God Is So Big

Where have I been the last 1 1/2 months? Well I've been trying to catch my breath and catch up with all God is doing in our lives. Let me first say that I am married to the most wonderful man in the world. I thought that I loved him as much as possible. However through all that the last weeks have brought us, I now love him beyond reason. He is truly my soulmate and best friend. He has supported me, talked to me, prayed with me, and loved me through the surprizes that God has blessed us with. I love you Wayne!

Now, let me tell you who God is to me. He is my rock. He is the faithful father that has never given up on me even though I sooooo deserve it. He is the reason that I have hope. You see, he sent his son, Jesus, to earth to die for me. Without this happening, I would be destined to hell. Heavy stuff, yes. But it is the one undeniable fact of life. Without Jesus Christ as your savior, you have no connection to God. You have no God if you do not believe that Jesus was his one and only son, came into the world to die on a cross, and rose three days later. He took the punishment that we all deserve because of the sin in our lives. That's it. That's all we have that is worth anything. If you don't know this Jesus, email me and I will be happy to introduce you today. Do Not Wait!! Let me tell you, my God is so big to me right now!!!!!

OK! As you may or may not know, God started working in my heart in Nov/Dec 2005 on an adoption from China. I was scared but excited that this might be in His plan for me. However, my prayer was: You will have to deal with Wayne. I just couldn't see this being something that he would go for. We are neither one all that young anymore, and our children were getting older too. Things were very easy! (MMMMM, sounds like a situation where God needs to stir things up, right?) Well throughout the next year, God moved so purposely in both of our lives. He gave us very clear revelations and signs on a regular basis. For example:

1) Feb 7 '06 - My34th birthday. I asked God for birthday present of clarity on where he wants to see me head in my life. I asked him to speak very loudly and clearly to me so that I would know it was from him. His answer: continual pictures of beautiful Chinese little girls at Dr's office and, when shopping for a notebook for myself, the notebooks in stock were covered with chinese symbols for hope & courage.

2) On March 5 '06 I was praying and worshipping and God audibly wispered to me "Go to China". I have only heard an audible word from God a few times in my life, so this was huge to me. Wayne starts freaking out a bit.

3) I continually see families that have adopted form China and end up connecting with some of them.

I could go on forever about this but I must move on.

God worked on Wayne, in his own special way and soon he was on board. He was only interested in a NSN child, but I was open to what ever God chose. Immediately after he agreed, we tried to apply to the NSN adoption program of a Christian agency. We were told that China had changed the requirements for adoption, and they told us that they would not even accept our application. I was so heartsick and confused. Then, one of my childhood friends came to me to talk about her adopting form Korea. We soon realize that this would be the only way we would be able to adopt. In the Korea program, you can only choose the sex of the baby if you apply for a waiting child. MMMMM Wayne came around and we applied to Holt International on Christmas Day 2006 for an international adoption from KOREA. Things went well on the paperchase, but I could not shake the feeling that China was the "meant to be" in our adoption experience. I knew that we were supposed to adopt, but something was a little off. Finally I spoke to Wayne about this. He felt the same way. In April '07, we had a conversation with our social worker, explained what we were feeling and what we had been told. She said that we would have no problem being accepted into the China program at all. We immediately switched to China. So peaceful, so hopeful, so calm. we finished up the paperwork for China and received a LID of 8/7/07. We were settled down for a 2 year wait. It would give us time to prepare our home for a baby and work out our finances.

However, God had other plans. Ten (that's right, ten!) days later, on 8/17/07 I was shopping at Value City for wicker baskets and I got a phone call from Holt. They had a referral for us to consider. I had to sat down in the patio furniture section in order to talk to her! Ji Xiang Shi was a SN child who was small. She was only 5 lbs when she was found in June '06. Wayne and I told no one about her and hit our knees before our King. Four days later, we accepted the referral. I would love to introduce to you all Ji Xiang Shi aka Sydney Lian Woods!

First Day Of School

Today begins another school year. Ashlyn is a Freshman this year. I can hardly believe it. She is growing up into a beautiful woman. I still see her as my baby! Sarah is starting 6th grade. She is just so precious to me. She is such a pretty girl. She has the sweetest smile and sense of humor. This year was special because Debra's kids are here with us. Morgan and Dustin are being real troopers trying to roll with all the changes they've endured with their mom sick. They are great kids and I'm very proud of them. Also, my grandson, Bryce, started preschool this year. He lives just 4 houses down from us and when he saw all of us at the road waiting on the bus, he just took off running towards us! Hannah chased him down and got him back to his stop. When the bus appeared, he just started hopping up and down. He looked so little getting on that big school bus. It helps greatly though that my mom is the school bus driver! As usual we had to have pictures with NaNa!

Update

Debra was released from the hospital yesterday. She cannot stay alone, though. Since her husband works out of state, she is staying with me for at least a week, maybe longer. She is still in alot of pain and cannot do much for herself. Of course her two children are here too. School starts tomorrow, so we are going to have to get super organized to manage to get all 4 kids to school on time. I am ready for school to start though. The kids are getting bored and resorting to picking on each other for entertainment. I am looking forward to the routine of it all. Please continue to pray for all of us.

World Changers Celebration!

This morning at church we had a celebration of our mission trip. We all wore our WC shirts. All of the leaders sat on stage and each youth came up and told what this week involved and what they learned. I was so proud of the kids. They all spoke so sweetly about our Savior. I just know God has such awesome plans for those kids and I am so thankful that He's allowing me to tag along for a bit of it. I also put together 4 slideshows to music to help recap the week. To finish the day off, we had a carry in dinner! It was such a beautiful time. Thank you, Jesus.

A Little Late

In between our travels, my oldest baby had a birthday. Hannah turned 23 on July 23rd! Hannah came to live with Wayne & I when she was 6 years old. I was so young at that time. Looking back, I can see so many mistakes that I wish I could redo. But we both survived and the wounds only make us stronger. Hannah now lives 4 doors down from us with her sweet family. She is married to a great guy and has 2 beautiful boys! She is now teaching Sunday School and we are so proud of her. I can't believe she is so grown up!!

Prayer Request

I want to ask you all to help me pray for my friend Debra again. She had surgery in Mexico about 6 weeks ago and has never really recovered. She is in the hospital in St. Louis now and has had to undergo major surger to correct some problems and infections. Please pray for her and her husband. In the middle of all of that they received a referral for a little girl from Korea with some minor special needs. Her agency is giving her time to heal some before they need an answer but I know it is still alot to deal with. Please pray, my friends!

I'm Back!!

Hello friends! Yes I am finally back home! Quick catch up: We spent a total of 3 weeks in Virginia Beach. We came home for 5 days to unpack and repack for our mission trip to Buffalo New York. We took a group of 21 to stay at McKinley High School in Buffalo with 400 other youth and adults. While there, we worked on houses that had been condemned by the city. We made the necessary improvements to enable the homeowners to keep their houses. In all we renovated around 40 houses. During our day off, we went to see Niagra Falls. It was awesome! Talk about the power of the Living God. It was a nice reminder of how big God is and how small I am. We stayed in New York for 9 days and finally are home to stay!!!! Unfortunately, I became sick as soon as I got home. I have bronchitis, but at least my chest x-ray was negative for pnumonia! So, I am on the couch today with my fuzzy blanket and some iced tea, trying to catch up with my bloggy friends!! But that is not the biggest news: OUR DTC IS 7-27-07!!!! Yes we are finally finished with our paparchase! We haven't received our LID yet, which has kind of surprized me. How long did it take you all to received your LIDs? Anyway, it is so good to be home!