How to Avoid a Broken Heart

To love at all is to be vulnerable.

Love anything, and your heart will certainly be wrung and possibly broken.

If you want to make sure of keeping it intact, you must give your heart to no one, not even to an animal.

Wrap it carefully round with hobbies and little luxuries; avoid all entanglements; lock it up safe in the casket or coffin of your selfishness.

But in that casket—safe, dark, motionless, airless—it will change.

It will not be broken; it will become unbreakable, impenetrable, irredeemable.

--From C. S. Lewis, The Four Loves, p. 121

Emigration Permit APPROVED!!!

I just found out that our Emigration Permit was approved!!!! We now have all the necessary paperwork in hand to bring our baby home. We do expect to wait about 6 more weeks (give or take) for various appointments and things needed to get her ready to travel, but all the paperwork is now approved!!. The next thing to happen is her Embassy Appearance which is an appointment where she, her foster mom, and social worker all go the embassy in order to be approved for her Visa. I'll let you know when that happens - until then, we'll keep on awaitin!!

Addison's Latest Doctor's Visit

We received Addison’s Well Baby Check yesterday and she is doing wonderfully! She currently weighs 22 lbs which places her in the 82% for weight. She is 29.9 inches longs which means she is in the 56% for length. She has some teeth and seems to be meeting all of the appropriate developmental mile stones! She crawls, pulls up, walks around furniture, picks up food with her forefingers, plays peek-a-boo, and can imitate speech. She still isn’t walking, but it sounds like she is very close!! I just can’t wait to hold her! My heart just aches to see our little girl.

Mud Pies in a Slum

"Our Lord finds our desires, not too strong, but too weak. We are half-hearted creatures, fooling about with drink and sex and ambition when infinite joy is offered us, like an ignorant child who wants to go on making mud pies in a slum because he cannot imagine what is meant by the offer of a holiday at the sea. We are far too easily pleased."

–C.S. Lewis, The Weight of Glory

A Couple Psalms…

Psalm 22:19

But you, O LORD, be not far off; O my Strength, come quickly to help me

Psalm 31:7
I will be glad and rejoice in your love, for you saw my affliction and knew the anguish of my soul.

Adoption Update

I’ve had quite a few people ask for the latest on the adoption, and realized, I hadn’t really haven’t posted an update for quite some time. So here it is: we are currently waiting on our Emigration Permit (EP) to be approved by the Korean government. It was submitted January 12th but we’re still waiting. They typical timeframe for an approval is is 4 weeks, but were already on week 5, so clearly that doesn’t apply to us. (Not that any of the timeframes have…really NONE of them have held true…it’s frustrating to say the very least)

So basically, were just stuck, waiting on the emigration permit. Nothing can go forward without this, so until we get that there will be no movement - we'll just be stuck…again. After we our EP approval, we still have another 6 weeks (give or take) until we travel. So, that means were probably looking at traveling in April, not March. And given our sorted history, that can, and most likely will, change.

Lent: Keep the Season Christ-centered

With Lent officially starting tomorrow, I thought I'd post some links that might give you tangible ways on how to make this time meaningful and Christ centered. Both links are found at John Piper's site desiringgod.org.

(You can't go wrong with Piper!!)

Lenten Preparations for Good Friday & Easter

Lenten Lights

Leprechauns…

More great stuff from the book If God is Good; Faith in the Face of Suffering and Evil written by Randy Alcorn. In the chapter I'm currently reading, Alcorn discusses the problems the atheist world view has with extreme evil and moral outrage. In this compelling discussion, he makes a very interesting observation about the atheist's treatment of God. He writes:

"Many atheist books and blog seethe with anger. Remarkably, the authors do not limit their anger to Christians. They seem most livid with God.

I don't believe in leprechauns, but I haven't dedicated my life to battling them. I suppose if I believed that people's faith in leprechauns poisoned civilization, I might get angry with members of leprechaun churches. But there's one thing I'm quite sure I wouldn't do: I would not get angry with leprechauns. Why not? Because I can't get angry with someone I know doesn't exist.

Though I see why atheists get irate at Christians, I don't understand why they seem so furious with God – unless, deep inside, their atheism isn't a rational denial of God as much as an attempt to retaliate against him." (page 136)

Lodge in the Wilderness....

Excerpts from Psalm 55

Verses 1-2

Give ear to my prayer, O God;

And do not hide Yourself from my supplication.

Give heed to me and answer me;

I am restless in my complaint and

am surely distracted.

Verses 6-7

I said, "Oh, that I had wings like a dove!

I would fly away and be at rest.

Behold, I would wander far away,

I would lodge in the wilderness."

Verses 16-17

As for me, I shall call upon God

And the Lord will save me.

Evening and morning and at noon

I will complain and murmer.

And He will hear my voice.

Verse 22

Cast your burden upon the Lord

and He will sustain you;

He will never allow the righteous

to be shaken.

Tim Tebow's Testimony

I just read the most refreshing article by Sally Jenkins who is a sports writer for the Washington Post. She herself is admittedly pro-choice, but has written an insightful and logical editorial about Tim Tebow’s Super Bowl Ad and those who criticized it. Here are a few excerpts:

“I'm pro-choice, and Tebow clearly is not. But based on what I've heard in the past week, I'll take his side against the group-think, elitism and condescension of the ‘National Organization of Fewer and Fewer Women All The Time.’ For one thing, Tebow seems smarter than they do.”

