To Grow or Not To Grow

 

 

 

Time is flying. I can not believe it has been so long since I blogged. One thing is for sure, God is faithful. We have literally seen Him move mountains through our adoption. I can remember how scared we were to even begin the process. Now we are at the end (which is really the beginning). We will step on a plane next Friday to go and get Ty (Xiao Jie). It's really hard to believe that the time is here. To say I'm excited and scared is an understatement. My nervous stomach has been hating me every since we got travel approval. But God has been all over this adoption. I have seen Him meet our needs over and over again and so have my children. I know that this new beginning will also be hard. There will be many things we have to work through as a family. Ty will have feelings of grief and loss from leaving what is comfortable to him. Pray with us. Pray that God would fill our hearts with love and patience. Pray that Ty feels that love. I really just want to say Thank You. Thank you for praying for us, thank you for giving in so many different ways. We have seen the body of Christ pour out His blessings on us. We appreciate all the support.

 

My kids are always saying to Sara Beth how they wish she would never grow up. I can definately relate with them. It's hard to be around her cuteness and not fall in love and want her to always stay like that. We are creatures of habit. When things change we don't really like it. But I was thinking back the other day about what my life use to be like. I praise God that He has changed me. I have been saved and I'm being sanctified by a glorious Savior. This is a beautiful growth/change. I want this change, even when it has hard written all over it. This adoption process hasn't been easy, but God has taught me so much through it. He has created something new in me, a love for His children/orphans. I was that orphan before I knew Him. He has made me His, loved me, and give me a new song to sing (Psalms 40:3). He is so good to me. There is a newness in me that He has created. It's hard for me to look at my own children at times and not think of the countless who wait for someone to hold them and love them.  What will we do? Will we stay the same and choose not to grow or will will be molded by the Father daily? My hope is to leave the milk and move on to the steak (Hebrews 5:11-14), and if you know me you know I love steak lol. Today I hope that we all listen to our Lord and grow if whatever He is calling you to. Don't be afraid, just listen and move. I realize there is much to come that will test me and we have a long journey ahead, but I'm thankful to have my Lord walk with me through it. It is going to be heart wrenching to leave Justin and Sara Beth but I think about how they have had me all this time to love on them. Ty needs me in this moment and he has waited for 10 years. I will try to think about a Jim Elliot quote that I love while I'm in China. Here it goes:  “Wherever you are, be all there! Live to the hilt every situation you believe to be the will of God.”
― Jim Elliot

 

These are our latest pictures of Ty just in case you missed them. It won't be long now.

 







The last few months have seemed to drag by. We are done with our homestudy. We had our biometric fingerprints for homeland security paperwork done. Then we waited and waited. During that time as more people found out about our adoption we answered a lot of questions. Some were good and some comments shocked me. I guess sometimes you just expect "christians" to be farther along in their walk. We have experienced some negative comments about Ty's race. I guess the hard part was from a family member that I never expected it to come from. But God sees the bigger picture, and while some people are ok with letting orphans sit and wait because they look different than them, I am not. God has opened my eyes. Boy oh boy has He opened them. Recently at a Bible study we learned about how God opens our eyes to see His glory in the things around us. God spoke to me in that moment about how He also opens our eyes to those who may be suffering. He has opened my eyes to the millions of children sitting in orphanages or on the street. Some cases so severe it's hard to even comprehend. God has opened my eyes, and frankly it hurts. He has opened them so much so that even as I look at my child sleeping I think of others who lay and wait. Some children are never even picked up unless they need to be fed or cleaned. Some suffer from disabilities and are drugged with medicines. They are pushed out of sight and out of mind. Now as I look at my child I think about those children, and my heart breaks. So as God opens my eyes to these things I pray that He would give me words to speak to those who claim His name. I pray that He will help me speak in love. I pray that He will help me love like He does as I advocate for these precious children. I'm sure that there are many times in my life where I disgust Him with my words and actions. He has had compassion on me. I pray that I will have it on others. I know that He has special plans for our little boy. Will He teach people it's ok to love those who are different than you? Will He raise up other families from our adoption? I hope so! I pray that God teaches us all something through this adoption. I feel His molding and shaping in my life even now. I praise Him from whom all blessings flow. Our dossier has currently arrived in China and today we are logged into their system (LID). This is great news. It finally feels like we are moving through things again. Please continue to pray for God to provide for this adoption. Pray for Ty's eyesight as he has been diagnosed recently with strabismus and is having trouble with his vision. Pray for us all to love like Christ now and even after we bring Ty home. We are currently selling costers to help raise money to bring Ty home. They would make great Christmas presents. If your interested in them give me a holler. $12 for a set of 4, $7 for set of 2, or $4 for 1. You can also have them monogramed for $1 more with an initial or picture. Check out the picture at the top of the page. Hope you all have a Merry Christmas.

