November Numbers

Friday we got our November numbers as we headed out of town for a weekend with family in the mountains.  After 3 months of no movement in our boy number we were thrilled to see a change, even if it was small.  Our November #'s are:

For a girl:

For a boy:

We are slowly but surely getting closer every day to seeing our baby's face.  Please keep praying with us.  Your prayers mean so much to us during this incredibly long wait.  Trusting in His timing.

World Aids Day

Today is World Aids Day.  This is something that has become close to our hearts as we adopt a child from a country that has been ravaged by this disease.  Many people's knowledge on the disease is stuck in the 1980's.  The truth is, we have come so far since then.  Medicine has advanced in so many ways that those with a diagnosis of HIV+ can be on medication and the virus can become undetectable in their blood- how amazing is that?  HIV is considered to be more manageable than Diabetes.  Please take a minute to watch the videos below and educate yourself.  The second one is a little long, but so worth watching. Education is so key in fighting this disease.  And please pray for the orphans all over the world who are living with this disease in countries with no access to the medical care we have here in the US.  If you would like more information check out Project Hopeful for some awesome resources.

Check out the other video here: A Nick News Story

Update

          How has it been over a month since I have posted?! Sheesh! We've been a little busy with house buying and selling lately. Our house sold after 15 days on the market- pretty insane! And a few weeks  ago we found our new house! Though we won't be moving until January.  We are excited for more space and still being able to live in this area of WF, which we love! Our new house is only 0.8 miles from our house now- love how God truly is in every little detail of our life.  So I've been busy on Pinterest and finding new projects for decorating the new house, finishing up projects here, etc, and some traveling thrown in there- it's been a great distraction from the overwhelming wait of this adoption.  That's another reason I haven't posted as of late- there has been no news.  After getting our October #'s last month and seeing our boy number stay the same for the 3rd month in a row, it was a bit discouraging. I didn't do a post for our October #'s, but we were 30 boy and 40 girl.  Thankfully, there were a few referrals this month, praise the Lord! Some months we lose focus that these numbers are not just our waitlist numbers, but they represent children, children who were orphans, and are now daughters/sons! So amazing! So we should see some movement in our numbers in a few days.  Honestly, each month I am praying that we won't get numbers, that we will get our referral instead.
             
        These last few months, since July really, when we updated our parameters, have been a roller coaster.    We have been praying like never before. I was journaling this morning and thinking about how the end of the year is coming quickly, and I am still trusting in God's word, and his promise to complete this adoption.  I am confident that 9 months ago I felt God tell me to pray boldly for a referral by the end of the year.  And these past few months with little to no movement have been hard.  This is the 3rd holiday season we've gone through without our child. We never thought that would happen.  Sorry if this post is jumbled and makes little sense.  There are just so many things going on in my head and heart right now that it is hard to express them, as I read on a friend's blog yesterday, it's hard to put into words, and it's hard for others to understand unless they've gone through it.  This has been the most trying season of our life- but we know that He makes all things beautiful.  All of the pain in the wait is nothing compared to the eternal weight of glory that we will receive.  The wait will make sense when we look into our child's face for the first time and realize that God has perfectly ordained him/her for our family.  And on the hard days, that is what I have to remember.  I was reading through Psalms this morning and was reminded that God is for me, even when it seems like this wait will never end, His plan is greater. And he has a record of all of my tossings and tears.  All the nights that I lay awake thinking about our baby, wondering if he's safe and warm and healthy.  God knows, and loves him incredibly more than I ever could.  And most of all, my hope is in Christ and his work on the cross- not in whether or not we get a phone call.  But please keep praying boldly with us, that God would fulfill his promise to do more than we could ever ask or imagine!

2 Years

          This post is a little late- 2 years actually happened last week and it's been a little crazy around here...but none the less, 2 years has gone by since we started this adoption process.  To me- that sounds crazy! I went back this weekend to read some of my first posts on this blog, and they were so full of excitement and hope that we would be having a baby soon.  No where in my sweet little head did I imagine I would be sitting here 2 years later, writing this blog post and still not have a baby in this house or at least a picture to stare at all day.  This journey is long.  But it is so so worth it.  I was reminded the other day that God allows- yes I said allows- us to wait for good things. He has allowed us to wait for 2 years. He wants us to learn more about him in this wait, and boy have we ever!  He knows that what he is going to give us at the end of this wait is more than worth it, he knows that us learning about and knowing him better is the ultimate end and is way more than worth it.  There have been so many ups and downs throughout this process, and some of my closest friends, and especially my husband ;) may think I'm a total lunatic!  Adoption is a beautiful, hard, messy thing, and that's just in the waiting part.  I can only imagine how much those will be intensified once we have our sweet one here.  Adoption has a way of connecting you to people and places you've never seen or even met before.  I am beyond thankful to have a strong adoption community here full of people who get it.  Who know that some days you just want to throw your phone across the room and cry because it hasn't rang yet- but in that same moment you can't just leave it there because what if it does ring? See what I'm talking about people- crazy!
            On top of all the adoption crazy- we've had some other life changes going on in our life right now.  My hubby is taking on a new position at work, we've decided to put the brakes on seminary for while, and our house is now on the market after learning we would be here longer than we initially planned and we'd love to have more space for that. So this has been a great distraction for me and my phone staring tendencies.  I've had a lot more to think about and distract me from thinking about 2 years going by- hence why this post is late.  After we did our home study update this summer I told my husband we weren't changing anything else until this baby comes home- because that would once again involve more paperwork.  But apparently God had other plans and I spoke to soon :)  We are excited about this new time in our lives and to see what God has in store.  We are still anxiously waiting and praying that the phone call we've been waiting 2 years for will be coming soon.  Please keep praying boldly with us.  The end of the year is coming quickly- but with God, all things are possible and we are clinging to his promises to complete this good work!

