And So We Wait...622 days

Well, it's been a minute, friends. But LIFE.

I wish I could tell you it's because we've been so busy preparing our home for our girl...but still we wait. We submitted our final dossier to our agency last November and after several laps through agencies in the U.S., it arrived in Haiti mid-December. We received notification that it was entered with IBESR (the Haitian agency that processes all adoption paperwork) on February 2, 2017...and so we wait.

In case you're tracking with us and have lost count in my blogging hiatus, it's been 622 days since we submitted the first pieces of paper to bring our girl home. I can't even pretend that it's been good or easy or fun. I won't pretend that I've embraced the "joy in the wait" mentality. I wish I could say that I have prepared my head (and more importantly, my heart) for the long journey, but if I'm really honest, most days I feel like a 2 year old throwing the biggest tantrum ever because she needs a nap and didn't get "the thing" she wants most desperately in that moment. I'm tired. I'm weary in the wait and there is really no end in sight.

Despite feeling like we're not making progress, I know we really are. We're actively fundraising for what I like to call our "Yes Money" -- which is the money we'll need to send to Lifeline once we do receive that blessed email with her beautiful face and her story in it. Once we have that in place, we'll start on the next chunk for our travel expenses to go meet her. We're faithfully praying daily for her to be protected and comforted and to feel The Father's love as she waits for us. We're talking almost daily about what life will be like when she finally comes home. We're having conversations about race and being an interracial family living in The South. And well, I may or may not have bought a few things for her and her room. Because girls, y'all. The stuff for girls is just too cute!

And trust me when I write that I know that we are not the first to do this adoption thing. Nor will we be the last. I know our heartbreak is not unique or to be lauded; all other adoptive parents have felt these same aches and same longings and same frustrations. But it is our story and more importantly, His story. It's not how I would write the story (thank goodness!), but it's beautiful and messy and perfect! It's filled with His goodness and faithfulness, even if we can't always see it. It's pages are filled with His love for a beautiful brown-skinned girl who waits for us to call her "daughter" but she is already a child of The King and loved and adored deeply.

And so we wait. Rather impatiently most days, but still we wait.

Our I800A Has Left the Building

Well, it's been a few months since I've posted an adoption update because well, I didn't figure hearing about paperwork and medical tests and the notarization of 1.2 million forms would make for a very interesting post. And that, my friends, is what we've been doing. That, and a whole lot of waiting. whomp. whomp. 

But today. Today, I have the best news ever...well, at least until I can share that we have a referral.

This morning at approximately 10 a.m., a package was left on our doorstep by our friendly Fed Ex delivery person. Had I heard him or her arrive in our driveway, I might have jumped off the stairs and sprinted to the van (picture that for a minute...ok, proceed.). Because today, friends, TODAY we received our 

OFFICIAL, SIGNED, SEALED, DELIVERED HOME STUDY!

I knew delivery was scheduled for today but was thinking it would be later in the afternoon. And I seriously burst into tears. Like uncontrollable sobbing. I couldn't even open it (at first, anyway!) because I was so overcome with emotion. We began this adoption process November 26, 2015, with the submission of our initial application. We submitted a round of paperwork the first week of December and officially entered "home study" a few weeks later. We have been "in home study" since early January. Our home study was complete in mid-August but due to some unforeseen and uncontrollable circumstances, we are just TODAY receiving our notarized and official copies that are necessary for moving forward in the process. Some of you are probably thinking, "Big deal. That's just a few months." But for those that have traveled this journey (or walked alongside someone else who has), you know what those "few months" feel like. The grief of feeling like I'm "missing" days with a child is sometimes more than I can take. I occasionally read back through the journal that I've been keeping for her and find myself thinking, "This is one sad mama. Oh, wait. That's me feeling that hurt and grief." I hope she will one day read those pages and know just how loved she is...

We have been waiting for these "official" copies of the home study to mail our I800A application and supporting documents to the Department of Homeland Security for several weeks (the forms and cover letter were dated August 30). So you can bet your booty I put those documents in a priority envelope and drove straight to the post office. The package should be delivered to USCIS in Dallas Thursday. And don't you think I won't be using that tracking number. Just sayin'. 

Anyway. Today is a day for JOY and CELEBRATING! We are moving forward in the process! I cannot wait to pick up the boys from school this afternoon and share the good news with those little jokers!

