The Fullness of His Love

Ever since I was a little girl, I've always thought that I've had 100% faith in God and thought that I was copmletely letting Him guide me through life. It isn't until now that I've truly come to understand what it means to have complete faith.

I haven't blogged in a while, but that doesn't mean that I've just not had anything to say. If anything, it's just the opposite. I've been contemplating whether or not to air this out right now, but I've come to realize that it's just part of my story; part of God's plan for my life and His light needs to be seen.

A year and a half ago I decided to break out on my own and start my own business. God was creating a work in me, and before He could work, He had to get my priorities straight. Jordan and I had decided that our family would come before everything else, especially sense we had made plans to adopt, and adding more numbers to our clan. Something big would have to change in our lives. So, with lots of praying, that's what we did. I quit my job and decided it would be more beneficial to our family to run my own schedule to dedicate more time to my husband and children. I had decided to completely surrender myself to the Lord and told Him that I would wait upon Him and for his instructions to follow His plan. I said that not even thinking of the possibillities or what He had enstore for us.

Not too long after starting up my own business and being pregnant with my second child, I got into a legal battle with my previous employer. For anyone whose ever been involved with a lawsuit, you know the emotional stress, the financial stress, and the depression that comes with it. You have your ups, you have your downs, and in between those two things, you just kind of deal and wait for the next wave of emotion to come. Dealing with issues of forgiveness, and power struggles, and HUGE feelings of guilt while I watched my family being dragged along by this drama I had tied them to. Oh, and I forgot to mention, at the same time, preparing and saving money for our adoption. I thought being in labor with a child was the worst, until I was in labor with a child WHILE emailing my lawyer with legal decisions to try and make deadlines. It's been going on now for a year and a half; the emotional rollercoasters and the uncertainty of not knowing how we're going to keep our head above water the next month, financially. I long for the day when this will soon be over and we can start healing.

I'm grateful for this lawsuit. I know that sounds absolutely crazy, but I believe God put me through all of this to stretch me and mold me into the person He needs me to be to follow out His plan. At first, I had so much anger. Why would God put on my heart that there is a little boy clear across the country that belongs to me and my family, and then turn around and, literally, strip every dime away from us that we've been saving , to go towards something as ridiculous as a lawsuit, that no good will come out of? Where do I go wrong? What can I do to fix this? Will I ever find peace within myself again? And then, I came upon this verse.....

"Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest." Matthew 10:28

I believe God puts you through trials to cling to Him. To put your trust completely in Him and just love Him-- letting Him take control of the situation. That was a tough one for me. I am a bit of a control freak, and I always said that God was in control, but I always had worked up a "plan B" just in case. He wants to defend me and He wants me to rest in His arms and just love Him while He fights for me. I learned to completely let go. He's teaching me how to love ALL OTHERS like He loves me, to pray for my enemies, and to be broken-hearted for others instead of being angry at them.

But most importantly, He's teaching me that having faith in God is to trust in Him. To believe that when he says He will do something, it WILL be done. He can move mountains! I've learned to fix my eyes on Him and to see the fullness of His love. In learning all of this, I'm proud to be able to worship and praise Him not just in the good times, but most importantly, in the tough times.

"For our light and momentary troubles are achieving for us an eternal glory that far outweighs them all. So we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen. For what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal." 2 Corinthians 4: 17-18

Had no idea, that something so straining in everyway, could lead to all of this. Wow, I follow such an amazing God! One day this will pass and everyone will see His glory through this and our little boy will finally be able to come home to us.

So, here's the adoption update...

We have started filling out TONS and TONS of paperwork, and we are at a halt after this step. We don't feel comfortable continuing until this lawsuit is over with, because of the financial issues. We have no idea how long it will take for the lawsuit to be over with, and how many more lawyer/court bills we will get in the mail. His timing is perfect and we will wait upon Him to make our next move.

We would definetely love everyone's prayers in this matter. We were made to live in community with one another, so we can't do this alone. We need as much support as possible. We have a court date (so far) set for the morning of September 8 regarding the lawsuit. PLEASE PRAY for the judges and all the people in our situation and keep praying for our little boy to come home to us all in God's timing.

All the way my Savior leads me, who have I to ask beside.

How could I doubt his tender mercy, who through life has been my guide.

All the way my Savior leads me, cheers each winding path I tread.

Gives me grace for every triumph, feeds me with the living bread.

You lead me, and keep me from falling.

You carry me close to your heart.

And surely your goodness and mercy will follow me.

All the way my Savior leads me, oh the fullness of His love.

Oh the sureness of His promise, in the triumph of His blood.

and when my spirit clothed immortal, wings it's flight to realms of dead,

this is my song through endless ages, Jesus led me all the way.

