My plans are not your plans...

So our trip to London was wonderful. I felt like I was back home and had a great time catching up with friends and showing Morgan my favorite sights. Thursday we were sitting at Starbucks at Embankment catching up with a friend when Morgan checked his e-mail. We had an urgent message waiting for us. Our court appearance has been moved up a day! We immediately went into scramble mode and starting trying to change flights.

Within hours we were able to get new flights that leave Sunday instead of Tuesday. They were the only reasonably priced flights we could find. We are having a hard time not feeling like this is another trip like our trip to Colorado....filled with disappointment. We have lost close to $1,000 by changing our flights. We were supposed to go to Warner Bros Studios on Monday to see the sets from the Harry Potter films. I think I'm more disappointed about not getting to go to Harry Potter than I am about all that money going down the drain. We also had plans to see friends we hadn't seen in 6+ years. I quickly lost the ability to finish our people/places to see list and it makes me sad. I know that God is in control and he has a big plan in all of this but at the moment I'm just sad. At least we were still able to go to Sam's wedding in Plymouth which was the whole reason we came to England to begin with.

Yesterday was a beautiful day for a wedding. The locals had been concerned about it being rainy and chilly but as it turned out, it was a rare warm and sunny day in Plymouth. The wedding ceremony was at an old Anglican Church, and the reception was at an Orangery across the bay in Cornwall. It was a delightful place for a party, with lush gardens and scenic walks overlooking the bay and even a bit of the Atlantic Ocean. What a wonderful way for us to celebrate Sam and Maya's wedding and to spend our last night in the UK.

Now we are officially off for Uganda. At present we are sitting in Heathrow airport waiting for the first leg of our journey (London to Cairo) to begin. It strikes me that we are surrounded by people from all over the world. It is a cultural melting pot here at the airport. In some ways it is preparing me for the fact that our family is about to become a small cultural melting pot of its own. And this is a great thing!

In the book of Revelation chapter 7, John sees a vision of the multitude standing before God in Heaven at the end of all things...or better yet, the beginning of all things being made new. He says they are from  every tribe, tongue and nation - the most glorious cultural melting pot of all. God delights in the fact that his family comes in all shapes, colors and languages. I hope that in a very small way we are reflecting this glorious picture of the New Heavens and New Earth by the new family God is creating for us out of Uganda. We are less than 24 hours away from this dream becoming a reality. And that makes any frustrations over change of plans all worth it.

Please pray for safe travels and for us to be able to sleep on the flights. Also please pray for our new court date and that the judge would rule in our favor quickly. The judge has to take a week off due to a death in his family so pray for him and his family. Thanks. Our next post will be when we have the boys with us! We can't wait to update you on how our first meeting and day together go.

Good news and prayer requests

Ok, so I wrote a post from Jamaica...it was humorous, it was long, it was a riveting read...but the internet gremlin stole it. ;-) The internet went down and I didn't know it so when I thought I was saving and posting it the blog was just disappearing from the world never to be heard from again...

Anyway, we had a great team with us in Jamaica. They worked hard, got along well and had a great time together. We weeded a potato field and most of a pepper field. We mixed concrete and poured a 20'x25' strip of a driveway. Some repaired a barbwire fence and most moved 400 bags of cement, which weighed a total of 37,800 pounds. Sign language skills were improved. Fun was had by all. :-)

Now we are back in Chattanooga and are completing a mad dash to get everything ready before we leave on Monday, June 24th. We have copies of all documents, the boys' suitcase is mostly packed, their room is as ready as it can be, we are vaccinated and have our antimalarial meds...yet there is still more to do. I have a long list of things needed to be complete by Monday. Alas, I know the Lord will give me the strength to get it all done.

So our good news...the last couple who went to Uganda only had to stay 2 1/2 weeks!!!! There is no guarantee that our process will be as quick but it gives us hope that we won't be there for 4-6 weeks just waiting on signatures and paperwork. We would be happy to stay 3 weeks but 4-6 weeks just seems so long and we are anxious to be able to return home and start building a routine and settling in as a family. Plus we aren't excited about leaving our girls (especially the 16 y/o) behind for that long. She's having a hard time with the thought of us being gone that long.

How can you pray for us as we see the finish line ahead?
• pray for our safety
• pray for sleep! With the long flights and time changes we will be a bit delirious.
  Pray that we are able to sleep on flights and that the boys will sleep when they
  are supposed to.
• pray for our health, I'm nervous about my stomach handling life/food there
• pray for all the officials who will be dealing with our adoption
• pray the adoption goes well and quickly and return flights will be reasonably priced
• pray for the boys' hearts as they have a huge adjustment ahead of them, pray
  that God will help them quickly attach to us as their new mommy and daddy
• pray for "LK" the 16 y/o who will have to live without us for a month or more
• pray that the last little bit of money will come in

Morgan would like you all to know that we feel a bit like Joshua and Caleb before they spied on the Promised Land. They didn't really know what to expect, but they went anyway because that is what God told them to do. We are faithfully confident that this is what God has called us to do, and that He is preparing the way for us. But we're also afraid!

