Pray for Oklahoma

I'm sure you have all heard about the F4 tornado that hit OKC/Moore today. 

Ya'll the devastation is awful. It brings back so many memories of May 3, 1999. In fact, this storm followed almost the exact same path. Right through my hometown, tearing down everything in its path. Children are still missing. Families ripped apart. 

Pray. Please just pray. 

As for the kids and I, we are safe. The tornado touched down about 1/2 mile from my parents house. We were hiding in the closet when my brother-in-law called and said "get out now". I have never been so relived to get in a car! The kids quickly buckled up and we started driving. A huge tornado approaching on our left and glimpses of blue sky in front of us. 

My mom drove well, the kids asked 1000 questions but remained calm overall. I manned both our cell phones as relatives texted safe routes for us to take. 

We are so thankful for all your prayers and for the practical advice on the road. My dad is attempting to drive home from Dallas as we speak. We are camped out at my sisters house as my parents house had no power. 

Please be praying for us as we figure out how we can help in the coming days. Pray for the kids as they process all that has happened and for me as I communicate reality in an age appropriate way. Pray us home as we are basically 'stranded' in OK right now. 

Pray for Oklahoma. Pray for those whose lives have suddenly been forever changed. Pray for a miracle. There are more storms on the way. (Rain only) pray for those still trapped and for families to be reunited. 

Pray for hearts to be awakened to the truth of Gods love. 

His hand was covering us today. Thank you Lord. 

Steph

*pictures are not mine as we were a little too busy to even think to take a picture! 

April Update with PICTURES!

It's April 25 and we finally got an update on Caleb!

Hop on over to www.greatestjoyadoption.wordpress.com to see pictures.

It is the same password as before.
If you need me to send the password to you again, just let me know.

Blessings!!!

Ugh. And a Plea.

I am so behind ya'll. Majorly.
I am still working on week 2's scripture challenge and this is week 3. ARGH!
Anyone else struggling with me? No?
Good for you!

I'm not going to make any excuses, BUT half the Costco sized bag of chocolate chips is gone....if that's any indication of my week... :0

I'm still going for it though. Today is the day to 'gird up my loins'
(ha! that expression makes me laugh)
and get moving again.

So, as a reminder - I am working on memorizing Isaiah 61 - and I need your HELP! Prayer would be fantastic because this will only happen through the power of the Holy Spirit. I don't just want to memorize words, but I want this passage to become ingrained in me, as only the Word of God can.

Last week (and this week for me...) was Isaiah 61:2-3. .

I am loving this by the way. Verses 2 and 3 are so beautiful!
LOVE how it says: to proclaim the year of the Lord's favor,
    and the day of vengeance of our God;
A YEAR of the Lord's favor, yet his vengeance is only a day. That's how mighty our God is. When the day of judgement comes, it will be swift and done. But His favor, it's for eternity. I have been chewing on that in light of the events in Boston this last week. He will give comfort and gladness to those who mourn. Lift them up in praise instead of a faint spirit - they will be called oaks of righteousness.

That has been my prayer this week.

What has your favorite portion been and why?

And this week next week is Isaiah 61:4-6

They shall build up the ancient ruins;
    they shall raise up the former devastations;
they shall repair the ruined cities,
    the devastations of many generations.

⁵ Strangers shall stand and tend your flocks;
    foreigners shall be your plowmen and vinedressers;
⁶ but you shall be called the priests of the Lord;
    they shall speak of you as the ministers of our God;
you shall eat the wealth of the nations,
    and in their glory you shall boast.

Happy memorizing to you all!


We have not yet received an update on our Caleb. Perhaps that's why those chocolate chips are disappearing so rapidly....hmm.....

Also, if you have hung with me thus far....

I entered my kiddos in a "Cutest Kid" contest. If we win we get a free photo session with the amazing photographer. I would so love to be able to use that session when Caleb comes home! (we are holding on in faith that he will be home this year!)

adorable right?

Can you do me a favor and go vote?
You have to have a Facebook account.
Then go here: Haley Michel Photography and vote for my kiddos. (they are the adorable ones!) 
I also shared it on my Facebook wall so you can easily access it from there.

You 'vote' by liking the picture and liking the photographers page. It takes 2 minutes!
Well, more if you get distracted by looking at all those cute little babies!
But DON'T DO THAT! Vote for my kids and get out! lol
(yes, that's selfish I know...) 

Happy Thursday!

Just Checking In

Good news ya'll!

Our home-study update is done and has been approved by our main agency!
Hallelujah!!!

It will be on our way to us (and to the government) as soon as we can get a check in the mail to the HS agency.

Thank you for joining us in prayer over this!
Once again God has blown my skeptical heart away with His faithfulness and His timing.

