We recently went to visit my family for a week vacation. We stayed at Navarre Beach for the week. It was very humid but the breezy made it bearable. The kids had their first experience with salt water in their eyes and mouth. After the first day they got used to it. They enjoyed jumping the waves and floating in the water. The girls also perfected their hoola hoop skills and we went bike riding in the early evenings. One day we went to Pensecola to go parasailing and see the Blue Angels practice. It was a ton of fun. We also ate lunch at Flounders on the beach. In the past when we have gone to this restaurant it has been packed and you have to wait to get a seat. This time there were 5 families in the restaurant and our server said they have lost 60% of their business because of the reported 'oil spill'. Which took 2 days to clean up months ago and yet no one is vacationing on the gulfshore because of all the bad press. We had so much fun playing in the water together as a family, collecting seashells, eating on the deck of our condo and laying out in the sun. Once we got home I asked the girls what their favorite part of the trip was; Cathryn said the bunk beds they slept in and Caroline said,'parasailing'. For me it was laying in the sun and spending time with my family. This week we will begin getting back into a routine for school, which starts after Labor day.
On the adoption front, we haven't heard anything. I will begin our i800a extention paperwork this coming month, once homeschooling gets underway. We have now been registered and waiting for a referral for 19 months. It is very frustrating, especially when we were told by our agency that the wait wouldn't be longer than 18 months when we signed up with them. We get to renew our USCIS paperwork for free this time around (however we will have to pay to have our homestudy updated, and renew my passport which will be expiring soon, pay for medicals again for the homestudy). This will be good for 18 months I believe. By that time we would have been waiting for more than 3 years.
The question I struggle with is, when do we stop putting money into this and move on, how long do we keep pursing this? My prayer is that God will show us in a clear way what we should do. I feel the last couple of years God has asked us to do certain things and we have had to make the decision, do we obey, step out in faith, or stay comfortable and do what feels safe? We felt called to adoption even though it is very scary with all the unknowns. We felt God leading us out of our present church to join a church plant in the inner city. This was also very scary with many unknowns and hard to leave friends. But I know we aren't called to be comfortable in this world, this isn't our home. We are called to be light and salt in this world. To reach the unsaved, to minister to the orphans and widows, the fatherless. I pray that God will use me for His glory and it is only through Him that I can obey. A great book I read recently is 'Fresh Wind, Fresh Fire' written by Jim Cymbala. He is a pastor at the Brooklen Tabernacle. It was so encouraging to me. A must read about prayer and how God works when we are willing to listen. I continue to pray for God's will for my life, I pray for the orphans that they might find their forever families. I pray that our son will come home soon. I will end with my favorite verse: Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding, in all your ways acknowledge Him and he will direct your path. Proverbs 3;5-6
