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!