Since the hustle and bustle is done for the moment, we are back to simply waiting. Boo.

But what better to fill my time with than memorizing His word?

I promised that I would update you all on my memorization progress.
And several of you all decided to join me and/or keep me accountable. THANK YOU!

So I ask you?
How did the first week go?

Me?

I think I got first verse down!
Well, I still confuse some 'anointed' and 'sent' 's but I am excited and ready to move onto the next few verses.

Are you ready to hear verse 1?

Okay, here goes:

The spirit of the Lord God is upon me because the Lord has anointed me to bring good news to the poor. He has sent me to bind up the broken hearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives and the opening of the prison for those who are bound. - Isaiah 61:1

Whew! Obviously I didn't' study punctuation :)
And all that while listening to VBS music with 2 kids yelling "mooooom" simultaneously from 2 different bathrooms. (that happen to anyone else? no?) I won't tell you how many typo's I had ;)

So this week my challenge is verses 2-3.

I am loving doing this on Fighter verse!
If you don't have the app (yes it costs $2.99) I would strongly recommend purchasing it!
It has all kinds of quizes and even lets you speak the verse to it, recording your voice and then tells you the areas that need *ahem* work.

So, for those of you joining me, here is verses 2-3:


² to proclaim the year of the Lord's favor,
    and the day of vengeance of our God;
    to comfort all who mourn;
³ to grant to those who mourn in Zion—
    to give them a beautiful headdress instead of ashes,
the oil of gladness instead of mourning,
    the garment of praise instead of a faint spirit;
that they may be called oaks of righteousness,
    the planting of the Lord, that he may be glorified

LOVE. LOVE. LOVE. this portion!


Thanks for praying for me during this waiting month.
I hope you are taking on the challenge yourself.
When you hide His word in your heart you will never be disappointed!

Blessings!

Hold Me To It?

Okay ya'll.
I need some help.
Like seriously, I can't do this without you.

But more on that in a minute, first an adoption update.

We just received an email from our agency stating that 5 children were referred last month. 5 children. That is so great!! And 4 families were approved for First Approval (which is what we are currently waiting on). WOOHOO!!! Things are moving ya'll, things are moving. More children are finding their forever home. Families are moving closer to bringing home the child God has for them. Woop woop! I am so pumped!

April is an update month and trust me, we will let you all know when we receive an update! The reports tend to come at the end of the month, so even though it is April that doesn't mean our update is here already (I wish!!).  We are excited to see some more pictures and get a progress report on our little guy. I know that he has grown so much! Ahhh! Can't wait to squeeze those cheeks and hold him myself!

We are still trying to get our home-study update finished up.
Apparently the move and home-study agency switch is a bit more to-do than we anticipated.
But work is in progress and we are trusting that it will all be in on time.

So that's all we know for now. :)

Back to the help. 

Confession: I have been crazy convicted lately at the lack of scripture that I actually have memorized. 
Yes I read that Bible.
Yes I know scripture (especially if it's in a song...) 
But as far as really meditating on it and hiding it in my heart, sadly there are few verses I can say that is true of :(

I had resolved that on our 4 day road trip I would start memorizing Isaiah 61.

Well......I started.....but then got distracted by Pandora's 90's station
(Backstreet Boys, N'Sync, Brittany Spears, Green Day and Matchbox 20...anybody??) 

And then there was a book on tape....and convos with my hubby....and phone calls with my sister....and well......

4 days people! Over the course of 4 days in a van I memorized NOTHING! Zero! Zilch!
Pathetic!

March is now passed and we are now into April.
So I am going public.

I need accountability! 

Will you help keep me accountable?

Will you join me on my journey? 

My goal is to memorize all of Isaiah 61 by the end of April.
I use the Fighter Verse app. on my phone and have the passage divided up into 5 sections.
I will be taking a section a week until it is memorized.
(this will go slightly into May, but the week starts in April so I think it counts!)

I know that it is already Wednesday of the first week, but this week is only 1 verse. I think we can do it!

I was on the treadmill at the gym today working on it.

"The Spirit of the Lord God......gasp gasp......bring good news to the poor.....gasp ......catch my breath.....proclaim liberty......"  

You get the idea. Poor people on the treadmill beside me!

(Yes, it was mostly under my breath - I am one of those that needs to speak things to remember them - just reading it is not enough!) 

I realize this entire passage could easily be memorized in a weeks time. But I don't just want to memorize it. I want to know it. To have it ingrained in my heart and mind. To really dig in and discover this passage.

So again.
Will you join me? I would love that!
Will you keep me accountable? Please?

I plan on doing weekly updates. So that in itself is a motivator.
Help me with this?