September Numbers

I've been putting off posting these numbers because they aren't really very exciting.  We only moved one spot on the girl list this month, and our boy number stayed the same.  So, getting the email with that  news was a little discouraging.  However, we have heard from some families that have been in ET lately that there should be some referrals coming soon!  October is normally a bigger month, the courts are opening back up this month and things just seem to move a little quicker in October.  We are praying bold things for October, this week even!  God has been our strength lately, as this wait has gotten harder.  He has continued to show us more of himself and show us that he is truly holding us up with his hand.  We are so thankful and full of hope in our God that we will have good news soon!  We are more than ready to see our sweet baby's face and ache to hold him or her in our arms.  We have faith that we will be in ET before the end of the year, can't wait to see what God has in store!!

For a girl:

For a boy:

100th Post and Fully Funded!!!

Well, this is my 100th post and we have a reason to celebrate!!! Our adoption is now fully funded, praise God!! I am sitting here just in awe of my amazing God as I type that sentence.  There is no other way that we could be at this point, other than God.  We have been on this journey for 23 months- and we started with so little.  When we took this leap of faith we were a little intimidated by the amount of money we needed.  We were brainstorming and coming up with ideas as to how we could make this happen and come up with almost $30,000.  And then we prayed.  We knew that the only way this was going to happen was if God showed up in a big way, and we knew that since he called us to this, he would provide.  And that's exactly what he did, he provided EVERY. SINGLE. PENNY!  We have had many fundraisers, donations, grants, etc, and God has graciously provided.  We want Him to get all the glory from this! It made no practical sense when we started this process, and it still doesn't make sense- but I am so glad that His ways are not our ways.  Our faith has been grown and stretched in ways that we never dreamed would happen in this process.  I want this post to be an encouragement to those who are where we were, feeling like they have been called to this but the money just isn't there.  He will provide.  I have seen it, not only in our adoption, but in so many others.  That's why this community is so important.  We learn from each other and we see God work in so many amazing ways.     We are so thankful, for so many of you who have been used by God to provide for our baby to come home.  My Father owns the cattle of a thousand hills, and his heart is for the orphan.  He will provide, you need only have faith!

August Numbers

Well, on Friday, while we headed out of town for my hubby's birthday we got our August numbers! August was not quite like July, that was something crazy! But at least there was still some movement and we are anxious for more good news soon! The Ethiopian courts are officially closed for the next month or so, so things may slow down a bit, but hopefully no too much! Here are our August numbers:

For a girl:

For a boy:

One step closer every day!

Monday, Monday

Monday. Not usually a very exciting day. But in the world of adoption, Mondays are exciting! Mondays mean that news can come. Things can happen, things are running again.  Weekends are a good rest from all of the crazy thoughts we adoptive parents think throughout the week, and this weekend was a great distraction as we headed to the mountains with the couples in our small group for a couples retreat! It was an incredibly fun weekend, much needed for all of us, with everything we've all got going on in our lives, and I am so thankful for it.  These past few weeks have been hard. Just plain and simple. This wait is hard.  I had gotten to a point where I was ok with the wait, knew we would be waiting for a while, but now, for some reason, things have changed, and it has just gotten a lot harder.  As we were away this weekend, hubs and I were in the Word together, reading through Colossians 1, and we came across this passage:

 "He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation. For by him all things were created in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities, all things were created through him and for him. And he is before all things, and in him all things hold together." Col. 1:15-17

Oh how our hearts needed to read that this weekend.  Our Father was speaking directly to us, reminding us that it's all in his hands. He holds everything together, he holds our lives together, our marriage, and our adoption.  Our adoption, that we want to have so much control over, is in his hands, it's because of him that we are on this journey, and it's because of him holding it together that our adoption will be completed. Now, don't get me wrong, we know these things, but as I've said before, it's hard to keep preaching them to yourself over this long, intentional, grueling process.  So our loving Father spoke soft reminders to us this weekend, loving us with his word. For that I am thankful. I am thankful for the gifts of the past week, prayers that have been answered, love that has been shown, faith that has grown. I am thankful for a Father that continues to draw us to Him in this process. And on this new Monday we wait with expectancy for big things to happen!

