Two miracles in a week...thank you Lord!!!

Okay, so those of you who are familiar with the adoption process in Haiti know that time frames really don't mean anything. A week & half ago we were told that it would take two weeks to fix Shakira's birth certificate problem. I know that God could so do that but I know how things usually operate in Haiti so I just prayed & left it in God's hands. Today I sent an reminder Email to our adoption contact person saying that Friday would be the two week mark & I would like a status report on Friday. I got a phone call this afternoon saying that the new birth certificate was issued & now it is being taken back to the judge for approval & signature so our files can be submitted to MOI. Praise God!!! Thank you Jesus!!! Please join me in prayer that the judge signs off on it & our files enter MOI by the end of this week. Thanks!

Do you believe in miracles???

Well, from my previous post some of you may have thought that Kenny had already passed away. Randy's parents went to the hospital today to have him taken off the ventilator & all meds stopped because he had not shown any signs of responsiveness at all & they said his entire brain except for his brain stem was damaged. Well...when they got to the hospital they found him awake. He just woke up & asked for his glasses. He then wanted to know why he was in the hospital. Randy's youngest sister says he is "normal" self. Praise God...the God of second chances!!! Please pray that Kenny uses his second chance very wisely! Thanks for all of your prayers & support!

Sunshine admist the rain...

Randy, Phoebe, & I have had heavy hearts ever since Friday evening when we learned that Randy's oldest brother Kenny became unconscious & was taken to the hospital. Since then we have learned that he had a massive heart attack in addition to multiple other problems. We will be heading to MO soon for his funeral. In the mean time I am trying to focus on happy thoughts & decided to post this picture of my Haitian trio. It was taken yesterday at the orphanage during the September birthday party. The girls liked their baby dolls that we had sent them.

Tasteless Food...

This devotion from Dr. David Jeremiah is perfect timing for me. I hope it is an encouragement to you as well.

Tasteless Food
In everything give thanks.
I Thessalonians 5:18

Recommended Reading
Psalm 136

Noted Christian author and speaker Kent Crockett recounted a time in his life when his father had to receive radiation treatments for throat cancer and in the process lost his sense of taste. Doctors said there was a chance his taste might return, but no one knew for certain and it became a daily struggle to force feed him so he could live. After a year of eating flavorless food, Crockett's father sat down to dinner and reluctantly took a bite of food, expecting once again to taste nothing. To his amazement and joy, his taste had returned and that ordinary dinner became the best meal he had ever eaten. From that day on, he relished each morsel of food as never before.*

As you go through each day, are you mindful of the little blessings God has given you? The air you breathe, the family you have, the reliable car you drive. If you were to sit down and list all of the blessings in your life, big and small, you would begin to cultivate a thankful spirit. Today, look for blessings in unexpected places and be sure to express your gratitude to our loving and gracious Father in heaven.

Indeed a really thankful heart will extract motive for gratitude from everything, making the most even of scanty blessings. J. R. MacDuff

Finding Strength in God Alone...

The song "Voice of Truth" was my theme song at the beginning of this adoption process. "Ever lasting God" has been my theme song at the end of it. I will wait upon the Lord for His perfect timing & I will find strength in Him.

"Stuck"...

Please pray for all of these precious children, their files, & for their adoptive parents. They have been "stuck" in either IBESR or between Parquet & MOI for months. The children are getting restless...not to mention older & the parents are weary...myself included. Thanks for your prayers!

It's a "God thing!"

That's what I like to call things that there is no question that God was in it, under it, over it, etc.! I don't have time to go into all of the details so I will just say that God has been working mightily in our lives this weekend & today. Thank you Lord for blessing us & speaking to us!!!

Our "current" total from our adoption fundraiser yard sale is $711.18. I say "current" because it has gone up twice since I finished the sale Saturday afternoon. We made $536.18 in sales & so far have been given $175 in donations. Unless there is a huge change in ticket prices we have enough money for one of the girls airplane tickets home. Praise God!!!

I pray that you will hear God speaking to you today & you will commit your ways to him. Be blessed today!

Yard Sale!

Tomorrow we are having an adoption fundraiser yard sale from 7am to noon. Please pray that we have good weather during the sale, lots of people & lots of sales. All proceeds from this sale will go towards the airfare to bring our three children from Haiti home. $500 would be great! $700 would be awesome! And anything over that would be supernatural :o) A big thank you to all of my friends that have donated some really great items including antiques, lawn mowers, sinks, bread machine, home decor, house wares, clothing, toys, etc.!!! We really appreciate it!

Into the light...

We got power back at 10am this morning. Praise God!!! Two days earlier than anticipated!!! Doing the HBWD!!! :o)

In the dark...