-Chris Tomlin "All the Way My Savior Leads Me"

Garage Sale Finale

"For you, O LORD, have made me glad by what You have done, I will sing for joy at the works of Your hand." Psalm 92:4


The garage sale is finally over and we are completely overwhelmed by God's grace. We made a grand total of :$2261!!!

It's amazing that only a few weeks ago, we had absolutely nothing and by the grace of God we got enough donations to cover our home study and a big chunk of our first agency fee. It is so clear that God had His hand in every single step in this process.

Jordan's parents graciously decided to come in town to help with the sale, because we knew we were going to need extra hands. My mother-in-law said that when they were packing up some extra stuff for our garage sale in the back of their truck, that she looked over at their neighbor's yard and saw a few pieces of furniture that they had thrown to the curb. She said they were calling to her, so with permission she packed those up as well. God was just building this puzzle piece by piece.

We started the garage sale Friday morning and we were flooded by so many people, we didn't even have time to put up signs for directions to our house. Throughout that first day, all of us had such amazing opportunities to share our story to complete strangers. There were some that told us their story of their adoptions of their children, and some were even telling their story of when they were adopted. Not once, did we get a question like, "Why not adopt from the US?" or "You already have kids, why are you adopting?" Nothing but positive energy was present throughout the entire day. We even had customers who were complete strangers come back to our sale with bags of donations that they had in their car or at their house. Again, God just building his masterpiece, piece by piece. My husband had a younger boy around 17 buy a skateboard and he came back to hand my husband a brand new pair of shoes, tags on and all, that he said he had just bought that he wanted to donate. Unbelievable!! The first day we made $1300 and at the end of the day we were completely exhausted, but we were so energized by what God had done in just a few hours with just a bunch of "stuff".



Today, our amazing volunteers all came back to help us with the sale, and because of all the generous donations of complete strangers, we had almost as much stuff as we had when we first started. Yet again, we kept hearing stories of people's adoptions and complete strangers just donating extra money to help our cause.

My favorite thing about the process was how God used our sale to help more than one ministry. There was a gentleman who came up to me and said he wanted to buy ALL of our children's books. He said that he worked for a program that helped local Austin kids who weren't always in school. They teach the kids how to read and that they start them off by reading children's books. He bought every single children's book for his ministry. This brings tears to my eyes how HE moves, and boy, does He move!!!

At the end of the day we were starting to pack up all the clothes that we had leftover. The very last customer of the day came up to me and my mom, and asked what we were doing with the clothes. She said that her church had a ministry in Mexico that gave out clothes to the people in poverty and asked if we would be willing to donate the clothing to her ministry. Of course, we said yes, and within 5 minutes, her son was there with a truck, and we filled the back of the truck with bags of clothes for those people. His timing is always perfect!!

A BIG THANK YOU to everyone who donated their stuff to our garage sale. Without you we wouldn't have been able to have the sale and every little thing completely added up! Thank you so much to our amazing friends and families who came and helped with the garage sale in the crazy Texas heat. We are so incredibly blessed to have you guys in our lives, and can't wait to tell our son how everyone had such a huge role in bringing him home. We love you very much! For all of these people, we are eternally gratefully and know that you will receive many blessings for your generosity.

After everything, we had three boxes of stuff left and that will be donated to charity. I still have a few things to sell on craigslist, and I plan on taking the rest of the books to Half-Price books. We still need about $1000 to complete the first step, so please pray that God provides us with the rest of the money. Also, if you could please pray for a situation that I am dealing with that is affecting us financially. Hopefully, one day soon I can talk more openly about it, but right now we just need A TON of prayer over the issue. It has completely tied us up financially, and I know it's satan trying to get in the way of God's plan.

TO GOD BE THE GLORY!!!

God is so good!

As I look around I'm in complete amazement by how God is working in our lives. We started out with absolutely nothing. A couple of weeks went by, and now, I can't even pull my car into the garage! It's absolutely crazy.






I see God working through His people. Thank you to all the generous people that have come together to help us and have graciously given us so much more than just "stuff". It's amazing how God can use even an old pair of tennis shoes to show His love. All of this "stuff" that people have given us, seen as "worthless junk" in their lives, is playing a HUGE part in a beautiful story that is already bringing so much joy in my family's lives.


His grace and mercy is so overwhelming, and I am so honored to be serving such a loving God and so blessed that He chose ME and my family to take this journey. If you truly feel like God is placing a calling on your life, but feel like it's too big or too crazy, just let go and let Him do a work in you. I promise, it's the most joyful, most humbling experience that will ever happen in your life!


We still have a ways to go. Right now we really need help with some of the work. Please pray for people to come forward and help us out the days of the garage sale. We are going to need more than just Jordan and I to get everything done. Also, please pray that we meet our financial need from this garage sale. We have complete trust in God through ALL of this.