I'm on Etsy!

I finally did it.  I've had it in my mind to start a little Etsy shop for a while now.  It's nothing fancy, just some things I've been playing around with making.  Since I'm home all the time now, with lots of time on my hands while waiting for our baby, I figure I might as well try to make a little cash from the fun stuff I'm making!  I am by no means a salesman- so it was a bit awkward for me filling in all that info to "sell" my stuff, forgive me if it's corny :)  The shop link is here or try clicking on my banner below!

Stop by, take a look around, and see if you see anything you like :) Share with your friends!  I'd love to create something for you!

Shout out to the Braly family!

We have some pretty awesome friends here in Wake Forest! This particular couple happens to be some of them!  They have some very exciting news that they are announcing in this video, and we could not be more thrilled for them! Please watch their video and consider supporting them in whatever way you can.  They are being the hands and feet of Christ, and that is an awesome thing!

You can follow more of their journey here!

Puzzle Update

Some of you, who have been reading for a while, may remember this post, which can also be found on the tabs at the top of the blog.  We did a puzzle fundraiser back at the beginning of this process.  We purchased a puzzle to go with the theme of our nursery, which is classic pooh( side note- I've been working little by little on the nursery and it's starting to come together, it's super cute and I can't wait to show you!) Anywho, the fundraiser involved selling pieces of the puzzle, writing names on the back, and framing it in a double sided frame so that we could always remember who helped us bring our baby home.  Our goal was to sell 500 pieces, and to date, we've sold about 260, so about half of our goal.  Until last week, the puzzle was just sitting in the top of our closet, waiting to be put together. Well, now that I've been working on the nursery, I figured it was as good a time as any to put that thing together and get it ready! I'm sure some of you have been sitting on the edge of your seat just wondering where this puzzle has been :) Wait no longer, here are the beginnings of our puzzle!

It's coming along quite nicely! The top picture was taken last week, and the bottom one I took this afternoon, so it's almost done! Hoping to have it done by this weekend b/c I got an awesome coupon to use for framing in the paper this weekend! And I don't know if you can tell by the picture or not, but we couldn't have picked a more irritating puzzle to put together! It's 1000 pieces and they are all GREEN!! or some sort of greenish brown, dark green, etc, etc. As you can see, I've managed to get the "easy" part done and am now left with just a pile of green that I'm supposed to figure out how to put together.  Don't know who's bright idea that was, or who thought it was a good idea to by a puzzle with such awesome color variation, but alas, I love it and can't wait to hang it in our baby's room!

July Numbers!

Well...I told you that July numbers would be exciting, and they did not disappoint!  We felt a lot of movement this month-more than several months combined the way things have been going over the last few months!  So here they are, for girl we are:

For a boy:

We are SOOO thankful for this amount of movement this month! Our home study update is DONE and waiting to be approved, which should happen next week!! We are so close to seeing our baby's face, we feel like it's right around the corner, and with our Great God, anything is possible!!!

Lots of great news!

       These past few weeks have brought lots of exciting adoption news!! In the past 2 weeks alone there have been 9 referrals with our agency! Praise God for that! That means 9 more precious children have been matched with their forever families! It's also very exciting because there haven't been that many referrals in so short amount of time since before the slow down last year.  And there were 3 more referrals the few weeks before that, so overall 12 referrals in the past month and a half, so so exciting!! Our agency has also started to partner with a new orphanage, which we hope will be bringing in lots more children!  All of this has filled us with renewed hope, hope that our Father will indeed finish what he started, and hope in His love for these children.  As much as we love our yet to be known son or daughter, our Father loves him or her so much more, and he know him intimately.  He knows their innermost being, and knit them together in the womb.  There is such amazing peace in that.  There will be times that I will have major mommy fails, but I can rest in the fact that my Father never fails.  This chorus has been ringing in my head a lot lately:


"I may be weak, but you're spirit's strong in me. 
My flesh may fail, but my God you never will.
Give me faith, to trust what you say,
that you're good, and your love is great."

I am so thankful for the love of my Father.

We also are in the final stages of our home study being updated.  We met with our social worker last week so we are just waiting for it to be written and then approved by our agency, which will hopefully happen in the next week or so.  We got our state background checks back in a record amount of time which was all we had left to get, so they have everything they need! And after all this movement, we are seriously excited about our July numbers! We are getting there precious one!!
 

June Numbers!

