FINALLY SOME GOOD NEWS!!!!!!!!

Thank you all for your prayers! We received news today that our documents have been submitted for registration in St. Petersburg!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! In the next week or two, they will be reviewed by the Adoption Committee, which will either accept and register them or request changes or clarification. Obviously, we are hoping for the former, so we can get over there and see our kids! However, even if we have to redo some things, at least we're moving and our documents are now in Russian hands. Please continue to pray with us, as there is still a long way to go, but we do have something to celebrate today!

Waitin' on a Woman

This is the sweetest video by Brad Paisley and Andy Griffith! Just saw it this morning on CMT and had to share. YouTube won't let me embed it in the blog, but here is the link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pvKgnkIN8C8

Hurry! Hurry!

I try so hard to be patient and wait for God's timing. I really do. But when family after family who started the adoption process months after we did are traveling to meet kids and getting court dates, I rejoice with them, and then it sinks in again that we are still waiting. And I cry, and I get mad that we can't seem to get moving. I wonder if our agency is the problem, and then I wonder if we are the problem. And then I remember that God will make it happen when He is ready, and I try to calm back down.

I did learn today that one family we've followed since they began the adoption process this spring received their invitation this week to go to Russia and meet their little girl. Not only was I thrilled for them, I was also encouraged that they were registered on Sept. 10th and leave for Russia on Sept. 22nd.....only 12 days!!! PLEASE GOD! PLEASE DO THE SAME FOR US! AND SOON!

In the Swing...

Seems like lately I get around to updating here about the same time I hit the wall and run out of energy...or at least the will to write. It's not that there isn't anything to share, but I keep procrastinating. Imagine that...ME...procrastinating! (My family will appreciate the humor here.)

I am thankful to be able to report that our family members are accounted for and in good health, even the super-stubborn ones that decided to face down Ike at the shore rather than heading inland. Some of them had minor damage to their homes, schools and/or places of work, but there were no catastrophic losses. None of them have power, and most won't for days or weeks, but they are safe!

We had some friends over Friday night for a hurricane party, something we decided on about mid-afternoon. It turned out amazingly well considering no one had any plans to attend before 4 pm. Thank goodness for Sam's and their frozen appetizers, deli trays, etc.!

Saturday, we met an amazing and very special family that we look forward to getting to know better. Jim and Tonya have one biological son and a son and daughter, special-needs twins, whom they adopted. We all went to Chuck E. Cheese and enjoyed chatting for almost 3 hours while the kids played! They had some great insight into adoption, schools, etc. Sunday morning, they visited our church with us, too.

I've been planning a trip to Illinios in October. I am SOOOO looking forward to catching up with old friends to watching Matt run some cross country.

Garin has been so funny today. There has been a lot of LOUD singing going on, and he wore his dinosaur costume (see here and here) all afternoon, even though it's almost 90 degrees outside. He's a quirky little fellow, and I love that about him!

Things are kicking back into full swing around here, with OSC and squadron functions, bowling and other fun stuff. I'm so thankful to be back into the groove and seeing my friends more often! It's nice to rest now and then, but we need our girlfriends!

Another Evacuation

Well, folks, at the risk of sounding like a broken record, I'm asking you to pray for the hurricane evacuees again. Late yesterday, when it became clear that Beaumont was not going to escape Hurricane Ike, my brother-in-law evacuated the children's home for the second time in two weeks. In doing so, he had to leave behind his own family: my sister and their three children. Marci decided late last night, when she learned that local officials would be having a 2am meeting to declare a mandatory evacuation today, that she would rather get on the road and get out before traffic got crazy this morning. She and the kids prepared and secured the house and drove to my parents' house. They arrived around 2:30am. Greg and his entourage arrived at Camp Buckner shortly thereafter. My aunt is safely in Northeast Texas in her childhood home, but her husband and children were not able to leave until after work today. They should be on the road now or very shortly, dealing with slow, heavy traffic and long gas lines. Please keep them all in your prayers. Other family members in the Houston area have decided not to heed the evacuation order and have chosen to stay. Although I admittedly question the wisdom of that decision, I also ask you to pray that they will be safe through the storm.

My heart has been particularly touched by the stories I've heard today of families who do not have the financial means to evacuate again, families who spent their small savings evacuating just two weeks ago and have no money to do so again. And there are those who have nowhere to go other than to try to find an open hotel room or shelter. I also pray that God will give them peace, comfort and shelter as Ike approaches.

I Know

We got some fresh information about our Russian children yesterday. It was encouraging, motivating and hope-building, but we are still waiting...hopefully not too much longer.

Sometimes in the course of moving forward and forgetting what is behind, our style of worship changes. Nothing wrong with that! I worship in ways I never knew I could as a child, thanks to Casting Crowns, Lincoln Brewster, Chris Tomlin, and the list goes on. But sometimes those old hymns from childhood now reach out to me in ways they didn't before. Perhaps it's because they aren't routine to me anymore, and I am actually hearing their messages more clearly. Whatever the reason, today as I was praying about D & K and begging God to bring them home soon, the following hymn came to mind and brought with it a great reassurance and reminder that I don't have to know. I can just trust.

These words were written in 1883 by Daniel Whittle, and they still speak to my soul today:

I know not why God’s wondrous grace
To me He hath made known,
Nor why, unworthy, Christ in love
Redeemed me for His own.

Refrain
But I know Whom I have believèd
And am persuaded that He is able
To keep that which I’ve committed
Unto Him against that day.

I know not how this saving faith
To me He did impart,
Nor how believing in His Word
Wrought peace within my heart.

Refrain

I know not how the Spirit moves,
Convincing us of sin,
Revealing Jesus through the Word,
Creating faith in Him.

Refrain

I know not what of good or ill
May be reserved for me,
Of weary ways or golden days,
Before His face I see.

Refrain

I know not when my Lord may come,
At night or noonday fair,
Nor if I walk the vale with Him,
Or meet Him in the air.

Refrain