His ways are not our ways

This is the mess that we have had to look at for a little over a month now! Did I complain, when they began hauling all of this mess right behind my house? Unfortunately yes! Oh, but even through the messes of our lives our God is so faithful! I just love how He provides more than we ever think possible and at just the perfect moment in our lives.

Here's the story:
Back in October we were notified by the local energy company that they would be drilling an gas well behind our house. Great, you say, that means $$$$!
NO, it doesn't when you don't own the mineral rights! So, we were told that we wouldn't be getting anything for this headache, but a nice pretty sound barrier wall. So the week before Christmas the well went up almost exactly 300 feet from our backdoor, complete with lots of traffic and many strangers too close to home.

Well, this Tuesday afternoon, the same guy from the energy company called and left a message on our phone. I jokingly told David, "Call him back, I'm sure he wants to give us lots of money!" So David called him back and he kindly told us that they needed to run a hose through our culvert to fill the pond that goes along with the drilling rig. The best part about it is the fact that we just recently put in another driveway along with another culvert, so they would need to run the hose through not one, but two of our culverts. And this is the hose that they are running through our culverts, and for this inconvenience, we will be reimbursed exactly $2,000.00! That amount of money isn't huge by any means, especially when whoever owns those mineral rights will be getting a huge chunk of change, I'm sure. That hose though, is God's incredible provision for our adoption at exactly the moment when He knew we would need it. Guess what? I just wrote a check this week for our final agency payment and guess how much that check was? You guessed it, $2,000.00.
Coincidence you say, NO WAY! That is God's mighty hand providing for our needs when we take that step of faith that He says to take.

What makes this story even more incredible was the fact that Tuesday morning during my quiet time with the Lord He spoke these words to me and I highlighted them in my bible. I had no idea at the time how He would make those words come to life that day!

¹¹ "Who among the gods is like you, O LORD ?

Who is like you—
majestic in holiness,
awesome in glory,
working wonders?
(Exodus 15:11)

He did it again!

My God is AMAZING

and

He has poured out His blessings
AGAIN
in
ways that are beyond our expectations!

If we will just take that step of FAITH He will NOT disappoint us!

I can't wait to share the whole story of God's blessing this week, but you will have to come back for a visit tomorrow for the rest of the story. You don't want to miss it!

My three guys with their great-grandmother, Nannie. Moments like these are a special treasure!

That was then...this is now

January 10, 1987

January 10, 2010

and another pictures, just because it really is a a better picture.

This weekend we had the opportunity to get away with 30 other couples from our church for a couples retreat. As working, busy parents of almost five kids, it was so nice just to get away and focus our thoughts on one another. Our anniversary really was two weeks ago so what better way to celebrate than to have the chance to remember why we married
each other in the first place.
As we drove to the hotel we had to take a wedding picture to display, so we spent the drive flipping through our album and remembering people that we loved that are no longer with us. It makes the thought of heaven even sweeter to know the
many faces we will see when we get there.

So what do I love about this man I have spent the past 23 years with?
Here are just a few things:

He LOVES me despite all of my shortcomings(and there are many)!

He LOVES our children and does whatever it takes to spend time with them.

He LOVES Mexican food(enough said there)!

He LOVES His Lord and Saviour and seeks to follow Him each and everyday!

Now what's not to love about that?

A statistic we heard this weekend:
99% of couples that pray together, stay together.

So, are you praying together? If not,
TODAY IS THE FIRST DAY OF THE REST OF YOUR LIFE!
Sounds like pretty good odds to me!

Thank you, David, for being a wonderful Man of God,
I Love you more today than I did 23 years ago!

Today is the day....

And now let me introduce....

the beautiful face behind the cake,

Lia Faith....
celebrating her fourth birthday

hugging her teddy bear, that we were able to send her,
provided by services from Ann at Red Threads
making a wish for a forever familysharing special moments with her friends in her orphanage

and learning to share her candy with her friends, a trait she will definitely
need in a family of seven!

Yes, today was the day, we got that long awaited call announcing our RA had arrived. It was a total of 71 days from LID(log in date)in China until RA(referral acceptance).

We are so excited and are ready to start the count down until our travel. We were told it would be around early April. That seems like so long, but there will be so much to do and lots more paperwork to fill out. My mind is swimming with all of the plans and things we will need to do as we plan to take the vacation of a lifetime, leave adult boys at home to care for things and travel with a family of four and bring home a new little girl.

Wow! I praise my God, and Father that He loves the details of life. I am tired just thinking of all that this will require. Oh, and just in case I failed to mention it, it will also cost a bit more cash than we have at this time. But, just in case I failed to mention it...

My God owns the cattle on a thousand hills and I know that He will provide the funds we need at

Just the right time,

because,

When He calls us to it He WILL see us through it!