Here we are again! Time for more numbers! This is our 2nd round of June numbers.  This time last year we had just gotten on the wait list and were so excited to be getting our numbers.  This year, it's still exciting to get these numbers, and we are thrilled that there has been movement, but personally, I'm ready to say goodbye to the 40's and say hello to the 30's, which I believe we are pretty close to doing, unofficially, and I'm really hoping our July numbers reflect that!  We are closer every day to seeing our baby's face, and we are finding our hope in the Lord being faithful to his calling on our family.  We are so blessed!  We have been praying some really exciting/bold prayers.  This journey has been amazing so far, and we can't wait to see where it takes us! So here are our numbers for the month of June:

For a boy:

For a girl:

Paperwork Round 2!

It's that time! We have reached the time period where most of our adoption paperwork is going to expire, sad, I know.  And lucky for us, everything expires at different times, fun! Our USCIS fingerprints expire in August, but we already got those redone earlier this month.  Our Home study expires in October, which we have to start working on now! And our immigration approval expires in December. Lucky for me, our awesome caseworker got me on the right track to know when to start working on this stuff, because there's another catch, most things can't be updated unless you're within 90 days of the original expiring.  Which is why we have to start working on our home study update in July, but we can't send it in to immigration until September.  Are you confused yet? :) So today and next week we've got all our appointments lined up to update documents for our Home study that I plan to send off before I head down to GA for one of my best friend's wedding! Our home study agency says to plan on a few week turn around since they have such a huge case load right now.  Our amendment we did 2 months ago took a LONG time to get done, and we want this update done ASAP, so I've already been working ahead making sure I've got everything ready to go before I go out of town next week!  Hopefully everything will go as planned and it will be a smooth update process, and we will be that much closer to seeing our baby's face!! I won't have a number update until next week, they got a little backed up from having an exciting week of movement, praise the Lord!! But we are so close to the 30's, praying we get there by the update next week :)

Yard Sale- Round 4!

We're having another yard sale this weekend!  We have graciously been donated literally car-loads of stuff from our church family and friends and we are hoping and praying to put a dent in the last chunk of money we need to raise for this adoption!  We've got furniture, toys, clothes, home decor, books, baby items, etc. So if you're local, we would love for you to stop by!  These yard sales have been a huge success for us in the past, and Lord willing, we won't be encountering any snow on Saturday, but it will be quite warm!  Apparently, we only do yard sales in extremes around here :)  We are beyond thrilled that we are working towards raising the last amount of money we need to fund this adoption. As I mentioned before we are about $3500 away from being fully funded, praise the Lord!  Only God could do this, only he could have provided so much, and we want all the glory to be his!  Even after 18 months, he is still providing a way for us to bring this baby home, we are so blessed! Email me at scoalson104 (at) gmail (dot) com if you would like to come by this weekend and need the address. We would love to see some of you and would appreciate the prayers for Saturday!

Finding the Crib

Yep, that's right, I found a crib!  One of my summer projects this summer has been to start working on the nursery.  I've been scouring websites and craigslist to find the perfect crib, and about 2 weeks ago I found it!  I looked on craigslist one last time one night after being frustrated about not finding anything, and this beauty popped up!  I was so excited and snagged it right away.  It might still be early, but it helps to have this and know that things are coming together! I've had the bedding for a year now and I was excited to finally have something to put it on to see what it looks like, and I love it! I didn't take a picture of that yet, but I had a couple from us putting it together until hubs told me to put down the camera and help him :) So, here is where our sweet baby will be sleeping!!

It's practically brand new and we got too good of a deal on it to pass it up!  Can't wait until there is a little one sleeping in there!

One Year and May Numbers!

Today, exactly one year ago, we got our very first wait list numbers. It's hard to believe that we finished our dossier one year ago!  We started this journey at #98 for a girl and #78 for a boy.  Today one year later, we are for a girl:

and for a boy:

That's a pretty good amount of movement in one year!  We have moved 40 spots on the girl list, and 33 on the boy list.  This means that many more children are orphan's no more and we praise God for that!  Obviously, from my posts lately, we have seen a significant slow down in the number or referrals each month.  We are uncertain about whether or not we will ever get back to where we see 5 or more referrals a month, and this honestly puts a damper on our spirits some days.  Hubs and I were talking the other night about how nothing about this process is easy.  Adoption involves beauty and loss.  And the pain of this seemingly never-ending wait is heavier than we would like to admit at times.  These are days when we cry out to God on behalf of our child and ourselves.  We know that the days of this adoption were numbered before it was even a thought in our mind, but the waiting is still hard.  One year later, and we are starting the process of renewing some of our paperwork and updating our home study.  Today and yesterday were filled with fingerprints at 2 different offices, once again.  It feels weird to be doing these things again, but also feels like we are on the move again, working towards the light at the end of the tunnel.  After one year on the wait list, we can say that we have grown so much.  We are not the same people who started this process 18 months ago.  We are saying yes to things we said no to at the beginning.  God had been working on our hearts and we feel there are exciting things ahead for our family.  If you are still hanging on this journey with us, thank you! We appreciate the prayers more than you will ever know!  We have no idea when we will see our child's face, we are still praying fervently that it will happen before the end of the year, and invite you to pray with us.  We are trusting this unknown future to our God, who has made himself known to us more than ever over the last year.  We know everything is in his hands, and there is no better place for it to be!

