You Are God Alone

This is a song we sing at our church that is encouraging when you are going through hard times:

You are not a god created by human hands;
You are not a god dependent on any mortal man,
You are not a god in need of anything we can give.
By Your plan, that's just the way it is.

You are God alone:
From before time began
You were on your throne;
You were God alone.
And right now
In the good times and bad,
You are on Your throne;
You are God alone.

Unchangeable, Unshakable, Unstoppable. That's what you are.

You're the only God whose power none can contend.
You're the only God whose name and praise will never end
You're the only God who's worthy of everything we can give.
You are God
That's just the way it is.

Woman's Retreat on JOY

This past weekend I was blessed to be able to attend our woman's retreat. I love going for the following reasons: we are pampered (given cookies, chocolate, scripture verses, bags of goodies), we have a time of fellowship (catching up with one another outside of church), we laugh (games, crafts, free time, late night talks), and we have a great time of bible teaching (and time of silence to mediate on God's word).

This years theme was JOY John 15:11 " I have told you this so that my joy may be in you and that your joy may be complete." So what is joy? It is the deep and eternal delight in God, God is our source of joy. The purpose of joy is to glorify God. A great quote by Piper says it all "God is glorified when we are sanctified in Him." For me personally, I found this question so helpful: what keeps you from joyful connection with fellow believers? Can you truthfully answer that one for yourself?

With our adoption it has been a leap of faith and getting over some of our fear. My greatest fear is that I won't be able to rejoice in "the bad times, suffering", that I won't be able to persevere. Aren't we all afraid of 'bad things happening' and messing up our 'perfect lives'? This is sin! It is not leaning on God but trying to do it all on our own, and we can't. It is having to trust God, that he does have our best interest in mind. God is sovereign, He knew us before we were born, He will continue to work in us until the day we are more like Christ!

Psalm 100:5 For the Lord is good, his steadfast love endures forever, and his faithfulness to all generations.

James 1:2 Count it all joy my brothers when you meet various trials of various kinds for you know the testing of your faith produces steadfastness.

Romans 5: 3-5 More than that, we rejoice in our suffering, knowing that suffering produces endurance, and endurance produces character, and character produces hope, and hope does not put us to shame, because God's love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit, who has been given to us.

AAI fund raiser March 19

For those of you who live in the Grand Rapids, Jenison, Grandville area, Adoption Associates is having a fundraiser at Culvers Restaurant in Jenison off of Chicago Drive on March 19th at a certain time. Check with AAI (I believe it is 3pm-dinner time).

A lot of agencies are having financial difficulties due to our economy and less families adopting. Some agencies have closed thier doors, and others, like AAI have had to request more money from their clients and downsize. If you aren't able to adopt but have a heart for adoption/children please donate to this cause. AAI gets 10% of the proceeds. Thank you.

Adoption Agencies in the USA

The following are some agencies that deal with Bulgaria if you are interested in adopting from this country:

1. Tree of Life Adoption Center (Oregon)
2. All God's Children International
3. St. Mary's International (N.Carolina or S.Carolina)
4. Holt International
5. Adoption Ark
6.CWA (Christian World Adoption)
7. Spence-Chapin Services
8. Hopscotch
9. About a Child
10. Wasatch (Wiaa)

I know for a fact that TOL, Holt International and All God's Children International use the same agency in Bulgaria to translate thier dossiers and do all the other stuff that needs to be done in Bulgaria with court, travel etc. The agency is called VESTA. These agencies would be my first choices.

It is different for everyone, are you looking for a large or small organization (pros and cons for both), what is the cost, and requirements for the individual agencies (AGC doesn't want you to have more than 3 children in the home etc), and how many adoptions has the agency completed in this country and are they Hague Certified? Just a few questions to look into.

I also know if you are interested in special needs Reece's Rainbow has children from Bulgaria and Ukraine (and other countries).

A good site to go to for encouragement and chatting with other adoptive parents is FRUA another one is adoption forum. I have found a number of people on these sites who are adopting from Bulgaria (and other countries). A number of us are registered and waiting for a referral. On FRUA people post pics of their children, talk about topics related to adoption and paperwork for adoption.

I am still looking for more ideas on fundraising, leave me a message if you have any ideas. If your church has an Adoption Ministry what have they done to raise money?

James 1:27 "this is pure and underfiled religion in the sight of our God and Father, to visit orphans and widows in their distress, and to keep oneself unstained by the world."

Birthday Party for Cathryn

I didn't realize how quickly Cathryn's birthday was approaching until my mother-in-law asked what our plans were for her birthday. I had been thinking about it on and off since Caroline's birthday because Cathryn had mentioned she wanted a friends party at ChuckECheese. The only problem with ChuckECheese is her friends are 3 and 4 years old and need parents with them. So I looked into the Children's Museum and Play world. We want to have her friends party this year instead of next year, because Lord willing, our son will be home with us by Spring of next year and he would be very overstimulated with many kids around in a place like ChuckECheese. The first 6 months I plan to stay close to home so he develops attachment to us our family and home environment.

Well we have decided to have her 2 cousins and 6 friends and celebrate her 4th birthday at Play World. Play world has a jumping castle, blowup maze, ball pen, etc and we rent a party room for 1 1/2 hours to eat pizza and cake. It is cheaper than ChuckEcheese and BounceParty. It is a miniature version of BounceParty, more appropriate for 4 year olds. She is excited! She would be happy with anything. She is a sweet little girl who is very affectionate and caring. She is a blessing to us all.

She said to me today, "We didn't go to Disney with our cousins because we have to get our baby". What she meant to say is we didn't go to Disney because we are trying to save Daddy's vacation days for when we go to Bulgaria to see our son. She just wants her brother home and wasn't upset that she wasn't able to go to Disney world this year with her grandparents and cousins. What a sweet child! She remembers him whenever she prays and when we snuggle together as a family in our Queen bed on Saturday mornings she says, " you need a bigger bed for our baby to fit in here with us". He is in our hearts and minds all the time, and we pray that God is keeping him safe and that he is getting hugs when he cries or is scared.

Anymore ideas out there about fundraising?

http://www.bulgariatravel.org/eng/index.php

This is Bulgaria's travel site. It has the history of Bulgaria, how to travel and call Bulgaria, and what I love about it is that is shows how Bulgaria has little towns to visit as well as resorts on the beach. You can see what Bulgaria has to offer in Winter (skiing), and Summer. Bulgaria is beautiful and we are looking foward to travelling there to see our son, God willing this year! I am excited to learn about his culture, see where he is from and be able to share our love for his country with him when he is older.

If anyone has any fundraising ideas they would like to share with us, I would love to hear them. We still need to raise funds for our airfare and stay in Bulgaria. I am hoping to have a garage sale this summer so if you live locally and have any goods you want to get rid of I would love to sell them:) Our church has recently started an Orphan ministry and I would also love some fundraising ideas for that so we can raise money for other families that need assistance so they can adopt.