Spring has arrived and an update of sorts…

As I sit here typing, my children are outside on their swings. They've been outside for five days now. For me, it is a beautiful sight. I just love to see them outside, building forts, climbing trees, pretending they are on an island, kicking the soccer ball and drawing with sidewalk chalk. I love to see them creating adventure. They are happier kids when they can stretch their legs and in turn they sleep so much better at night! We've gone on walks to find the signs of spring, drawn pictures of spring in our journals and admired the blooming flowers and tree blossoms! I've even slowly begun to pull out their summer clothes.

This weekend we grilled out, had lots of friends over to play and literally spent our entire days in the backyard in this beautiful weather. This has been such a nice distraction from other things going on. The past couple of weeks have been very difficult and we have faced heartache and struggles unknown to us previously. Through it all the Lord has been quite faithful to show us his hand in these circumstances and we know we will be ok.

Last night we had a wonderful opportunity to support a local adoption agency and attend their annual banquet. There was a dynamic speaker named Voddie Baucham who was not only inspiring but a gifted man. The Holy Spirit spoke to him and his wife about opening their home to adoption. They went to an adoption agency in Houston and told them they wanted to adopt 5, 6, 8, 10 – however many children the Lord impressed on them to adopt. The case worker walked out on them, came back with the agency director and asked that she hear his words for herself. He said it again and she told him they had been praying for an African America family to open their hearts and home to adoption. At the time there were zero black families adopting in that area! With tears streaming down his face he spoke of each of his three adopted sons and how they came to be a part of his family. They have begun the paper work to pursue the next adoption.

Then some dear friends of ours spoke of their personal experience with infertility and how the Lord led them to adoption. They walked through the steps of their adoption, grieving the loss of the babies that never developed, their experience with the birth mother and their tremendous love for their 16 month old baby girl! It was an unexpected but beautiful evening and the Lord really spoke to my heart. It was also an evening to enjoy friendship, conversation and good food!

This brings me to an update of sorts. I have been meaning to write an adoption update for quite some time but I just haven't. Right now China has referred into the month of March of 2006 and we are Logged In (LID) October 27, 2006. We have eight full months of referrals ahead of us and if continues to take them three to four months to get through one month of referrals then we are looking at a minimum of two years, maybe more. In one way this truly grieves my heart, in another way I just know that I am supposed to trust in the Lord's perfect timing. We are still in line for a NSN girl and many people have asked if we have considered a special needs child. The answer to that is yes, we have considered it, but I feel very strongly that SN is a calling and not a decision to be made lightly. And right now we have not felt that calling but we are praying about it. However, my girls have repeatedly asked for us to adopt a boy rather than a girl. We are praying about that as well. I have grown to absolutely love little boys and would love to pursue it. When I asked Jeremiah about it he said, let's adopt a little girl from China and then we can adopt a little boy from India. So I guess that is where we are. Praying and waiting. Maybe not much of an update, but for people wondering where we are – that's where we are. I so wish the Lord would just speed up the process of referrals but I know he has great things in store in the meantime! And I am just holding on to that.