Mother's Day

Yesterday was Mother's Day, and it was the 2nd Mother's Day I have had on this journey, yet without a baby.  This journey is long, this journey is hard, this journey is not convenient, but it is MORE than worth it, and it is beautiful!! I have gotten to know my Father so much better.  He is doing things in my heart, in our hearts, that never would have made sense to us at the beginning of this journey.  I thought back to this post that I wrote over 1 year ago...wow, time has flown! And I still echo every word of that post.  We are currently on the latter end of the time frame we were first quoted to get a referral at the beginning of this process.  And had we not made it to this point without a referral, our hearts would not be in the place that they are now.  Our Father knows exactly what he's doing, and he continues to reveal HIS plan, in his timing.   I am blessed to be surrounded by people that get it and are constantly encouraging me in this walk, as I got many "Happy Mother's day" notes yesterday letting me know that even though my arms may be empty this mother's day, my heart is full and ready to welcome this child into our family!  And even though this was my 2nd mother's day on this journey, and I'm praying like crazy that I will not experience a 3rd with empty arms, I am blessed to have realized that Christ is better! He is the best of all his blessings, even this blessing of a child that I am longing for daily. My friend Rebekah wrote this post yesterday and I am so thankful for it and her heart.  I pray that we all realize that Christ is better than whatever it is we are longing for today, He is the only one that can satisfy!

April Numbers

Well, another month has come and gone and I'm here to post our April numbers.  We didn't see as much movement on the list this month....even though several referrals did go out, they were just older kiddos that went to families that were behind us on the list so it didn't affect our numbers.  So for girl we are:

and for a boy:

The gap between the 2 numbers is slowly closing, so who knows what we will end up with!! Even though we didn't see as much movement as we would have like this month, God is hearing our prayers and we feel like he is getting ready to move in a big way.  I have heard story, after story this week that has pretty much brought me to tears of how God is working in the lives of those around us.  It is so encouraging to see our Father taking care of the little details.  It encourages us and our journey to hear how he has worked in the journey of others.  It just seems like our Father has been showing himself mighty lately, and we have no doubt he will continue to do so.  We cannot wait to see how he will be glorified in our story in the months to come.  We are trusting and believing great things on behalf of our precious baby!!!

And just for some cuteness...head on over to our friends blog, they are in ET right now picking up there son for forever!!!! He is absolutely precious and we are thrilled for them to finally have their boy in their arms, never to leave! Praise God, who sets the lonely in families!!

Awesome Friends

            We have been so incredibly blessed by the friends we have made here in NC.  I firmly believe that God has been working in each of them and the way they have contributed to our lives.  I can't say that I've ever experienced doing life together in this way before and it has been so good for my heart.  We have been studying the Holy Spirit at church over the past few weeks.  We talked about spiritual gifts last week and our pastor was explaining how the body has different gifts that allow other parts of the body to see a different part of God.  It's so amazing to see the detail with which God created us and this world, but hearing that made me think about our friends here and how we each are gifted with different gifts, and it truly does allow us to know God better by seeing how he works differently in each of our lives.  So I thought I would share some of the ways we have been blessed by our friends recently.
             First, we have some friends who have also adopted from ET, through our agency, so our baby will have a Hannah's Hope buddy close by :)  They have been such a huge source of encouragement throughout this entire journey.  They were the first ones we told when we officially decided to adopt because we knew we would have their support and they would be just as excited as we were, and they were!  They are in the midst of a very busy season of life, they just had baby #2 a few months ago, and they have a 2 year old Ethiopian running around :) and yet they still found the time to put this together for us:

An amazing care basket of encouragement for us as we wait! This basket is filled with cards and coordinating items/baby dates for those days when this wait seems endless and discouraging.  They get it! And they are praying and celebrating every movement with us, and we are forever grateful!  I cannot wait to find out what all is in this basket(it's very tempting to open them all now :) ) but I know it will be much better to open them on days when it feels like I can't wait another day for our baby to come home.  My Father is ministering right to my heart through them, so so awesome!  I can't really explain how good it is to have someone in my everyday life who knows the ache of having a baby on the other side of the world, other than to say it is an unbelievable blessing.
             We also have some somewhat new friends here in NC that have blessed us a great deal as well.  I say somewhat new because my hubby grew up with the husband, so that's not new, but as a couple they are new :)  Anyway, they made and gave us this awesome item to add to our nursery a few days ago:

Seriously, how awesome is this?? I cannot wait to see what it looks like in the nursery.  It's just another great reminder of faith and our journey to our baby. It means a lot to have someone think to do something like this for us.  We are so blessed to have so many people walking this journey with us, who don't think I'm crazy for having wait list numbers posted in our house, or talking about official and unofficial numbers. They are just as excited as we are for our baby to come home(maybe not just as excited, but pretty darn close!) and I can't wait to introduce our baby to this amazing group of friends that God has blessed us with!