Now what? More paperwork! I know. Oh so glamorous and exciting, right? We will continue amassing all the dossier documents while wait for the Department of Homeland Security to send us our next fingerprint appointments. Once we have been fingerprinted (again) and have all our dossier documents together, notarized, authenticated and signed in blood (not really, but it feels like it!), the entire packet will be sent for translation to Creole and then to the Haitian government for consideration for a referral. 

And then guess what happens! We wait. We wait for the day when we receive an email that introduces us to the daughter that God has been preparing our hearts for. The daughter we already love so much. The daughter we are fighting for daily. The daughter we have already shed many tears for. The sister that our boys ask about almost daily. We wait to see her beautiful face. Oh, what a day of rejoicing that will be!

We are so grateful for your continued support and encouragement through this process. It means the world to us, and we can't wait to bring our girl home to the village that is already loving her so well!

Will you pray with us for endurance through this process? For smooth steps in the coming months? For red tape and bureaucracy to be removed? Will you pray for our daughter who is likely in an orphanage now? Will you pray for her protection and her little heart to feel loved until we can bring her home?

Adoption Update: 5 Months In

Well, it's been a minute, friends. I was really hoping that our next adoption update on the blog would be:

OUR HOME STUDY IS COMPLETE!

That, however, is not the case. We are getting closer, but when I think about our baby girl, it's not close enough. Every day feels like "too long" to be waiting on all the things to get done. There have been lots of tears shed these last few weeks. It feels like one of those one step forward, 6,783,593 steps backward kind of dances. I know it's not. Really, I do. Well, maybe. 

So, where are we? We have two key (read: BIG) educational components left. I have to be re-fingerprinted because apparently my fingerprints are difficult to read. We are still waiting to hear about Jeff's. I have a psychiatric evaluation (Um, could this be the end of the road for us?) to do and then we can schedule our LAST - did you read that? - LAST home study visit. If I could insert emojis here, you would find a line of praise hands. We have loved our visits with our amazing case worker, but we are ready to move on from this part. Really ready. I mean, REALLY!

When I think about the adoption process and saying "Yes!" to God's leading us on this journey, I often find myself thinking, "Did we misunderstand? Surely He didn't mean this for US!" Full disclosure: I am not patient. I do not like paperwork. My husband has more things going on right now than he can keep up with. My boys are - well, they're boys. Active, loud boys. 

This was Eli's sentence for his sight word "get."
Bless. Just bless.

But here we are. 

Here we are muddling through this paperwork and trying not to mess it all up because on the other side of that mountain of paperwork is a baby girl waiting to be a part of our crazy family. Waiting to be loved. Waiting to have a mama and daddy to tuck her in at night. Waiting to have brothers who will probably drive her crazy, but also fiercely defend and protect her. Waiting. 

But there are some God moments that shouldn't be missed and since I don't have more to report on our progress, I hope they will encourage you, too!

1) Last week was a rough week. A few things that we were calling "done" came "undone" and we felt frustrated and helpless because it was things that were pretty much out of our control. At the end of this rough week, God sent me a love note in the form of a sweeter-than-sweet note from a friend with a check enclosed for our adoption expenses. 

He sees me. 

2) Yesterday, I got a call that my psychiatric evaluation (Already rescheduled twice, again, due to circumstances outside of our control) was not postponed - but CANCELLED. I physically hurt when the sweet lady told me it might be June before she could get me in. Just a few hours later (there might have been some tears and angry words in those hours!), I got an email. From the clinic. 2 p.m. TODAY, y'all. TODAY! 

He feels my pain.

3) In the midst of all this back-and-forth dancing, my two dear friends have organized and orchestrated a fundraiser for our baby girl! The Fair Trade Fashionistas have worked with the beautiful and incredibly talented ladies at UMUCYO Sewing Cooperative in Rwanda to design the Amie ("beloved" in French) make-up bag. Proceeds from the sale of it will go to our adoption -- and we ordered BIG! We are closing in on HALF of the bags already sold with just the pre-sales that began about a week ago! So exciting! The fact that these friends - one in North Carolina and one in Maryland - coordinated all the design and production with the ladies in Rwanda to help us bring our baby girl home from Haiti to Mississippi and dear, sweet friends all over the stinkin' U.S. are buying these bags...Y'all. We ARE connected!

He shares my JOY!

(PS: You should totally click AMIE above and snag yourself one - or a dozen - of these cute bags!)

4) A few weeks ago, on an especially tough day, a precious friend (and adoptive mama) sent me this message:

"Was just praying for you and your adoption. This came to mind,

 and I felt compelled to share. I know it seems like such a long process, 

and 2018 seems so far away, but our adoption process was over 3 years. 

