Sunday, November 18, 2012

Lucky Number 7

Feeling pretty lucky to be the mother of these 7 kiddos--God has so richly blessed us
and we are so thankful!







Friday, November 16, 2012

I'M HOME!!!!!!!





More to come........

Monday, November 5, 2012

Going Where God Leads Us

Ethiopia bound once again!!!!

Four years ago, Nick and I sat on our living room couch and had a conversation that would change the course of our lives.  We were choosing the country to adopt our ONE little girl from to "complete" our family and God was setting the stage for the clearest call I’ve ever heard from him.

That night, after choosing to adopt from Korea, I heard the still, calm voice of the Lord whispering, “you didn’t quite get it right.” “YOUR CHILDREN ARE IN AFRICA,” He shouted the next morning in a church service that I will never forget. We couldn’t have asked for any more signs of confirmation—we knew that day that OUR CHILDREN WERE IN AFRICA (well, except for the ones that were in the church nursery that morning :-)

And from that day, I have yearned to hear His voice again and again and each time we’ve answered Him, we have been blessed beyond anything that we could imagine.

That conversation that pulled us out of our comfort zone on our comfy couch took place four years ago on November 8, 2008.

 How amazing is our Lord and his most perfect timing that we will have our final immigration interview with the US Embassy to bring our fourth Ethiopian child home on NOVEMBER 8, 2012???? Exactly 4 years to the day that I first heard the Lord calling us to Ethiopia!

 That is surely no coincidence.

 No, I believe the Lord has used these past four years to teach us to seek Him, obey Him and find joy in His plan for our lives and follow Him no matter how crazy the course seems.

I believe this date of November 8th coming full circle is all part of His design.

I never experience more joy, peace and contentment than when we are seeking and following the Lord (the opposite is true as well).

I pray that as we spend time in a country that I have come to love deeply, God would continue to use our family for His glory.

 God uses messy, imperfect, unqualified, preoccupied people like us to carry out his will and we are so thankful that He saw fit to send us to Ethiopia--it has been one of life's greatest blessings.

 I pray that we will never stop leaning in to hear His voice.

His plans are too good to miss out on.

 Praising Him for growing our family through adoption once more and for our most precious baby boy!






Thursday, November 1, 2012

All Dressed Up




                                                                      








Come and Get Me!!!



Let the count down begin.  Next week we'll be holding (and it looks like chasing :-) this sweet little boy!

I can't wait to scoop him up!

As God would have it in his most perfect timing, we will also be in Ethiopia for the annual Children's HopeChest mission trip to Trees of Glory and Kind Hearts!  We will be spending two days with them loving the hundreds of sponsor kids that attend these two care points.  What an awesome experience for us to have.  Our oldest son Caleb is joining us this time and I'm so excited for him to be able to go to Ethiopia!

This will be my fifth trip to Ethiopia in less than three years.  It feels like my second home and I'm always eager to get back.  I want to savor every minute of my time there as it will likely be a while before I'm able to return to the beautiful country and people of Ethiopia. 

 Praying God would use us on this trip for his glory!