My hubby's blog

I don't know if I've ever mentioned on here before, but my hubby also has a blog.  He loves to write about lots of things, culture, music, movies, books, school, life, ministry, etc. etc. Well yesterday he posted about our adoption and I think it's pretty great :) so you can head on over and check him out at:

Confessions of the Redeemed

March #'s!!

Yesterday we got our official numbers for the month of March. We had another good month of movement and we are excited about these new numbers!!

For a girl:

For a boy:

We finally said hello to the 40's!! They feel so much closer than the 50's, and I'm praying we don't spend near as much time here.  Would love to move on to the 30's next month :)

We continue to pray boldly and feel strongly that we will see our baby's face by the end of the year.  Would you pray with us?  We have seen things pick up speed over the last few weeks in the court/embassy process, now just bring on the referrals!!

A baby blanket

I've been coming up with projects to do while we're in the middle of this long wait, trying to keep myself busy.  This is the latest one.  After seeing some baby blankets that some friends had, I decided to pull out my crochet needle and see what happened.  I had never attempted to crochet anything other than a scarf so I wasn't sure how it would go, but I really enjoyed working on it and this is the result I got:

A baby blanket for baby Coalson! Now all I need is the baby to go with it :)

February Numbers!

We are praising God this week for the movement in our numbers this month!  Not only does it mean that we are closer to our baby, but it also means that more kids have found families and come home!! The movement this month was just the encouragement we needed.

For a boy:

For a girl:

We moved 4 on the girl list and 5 on the boy list this month :)  We have heard lots of good news this week and are so thankful!  I have a feeling March is going to be an even better month!!

More Good News!

Well, God just continues to show Himself faithful and confirm in us that we are doing what He has called us to do.  About a week ago we got word that we had been approved for our church's matching grant through Lifesong!  We just continue to be humbled and grateful! With this grant, if we raise $1,000 they will match that and give us another $1,000! So potentially we could have another $2,000 coming our way, so so awesome!! That puts us almost fully funded for this adoption!! Never in a million years would I have thought we could do this on our own, raise $30,000 to pay for this adoption, but with God anything is possible and He has been faithful every step of the way.  So, if you would like to be a part of helping us reach the goal for this grant it's easy!

Simply send a check made out to Lifesong for Orphans to:

Lifesong for Orphans
PO Box 40/202 N. Ford St.
Gridley, IL 61744

And in the memo line of the check write:  Preference Coalson/#2554 Adoption
We have until April 10th to raise this money and we would be so grateful if you feel led to support us in this way. *****These donations are tax deductible****** If not, as always we appreciate and covet your prayers and would love for you to pray boldly with us as we shared in the last post, that we would have a referral by the end of the year!  While we were out of town last week there were 4 referrals!! What awesome news to come home too!  That puts us that much closer to our baby! And we are rejoicing with 5 families that heard they were cleared by the Embassy yesterday and today and can bring their babies home next week!!!!  He is worthy of all our praise!!

Just Ask!

