Neighborly Blessings

We have a wonderful woman who lives next door to us. Dorothy is our prayer warrior, our friend, our "Grandma over the fence" as we sometimes affectionately refer to her. She cares about our family and is truly interested in each of our children.

Often when the kids go outside they come back in with some treasure from Dorothy. It can be anything from a plate of cookies to an article about some animal that would interest the kids. God has blessed us truly with a wonderful neighbor!

Well, Dorothy's daughter Beth has the same giving heart as her mom and she recently sent over a gift for our family. It was a Snowman Kit complete with many different parts to make many different kinds of snowmen. We had the snow but it was so cold we couldn't go out to play and the snow wouldn't pack. Well, just this past Friday the snow was perfect for packing and we got to work. What fun the kids had deciding what personality their snowman should have! Thank you Beth and Dorothy!

This was our first one, a collaborative effort.

Brandon getting ready to make another large snowball.

The final menagerie. Brandon with the little man he made. Molly's creation has a large smile.

Celebrating Daniel

Today is Daniel's 13th birthday (Happy Birthday Daniel!) and tomorrow is the 8 year anniversary of his adoption into our family! I can not believe that 10 years have passed since the Lord made him a part of us. We were so excited to have him home; he was skeptical that he would stay. We wanted to embrace him and hold him close; he wanted to stay at arm's length. We wanted to shower him with all that he did not have; he was overwhelmed.

As I think about our adoption of Daniel my heart goes out to his birthmom. She knew life would be difficult, but she chose life for our son. I am so thankful to her for that choice as our life would have been quite different without Daniel and we would have missed out on so much.

Daniel has opened our eyes to so many things. Without Daniel we may never have known the many facts we know about insects. We may never have looked at up close the intricacies of the many types of butterflies that inhabit our area. Because of Daniel we now know that a gecko can have the gout, that a bull frog tadpole can take a very long time to become a frog. He showed us how to scoop out dead goldfish from small bowls at my sister's wedding reception (don't try this at your reception). We now know how to clip the nails of a guinea pig. Daniel loves animals of all kinds and reads about them voraciously. He even reads the encyclopedia.

Daniel has shown us his tender side as he has reached out to younger children at our church. He loves on Nathan often and is an awesome big brother! He enjoys putting together Bionicles, Legos, and his stuffed animals. He loves to collect things he finds along his way, anything can be a treasure. In his room is my old iron that no longer worked, Daniel took it apart to see how it was put together.

Having Daniel as a part of our family has shown us how the Lord knits together a family perfectly. We have been refined, he has been refined, and hopefully the Lord has been glorified through it all. I will never forget the day, shortly after he came, that we put his picture on our fireplace mantle next to the other children. He walked over and said, "That's me!", for some time after that he would walk over and look and laugh at the picture. Such innocence and joy, it was the beginning of him realizing that he had a family he belonged with. We are praising the Lord for bringing Daniel into our family and we pray that we would follow the Lord as we love, instruct, and train him in His ways.

Happy 13th Birthday Daniel! We love you bunches!

Adoption Conference in IL

Sometimes when a family considers adoption they are befuddled by the amount of information, others are sometimes fearful of making the wrong decision. My thought is that it is great to have as much information as possible when you look at adoption. It is great to learn from others experiences and expertise. Not to say that there still will not be surprises along the way both in the process of adopting and when you bring your child home - but the more information you have the better prepared you are for the journey that the Lord leads you to.

If you live near central Illinois you might be interested in checking out this conference!

Saturday, February 7

9-12:30pm

Here is a link for more information:

http://www.connecthearts.blogspot.com/

.

Sledding

Last week we saw record low temperatures for a couple of days. Thursday morning the thermometer read -20 degrees. Yikes, I didn't even know that the thermometer could go that low. Saturday things were warming up, a whopping 20 degrees (that's a 40 degree increase!) so Ken took four of our kids sledding. Nathan and I stayed home and played while they had some fun outside.

Get ready, get set, Go!

Molly and Natalie having fun together.

Brandon and Daniel at the bottom of the hill.

What goes down must go back up to do it again.

Call Upon the Lord

"I call on you, O God, for you will answer me; give ear to me and hear my prayer." Psalm 17:6

Why does the Lord seem to answer some prayers and not the others? Or is sometimes His answer "not now" or "no"? There are times that it is difficult to understand. Whether He answers as we ask or not does not mean that we should stop praying. We are told in scripture to pray and even when we don't know what to pray we are told that, as a believer, the Holy Spirit intercedes for us. I am so thankful that He sees the entire picture that I have such a humanly perspective on.


In our own lives I think back to our first referral, Grace Paola. So tiny and in need of so many prayers. We accepted her referral in April of 2007 really feeling that she was the child we were to bring home. But that is not how the Lord answered our prayers, her healing came in the arms of Jesus in July ('07). The Lord knew that that would not be the end of our journey and He brought home to us Nathan almost a year later. We were in Grace's life for a reason, I believe it was to pray for her, to intercede on her behalf.

There are so many people that are in need of prayer. I am encouraging you to pray. Please pray for Nathan Lee. Nathan Lee's case is in a Guatemalan court waiting for a decision, not knowing when that decision will come. Please pray for his mommy and daddy as their hearts wait to hold Nathan Lee in their arms.

Please pray for Abby as she undergoes chemotherapy. Abby came home from Guatemala a while ago, but is in the fight of her life right now. Please lift up Abby's family that love her dearly and have a wonderful testimony for the Lord. Abby's very strong course of chemo started today, please pray. To hear more of Abby's story go to:

http://www.brentriggs.com/?ItemID=349&CategoryID=187

Many of you know others that need prayer, let me encourage you to take some time today to pray for them. Lift those prayers before our Heavenly Father that knows our hearts and hears our prayers, even when we don't know what to ask for.

"In the same way , the Spirit helps us in our weakness. We do not
know what we ought to pray for, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us with
groans that words cannot express."
Romans 8:26

Happy New Year!

We have so much to be thankful for this past year. The Lord has blessed us greatly! We look forward now to 2009, wondering what it holds for each of us. We like to set goals for ourselves and our family at the beginning of the year. Sometimes the Lord redirects us and we find ourselves not where we thought we would be, but with the Lord is always a good place to be!

My prayer as we set these goals this year is that we honestly put them before the Lord, being willing to change direction if needed. My prayer for each of you is that in 2009 you will look to the Lord through His word for direction and purpose. He often calls us out of our comfort zone to bigger challenges but He also provides us with all we need to accomplish that which He has called us to.

Blessed is the man who does not walk in the counsel of the wicked or stand in the way of sinners or sit in seat of mockers. But his delight is in the law of the Lord and on his law he meditates day and night. Psalm 1:1-2