Saturday, April 30, 2011

We Have Our FSP Button!

Praise the Lord!

What a blessing from God to have a ministry like Reece's Rainbow to offer the Family Sponsorship Service!  We are so thankful for the fellow brothers and sisters in Christ who have already contacted us and shared their story about their involvement in Kathleen's life via RR, and have expressed a desire to place our FSP button on their blogs.

Thursday, April 28, 2011

Bittersweet....

Praise the Lord!

I cannot get those 3 words out of my mind; especially as I consider the abundant Grace He has shown in leading Stephanie and I to Kathleen. Every time I look into her eyes, the windows into her precious soul, my Spirit-fed love for her grows.

Praise the Lord!

Although God has blessed us with complete peace in our decision regarding Kathleen, I cannot help but go back and look over the many faces and stories of the dozens and dozens of other children that we saw and gave prayerful consideration to.

Praise the Lord!

May He use the emotions that erupt when I look at the faces of these other children to become a "warrior" for them as well! Rise up Christian (starting with you, Corey), and follow the call to advocate and/or rescue these precious creations of God!!!

Praise the Lord!

'Tis bittersweet...

Praise the Lord!

Our Eyes Opened

My first blog entry.  WOW!  I never dreamed I'd be sitting here writing a blog entry.  I'm not very good at modern day networking.  However, that's about to change.  We are starting this blog for very specific reasons.  We plan to chart our adoption journey, raise awareness for other waiting children, and most importantly, give honor and praise to our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ.

I remember thinking about adoption several years ago when it took longer than I expected to get pregnant.  It was mainly from the perspective of possible infertility issues.  To our surprise, I finally became pregnant, and we now have three boys.  We also have shared custody of Corey's daughter from a previous marriage.  Since that time, I've mostly associated adoption with infertile couples.  In recent years, God has slowly, but surely, placed people in our lives who are, in one form or another, involved in adoption.  We supported the idea of it, and we were willing to help others financially.  Sadly, I have a vivid memory of a statement I made  to a very good friend of mine, "Adoption just isn't for me".

There is no doubt in my mind that God has clearly opened our eyes.  This isn't some great idea to satisfy guilt or feelings of pity towards orphans.  It all starts with the Biblical Doctrine of Adoption (please see tab) and how this applies to living the Christian life.  I first mentioned the Reece's Rainbow ministry to Corey April 10th. That same evening we began searching through the RR website.  Our lives/thoughts began changing immediately, and we've been on the same page ever since.  Praise God!  This is clearly a mission for God.  He is calling us to go and rescue/adopt this precious little princess labeled as Kathleen on her profile.  We don't even know her yet, and we already LOVE her. 

God has called us to adopt Kathleen, and we trust he will see it through to the end when she's finally at home with us.  We can depend on God for help.  For now I'll close with Psalm 121:

I lift up my eyes to the hills-
where does my help come from?
My help comes from the LORD,
the Maker of heaven and earth.


He will not let your foot slip-
he who watches over you will not slumber;
indeed, he who watches over Israel
will neither slumber nor sleep.


The LORD watches over you-
the LORD is your shade at your right hand;
the sun will not harm you by day,
nor the moon by night.

The LORD will keep you from all harm-
he will watch over your life;
the LORD will watch over your coming and going
both now and forevermore.

Thank you to everyone committed to praying for us.  Thank you, Corey.  You are a wonderful husband and father.

Wednesday, April 27, 2011

The Journey Has Begun!

Please come along side us as we begin our journey to bring Kathleen into our household!

Stay tuned...