I Will Never Forget...

To think that we could have let the opportunity pass us by saddens my heart. We have all discussed this, we all agree that we could not imagine life with our our two adopted daughters. We all agree, that we can't imagine if we had let this God opportunity pass us by we would be missing out on what the Lord had in store for us.

I will never forget the day that God spoke so clearly to both Bryan and I about adopting. I will never forget the look on Bryan's face when he came to the realization that we needed to become a part of God's plan. I will never forget the day when we said, "Lord, your will not ours".

I will never forget sitting on a park bench with my daughter to be, tears rolling down my face, listening to the words of God speak so clearly to my heart "Andrea, this is how I feel when my children are separated from me". I will never forget trying to make sense of it all and God saying, "I called you to obedience first, not understanding".

I will never forget sitting in a hot and humid room in China, searching faces wondering if this next child would be our daughter we had been waiting for. I will never forget holding her so scared in my arms wondering, if she would ever love me as much as I have already loved her.

I will never forget reading the words, "Your faith has healed your daughter", and believing it was so.

I will never forget walking through the airport, being met by rejoicing family members and friends.

I will never forget the look of relief in the eyes of the children that knew they were finally home.

I will never forget the blessings that the Lord bestowed upon us.
I will never forget....
I will never forget...
I will never forget...

We should never forget, that God has called us to much more than we can do on our own.

We should never forget, that with Him all things are possible.

We should never forget, that He who begun a good work will complete it.

We should never forget, that He has blessed us so that we may share the blessings.

We should never forget that we ourselves are "adopted" sons and daughters of Christ.

We should never forget that He is able to do more than we could ever ask or imagine.

We should never forget that He says, " Let the little children come to me".

We should never forget...

We should never forget...

We should never forget...

He has given us what we need to change the world. "Well done my good and faithful servant, enter my rest".

Passport 2 Purity...

This weekend I took my girls on their Passport 2 Purity weekend. First let me start with a disclosure. It is 1 am and my postings are backwards. What I mean is out of order, if you want to see what happened first, you must scroll to the bottom of the blog and work your way up. Then it will be in chronological order. It is late, or early rather and I am not going back to fix it, so just bare with me. One more thing, most of you know that I don't spell well, so that might be a problem too. Okay, back to our regularly scheduled program.

This weekend was very special for a number of reasons. I had the privilege of taking my two almost teenage girls on there purity weekend. We have a curriculum put out by Dennis and Barbara Rainey that teaches the importance of entering into maturity and what it means to keep yourself pure. It is especially designed to do with your son or daughter over a weekend and talks about physically maturity, peer pressure and establishing biblical principles. It is a great way to grow closer with your teen and to draw boundaries now, so you won't be caught second guessing later. Here is the link just in case you are heading into those teen times and would like a little help establishing what the bible says about staying pure and how to teach these important views to your child http://www.familylife.com .

We started the trip with our dear friends and headed to Tucson to a beautiful resort. We spent the first night going over our curriculum and then we went to dinner.

The next day we spent our time learning more, then we were off to the mall. The hotel we were staying in was going to be hosting a ball later that evening, even though we were not invited we thought we would stop and try on some gowns, just in case. Yes, Zona and I played too, but I will spare you the visuals. We all had so....much fun. Next stop, Santa...I am so glad the girls (well at least some of them) played along too.

Then back to hotel to change for our "special" dinner. This was the night that I was waiting for the whole weekend. I was presenting the girls with their purity rings!! The "special" part was that I took two diamonds out of my moms wedding ring and had them made into rings for my girls. I thought it would be a great way to remember what the ring symbolizes (staying pure until you are married) and to have a little something from Nana too. Of course I cried, when telling them about why the rings had such meaning, both of them teared up too. As you can see by the looks on their faces, it was just as special to them. We wrapped up the night with some dessert and a movie.

The next day was spent just lounging around. We spent several hours at the pool, yes in December, only in Arizona. Then played some games and the best people watching in the lobby of the resort. After a lot of fun and food we were ready (sort of) to come home.

All and all, it will be a weekend to remember. I am soo... blessed with two beautiful teenage girls who have given their whole heart to Jesus. As I look back on the weekend, I am grateful for a God that gives us understanding of His word, and helps us to cling to His promises. We gained a lot of useful tools that will help my girls remain in God as he guides them along the next phase of their lives.

Fun in the sun??? It's December


Beautiful African wrap

View from our room

Passport 2 Purity...

The big moment...the purity rings

Passport 2 Purity...

Me and My Sweet Friend

My Fav Picture

In our hotel

Old Saint Nick

Dress up

Passport 2 Purity...

Having fun trying on dresses

Zona & her girls

Goofing around, silly girls

Lounging

Me & my girls

Now that I have seen.....

" How sweet all at once it was for me to be rid of those fruitless joys which I had once feared to lose!...You drove me from them and took their place, you who are sweeter then all pleasure". St. Augustine

Now that we have seen we are responsible. If we are truly bond servants to Christ, if we are the servants of the Most High, we must SERVE!!

We must step out of what is normal, we must risk all for Christ. We must trust Him with all of our possessions. We must get out of the mind frame, that we don't have enough to give this month, or this year. We must step out in faith beyond all that we know, leave the comfort zone. Faith without deeds is dead.

I have a sister in Christ that has a blog that is a must see. She is a living testimony of the hands and feet of Christ. Follow this link and see for yourself. http://kissesfromkatie.blogspot.com/


May these words not fall on deaf ears. My prayer is that the body of Christ, will rise up and take hold of the opportunity the Lord has given us to care for the people of His nations.

He gave you manna to eat in the desert, something your fathers had never known, to humble and to test you so that in the end it might go well with you. You may say to yourself, "My power and the strength of my hands have produced this wealth for me." But remember the Lord you God, for it is he who gives you the ability to produce wealth, and so confirms his covneant, which he swore to your forefathers, as it is today. Deuteronomy 8:16-18

Singing Praises...

God is so.. good.

We already know that God is good, it is evident all around our lives. But sometimes he takes us off guard with His goodness, He surprises us when we least expect it. Today is one of those days.

I am a worrier. I spend a lot of time repenting for worrying and not trusting God when I know that He is beyond trustworthy. We are in the process of raising funds for our three Ethiopian children. It is a lot of money and we need it in a short period of time. I have spent several days praying for the needs of our children and for the money we need to bring them home. Bryan, myself and 2 other friends have committed to fasting and prayer until these needs are met.
My friend and I were discussing Daniel and he prayed and fasted for strongholds to be broken and they were. All this to say that the Lord is faithful to give us what we need, all we have to do is ask.

Today I called to see if we had raised any funds. The lady at the NPO had said that she didn't see anything but she thought that we had, she asked to call me back. When she returned my call, she said, hesitantly, that we had raised $5000!!! I was in shock and I think she was too. This was just one donor!! What a blessing, thank you friends for obeying God. This is a miracle, not to mention, completely unexpected. All together we have raised $5,335 !!! Thank you for all of your prayers. We are praising God for His provisions. We are well on the way to bring our children home!!

God is so.. good!!