Thank you so much for your support and prayers. We feel so loved and blessed.

He's Continuously Faithful

I haven't written in awhile for a couple of reasons...
1. There wasn't much to report on. It seems that adoption is a process of hurry, hurry, hurry, paperwork, paperwork, paperwork, then wait. We are sitting in the waiting period. All of our paperwork is in, our court date is set and we are just waiting to leave. Thankfully the wait is almost over. We leave for Jamaica this weekend to take a few of our youth to work with the deaf there. When we return, we have 9 days before we board a flight for England and then on to Uganda! I cannot express my excitement over getting to meet my boys and spend a whole month with them before bringing them home!

2. I have to admit that I was in a period of doubting and sadness. Who wants to listen to me complain when I know I have so much? I was struggling with the fact that I couldn't decorate the boys' room because there was no furniture and the floors haven't been fixed since the water damage. I was overwhelmed by the fact that we have less than 2 weeks in the country and have no more fundraisers planned to get that last bit of money needed for return flights.

However, I am so thankful that God loves me even when I'm being a stick in the mud and doubting His timing and goodness. This past Sunday, our sermon was on 1 Kings 17. It is about Elijah and since our son will be named Elijah I paid extra close attention. :-) Here's a small part of what was read:

² And the word of the Lord came to him: ³ “Depart from here and turn eastward and hide yourself by the brook Cherith, which is east of the Jordan. ⁴ You shall drink from the brook, and I have commanded the ravens to feed you there.” ⁵ So he went and did according to the word of the Lord. He went and lived by the brook Cherith that is east of the Jordan. ⁶ And the ravens brought him bread and meat in the morning, and bread and meat in the evening, and he drank from the brook.

Do you know what I realized from that passage? In all my complaining and doubting I forgot that God promises to give us only what we need for THAT day. He doesn't need to give us everything at once...he can but he doesn't have to. He sometimes chooses to give us only that day's portion, usually for our own good. That is what he has been doing in my life over the last month or so. He is giving me just enough to get me through and force me to continue to depend on him. Like Elijah, I have my food and water for today and that should be enough to get me to tomorrow.

We may not have all the money we need for return flights but we have some of it. And God has placed us in a country where we can take out interest free credit cards. We will put the remaining balance on a credit card and pay it off as we are able over the next 18 months. Each day someone gives us a little more toward the adoption and perhaps in the next two weeks God will do amazing things to provide the rest of the money but if he doesn't it will be ok too.

Since Sunday's sermon, I have been blessed with a surprise package full of clothes for the boys. (A friend's mother told her Bible study to pray for us and our need for some material items and next thing I know we have a plethora of clothes from that Bible study in Kentucky.)  I've also been told another package of clothes is on the way from some other friends in Nashville. Yesterday, we received both of the car seats we still needed from a few friends from Florida. We also have lined up getting bunk beds when we get back from Jamaica and we bought two mattresses today (pillowtop mattresses was what the discount store had so the boys shall sleep in a little bit of heaven). In less than a week, God provided all those material items I had been worried about and I feel blessed beyond measure. He also gave me two days this week with little on my plate so I could clean the house, hang stuff on the walls, and sort and organize the boys' room. I feel a little more ready for them to come.

God has proven Himself faithful time and time again so why is it so easy for me to become discouraged and doubt? God hasn't changed. My fleshly body is weak and, like the Israelites, I quickly forget all that God has done for me in the past and just focus on what I have to overcome ahead of me. I wish I could say that I have learned my lesson for good this time but sadly I know that this will not be the last time I will doubt. I am ever so thankful that God knows me better than anyone and is still willing to give me grace when I'm not perfect. I don't have to be perfect because Jesus was perfect for me and that is a huge relief.

Tomorrow we leave for Jamaica and I am bursting with excitement to see what He is going to do in the lives of our youth. At first, I thought we were a bit nuts to have this trip so close to going to Africa (we booked it years ago so it wasn't really our fault for planning them so close together) but now I think it was another example of God's goodness to us...right before we go to Africa we are being given a week to take a step out of our busy lives and spend a little time serving others at a slower pace of life. We will get to reconnect with friends and I'll get to work on my sign language skills. I love to worship with the deaf using my my ears, my voice and my body, through sign language, to praise Him. God knows that about me and has given me that opportunity. We will get to spend a lot of time with Him and reflect on all the changes that are coming and all that He has done to get us there. God is good. All the time.

Stay tuned for updates from Jamaica. :-)