Listen, My Son

It always strikes me when I stop to think that Proverbs is essentially a letter from a father to a son. Proverbs 1:8 says, “Listen, my son, to your father’s instruction and do not forsake your mother’s teaching.”

Just thinking about becoming a father is kind of scary. There are so many responsibilities along with countless unknowns. The weightiest thoughts I have, though, are about my role as my child’s spiritual leader. I firmly believe that God has called me, as the husband and father, to be the spiritual leader of my family. This is no small responsibility!

I’m already faced daily with my shortcomings as a husband—what about when I’m a father as well? How will I teach my son the truth of the Gospel? Will he accept it? How will I show him how to be a godly man? These are weighty questions.

As I read the Proverbs, I see so many character qualities a godly man must have. As a teacher by profession, I know that the greatest way to teach character qualities to a young person is to embody them myself.

Here’s the big question I therefore ask myself: If my own character is the only lesson I teach my son, what will he learn from it? If he copied me exactly, would that be a good thing (spiritually, I mean)?

I’m immediately confronted with my own shortcomings and weaknesses. I can think of about a thousand things I would not want him to learn from me (pride and selfishness to name a few).

Now I’m confronted with an even bigger question: If I don’t want my son to learn these sinful things from me in the future, why do I overlook them in my life right now? We’ve all heard the saying “Do as I say, not as I do.” If I don’t want this saying to be true of me when I become a father, why wait to start then? Shouldn’t I start now by seeking to grow in the areas I know I’m weak?

I don’t want to read the Proverbs to my son and have him thinking, “Why does dad read these to me when he doesn’t do them himself?” I know I cannot be perfect and I know nobody is, but when I say, “Listen, my son, to your father’s teaching,” I want those teachings to be something he sees in me on a consistent basis, not just empty words.

So today, along with my prayers for my son to know Christ and walk in wisdom, I’m praying for myself to do the same thing. And it can’t just start once I’ve become a father—it has to start right now.

Fingerprints...

It was 12:35pm... ON MONDAY. I called the FBI.  Jerome answered! (YES! I'm so glad I got him!)  When he answered, I said "This is Whitney Hopperton" - he proceeded to not ask me why I was calling, but looked up the status of my fingerprints.

He delievered the news I've been waiting for.  HE SAID THEY WERE PROCESSED!! And they would arrive in Louisville to our agency by Friday of this week!!! (now I'll be honest, I'm excited, but I'm also hoping that means they were actually read this time. And not deemed "unreadable".  Surely he would have told me that right?)  But in the meanwhile, I'm celebrating!!!!

I let out an excited YEAH! And Jerome laughed.  I told him that if I were there in person I'd give him a hug. He said, "Ma'am, I've had people get excited before, but you are the most excited I've ever had!"  And I proceeded to tell him that we were adopting a baby from Ethiopia and was able to share the Gospel to him quickly over the phone.  I thanked him for his time and then hung up for the phone!

I JUMPED UP AND DOWN!! Then called my husband (who is a teacher, by the way) and he snuck away to answer. He was so excited too! Then I called/told my best friends.  Then I called our agency. Then I announced it to my co-workers and then my Small Group of Prayer of Warriors. And now, my blog friends!

THANK YOU for your prayers.  The Lord's timing is always better than my timing! Even though I know the Lord's in control, I still try to take things into my own hands.  The Lord is really teaching me a lesson on Trust and Faith in Him. 

This is one more hurdle in the journey! I'm excited to move on to officially completing the homestudy and then applying for Grants!

For today--- WE WILL CELEBRATE!!!

And the wait continues...

Well... we are still waiting- on my fingerprints from the FBI.

Some of you may have seen in our previous posts, that we are officially on stand still, unable to "complete" our homestudy without my fingerprints from the FBI. My husband, Derek's, were approved and sent back, by mine were sent back unreadable and had to be resubmitted.

So, here we are! 6 weeks since then, still waiting. Each Wednesday, I have a standing appointment with Jerome from the FBI (well not really, but it my mind I do).  I call each Wednesday at 12:30pm and talk to Jerome, every time! He's always really nice (and now he know why I'm calling before I can even saying anything after "this is Whitney Hopperton." HAHA! I dont know if that's a good thing or a bad thing!)  Each week, he says the same thing- the fingerprints still have not be processed.

Tomorrow, I'm going to be calling to check in after a long weekend.  I know it's not my typical Wednesday call, but I am praying that tomorrow the fingerprints will be ready!  We have needed $3,000 to move on after our homestudy, and I have been praying specifically that once we receive the $3,000 we will receive my fingerprints back and be able to move on with the process....