            This post has been on my heart all week and I've been trying to figure out exactly how to put into words all that the Lord has taught me this week.  This week has been an emotional roller coaster to say the least.  Those of you who know us or read this blog regularly know, that this process has been moving SLOW over the past few months.  We were hopeful that things would speed up at the beginning of the year, but from the looks of things, the opposite is happening.  It has to do with the US Embassy in ET and the additional paperwork and interviews they are now requiring once families have already passed court, which also makes it hard for our agency to take in babies b/c they are careful to only bring in babies who have their paperwork in order, thus a slowdown in referrals b/c not many babies have all the necessary paperwork, and a slowdown in the process in general due to all the extra requirements.  There are more things involved, but these are the basics of what's going on right now.  We were asked about 10 times at church yesterday how the process was going, and the only thing I can say is, slow.  It's hard to really explain or know what people are looking for in these 5 minute interactions, so, slow is what I've been sticking with.  This week has been one of the most discouraging and yet uplifting weeks we have had in this entire process.  People are really just starting to see the implications of this slow down, and what that means for those of us on the higher end of the list.  Some are saying we could be waiting for years now, others have said they could shut the whole thing down entirely, and all these things together with the fact that several friends have just had babies and others are getting pregnant, makes for one discouraging week when all I'm longing to do is see our baby's face.  Yes, I know I've blogged many times about all of this happening in God's timing and how His timing is best, but on weeks like this, it's just hard to preach that to yourself for the millionth time in the past 15 months.  Just being real here, and yes, I did just say 15 months, that's how long we've been in this process.  When we started this process the wait time was 9-12 months and we thought we would have had a baby by this point, but now the wait has jumped to 18-24 months, if we're lucky.  I've really struggled with all of this this week, questioning God, wondering if we should switch programs, things like that.  Really just doubting.  Now, I don't say all of this to be a downer, I'm just being real and documenting all I've been dealing with this week so you can see how awesome our Father is.
           So, Wednesday of this week was probably the lowest point.  I knew that I needed to get in the Word, but my heart just wasn't in it at that point.  But I did it anyway, and y'all God just spoke straight to my heart!  I've been doing Beth Moore's study on James and that day was talking about asking for wisdom.       How when we ask for wisdom, God will give it to us, with no judgement(James 1:5).  The catch is, "But let him ask in faith, with no doubting for the one who doubts is like a wave of the sea that is driven and tossed by the wind" James 1:6.  I started praying that this would not be me, even though in that moment it was.  In my mind, I knew God was faithful, and I knew He had called us to this, but I was still doubting.  Then, we read in Matthew where we are told to ask and it will be given to us, seek and we will find.  And it hit me, I haven't been asking.  I'm confessing that I had settled into this complacency of thinking that things were out of my hands, that this wait was going to be long, and there was nothing I could do about it, so I hadn't been praying.  I hadn't been asking God to show himself mighty and show us our baby this year.  But the real kicker was at the end of the lesson, we ended up in 1 Kings 18, verse 21 "And Elijah came near to all the people and said "how long will you go limping between two different opinions? If the Lord is God, follow Him; but if Baal, then follow him."  Seriously?? This was God giving me exactly what I needed in that very moment, and I don't know if it's ever been that clear before.  Do I believe God is God? Yes!! Then I need to follow Him, trust Him, know that He has seen the end of this adoption before it even began!  I was so thankful for such a specific word from the Lord.  It was exactly what I needed to keep moving forward.  I don't need to listen to what the world says, but what God says.  So we have decided that we are boldly and specifically praying for a referral by the end of the year.  We know that nothing is impossible for our God, and He can do it.  He can show us our baby's face by the end of the year and we are believing Him for that!
         Fast forward to this weekend, we celebrated our church's 10th Anniversary of being the Summit.  It was an incredibly awesome service, focused on God and His glory.  Over and over again stories were told of how they needed God to do something, like raise more money to expand their facilities and believe God for more growth, and God did above and beyond what they asked.  They needed $60,000 and He gave them $80,000.  They had a goal to see 1000 people at the Easter service and He gave them 1122.  Over the past 10 years, after that first service when they jumped in faith, they've given almost $8,000,000 to missions for the glory of God! Everyone just repeated over and over that it's in God's character to be faithful, for Him to finish what He started, for Him to do above and beyond what we can imagine(Eph. 3:20, our adoption verse) we just have to ASK!! Our Father wants to give good gifts to His children, He wants to get the glory in our situations, we just have to ASK!!! I felt like it was just being hammered over and over again, that I need to ask.  We both left with our hearts full, not only with what God has done/will do in our church, but because God has promised He is faithful, He will finish what he started with this adoption and we need to continue to ask.  Our church also has a saying that's part of our Gospel prayer that says "I will measure your compassion by the cross, and your power by the resurrection."This power is available to us each and every day and we need to live that way.   My prayer was affirmed even more and we will boldly pray that this year will be the year we see our baby and we would love for you to pray with us if you are reading this.  I am so thankful for a Father who still speaks to his people, knows my heart, and knows exactly what I need.  To Him be the glory forever......

January Numbers

We got January numbers yesterday, on the last day of January!  Still not a lot of movement this month, but slowly but surely we are moving, making a little progress each month.  Our boy number is still the same due to some families changing parameters and moving to the boy list, but there has been progress there as well, which is always encouraging to see in this long journey!

For a girl:

For a boy:

There you have it, 69 for a girl and 57 for a boy! Praying for more movement this month!

