Book of Ruth

As a church we have been going through the book of Ruth. I wanted to leave you with this today:
God is always watching and His hand is always leading!
If you can take a moment and pray for my friend Sarah, she is traveling to Russia today to go to court next Monday to adopt her daughter Kate (she is 3 1/2 yrs old). Thank you!

We continue to wait on the Lord and know he has chosen our son for us and it is only a matter of time before he is home with us. It is difficult knowing he is there and not here, I so badly want to hold him, kiss him and tell him how much he is loved by us and God. God has a plan for his life, nothing is by chance (fate).

Jeremiah 29:11 For I know the plans that I have for you, declares the Lord, plans for welfare and not for calamity to give you a future and a hope.

One Year Today

It has been one year today that we started our adoption process. I remember the feelings when we started, I just wanted to get going with the paperwork to get our boy home. My husband thought I was the energizer bunny, go go go.

I have definitely slowed down, seeing we are waiting and waiting and waiting. Nothing more to do but wait. It is hard waiting and going on with your life, at least when you are busy you feel productive. Now it is out of our hands literally and up to everyone else in Bulgaria, but ultimately God has been in control the whole time. Thankfully!

Our friends, Devries, who started actually 2 months later than us are going to be traveling for court next week to Russia. After court their is a 10 day waiting period (they will return to the US because they have 3 boys) and then they return to pick up their daughter (she is 3 years old). So hopefully their daughter will be home by the end of April. Amazing! Russia is faster than Bulgaria for sure. I am still hoping we will have a referral by next January, if not sooner.

Thank you to our friends and family who have been following our journey and for your encouragement. Remember we will be having a garage sale this summer so start looking through your things that we could use in our sale. Thanks.

Cathryn's Party at PlayWorld

Cathryn had her birthday party yesterday at Playworld. She had 5 friends, her sister and 2 cousins (9 children in all). They had so much fun. Our room was a bit small for the kids and adults, so the adults were standing around. We got there at 12 to decorate the room (balloons and streamers), the children started arriving at 12:30 and then we ate pizza at 12:50-1:15. They then played on the jumping castle, slide, etc and we had cake at 1:45-2 (opened presents). The party was done at 2 but we didn't leave until 3pm. My girls wanted to stay and play with their cousins.

We finally had to leave and it was so beautiful outside (50 degrees) so we went to a park to play. It was a wonderful time, and Cathryn had fun with her friends from church. Cathryn got some wonderful things, she got outside chalk and Spanish speaking doll from my in-laws, disney bathing suit, towel and sandels for the beach from her cousins, crafts, princess polly pockets, a ladybug game which they played today after church and a Barbie DVD. She was exhausted at the end of the day as we went to a Logan's Restaurant for dinner, she was so ready for bed at 8pm.

I will post some pics when I have downloaded them.
Today we worked in the garden a bit, raking leaves so our new plants can grow:) It is in the 50's again and tomorrow is supposed to be in the 60's. Is Spring finally here? In Michigan you never know, we could have snow tomorrow.

More USA Agencies

Thanks to Terry M who runs the Bulgarian support yahoo group Facab, she has some great information about Agencies that work in Bulgaria and everything else under the sun about Bulgaria (holidays, food etc).

Here are some agencies that I didn't find, that can help you adopt a child from Bulgaria:
1. Americans for Int.Aid and Adoption (AIAA)
2. Adoption Abroad
3. Adotpion Avenues
4. Little Miracles
5. Journeys of the Heart
6. Kids to Adopt
7. Adoption Miracles
8. Lutheran Social Services of Minnesota
9. One World Adoption Services
10. World LInks
These are all Hague Certified as of today, but you must check as some of them only have a 2 year certification as opposed to a 4 year.

Meet the Robinson's

My husband rented this video for the kids when I was at the Woman's Retreat. They had movie night together. So when I got back I watched it with hubby when the kids were in bed. Did you know it is about a little boy who lives in an orphanage and wants to find his birth mom? Anyway, I really enjoyed it, it was kind of wierd/funny. It is rated G but of course has the word stupid in it quite often,which really irritates me. Why do they think they have to put that word in G rated movies? We call it the "s word" in our house. The girls will look at me and say "they said the s word,mom". So other than the s word it is a good film. The little boy doesn't end up finding his birth mom but instead finds "his" family (wife and kids) and he is adopted.
There is also a line in the movie by the orphanage care taker that talks positively about the birth mom loving him enought to want the best for him. I enjoyed the movie.

The last song on my play list is from the movie, when you watch the movie the song is pretty good!

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.