God used every day to prepare my heart, my husband's heart, our kids, 

our families, our friends, our church and our community for our girl. 

The process was such a time of growth and sanctification for me. 

It was time that I did not want but looking back, I definitely needed. 

He knows the perfect time for your baby girl to arrive...

not a day sooner or later. Will continue to pray for y'all. 

Enjoy the journey and look for God in the tedious process. 

I cannot even tell you what that meant in that exact moment! Nor how many times I've gone back to read it! I have truly had moments where I thought, "Why??!! You called us to this! Why are You leaving us?" And then little love notes - from friends, from strangers, from the people holding the paperwork, from all around. 

HE SEES US. HE LOVES US. 

HE LOVES OUR GIRL MORE THAN WE CAN IMAGINE. 

HE IS FIGHTING WITH US. FOR HER.

And that's where the Walton: Party of 5 journey is today. 

Adoption Update: Almost Two Months In

In case you missed the official sharing of the news last month - we're adopting!

Don't feel "behind" or "left out" if you hadn't heard the news at this point. We're just getting rolling! We've been officially accepted by Lifeline Child Services as well as accepted into their Haiti adoption program. We've filled out a lot of paperwork, written a big check and started reading from the suggested adoptive parent reading list. And now -- you are "in the loop" with us!

Today is a big day in our process though, friends. Jeff and I will be engaging with our case worker (Who is amazing, btw!) in just a few hours for our Orientation Interview. This sounds pretty intimidating, I'll be honest. I have about 2,469,372 questions running though my head coupled with about three times that number of insecurities surrounding being deemed a "good enough" parent to continue this process and well, let's just say that sleep did not come easy last night (Yes, most of this was written in the middle of night. Bless.).

I am sure this conference call will be much less traumatic than I have built it up to be in my (crazy!) head, and that we will hang up feeling even more excited about this process. I'm just sure of it.

So, the significance of this call? This call is the initiation of the home study process. This is about a 4-month process that will create the dossier to be sent to Haiti to match us with our baby girl. It's a BIG, HUGE step, y'all! We are excited about being one step closer to Walton: Party of 5.

I started a journal in November when all this began to really unfold and as I looked back on the first few entries, I can already see God at work in our family - and for our family. Just a few weeks ago, I wrote,

"God is so, so good, sweet one! 

He is already writing a beautiful story for YOU - no matter how it began. 

I pray we can continue to patiently move forward

and surrender the pen to Him daily..." 

Some ways we'd love for you to pray with us on this journey at this point...

• Pray for focus (and stamina!) with the required paperwork for the process. Again, paperwork is NOT my jam, y'all.
• Pray for our boys as the "talk" becomes reality for them and changes their roles in our family. Eli has made it very clear that he does not want to be "the baby" of our family anymore. Just bless.
• Pray for financial provision. We will definitely be letting you know about fundraising opportunities as they are planned! Noonday Collection Trunk Show, anyone?
• Most importantly, pray for our baby girl. We don't know if she is yet to be born, or already living in an orphanage but please, please pray with us for her protection, her family and all those involved in her care until she is home with us.

We covet your prayers and know that without the prayers and support of family and friends, we would not be where we are today with this process. We continue to pray that throughout this entire journey, people see JESUS. Not us or what we do, but JESUS and what He's doing - for us and for her.

Stay tuned...

We're Expecting...a Miracle!

Hello, dear friends! It's been a while since I've posted. I think I may have had an "adoption hangover" from taking in all the beautiful posts in October and November -- so many emotions and so much goodness! I am forever grateful to the amazing friends and our precious family who bravely and honestly shared their stories in the series. If you didn't have a chance to read them all, don't miss them. Scroll back up and read these stories of hope and faith and love!

I have been so encouraged by the comments and feedback from readers following the series! Some of you are finding new ways to support and love the orphan both at home and abroad. For me, that = SUCCESS!

There has also been another unexpected "success" from this series....

We're expecting another miracle through the joy of adoption!

Jeff and I have completed the initial application with Lifeline Children's Services (Birmingham, Ala.) to begin the adoption process. We just last Thursday received the exciting news that we have been accepted into the Haiti program and are currently tackling another mound of paperwork to be ready to begin the home study process in January! WHAT??!! Did I just write those words?

We have started down this road two other times and felt like God closed those doors very quickly. We have continued to pray and offer our family in willing obedience, in case His closed door was a "not yet" rather than a "not ever." Today, we are thrilled to share with you our confidence that this is His timing and things are going so smoothly and much more quickly than we could have ever imagined. We are not going into this blindly as we have many close friends and even our own family who have been through difficulties and much trouble in the process, but will continue to say "Yes!" and fight for the child He has for us as long as we feel like He is in this and fighting with us. 