GOOD NEWS!!! Today we raised the next $3,000!!! Not only did we raise it, but we exceeded it with our Chick fil a calendar sales and our Christmas Ornaments!!! I'm REALLY excited and hope that when I call tomorrow, they will have good news for me at the FBI! 

Please pray that our fingerprints come back this week.  I know many of you may be wondering, why the hurry?  Well, we have some paperwork that will expire around January 2013 for our next step (Dossier).  And if those papers expire, that means more money and more time to collect them again. :(  Plus, we are so ready to have our Dossier in Ethiopia!!!

Thanks for all of the prayer and support.  As of now, the wait continues for the fingerprints. We will keep you posted!

Deck the Halls- Adoption Christmas Ornaments!

The ornament factory has been in production for the past few weeks!  We have homemade wooden Christmas Ornaments with Africa stamps on them.  These ornaments are made with love and can be yours for only $5.00 each. 


Adoption Christmas Ornaments


These would make great gifts for teachers or gift exchanges, stocking stuffers, or you could even attach them to the top of a gift as a gift tag.

We have many different designs and colors.  All ornaments are $5.00 each with ALL proceeds go to help fund our adoption!  If you are out of the area, we can ship them to you for a small additional cost.

If you are interested in purchasing any items, please contact me on facebook https://www.facebook.com/whitney.hopperton  or by email at whitneyhopperton@yahoo.com

many different designs/colors to choose from!

A New Look

BLOG:

Our blog has a new look! Do you like it?  A special thanks goes out to our sweet friend Kristin Holt, who is a great graphic design artist for helping us update our blog!

FUNDRAISER:

Are you needing a new look for the holiday season? Help us raise funds for our adoption by getting a hair cut, color, or style with Chelley Morgan, owner of  Willow Salon of Louisville, KY, on NOVEMBER 15-17th. Appointments are from 9am-8pm all 3 days!! Chelley is being so sweet to donate 50% of all services for those 3 days as well as 25% of all product sold!  If you are interested in helping us in this way, please contact Chelley today for an appointment 502.689.2427 or willow.hairstyle@gmail.com   What's better than getting a new hair "do" and also helping bring home a sweet baby!?

JOURNEY UPDATE:

With a new look comes a sense of refreshment! Over the past few weeks, many of you are aware of our troubles and bumps in the road.  My fingerprints were declined and sent back by the FBI as "unreadable."  This meant I had to redo my fingerprint process. Now, 4 weeks later, we still do not have fingerprints back and we are waiting! The bad news came when our social worker informed us that we could not officially complete our home study without these fingerprints.  That meant we could not apply for grants, submit the I-600 form to the government or submit our Dossier to Ethiopia for review. This could mean that some of our paper work from the KY state government would expire prior to our Dossier's submission for review.  

You see.... all the bad things were piling up.  And I began to worry.  I was prepared for bumps along the way. HONESTLY, I was! However, I was not prepared to be waiting 4 months into our process on our homestudy papers. We had heard this was the quickest part of the whole process.  I was prepared to wait once our name was placed on a waiting list and we received a number. I was prepared to wait after we received the referral picture of our sweet boy til the time we would go see our son face-to-face for the first time.  I was prepared to wait on paperwork being reviewed by Ethiopia and the multiple travel dates for court. But I wasn't prepared to wait this early.

However, I've been praying for a new look -- a new OUTLOOK-- and the Lord has shown me that in more ways than one.  I have been reminded that longing is part of the wait. It would only be a passing of time if there was no longing involved.  And longing we are... longing for the day when my fingerprints return ACCEPTED! Longing for the day when we mail our Dossier to Ethiopia... Longing for the day we receive our wait list number... Longing for the Referral Picture... Longing to meet our son face to face... Longing to bring him home to his FOREVER HOME.... Longing to share the love of Jesus Christ with him... and the list could go on and on. 

The beauty of waiting is that never in our wait is God INACTIVE!

Isaiah 40:31 says: "but they who wait for the Lord shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings like eagles; they shall run and not be weary; they shall walk and not faint."

My new outlook is coming through a check-up on my perspective. Oh how many times do I sit and think that as I wait, God is inactive?  Sadly, more times than I'd like to admit.  HOWEVER: Perspective is everything.  And we are told in Scripture to take captive our thoughts and think upon things that are true, honorable, just and pure (Phil 4:8). So, as we run this race, we are not to go weary.  We pray the end result of this process is a beautiful child; however, throughout the wait, God is teaching this soon to be momma a little bit about His work in her own life. 

A new look is exactly what I needed!