God's Plan, Power, Peace, and Praise!

We're relieved to be able to tell you that our homestudy should be done TODAY!  That means that the international adoption specialist can proceed with the next portion of our paperwork called the "dossier."  We're so grateful for your prayers!  We're seeing God's hand daily with joyful expectation!  (Lamentations 3:25)

Adopting Phillip has been a leap of faith for our family.  Most days find us excitedly talking about bringing him home and loving on him.  We talk about how we want to see Him grow in his faith.  We debate about the best ways to teach him to read and to improve his English.  We practice our Mandarin Chinese.  We joke about me possibly having to drive a mini van again.  (Okay, still working on accepting that one...:)  We use chopsticks.  We make Asian dishes and experiment with making them really hot and spicy the way Phillip loves them.  We spend hours researching cool wheelchairs and space-age home vacuum elevators.  We stock up on sale clothes in Phillip's size.   But....there are times when we have to walk through some harsh realities.  On those days, we desperately pray for God to equip us and to empower us to overcome in Him.  We pray for the Holy Spirit to do a mighty work in Phillip's body and spirit.

One time our family watched people with parachutes jumping off the cliffs at Wallowa Lake.  They got themselves into position and seemed to go through a safety checklist.  They faced the cliff and then jumped backwards into the canyon below.  I'll never forget their expressions.  There was a moment of absolute terror as they started to free fall followed by absolute joy and shouting when their parachutes took over.  That's how following God's will is for me.  I make sure that everything is in order:  Prayer?  Check.  In line with His word?  Check.  Sought wisdom of godly family and friends?  Check.  Booyahahaha.........!

 When I truly seek to discern  and obey His will, He is the loving arms that catch me when I leap and  then throw me into the air again!

I'll never forget a story that a friend told me about a reoccuring nightmare.  He kept having this dream that he was falling and he would wake up scared and anxious.  Someone told him that if he ever hit the ground in his dream, the trauma would literally kill him.  My friend devised this plan to fan his t-shirt and to let it fill with air like a parachute and to lightly touch down when he had the dream again.  He did it.  Not only did he touch down lightly, he stopped having the dream altogether.  When we see roadblocks and challenges and experience stress, often God is calling us to see things through His eyes and to see that He is able.  He is able to meet our needs in creative ways that are greater than we could ever think of or imagine.  Where we end, He begins!  We're counting on that as we hop, skip, jump and LEAP towards bringing Phillip home.

Joni