Our boys are very excited about being big brothers, and when I talked with Eli about it initially, I asked him what he thought about us having a baby sister. He looked at me in surprise and said, "Does Dad know?"

We ask that you pray with us as we begin this journey in two specific ways: 1) Please pray for our discernment (and patience!) in this process. We are not so naive as to believe it will all go smoothly, and we covet your prayers as we determine next steps. 2) Please, please pray for our baby girl or boy and his/her family. We do not know yet whether he or she is already born, currently in the womb or yet to be conceived. Regardless, we pray for safety and for comfort until she/he is in our arms.

This is not a short process so we ask you to stay tuned here on the blog and via our other social media to keep up with our journey to our our newest little Walton. We will share all the ups and down and moments of excitement and difficult times as we can. It is also with great anticipation that we share this exciting news and with humble hearts that we ask for your prayers...

#AdoptionRocks, Part 9: This is TRUST...

I have no words for what this World Adoption Day series has done to my heart, y'all - and it's not even over! With each post, God has opened my eyes and my heart to just how much He loves us (read: ME!) and pursues us (Again, read: ME!) - even in our most unloveable and undesirable state. I am so difficult to love and yet, His patience trumps my stubbornness every time, my friends. 

My dear friend (and I'm starting to say "soul sister") has some beautiful words of encouragement to share with you. Laura Choy and I ended up roommates much by happenstance last year at Noonday Collection's annual conference for Ambassadors. We did not know each other AT ALL but quickly realized God had knit us together long before we met that weekend. We talk almost daily now and her wit and encouragement are balm for my soul on weary days. We have since become "The Lauras" and couldn't be happier to be tied to such a beautiful soul. I am so thankful for her and for her friendship...and today, for her transparency as she shares their beautiful story.

IN HER OWN WORDS...

The Choy Family
shortly after Aliyah's arrival.

While my husband and I were engaged, we had the opportunity to travel to Germany for a work conference that I was invited to for missionaries headed to all parts of the globe. A talk given on Ephesians by a man who had adopted a special needs child from Thailand stirred up a desire to adopt…in my fiancé. When he asked if I would ever consider that idea, I bluntly replied, “Nope.”

Fast forward 4 years, our marriage and 2 children later, I had just been through an extremely dark season of cynicism and doubt regarding my faith. I had turned from God and was searching for new truths. It took a long year to find myself right back where I started but now more fully and more deeply convinced that Jesus is THE ONLY WAY and HE is in fact THE TRUTH! But more importantly I’d discovered His LOVE!

My journey of cynicism and doubt started as a young child who felt invisible and unseen. In my faith, I perceived God as good and very much in control, and in fact very loving, but just not loving of me. I thank God for letting me wander in the desert and yet graciously holding my hand while I tried to shake Him away. He was very persistent in His pursuit of my heart and extremely gentle.  Amidst the doubt and disbelief was a hunger. I kept finding myself reading a blog by Katie Davis who eventually wrote Kisses From Katie (HIGHLY RECOMMEND!). Even though I’d decided her faith in a loving God was silly, her life example shone so brightly I would feel His love shine through her example straight through the computer screen and the beautiful faces of those she ministered to. I would battle anger and hope and tears and joy as I read stories of Katie’s complete life surrender and pouring out of unspeakable love towards people barely hanging onto life. 

These sweet boys think their little
sister is pretty special!

My son Kyle would find me crying as I read and ask me about the children’s faces he saw on the screen. I told them about the plight of the orphan. He was 4 at the time and said to me, “Mommy! We need to pray that those kids can find a mommy and daddy!” And so he did and I listened feeling a slight tap on my cold heart.

In October 2009, I finally said to God, “I’m in! I believe you love me even though I don’t feel it all of the time. That is trust, and I am willing to trust again!"

Overnight, I felt the Spirit of God renewed in me once again. My faith was full again!! In November, our pastor taught on Ephesians 2 and from the pulpit invited us to consider the idea of taking what God so clearly teaches us in the gospel of His pursuit of us through adoption into His kingdom by grace, and to live that out through physically adopting a child if God might be leading.

I can't handle the cuteness of the Choy family!

I was almost literally sitting in my husband’s lap! I knew! He knew. We needed no words but the decision had been made.