We are selling these t-shirts for $20 to help bring Ty home. You can pay using paypal or just send a check through regular mail, or contact me on facebook with your sizes. We are taking preorders now. If you pay using paypal please make sure to put your sizes and address. If they are being mailed please add an extra $2 for postage. The shirt reads on the front: Show Hope Give Roots on the Back 150 million orphans, an inconvenient truth, children don't belong in an orphanage they belong in families

 

Happy/Sad Are the Days

We got new pictures of our son. This has been so exciting to say the least. However, with the happiness comes a sadness. Sad because I realize he is so far away and WAITING. Waiting on his family to come for him. Happy to see him do normal everyday boy things like riding a bike, but sad we weren't there to help him learn.

God sees my heart and He knows me (Psalm 139). He is here seeing us through every step, and He is there with Ty. I will trust Him with the hard and rejoice with the good/easy. It's comforting to know He is always near. We have one more homestudy visit left, and a lot of things to read before that can happen. Keep praying for us. Keep praying for Ty. God hears. He listens and responds meeting us exactly where we are. Hopefully soon I can let you know about some fundraisers, and how you can help us bring our sweetness home.  Thanks for the prayers. Enjoy the pictures. Lori

Isn't he just the cutest :)

 

This is one of our favorites lol. I think he will fit in nicely with our family.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

All Smiles

I pray the smile is real and an outward manifestation of an internal joy. Sadly I see this in our churches everywhere. Nothing but smiles on Sunday morning. Smiles that speak nothing of the pain and the failures in this life. They are very deceiving smiles that lead many of us to believe all is well. When in reality hell has waged war on our homes. So why the smiles. Perhaps we to have learned that we must look and act our best for others to accept who we are. We do this with each other and we do this with God. We give our best in hopes he will accept it never fully realizing our best is filthy rags. We must rely only on His Grace. My prayer is that Ty will know God's grace by the grace our family shows to him. I pray that fellow believers will begin to show that same grace to others who think they must look and act their best for us to accept them. That through all of this we can begin to fully understand the grace of God.     Jared

Well here we are creating a blog, and so out of my comfort zone. I guess this will be a way to share what's on our hearts and also keep everyone updated on the adoption. It will also be something that Ty can look back on later. I know most people think we are crazy because we want to adopt. I can hear it now, "but you already have 3 kids." God planted this seed awhile back deep in our hearts. He has been watering it, adjusting the soil, and bringing on the sunlight. Now that seed has taken root and developing. He has opened our eyes to what he has blessed us with and in a way asks, "So what are you gonna do with it to glorify me?" He has taken the scales off so we can see children who are without (without families, without love, without homes....). Don't we have the love of our Father growing inside of us? It should get bigger everyday. Everyday we should become more like Him, Having His Heart. Things that once seemed a little crazy (and still does to many) seem only natural now. We can share our love, our family, our home and we can allow God to bless us with this sweet child. Because children are a gift from our Lord. So we begin this journey with our Lord. Yeah there will be hard times, but one day we will be able to look back at the struggles and see how God delivered us. We will be able to sing His praises and glorify His name. He is in this. Pray for our little boy as we begin this journey to him. I can't imagine all the feelings and emotions he will face through it all. Pray for God to prepare our hearts for what lies ahead. We got our PA (pre-approval) last week, and our so excited.