A Picture's Worth a Thousand Words

I have the cutest boys ever!!!

Moved to Tears

Imagine being a twenty-year-old, living in alone Uganda, adopting 13 children, and relying completely on God's provisions to provide for you, your chidlren, and the 400 other children who now depend on you for their care. This isn't a fantastic story I've made up. Its the real life of a girl named Katie from Tennesse who left college, went to Uganda; and stayed. I cried when I read her story. I plan to support her ministry. Here is the link to her blog where she chronicles her day to day life in Uganda. Her faith is incredible, convicting, and humbling. May we be more like her.

Please take time to read her story.

Here is the link to the Ministry created to support her work with orphans in Uganda: Amazima Ministries. I've also added this link to my side bar.

Don't be "Google for God"

Here is a great video clip with easy-to-apply advice on how to witness to friends and neighbors.

A Thought from Oswald Chambers

“We do not know what God is after, but we have to maintain our relationship with him whatever happens. We must never allow anything to injure our relationship with God; if it does get injured we must take time and get it put right. The main thing about Christianity is not the work we do, but the relationship we maintain and the atmosphere produced by that relationship. That is all God asks us to look after, and it is the one thing that is being continually assailed.”

-from the book, My Upmost for His Highest by Oswald Chambers

Macho Man

I can't hide the fact that I really like Mark Driscoll. He is the pastor at Mars Hill Church in Seattle, and he is a solid, Biblical, no fluff, tell-it-like-is man. This clip I found on You Tube is not only funny, but completely true!

Explanation of "The List"

I’ve had many questions about “the list” and our wait so in this post I will attempt to answer all of them…but am sure I’ll miss some!!

· The published list we are on is “unofficial” and only those who ask to be placed on it are actually in this list. (We are #8 on this “unofficial list”) I can check this list any time as it is published on the “Holt Korea Forum.”

· Holt Korea has an official list which is chronologically arranged by homestudy dates. (our date is 7/23/08) This is not a public list and they will not tell you how many people are in front of you, even if you call them and talk to the director. (I tried this and was still rejected)

· What our angency does when making a “match, or referral” is they look at the baby’s file and the adoptive parents file to see if there is a good match, if so they make the referral. If not, they go to the next couple on the list to see if they are the best match for the child. So I could get a referral before someone who is ahead of me chronologically on the list based on compatibility. This is why “the list” isn’t really a sure fire indication of when you’ll get a referral. It only gives you a ballpark figure as to how close you may be.

· The more medical needs a couple is open to increases your likelihood of being matched sooner. Also, couples who request boys or are open to either gender also get matched much, much faster than couples requesting girls. Couples who request boys with medical conditions get referral even faster! (sometimes they get referrals 5-6 months sooner than those waiting on girls)

What does this mean for us? Well, referrals have slowed tremendously in the past 5 months! Once again, the reason for this has not been disclosed by our agency but here are a few valid speculations based on what I’ve read and heard.

1. Not many girls coming available for adoption in Korea because domestic adoption is increasing and girls are more desired than boys for adoption in that culture.

2. More birth mothers are choosing to parent.

3. There is an increased number of adoptive parents requesting girls, thus backlogging the referrals.

4. There are more people choosing to adopt through Korea because the wait for a Chinese adoption is now about 4-5 years and other international programs have closed because of political issues and failure to meet the Law set forth by the Hague Convention.

If your curious about anything else, just leave a comment!!!

Another great "Gotcha Day" Video

Here is another one of my favorite "gotcha day" videos. Enjoy!