Please Pray!!!

Our family covets your prayers in the next few days!!! We have recently received news from China that could possibly be a roadblock in our adoption of Lucy. I will not go into details at this time because we are not sure of all the details. Please pray that God's will be done! As soon as we hear, we will post again, hopefully some time next week.

More pics of Lucy!

We were pleasantly surprised to get these new pictures of Lucy and her friends from Bob and Pat. The English teacher is sending photos fairly regularly. This is a blessing considering most families who adopt hardly get to see any pictures of their child. Lucy is the one in the tan jacket. Looks like the nannies took them out shopping. We're guessing the orphanage received some money to spoil the older children.

New pictures of Lucy in the Snow!

I was so excited to see these pictures tonight!!! The grandparents of Betty were sent these pictures, and they made a Smilebox with them. To see these pictures, go to http://touchedbyachild.blogspot.com and scroll down a little. I am trying to figure out how to put this on my blog.

Two thoughts for today...

***RISK: possibility of loss or injury.


Tom and I have been back from Texas for almost two weeks. We were there for a missions conference and were challenged in a BIG way by some very godly men. One of my favorite speakers was a man named Tom Randall. I will let you guess why he was my favorite. Although he was there to speak on missions, he just so happened to mention that he and his wife live on the grounds of one of their three orphanages. They have been serving in the Philipines for many years with various ministries.

He challenged us all to step outside of our comfortable places and watch God work. TAKE A RISK. He told quite a few stories that blew our minds. One miracle after another. He kept us on the edge of our seats. He just recently raised $850,000 for orphans by riding a bike across several states. Yes, I have the commas and 00's in the right place. I got REALLY excited! He serves the SAME God that I serve! He just has taken a few more RISKS (quite a few I may add), and had a bigger faith.

Anyway, for the past two weeks I keep hearing the word RISK in my mind and wanted to share the challenge with you.



***THE WILL OF GOD WILL NEVER TAKE YOU WHERE THE GRACE OF GOD WILL NOT PROTECT YOU!!!


Tom's mom sent this e-mail out today. With the RISK word being so readily in my mind, I just attached this to the end of the defintion and thought to to myself, "It just does not get any better than this."

WHY NOT TAKE A RISK IF THE WILL OF GOD WILL NEVER TAKE YOU WHERE THE GRACE OF GOD WILL NOT PROTECT YOU???

I challenge you to take a risk.

Ask him!

"I would love to adopt, but I do not think my husband would go for it."

My prayer is that you would step out on faith. First PRAY, and then simply ASK. God loves to surprise us! We are HIS children! He has certainly surprised me many times through the process of adoption as I mentioned in an earlier post. You may never know if God has ever put that thought in your husband's mind somewhere along the way. And more than likely he would never mention it unless you did. It would be sad to miss out on this blessing because you simply never asked him.

You may not want to go all out like I did before I asked Tom.(: But it does help to have statistics and info with you when you go to ask. Have I mentioned that I taped a picture of Lucy above Tom's computer and asked him to pray for a few days about adopting her?

In all seriousness, Steven Curtis Chapman's team discovered an amazing statistic - IF ONLY 7% OF CHRISTIANS ADOPTED A CHILD THERE WOULD BE NO ORPHANS LEFT IN THE WORLD! I know that adoption is not for everyone, but what if it is for you and your family? Please don't miss this divine opportunity!

Questions and Comments

With adoption comes many questions and comments. With an Asian adoption comes a whole different list of questions and comments. Do Tom or I mind either of these? Absolutely not! At times it is actually entertaining. The two most common, believe it or not, are:
1. I bet she is smart. Is she smarter than most girls her age?
2. Does she play the violin or anything?
(Sorry if anyone reading this has made these comments:)

I really love questions because I know God uses them in most cases to stir one's heart, whether it be towards adoption or leading one to support orphans around the world.

There are two objections I hear over and over again (which is the reason for this post).
1. We would adopt if we could afford it.
2. I would love to adopt, but my husband would never go for it.

I will start with the first. I say all of this to encourage anyone who has thought for a split second that they might be willing to adopt. I CAN COUNT ON ONE HAND HOW MANY PEOPLE I KNOW WHO CAN AFFORD TO SPEND $20,000 in one year. But yet there are thousands every year that are doing it. THIS IS WHAT GRANTS ARE OUT THERE FOR! Most people are unaware of the resources that are available. There are many great fundraisers that your friends and church family could help you with. There are also interest free loans and a huge tax credit now.

I will never forget calling America World Adoption Association for the first time three years ago with the adoption of Lily. I needed to talk to someone about the money side of things before I asked Tom to adopt. The lady there said these exact words - "If God is making it clear to you that you are ready to adopt, He will provide all of the money. We have families everyday that sign on that do not have the money and God always provides. He favors adoption!" I quickly reminded her that my husband was working part time at the church and was in school full time. Then she repeated what she had just said. I then told her that it would be great if Tom could hear those words come from her and not me. She agreed, and when Tom came home from work, I called and she did just that. He believed her and we both were ready to step out on faith! Huge leap for us!!! But we did it and God was SO faithful. It was so fun to watch God work. When we left for China we were short $1,000 of paying off the whole adoption. Tom checked the mail when we got home and guess what was there? Someone had forgotten to send a gift to us and it was for the exact amount we needed. It was paid in full! God is so awesome! That is just one of the many miracles we saw along the way. PLEASE DO NOT LET THE MONEY STOP YOU!!! Call or e-mail me for ideas.

I will touch on the second objection in the next post.

Two blessings!

So many are asking questions like, "Does she know any English?" and "How are you going to teach her, especially with homeschooling?" We were asking the same questions. No worries - we just knew it would come with time. We thought we would probably use ESL (English as a second language) in public school for a while. We knew she would learn conversational English quickly living with three sisters that talk NON-STOP. She would truly be immersed in it.

Well, with every adoption comes many miracles. It is fun to watch them unfold. I will share two with you.

There is a couple from Florida that was on this same mission trip as Criss. They have already been back to Lucy's orphanage in Fushun since. They have a heart for orphans and especially for the older children. Their daughter is now in the process of adopting Betty, a 13-year old friend of Lucy and Cindy. It will be another year for Betty to be adopted due to some delays.

Here is the first blessing - Betty's grandparents are paying an AWAA guide to go to the orphanage every Saturday to teach the children ENGLISH so they will be ready for adoption. (by the way, neither Betty nor Lucy know they are being adopted yet.) How cool is that!? FREE tutoring! Here's a picture of their first class (Lucy, in the pink jacket, has really grown a lot in a year).

Here is the second blessing - we had a couple begin coming to our Sunday school class a few weeks ago. Their daughter adopted from China a couple of years ago, so I was sharing with them about Lucy. Well, the husband told me this very week he just finished up with his course on teaching ESL. He is now just looking for the students to teach!!! And he just wants to work with children in the Hampstead area. Well, that is exactly where we live and always assumed we would have to drive into town for something like this (30 min. drive). How cool is that!? Thank you, Tom Spencer!!!

So, really NO worries. We would be crazy to worry! So if you hear of any worry come from me during this process, you have permission to knock me in the head with something!

"Therefore do not be anxious about tomorrow, for tomorrow will be anxious for itself. Sufficient for the day is its own trouble."Matthew 6:34.