By February, only 3 months later (a true miracle) our papers were complete and on their way to Rwanda, Africa. It took what seemed like forever but on Valentine’s Day 2011, we got our invitation to come pick up our baby girl and by March we had her home as a part of our family.

Loving her and pursuing her and now fighting for her heart past issues of trauma that cause her to reject me, has been such an amazing picture of how God fought for me and showed lots of enduring grace, that He in fact DOES SEE ME and that HE DOES LOVE ME!

I love how God weaves the tapestry of His story! I would never have been open to adoption alone. But He took me through a time of really tough suffering to show me who He really is and how He loves and how He wants me to love as well!

The Choys, Summer 2015: Jon, Laura,
Kyle (9) and Clayton (7) and Aliyah (5).

*************************

Seriously. I love this. All of it. Again, I am so grateful for Laura and time spent with her sweet family in Austin last month. I hope her story - and all the others that I've shared this month - have spoken life and hope and encouragement to you! I hope you have been reminded of our role as Christ followers to love and support the widow and the orphan. I hope your heart has been moved to respond to this command - in whatever way God has called YOU to. 

There's only one post left, and it's one of my favorites. Ok. They all are, but I have a beautiful niece brought into our family from the island I love so much! I can't wait to share the Waltons' story next...

#AdoptionRocks, Part 7:...Even if the Answer is "No."

Oh, sweet readers! I cannot wait for you to dive into this post from my dear, precious friend Heather! Heather and I met 10 years ago on the Walk to Emmaus. She had just brought home her first child through adoption, and I was 5 months pregnant with our first child. I loved her kind spirit immediately! We have stayed in touch throughout the last decade and I am so grateful God continues to weave our paths together. To put it concisely: She is the real deal, y'all! Spend just a few minutes with her and you will see that her love for Jesus is not just lip-service. 

But I'm not going to waste your time with my words...just get started reading hers!

IN HER OWN WORDS....

There is a song being played frequently on a Christian radio station that we listen to called “My Story” by the group Big Daddy Weave. It alludes to the fact that we ALL have a story that God is writing called “your life.” What I hope you feel from this chapter in our life called “adoption” is the hope and grace of Jesus, how His love is greater than any heartache or struggle and how He is present in all circumstances.

Our story begins as a young, excited about the future, eager to tackle life, newly married couple. We were living a little distance from all our family and happy about starting our life in a new town. After a few years we made the decision that we were “ready” to start our own family (quite comical to think about now, as if you could ever be “ready” for the adventure called children!). Things didn’t progress as we had hoped, and we entered the terrifying world of infertility. Months go by and we reach the end of that period, having prayed and prayed about how far God would have us pursue children via fertility treatments. In the meantime, we had become close friends with a couple who had adopted a beautiful baby girl that we had grown to love as our own. This was no coincidence that we became friends with them! No, God was knitting us together with fellow believers who were experiencing the same struggles that we were facing.

We decided to pursue adoption with our whole hearts and use Bethany Christian Services as our agency. It feels akin to jumping of a high cliff into deep waters below, but we were confident that this was God’s plan for us. The adoption process is tedious, time consuming and at times frustrating and humiliating. And yet, God’s love was manifested time and time again through our wonderful social worker, our friends and family, and our church family. After waiting for 3.5 years we got THE phone call that a precious birthmother would like to meet us after viewing our information at a Bethany office nearby…so this was IT, the moment we had prayed about and dreamed about for years! Nerves were tense and emotions were high, but our meeting went very well with her and two weeks later we got another phone call to come to the hospital and meet our new son. He was absolutely perfect, beautiful and healthy! God had answered our prayers in a mighty way and we will forever and ever be thankful for this special sacrificial gift from our son’s birthmother. Her gift of life to our son has blessed us for the last 10 ½ years and we love him more and more every day.

Catherine, 8, Rhett, 4 and Grant, 10

 

When our son was around 18 months old we started the paperwork to pursue the adoption of a second child. We were busy with our very active son and when he was 27 months old our social worker needed to visit us one night with an urgent message. Our special birthmother had become pregnant with another child and had given birth to a baby girl. We were being asked if we would consider becoming her parents – to which Brad, my husband, enthusiastically responded ‘Yes!!’…while I am too stunned to fully form a response! We had 24 hours to gather a few things before driving to pick her up from the hospital. Just like that, God in His big huge love for us had given us the privilege to parent our son’s sister. She was a tiny little thing, born a few weeks early, but oh so perfect and beautiful!! Overwhelmed with how blessed we were, we got busy with the hectic pace of parenting two little ones, and we were so thankful for both of our gifts from God!