"You will make known to me the path of life; In Your presence is fullness of joy; In Your right hand there are pleasures forever." Psalm 16:11

Garage Sale Update (2 weeks to go)

Wow! The garage sale collection has been growing daily. We are so blessed to have such amazing people surrounding us and supporting us on this crazy journey. Thanks to everyone so far who has donated to our cause. We've been doing our nightly sorting of all the items and we are just so grateful that we have bags of stuff to sort through each night. The garage sale is quickly approaching and we're excited to be doing a fundraiser like this in our community. It's such a great way to raise awareness of adoption and the orphan and a great way to live in community with one another. We have a lot of work to do still, and still need more donations, so keep 'em coming! I've thoroughly enjoyed just getting rid of all the "junk" at my house. It feels so liberating, stripping down your house to just the things you need. I can't believe I buy some of the things that I buy.

So what are the proceeds of this fundraiser going to?????

1. Our IAP form (Initial Application Package) $2500...This is the first payment to our agency.
2. Home Study $600-$1000

Once we finish these two steps we can start our dossier and then finally be put on the waiting list for our little boy.

Please continue to pray that God shows up big time at this garage sale! Also, that the process continues to move forward into the next step in the process.

Also, if you, or a family member, or a friend have any stuff after your spring cleaning that you would be willing to donate, please email me. We can come and pick it up if you need us too. The garage sale is going to be Friday, June 18 and Saturday, June 19.

Let the Journey Begin...

So, after a couple of weeks of figuring out the "blog world" (thanks, Thomas) I am finally at the point of writing my very first post!!


As most of you know already, Jordan and I have decided to grow our family by one more and adopt a little boy from Ethiopia. Right after my youngest was born (Maximus) we thought that we were done. We had the "set", one girl and one boy. We were living the American dream and we were happy. While I was having babies, one of my closest cousins was in the works of adopting her first 3 of 6 from Ethiopia, and I became addicted to reading her blogs and just wanted to know more about Africa, orphans, and all the injustices going on. God began to break my heart for all of these things.



A couple of years later, the Haiti earthquake happened, and my heart had felt the heaviest it had ever felt in my life. I kept having images of all these children that were just like my kid's, with nowhere to go and nobody to hold them and love on them when they were scared. The most heartbreaking thing for me, was that a lot of people thought that the earthquake was what put Haiti into a crisis situation, but the reality is, Haiti was already a crisis situation that we neglected. The extreme poverty and millions of orphans in one of our neighboring countries. Then I knew. I felt deep down inside that I had to do my part. As a believer, that's what we are commanded to do.





"If anyone considers himself religious and yet does not keep a tight reign on his tongue, he deceives himself and his religion is worthless. Religion that God, our father, accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself from being polluted by the world." James 1:26-27




Why adoption?? Because there are 147 million orphans in the world and God revealed to us that one of them is our son. Period.

Why Ethiopia? Ethiopia has the most orphans in all of the world and is one of the poorest countries in all of the world. It receives less aid than any other country in Africa. One out of six kids will die before the age of 5. To think that, children are dying because of starvation, and I complain that my pantry "never has anything good in it". In Ethiopia, the patient to doctor ratio is 1 to 24,000, and I complain about copays. The list goes on. But, I continue to be amazed at the people in the midst of all the poverty, injustice, and crisis. They have absolutely nothing, but have such amazing spirits. We have so much as Americans: Freedom, mind blowing technology, etc. but yet we can always find something to complain about. These people have nothing. They sleep on dirt floors, they have no clue where their next meal is going to come from, but yet they have so much joy. Not only must we help these people, our brothers and sisters in Christ, but we can also learn from them. I believe that I need Africa, more than Africa needs me.



"Rescue the perishing; don't hesitate to step in and help. If you say, "Hey, that's none of my business," will that get you off the hook. Someone is watching you closely, you know- someone not impressed with weak excuses." Proverbs 24:12 [The Message]

Adoption is a long and expensive process. We would love for you to come with us and follow us on our journey. There are so many ways you can play a part in getting our son home. First, is prayer. Right now we need some prayer warriors to pray about finances. I wish we had 20K laying around in an account somewhere, but we don't. We know God isn't going to let that get in the way of His will. We are getting together some awesome fundraisers and we need God to show up big time! Another way, is donating to the cause. Our first fundraiser is a giant garage sale (thank you, SMBC for all of the experience and training!!) If you, or someone you know has anything to donate to sell at our garage sale, please let us know. Every dime we get will go straight into our adoption account. We'll keep you posted, too, about other fundraisers that we have brewing that not just people in Austin can contribute to as well. God is doing such amazing things, and He is good.

Let the journey begin....

"For I know the plans I have for you," declares the Lord, "plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future." Jeremiah 29:11