Christmas Miracle 2011

In October 2011 while chatting with a fellow adoptive mom, future adoptions came up in conversation.  They were in the process of adopting two children from China with Down Syndrome.  Knowing they were a large family I asked lots of questions.  I soon discovered that it was possible for large families to adopt children with special needs from China.  She shared with me some children waiting for families at an orphanage in China that their agency was working with.    I was immediately drawn to a couple of the kids.  Just out of curiosity I contacted the agency for more info.  The agency had not received the files from China but they said they would contact me when they did. 

At the same time God had provided an increase in our monthly income.  He provided just enough income for us to meet the USCIS income requirements to immigrate two more children.  I made sure I informed my husband of this new tidbit.  Two months go by and I had not heard back from the adoption agency so I called again.  Of course, at this time, I had not said anything to my husband.  It doesn’t hurt to just get information, right?  They still had not received the files on the children I was interested in but they again said they would let me know.   Out of curiosity I asked if there had been anyone else call and ask about these two kids.  She said, “let me look at my list”.  I was surprised when she came back and said, “you are first on the list to get information on both those children”.   What???  I had not even told my husband I called and we were FIRST on the list.  

I decided it was about time to gently tell my husband what I had been thinking.  His first response was, “we don’t have room”.    Well, I couldn’t really argue with that.  A few days later I came across a blog post by a fellow adoptive mom titled, “Do you have room?”  This blog post is so powerful I am not even going to try to paraphrase.  You have to go read it for yourself.  Of course, I shared it with my husband.  After having a long conversation we decided we could not use “we don’t have room” as an excuse.  I did get a “we will talk about it if the kids files become available”.  That’s progress!!

Here is where God really knocked our socks off.  I had already seen God paving the way but I didn’t expect this.  Several weeks before I had two separate individuals contact me and ask if they could send our kids a few Christmas presents.  Of course, I said yes.  I have made it a policy to never turn away a cheerful giver.  God placed my children on their hearts and I am not about to take away the blessings the giver may receive by following God’s prompting.  One was a former coworker of mine that I have not seen in probably 9 years.  She has stayed connected via facebook and has followed our family’s crazy journey.  The other giver is the company where my sister works.  Every year they sponsor a family for Christmas.  Typically it is a family they do not know but the owner had heard about our family and decided to do things a little different this year. 

The week leading up to Christmas, Darren was given a monetary gift from the individuals in one of the departments in the hospital where he works.  Darren is very humble and rarely talks about our family at work.  When asked he will talk about the kids, but he always makes sure he adds, “ALL glory goes to God”.  Darren works closely with the people in this department and they wanted to bless our family at Christmas.
  

When the Christmas presents came from the generous givers I about passed out.   I don’t think I have ever seen so many presents.  I made sure I told my kids several times that they would not be receiving this many presents every year.
  

Although the old saying is “it is more blessed to be the giver than the receiver” I can say that we really felt blessed.  Darren and I both felt like God was saying, “don’t worry I will take care of all your needs”. 

Then, came the icing on the cake!  Remember when we said “we have no room”.  God made sure to He let us know He had that taken care of too.  On Christmas Day later in the evening the doorbell rang.  When I opened the door there was a beautifully wrapped present on our porch.  When I opened the box inside I found $1,500 in CASH!!!  The card said “please use this gift to help in the purchase of your new home whenever God makes it available to you”.   PS. “We pray that God will find a way for this gift to be multiplied for you and the He will be glorified!!”  Well, guess God has the house thing under control too!

After that we really did not have any excuses left.  Darren and I walked around in a daze the rest of the day.  We talked the next day and decided that if God made these children available to us we would be “ALL IN”

Needless to say God provided.  We committed to adopting two beautiful children with down syndrome.  During the process of completing the mountains of paperwork we were informed that our home was not large enough to meet the agency requirements to adopt more children.  So guess what we did?  We built a larger home!  God provided and as crazy as it sounds because yes it was crazy we built a house and adopted two children at the same time.  

In November 2012 we moved into our new home ONE week before we traveled to China to adopt Lily and Isaac.  

Never underestimate the power of faith to move mountains.  

God's Vision Board

I have been holding off writing this post for several days but today satan has really been attacking me mentally, telling me how inadequate I am, how none of my dreams will actually come to be, that I really didn't hear God, so I am thinking it is time to write.

A few months ago I created a new vision board.  I prayed over it.  These are all things God placed in my heart.  I was given a clear vision for each of them.  I got excited about it.  I hung it where I would see it constantly.

Suddenly I started hearing "that will never happen", "you are not good enough", "you didn't hear God right", "You just need to be happy with your life now".  The negative talk became so ingrained in my head that every time I walked past my vision board I started to cry.  I would grieve.  It became not a vision board but a failure board.  It got to the point where I could no longer look at it and I threw it away.

You guys those are not words from God.  God is never a God of discouragement.  He will never tell you that you are not good enough.  Those words were from satan.  STOP listening to those negative voices.  They are not your future.   Every time you hear a negative thought in your head you need to say "Back off satan!  Not today you don't!"

If God put a passion in your heart and no matter how hard you try you can not get it out of your head THAT IS A GOD THING!  If it's absolutely crazy and seems impossible then get ready to see some crazy miracles.  God created a vision board for you a long time ago.  It is up to you to claim it as yours.

I'm back ........

Hey, I'm back!

I am not going to try to go back and rehash all of life's craziness.  Just trust me when I say life has been crazy.  It has been good.  It has been hard.  It has been painful.  It has been beautiful.  It has been redemptive.

This now hangs on my bedroom wall.  

A reminder of God's faithfulness.

For now I will leave you with some beautiful pictures taken by Make A Wish