If you think this is going to be a deep post regarding spiritual darkness you are wrong. I'll save that for a later date. Today I'm talking about "virtual" darkness. We have been without electricity since Sunday morning. I don't want to sound like I'm complaining because we are fine & have much more than most people in the world. I just wanted to let you all know why I haven't been blogging or E mailing. They say that we should have power Friday. Please pray that we will. I hope that you are having a great week in the Lord!

A rare photo op...

Thanks Megan for this picture!!! I wonder who Shakira was talking to on the phone :o)

Remembering Sept. 11th 2001 & 2002...

I will never forget Sept. 11th 2001. The events of that day will always be etched into my mind. Today I take time to reflect on that day & on the families & friends who lost their loved ones that day.

I will also never forget Sept. 11th 2002 although for very different reasons. On that day I had no idea at the time what that day would mean to me but now, 6 years & a beautiful girl later...one I have yet to spend her birthday with...is forever etched in my heart & mind. Happy Birthday Shakira!!! Mommy & Daddy love you very, very much!!! We pray that you have a joy filled & blessed birthday!

Happy Birthday Handsome Man!!!

Praying that you're having a great day at work. I thank God for you & another year of your life! I love you very much!

"After" clip

Busy bee...

I went to MO this weekend by myself for two reasons. The first one was to see a very good friend of mine that lives in Florida but was in MO for her sister's wedding. She wasn't coming to our home town because the wedding was in Springfield & she was flying in & out of St.Louis & wanted to meet with me on Sunday in St. Louis before she flew back home. I didn't want to drive 3 hours & then meet with her for a couple of hours & then drive 3 hours back home so I decided that I would surprise my mom with something that I have been wanting to do for awhile but have not gotten the chance to do it. My mom's house needs some TLC but when we're there visiting she doesn't want us to do anything to it because she wants to spend our time visiting. She works nights so I decided to leave home Friday night & arrive at her house shortly after she left for work. I arrived about 15 minutes after she had left & I got busy working. I took all her things off the walls of the living room & hallway...she had a lot of stuff...it took me two hours to take every thing down & pull out the nails. After that I had to clean the walls & do some patch work. Then I primed the paneling walls. By the time I did this it was about 4 am. I started painting a section of the wall with the "Cancun Sand" (think cream color) that I had bought but realized that I needed to prime the walls again. By this time it was 5am & all though I wasn't mentally tired my body was saying "Enough already." So I stopped painting & cleaned up my mess. By the time I was done with that & ready to go to bed it was 6:30am. I was really disappointed because I wanted to have everything done before she came home from work. So I left her a note & went to bed. I woke up at 11am & she heard me so she got up. I was afraid she might be upset with me but she was very happy about what I was doing. We had lunch & then I got back to it. By 9pm Sat. night I realized that I was not going to be able to get all that I wanted done before I had to leave Sunday morning. My original plan was to prime & paint the living room & the hallway, paint the ceilings of both, & paint the trim work of both, & then stylishly decorate :o) My wise & very gracious mother knew that I couldn't get it all done & told me not to worry about it & that I could finish it another time. We decided to focus on finishing painting the living room & one side of the hall way. I will finish the hallway, doing the ceiling, & trim work the next time I visit. I finished painting at 3:00am Sunday & went to bed at 3:30am. I woke up at 9am & quickly started working to put furniture back in place, clean, & then to decorate when I realized that there was no way I was going to be able to do all of that, plus pack a lot of stuff...she was letting me take most of the stuff on the walls & on the furniture to sell at a yard sale...and take a shower before leaving at 10:45am. So I went to plan B which was to take a shower & get ready & then instead of heading home from St. Louis I would drive back to my home town which would be another 1 & 15 minutes driving time...finish what I needed to do & then drive home. I pulled out of my mom's driveway at 9:30 with an estimated arrival time of 12:45. I got home at 1am which is not bad considering I had to drive through a lot of fog & ended up missing a turn off & driving 10 miles the wrong way before I figured it out :o( & then had to turn around. I got to bed at 1:30am & "slept in" until 7am. Rushed around to get Phoebe ready for school & then watched Emily & Audrey all day. So I'm thinking I'll go for a quiet "relaxing" weekend this coming weekend :o) I have two video clips of my mom's living room...a before & after clip however for some reason I can't get them to publish on the same post so I will include the before on this one & then post the "after" on a new post.

More pictures...

Happy Birthday Girls!!!

Happy 5th Birthday Phoebe!!! Happy 4th Birthday Samara!!! Praying that you both have a very joy filled & blessed day! Mommy & Daddy love you both very much & can't wait for the time that we will celebrate both of your birthdays together!

No Training Wheels!!!

We took off Phoebe's training wheels today. I think she's doing pretty good so far!

Phoebe's birthday party pictures...

What are they feeding him???

Either my eyes are playing tricks on me or Caleb really does look like he's gained 10 pounds since I saw him in June. I don't know what he's been eating lately but it looks like he's been eating a steady diet of meat & potatoes :o) Thank you Lord for my healthy boy!!!