Fast forward to our son turning 5 years old and our daughter is 2 ½…the time of year was spring of 2010 and I realized for several days in a row that I just felt terrible. Like flu symptom terrible! Days and days of feeling awful and finally it occurred to me that maybe, possibly, surely couldn’t be…I might need to take a pregnancy test. I was in full-blown denial, so I put it off for many days and finally decided to do it. It was positive, very much positive, and I was very much in utter and total shock!!! A visit to my doctor (whose ecstatic face I will never forget from that day as long as I live) confirmed that yes, we were going to have a baby the old fashioned way! Oh my stars! God are You for real??! This could not be explained medically, logically, any kind of way – which makes it a flat out MIRACLE! There have been so many people who just wanted us to explain how it happened after so many years, but y’all…guess what? That’s what a divine miracle from God is – it cannot be explained by our pitifully inadequate human minds! I had a textbook pregnancy with no complications and on December 21, 2010, we welcomed a little brother to our family and he was big, healthy and so perfect. Why did God give us this gift? I cannot answer that question. All I know is that He did. It wasn’t expected at all, but we cannot praise or thank our Father in heaven enough while we live this side of eternity for blessing us this way. 

These kiddos love their Bulldogs! Hail State! 

Thank you, Father, for the gifts that are our three wonderful children. They each came to us in different and unique ways, just as they are each different and unique in their personalities and temperaments. But I’ll tell you this – they are LOVED the same, they are each so cherished by us and we cannot imagine our family without the three of them as siblings. God redeemed some very dark and discouraging times for us spent in the valley of despair with a joy and hope that is indescribable. What I wish most for people to understand at the end of this chapter is this: IF our story had not resulted in two adoptions and one child born biologically, IF our prayers had not been answered this way, IF we had never been given the blessing of children…we would STILL praise His holy name! Still.

You see, as we were still in a time of “waiting” I had come to a point of total surrender after dealing with witnessing person after person after endless person have babies when I couldn’t. Coming to a place of utmost surrender to God is very hard sometimes, and it surely was for me, but can I tell you what happens? Total peace. A peace that only God can give you. I prayed and told God, “I will love You, I will serve You, I will praise You...even if the answer is ‘No.’”

God is in control anyway, this was just my acceptance of that fact. At this exact moment in my life (I remember it vividly), when I prayed this prayer, our son’s birthmother was already pregnant and we just didn’t know it yet. I’m telling y’all, God is in every detail of your life, every little detail. And He is Good, His love is amazing, His redemption of our dirty filthy souls is incomprehensible.

I urge you to pray for the orphans in this world who feel all alone, for the fostering homes who are doing their best to show love to hurting children, for waiting families whose arms ache with the desire to hold a child of their own, for adopted children who transition into new home environments, for Bethany Christian Services and other adoption agencies and their staff as they minister to families, birthmothers and children, and for birthmothers who show the biggest love imaginable by entrusting a part of themselves, their child, to families that will care for and adore them always. Adoption is a beautiful reminder of Isaiah 61:3: “To comfort all who mourn, and provide for those who grieve in Zion – to bestow on them a crown of beauty instead of ashes, the oil of joy instead of mourning, and a garment of praise instead of despair. They will be called oaks of righteousness, a planting of the Lord for the display of his splendor." 

Dear Jesus, help me to always display Your splendor in my life. Amen

“My Story” ~ Big Daddy Weave

If I told you my story

You would hear Hope that wouldn’t let go

And if I told you my story

You would hear love that never gave up

And if I told you my story

You would hear Life, but it wasn’t mine

If I should speak then let it be

Of the grace that is greater than all my sin

Of when justice was served and where mercy wins

Of the kindness of Jesus that draws me in

Oh to tell you my story is to tell of Him

This is my story, this is my song

Praising my Savior all the day long

This is my story, this is my song

Praising my Savior all the day long.

*****************************

Wow! Just wow! Could you still praise Him, serve Him, love Him - even if the answer was "No."? I'll be honest. When I read Heather's words, I was seriously convicted about the times when I have been angry or disappointed or felt like God hadn't heard my cries because His answer wasn't what I wanted or in my time. The Fleming's story is such a beautiful story of faith and patience and trust in His time...it has been such a blessing to know Heather and Brad and to watch their beautiful children grow up under their loving guidance!

Two more posts, y'all! I can't wait to share my sweet friend Laura's journey as well as the one that has impacted me most - my beautiful niece Cristina! Stay tuned!