Saying Yes to God

This is a really exciting blog post!  Finally, right!!  We are working on adopting three boys from Mbuji Mayi Democratic Republic of Congo!  We received our official referral Saturday night and we couldn't be more excited!  Their names are Jean (pronounced John), Patrick and Constantin.  They are ages 3, 4, and 5.  This has been a really long journey filled with much prayer, tons of God's Word, much thought and lots of processing.  We have been processing this for over a month.  It has been such a great time of growing closer to God and learning how to rely on him.  We are so excited to glorify God by saying YES we will adopt these boys.  This will require much hard work and sacrifice but I can't think of anything else I would rather do.  Total surrender to God and total reliance on him is so incredible.  Our whole family is SO excited.  Our hearts have always been that we wanted to adopt those who often get looked over, like special needs children, children over 4, or sibling groups.  Words cannot describe the joy in my heart that God has blessed us with this incredible opportunity.  Serving him in this way is so amazing.  We are prepared for the Are you crazy comments and those that may not understand.  Wholeheartedly following Jesus usually comes at a cost.  But nothing is more worth it.  HE is worthy!!  God has shown up in amazing ways over these last few weeks, answering prayers and uniting our hearts.  HE is worthy of all praise!!  I am not sure of all the next steps yet, I hope it will be a quick process, like 6-8 months or so.  In the meantime we will renovate our house and add a seat to our car and buy more beds in anticipation of three more precious lives in our home.  We would so appreciate your prayers that our journey would go smoothly, that God would be more powerful than the legalities and the paperwork and that we would be able to bring these boys home so soon. 

Then he said to them, “Whoever welcomes this little child in my name welcomes me; and whoever welcomes me welcomes the one who sent me. For it is the one who is least among you all who is the greatest.”

Luke 9:48

The Heart of the Matter

So there is not a ton of new stuff to share regarding our adoption journey.  Our home study is done and off to immigration!!  Woohoo!  That is a super big step done.  God answered my prayers on that one in a huge way!  I am now working on the dossier and hope to have that completed and sent to the Congo soon.  I realized something yesterday that I wanted to write about.  Jesus wrecked my life!  In a good way!  He turned everything upside down and my heart wants only to serve him, to love him and to seek him.  I have been wrestling with my heart and my emotions this entire adoption journey and I could not figure out what was wrong with me.  Why did I cry about the adoption journey taking so long?  Why could I not focus on anything but adoption, adoption, adoption?  What was wrong with me?  I realize now it is the longing in my heart to serve an amazing God and to be totally focused on that.  I had heard about the book Kisses from Katie but I had never thought to read it.  My sister was visiting and during our conversation she said you need to read this NOW!  So I started and I connected.  This book helped me to understand what was going in my life.  Jesus wrecked me!!  And I love it.  You see I used to love shopping and would be obsessed with buying expensive things to decorate my house.  I used to spend way too much time shopping on the internet for expensive clothes.  I used to desire material things.  And then Jesus wrecked me.  And now I want to care for the orphans, serve the poor and love others with all I've got.  I am now obsessed with Jesus and his plan for my life and I love it!!  And I love that I live this journey not by myself but with my family.  We can read the Bible, we can learn about the poor and the orphans, we can read amazing books and we can make a choice.  We can take action or we can do nothing.  As for me and my family, I want our hearts to be broken for what breaks HIS! What would happen if the 1 million readers of Kisses from Katie actually submitted fully to God's will for their lives?  What would the world look like?  I think it would be amazing.  I think it can be amazing! This life journey has been incredible and I am so excited to see how Jesus continues to wreck my life.  I hope to be able to update soon with news about a referral.  Until then we will continue to love, serve and live for Jesus!!