I figure by the time we receive our Caleb update this month will have flown by; I pray it is flying by as we ground ourselves in His word.

Please email me at greatestjoyadoption(at)gmail.com if you want to take this challenge along with me. Or leave a comment - love comments! Especially if you are willing to pray for me during this time! 

And since we are on the note of 'confessions' I have another one.

I am hopelessly addicted to these:

They are delicious! And they are fruit so they are healthy right?
Fat free, High in Vitamin C. What could be bad about them?
Ha! I refuse to read the label because I am sure they are loaded with sugar....don't burst my bubble....PLEASE!

Confession #3: I sneak some of my children's Easter candy. Especially the Reese's peanut butter cups. Ya'll, those are SO GOOD!

Anyone else have a confession?
I'm sure I can think of more, but I will stop now.

Oh wait, just for kicks - these kids - I think they are adorable. :)

Home Study Update

Welp, we did it. We had our home study update in our new home.
We worked hard to get the house in order for the new social worker's visit. We did try to have very realistic expectations though.

I am veeeery good about stressing myself out over the things I don't really need to stress about. Anyone relate to that?

Knowing that was the 'norm', Nick and I set some specific goals and non-goals.

For example:

Goals:
- unpack clothes
- set up kitchen
- not kill each other due to stress/un met expectations
- have fun and enjoy this time of 'nesting'
- have all paper work filled out and ready
- entire family dressed and ready when the SWer arrived

Non-Goals:
- we do not have to have the house perfectly decorated
- We do not have to unpack every box
- We do not have to paint
- We do not have to show the Social Worker the garage (aka the stacks of boxes and junk we don't know what to do with!)

It's simple really. And thankfully it worked! (minus those few stress filled moments of chaos frustration...)

The visit went well and the social worker was pleasant.
However, we did enter into this meeting with a misunderstood conception.
See, we had thought that most all of the paperwork was done and this visit was just the final step in getting all of our paperwork updated and complete. Apparently this visit was actually just the start of everything and the paperwork will now begin.

With that, we had to file an incomplete I-800a Supp 3 update. We will then have 45 days to send in our complete paperwork so that everything can proceed with our hindrance.

Pray with me that it happens?
Thanks.

In short, this is just another reminder of how everything, including this adoption process is in God's hands. We can set all the goals we want, dot every 'I', but really it's not in our hands. Social worker, paperwork, my scatterbrain - it's all in His hands. And I keep reminding myself of that when I get anxious about the timing and making sure everything is perfect.
Perfect? Ha! We are soooo not perfect, so it would only make sense that this process would not be either.

So today I am thankful that God is God. That His timing is perfect. That little things like paperwork and seemingly short deadlines are but a speck of dust in His hand.

And I am so very thankful that the sun always shines after the rain :)
(good golly I am loving this beautiful state!)

Update.

It's been awhile since I've written - sorry about that!
Truth is, Life has been crazy busy and absolutely crazy slow at the same time.

On the adoption front there really isn't any news. April is an 'update' month and we are eagerly awaiting new pictures and a report on our little guy. I just know he has changed so much, been growing, reaching new milestones. It is hard knowing he is there...and we are here....agonizing really.
But God knows. He knows the perfect time. And while I have to remind myself of that over and over, it doesn't make it less true. Our family will be together - in HIS perfect timing.

In the meantime we have been busy!
For those of you who don't know, our family moved across the country at the end of Feb.


We moved from this:

To this:

We are now residing in the Pacific Northwest.
(Any adoption peeps out here? We would love to meet up sometime!)

So it has been crazy busy.
Nick was able to come out a few weeks early to start working while the kids and I stayed back home.
We were busy packing and cramming in all the memories we could.
Nick flew back and we finished packing up and then drove across the country.
We are here now, in our new home. Getting settled, unpacking and learning the lay of the land.

We do have one deadline - our new social worker comes on Tuesday to do our home-study update.  Our I-800a Supp 3 (government paperwork) is due on March 31st. This is an extremely fast turn around for our paperwork/social worker. So be in prayer please that we can meet this deadline. And that the social worker is able to overlook the boxes and un-decorated walls :)

I'll update you more after the home-study is done!

In the meantime, here are a few things I've been reading across the world wide web:

- The 1 Thing Radical Really Definitely Had to Look Like by Ann Voskamp.
Our lives have to look different. We have to love with our whole being. Not just in words.

- 9 months - how are you guys REALLY doing? by Brazenlilly.
This is written by a fellow Thai adoptive family. It is an honest glimpse into the not so picture perfect reality of adoption. Helpful - as there are not to many who are vulnerable to write about this side.

- Brave Moms Raise Brave Kids by Jen Hatmaker.
Yes, just yes. Read this. Yes.


Thanks for checking in on us!!!