute we will get Betsy...pray that we will trust him to work out all the details:)

The Face of a Miracle:)

This is John Edwin...Jed. Isn't he just the cutest baby? This precious child is the baby of our sweet friends Chris and Stephanie. I told their story in a previous post. They waited three years to bring home a child from Nepal. God moved some mighty BIG mountains to unite this baby with his Forever Family!! We praise you Lord for Jed and what an awesome miracle you performed to bring him home! Henry and I met Jed for the first time this past Friday. Our friends live 2 hours away. We left Friday morning and spent the day with Steph and Jed. We all went to get Emily, Jed's sister, from school then we had to get back home. We had a great day! I couldn't wait to get my hands on this baby that I had prayed soooo long for!! He finally warmed up to me about the time we needed to leave:) haha

Where Do I Begin?

Let me just begin by saying Sunday could not have been any better. We enjoyed the most awesome time with Gwen and Suzanne. I am so thankful they were able to come and share their hearts and their ministry:) There were people from many churches and cities. We were blessed beyond words with all that were present. God is doing an amazing work through 147 Million Orphans and Hearts of Compassion. I am so humbled that the Lord would allow me to join with him in serving the "the least of these". My heart is full and overflowing! Many thanks to Gwen and Suzanne...may God continue to richly bless your ministry:) Yesterday was a great day too. The kids enjoyed Valentine parties at school, a little treat from me and Todd, and our first "home cooked" family Chinese meal! Yes, it's true (with a little help from our friends at La Choy ;) complete with fortune cookies! My sweetheart sent me some of the most wonderful chocolate dipped strawberries you have EVER tasted:) Yummy!! It was a very "SWEET" and delicious surprise. The best thing that happened yesterday came right after we had our family prayertime with the kids. Hugh, our six(will be seven Sunday, the 20th ) year old has been asking lots of questions for several months now about salvation.  He has talked with Todd and I alone and together on several occasions. Sunday night after prayers he said he wanted to talk to me and his daddy. Todd got out the bible and asked Hugh questions. We all prayed together and Todd told him to think about all that was said. He told him to let us know when he felt in his heart that it was time to pray and ask Jesus to come into his heart and save him. Last night he said he was ready to pray to receive Christ. It was a precious moment between the Lord, Hugh, Todd, and me. Todd lead him in his prayer. I was a big puddle! After we prayed Todd said, "Hugh this has been a great day for you! A party at school, candy, and now you have Jesus in your heart!!" Hugh looked up at him and said, "that's better than candy". We laughed/cried and said Yes, absolutely. Then he looked up one more time and said "but candy is really good too"! Gotta love that kid:) Blessings to you all!

Beds Are Here...800 On The Way!

Yesterday afternoon we received a call from our local furniture store letting us know the beds we ordered are here. We ordered twin sleigh beds for Ellie and Betsy. It made my day! Ellie was so excited when I told her. She has been sleeping on a twin mattress in her new room for a couple of week(maybe longer?). Anyway, it was a nice surprise:) We will pick them up on Friday, and Ellie can hardly wait. After dinner last night I got on the computer to check my email. There was an email from Karla, our social worker. It said 800 approval. No exclamation marks. Usually when she sends me some good news there are exclamation marks after it. I immediately thought something had to be wrong with it. I didn't even want to open it. Let me just back up and say that another family, whose paperwork went out the same day as ours, had received their approval over a week ago. I had tried calling immigration to check the status, but when I finally did get to talk to someone I found out it was still in Texas! So, back to last night...I swallowed hard and opened the email. Karla said she talked to someone at immigration yesterday and they had our approval!!!!!!!! I was relieved and so thankful:) She told me to be looking for it to come in the mail soon. Why is it after all this time I STILL have trouble trusting God to take care of every detail?! We could definately be traveling in the next six weeks. That makes my stomach do flips!!! Praise God for good news, and His mighty hand guiding us each and every step of the way! I hope you SEE him in all you experience today:)

Exciting News!!

I am so happy to be able to tell you about an event our orphan care ministry is hosting! On Sunday, February 13 Suzanne Mayernick and Gwen Oatsvall from 147 million orphans will be coming to speak at our church!! I can't tell you how long we have been trying to work this out. I have known Suzanne for many years and am so blessed to call her and her sweet sister Dana my friends:) I went to a conference in Nashville in September and was able to visit Suzanne and her family while I was there. I couldn't wait to get my hands on that sweet Josie Love! She is precious...an absolute miracle! I am so thankful we were able to get them to come speak. I know it will be an awesome event!! Please check out their website. You can click on the button at the right side of my blog for more info. When you get to their site click on events. We would love to see you there! If you are planning on attending please leave a comment. This will help us with our planning:) Thanks, and have a blessed day!