“Tebow's 30-second ad hasn't even run yet, but it already has provoked "The National Organization for Women Who Only Think Like Us" to reveal something important about themselves: They aren't actually "pro-choice" so much as they are pro-abortion.”

“Pam Tebow and her son feel good enough about that choice (to carry through with her difficult pregnancy) to want to tell people about it. Only, NOW says they shouldn't be allowed to. Apparently NOW feels this commercial is an inappropriate message for America to see for 30 seconds, but women in bikinis selling beer is the right one.”

“You know what we really need more of? Famous guys who aren't embarrassed to practice sexual restraint, and to say it out loud. If we had more of those, women might have fewer abortions. See, the best way to deal with unwanted pregnancy is to not get the sperm in the egg and the egg implanted to begin with, and that is an issue for men, too -- and they should step up to that.”

Click here to read this incredible article! Its worth your time.

Snow Day!!

My Prayer…

"As to myself, I would tell you how it is with me if I could: at the best, it would be an inconsistent account…I am a sinner, believing in the name of Jesus. I am a silly sheep, but I have a gracious, watchful Shepherd. I am a dull scholar, but I have a Master who can make the dullest learn. He still bears with me, He still employs me, He still enables me, He still owns me. Oh for a coal of heavenly fire to warm my heart, that I might praise him as I ought! "

-John Newton in a letter to D. West, Esq. (August 29, 1774)

A Fabulous Book!!!

So about a month ago, or longer, I said I was reading Nine Marks of a Healthy Church, but I got derailed when I start reading If God is Good by Randy Alcorn. This book deals with the problem of evil suffering and reconciling that with an omnipotent, omniscient God. It is fabulously written!! Randy Alcorn is an incredible writer and has created a logical, yet Biblical case where he shows how suffering, evil and God do fit together. Here are some quotes from the chapter entitled, "What are Some Possible responses to the Problem of Evil and Suffering?"

Here is Alcorn explaining how trials can test faith, for the good.

"Believing God exists is not the same as trusting the God who exists. A nominal Christian often discovers in suffering that his faith has been in his church, denomination, or family tradition, but not Christ. As he faces evil and suffering, he may lose his faith. But that's actually a good thing. Losing your faith may be God's gift to you. Only when you jettison ungrounded, untrue faith can you replace it with valid faith in the true God – a faith that can pass, and even strengthen in, the most formidable of life's tests." (p. 12-13)

"Sufferers have told me, 'We did everything right. We attended church and gave our money to missions – and then God did this to us. I don't get it.' At times like these our faith gets exposed as an insurance policy in which we pay our premiums to protect us from harm." (p.37)

"We need only read scripture, look around us, or live long enough in order to learn that trusting God doesn't ward off all evil and suffering. He never said it would." (p. 38)

Alcorn also explains that a fundamental lack of understanding in who God is oftens lead to a misunderstanding of trials and suffering.

"A friend wrestled with the problem of evil after a terrible accident. He concluded that we err whenever we speak of only two or three attributes of God in relation to the problem of evil. He meant that we must bring all of God's attributes to the table. If we see God only in terms of His love, mercy, and compassion, we will not envision the true God, but only an idol of our own imagination – and that is precisely what we see in the airbrushed God of various modern solutions to the problem of evil." (p. 37)

Click here to order this great book.

So True...

Proverbs 13:12

"Delayed hope makes the heart sick,

But fulfilled desire is a tree of life."

Our P3 has been Sent!!!!

I Just found out that the Embassy in Seoul has mailed our P3 packet to our adoption agency!!! The P3 is a packet the agency completes and returns to the embassy. It contains all the necessary paperwork and approvals the embassy needs in order to issue Addison a Visa. Once this is returned, the agency is able to make the various appointments needed for our baby's case to be processed so she can be issued a Visa!

Heres the catch... the p3 can't be return until we have our Korean Emigration Permit...which were still waiting on. We expect it to be approved in a couple weeks, so hopfully that will come sooner than later!!!

Were outta here!!!

I found out this morning that we were logged out of the National Visa Center Friday, January 29th!!!! This means that our file is now at the embassy in Seoul South Korea!!! The embassy is where her actual Visa will be issued, so this is a big step!!! I’m very encouraged by the speed at which all of this has happened!!! It only took one week for file to be processed and sent to Seoul which is really incredible; especially considering the fact that Haitian Visas are now the priority!

I’m so grateful that God has mercifully allowed this to be quick!!! At this point it is safe to say we will have her home sometime in March. In spite of the great news, we still covet your prayers, and heres how you can specifically pray:

• Pray the Koran Government will approve her Emigration Permit very soon. We need this to get her Visa, and this is the only document for which we are still waiting. (We think we’ll get it by next week, but I’d love it sooner!)
• Pray that the rest of the paperwork and appointments will go smoothly and quickly without complication so we can get her home ASAP!!
• Pray her seizures remained controlled and that we find a good pediatric neurologist and can eventually take her off her medication.
• Pray she adjusts quickly to us and her transition is smooth.