Humbled

There really aren't words to describe the humbled feeling that Aaron and I have felt over the past week.  We are still in the process of fundraising for this adoption.  As you all know, adoption is expensive and we are two 25 year olds, one in seminary, that don't make a lot of money.  And yet God has called us to adopt.    Something that very obviously doesn't make sense on paper.  Once we said yes and decided to take the leap of faith, we knew that God would provide, we didn't know how, but we trusted.  We have seen God work and move and provide every step of the way through this process.  Any time we had money due for a certain step, it was there.  Miraculously it all came together. Friends, family, and strangers have all played important roles in God's plan to make that happen.  We have by the grace of God, raised everything that we needed up to this point.  We are so thankful for that!  After we turned in our dossier, we took a break from fundraising.  And honestly, even after watching everything come together in the beginning, part of me doubted.  Part of me thought, yeah we made it this far, but how are we going to come up with the 10, possibly $15,000 more that we need?  I was fundraised-out you could say and my mind was drawing a blank of what to do next, but I knew we had a long wait ahead to figure it out.  Once again, my lack of faith got the better of me.  I was trying to do it on our own again.  I was focused on how WE could make it happen, not on trusting GOD to make it happen.  When will I learn?  God is so much bigger.  I have debated on even posting about this, but y'all, God is just working.  He is so good, faithful, and loving.  He truly cares about each one of His children.  Back in October we applied for a grant.  The only one we've applied for up to this point, besides the one our church offers.  We scrambled to get the paperwork together(I was so over paperwork still) and mailed it off, hoping and praying for any little bit of help we could get.  Well, last week we got a letter in the mail, a letter from the grant agency letting us know that we had been awarded $6000!!!!  We could hardly believe it, we can still hardly believe it and we are incredibly humbled.  Humbled that God would put us on this journey, that He would use us, and that He would provide for us in such a mighty way!  This could possibly be about half of what we have left to raise, depending on travel costs, which we won't know until that point.  I don't say this to brag, I just want everyone to know that our God is mighty.  He owns the cattle of a thousand hills and this adoption cost is a drop in the bucket for Him.  When my feeble mind starts to lose faith and question, He is right there saying "haven't I told you that I got this?  Haven't I told you that I love you and this child you are bringing home?  That nothing is impossible for me? I am Faithful"  Praise God is all we can say.  Our adoption verse, Ephesians 3:20-21 just continues to resound in my head- To Him who is able to do abundantly more than all we ask or think....to Him be the glory!!

Naleigh Moon

Oh, be still my heart!! You have got to watch this new music video from Josh Kelly that features he and his wife Katherine Heigl's adopted daughter, sooo beautiful!!

Kisses From Katie

I just finished reading Kisses from Katie, and y'all, this book wrecked me!!  I knew that it would be good, I've read Katie's blog before and have always come away inspired to put more feet on my faith and to know Jesus the way she does.  This book was seriously incredible!!  I could not put it down, and yet there were days that I had to because if I read anymore of it I'm pretty sure I would have jumped on a plane to Africa right then.  Reading the accounts of some of the things she has seen made me ache even more for our baby.  It also made me ready to do something.  What that is or looks like at the moment I'm not sure, but you better believe I am praying and seeking the Father's face for wisdom.  The copy I had I checked out from the library, which I immediately regretted because I couldn't write in it and I felt like I should have highlighted the whole book!  I wanted to share a few things here that really stood out to me.  This is an excerpt from one of Katie's journal entries in the book:
                   "I've had people ask me why I think Africa is so impoverished, but these children are not poor.  
                    I, as a person who grew up wealthy, am.  I put value in things.  These children, having no 
                    things, put value in God.  I put my trust in relationships; these children, having already seen
                    relationships fail, put their trust in the Lord.  This nation is blessed beyond any place, any 
                   people I have encountered.  God has not forgotten them.  In fact, I believe He has loved them 
                   just a little bit extra.  I sit here freezing and wet in this pitch-black room as the rain beats on 
                   the roof, and God is so close I feel I can touch Him.  My deepest prayer is that I could know 
                   the Lord as well as the first grader next to me.  My senses are full of His greatness.  God's 
                   glory has fallen down into this place and is soaking us even deeper than the rain.  I never want
                   to be dry. "
Wow!  So beautiful and convicting.  The fact that these first graders she is teaching have so much more faith than I do, because God is all they have, really puts things in perspective.  After reading this, seeing how open Katie is to the Holy Spirit and seeing the Gospel on display in her life pretty much every day, convicted me that I really need to strive to see the Gospel in everything and have that be my reason for doing what I do.  Just being real here.  Too many times I find myself just going with the flow, not really seeking God for what He would have me to do in certain situations, and that's just not right and not how I want to live my life.  So I'm praying about how my life can be leveraged for the Gospel.  I might not have children with scabies around me dying of hunger that I can bring into my home, but there are things I can do here.

It is so refreshing to see a young girl, who pretty much had it all according to America's standards, completely give it all up to follow what Jesus has for her life.  And it is a beautiful life she is living.  She is seeing God work daily, and seeing the blessing of following him.  Hers is a life that is being leveraged for the Gospel, she is making a difference in Uganda, and because of her, countless many others have come to know Him.  I can't imagine being 22 and already having 13 children, but she is doing it, with God's grace.  This story is just so, so beautiful!! If you haven't read this yet, I encourage you to.  I pray that it will also change you and the many others who read it.  It's amazing what God can do through us if we let Him!!

New Look!

Well, it's a new year and I decided to give the blog a new look.  I've been debating on whether or not I should switch to Wordpress, but decided to hold off for a while and just change up the look here :) I think I'll be happy with it for now.  I can't believe January is already almost half over and this is the first time I've blogged in the New Year! Where is the time going?  I've got some posts I've been mulling over for a few days so they'll be coming soon.  Today you just get to see the pretty new design :)  unless I get a wild hair and decide to blog some more today while I'm home recovering from this nasty cold, courtesy of my preschool kiddos :)  Happy Friday y'all!