Piano Recital

Here is Bella's piano recital from this afternoon. We are so proud of her, she has learned so much, it is amazing this is her 3rd year!

Material Possessions

If anyone has material possessions and sees his brother in need but has not pity on him, how can the love of God be in him? Dear children, let us not love with words or tongue but with actions and in truth. 1 John 3:17-18

I have felt God whispering in my ear recently about the material possessions he has blessed my family with. I have been struggling with how much we should keep for ourselves and what we should give away to others. I feel guilty when we buy something new that seems like a luxury. Looking back to this post where our Pastor told us:

If you have these four things, you are more wealthy than 75% of the people on
this planet.

1. A roof over your head
2. A bed to sleep in
3. Food in your fridge
4. Clothes in a closet

Considering that...we are very wealthy and God has blessed us incredibly! God wants action, not lip service, as 1 John 3:17-18 says above. But how much action? Does he call us all to give it all away? If not all, then how much? Is it okay for me to spend as much on a new car (one of many I will have in my lifetime) as an Ethiopian would earn in 150 years? What about the children, mine compared to the ones living in an orphanage in Africa? Is it okay for my two to have more toys than an entire African village of children? What about our food, we throw away more in a day than some children around the world get to eat?

I don't know the answer. I feel we have followed God when he has asked us and feel if He took everything away tomorrow, we would continue to follow Him where He leads us.

My prayer for today:

Lord, we will continue to faithfully follow You. We are thankful for all You have blessed us with, our health, relationships, children and material things. We pray You will show us wisdom how to use Your gifts to expand Your Kingdom. Please help us to see Your love for each and every person in our lives and forgive us our judgements of them. Amen

Court Date Moved UP!!!!!

Praise God, our court date was moved up to April 16th!!

8 Month Birthday

Today is baby T's 8 month birthday. We wish he was in here with us and are praying he will be soon.

I had a great big God moment a couple of nights ago. We went to our hair dresser who has been cutting our hair for a couple of years now and told her about the adoption. Nothing unusual there....the God moment came when she told us she had chosen adoption for her daughter 22 years ago and she had, just a few days earlier, finally connected with her for the first time!!!! How huge is that? We had no idea she had chosen adoption for her child. We had so much to talk about over the next hour. She wanted to know my perspective as the adoptive mother and I was so open to hearing about her perspective as a birth mother. We were both open and God was working in that place to help us both along in our journey. I have not been able to stop thinking about the things she said. This conversation reminded me of the letter I need to write to baby T's birth mother. Although I may never meet her and have the opportunity to give it to her, it will be important for me as I prepare to become his mother. God is so great and puts the right people in our lives just when we need them!

New Pictures

We received two more pictures yesterday. What a blessing, Baby "T" is almost 8 months old now and he was sleeping with a stuffed animal in the pictures, what a precious baby boy. We are counting down and I have started going through baby clothes and picking up things we will need as we do our weekly shopping. Also bought a new set of luggage for the trip. We are continuing to pray that our court date will be moved up, but no news yet.

1,128 Hours

1 month, 2 weeks, 2 days until our court date. Boy is this waiting hard. We HAVE to pass court on the 24th. We need our little baby 'T' to be home with us. I have a list as long as my arm of stuff to do today, including a test for my class but I am obsessed with the baby. I started a "to do" list of things I need to get done before we go, of which I am convinced we will be leaving May 23rd, although we don't know yet. We are almost done with the room moving. Now I just have to put together Nicky's new dresser and start going through the millions of boxes of baby clothes.

We have heard a rumor, well I am not sure if it is a rumor because someone knows someone else that it happened to, anyway that court dates are being moved UP! Although we hope this happens to us, we have to remember all of this is in God's perfect timing.

I am waiting for information from our agency on the time of our court appointment. I would like to organize a prayer vigil for that day. More to come....

Please keep praying for our patience...and for the health of baby "T".