"'Surely God is my salvation; I will trust and not be afraidl  The Lord, the Lord, is my strength and my song; He has become my salvation.'  With joy you will draw water from the wells of salvation.  In that day you will say: 'Give thanks to the Lord, call on His name; make known among the nations what He has done, and proclaim that His name is exalted.  Sing to the Lord, for He has done glorious things; let this be known to all the world.  Shout aloud and sing for joy, people of Zion, for great is the Holy One of Israel among you,'" (Isaiah 12:2-6).

I must share with and make known to all the nations how great my God is!!  I must proclaim that His name is to be exalted!!  As you have read our story, I have said over and over again how important it is to put our trust in Him!  I have also told you that it is so important to quiet our inner spirit so that we can listen for and hear God's voice.  God asked our family to trust in Him with this entire adoption process.  He told us not to worry about the money, that He would provide.  Early on we saw this happen as we raised an amazing $6500 in less then a month's time.  Then over the past months we have seen money come from the most unexpected places!  God has kept us in pure amazement at the works of His hands!

Now I must share with you another amazing story!  Several months ago a friend of ours had told us about a woman who loved to help people with their adoptions.  This woman would just give from her heart because she believed in adoption so deeply.  We waited and waited to find out more information on this amazing woman.  Could it possibly be true?  Would she want to even talk to us?  Well, about 2 weeks ago, my friend called me with this woman's name (Maire) and phone number.  She told me that Marie was very hard to get in touch with, but to be persistent, leave messages and keep trying.  She also told me that they had thought she had only helped with eastern European adoptions and did not know if she would help with a liberian adoption but we  should go ahead and try.

I did not feel led to call Marie right away.  Actually, I hadn't even written down her phone number.  It was still on our answering machine.  My friend, Jennifer called me every couple of days asking me if I had called yet.  She was so excited about this and had been praying about our future conversation.  I kept coming up with excuses, but in all actuallity I did not feel led to call.

Yesterday, May 31, I was frantically cleaning house, getting kids ready for dentists appointments and trying to get ready for our next fundraiser that evening.  I felt like there was just not enough time to get it all done.  In the middle of all my chaos, God told me it was time.  I felt as if someone else was controlling my actions.  I walked over to the telephone with pen and paper in hand.  Went through my saved messages to find the one from Jennifer with the telephone number and wrote it down.  The kids were watching a movie, so I took the phone out to the front porch to give Marie a call.  I was told not to expect to speak to her, but some how I knew I would get a hold of her because this call was on God's time and not mine.

The phone rang twice and someone answered.  "Hello.  Is Marie there?"  "This is Marie."  And so the conversation began.  I told her who I was and gave her the names of the two men that had referred her to us.  I told her that we were in the process of adopting three brothers from Liberia and was wondering if she would be interested in hearing our adoption story.  Let me just say that I am so amazed by the hand of God!  But yet I shouldn't be.  When God makes a promise, He keeps it!

Marie was so delighted to hear our story.  "Why yes I want to hear your adoption story!  Children are such a huge blessing from God!  I absolutely love children.  Now tell me about your adoption!"  I wasn't expecting that kind of response.  She told me that if we lost our connection to make sure I called her right back.  She told me she was out in the middle of no where wandering around in Georgia, but she wanted to hear our story.  It was almost as if she was expecting our call.

I told Marie about our Liberian sons,  I gave her their names and ages.  I told her about our family and our other adoption stories.  She was in amazement and asked God to bless us for having so many children!  She said that she loved children.  Her and her husband had one biological child and one adopted child from Russia.  Then Marie asked me what we needed to bring our boys home.

I explained to her that we needed approxiately $3000 for the remainder of the legal fees and we were guessing approximately $8000 for travel expenses.  When you  read the rest of this, I want you to know and believe that God is so faithful!  I want you to know that whatever in your life that you may be going through, that I encourage you to keep believing because if we walk in faith and trust in our heavenly Father, that He will bless you in more ways then you could ever imagine! 

What happened next put me on my knees thanking my Heavenly Father for loving my Liberian boys so much!!  As I type this I continue to have tears of joy streaming from my eyes.  As I type this I am still in utter amazement of my Father's love.  Marie told me that she could help us out in two ways.  First, Marie and her husband travel a lot by airplane and rack up on air miles.  They save them to help families who are adopting bring their children home.  "Your airline tickets are covered!  You just need to give me 30 days notice so that I can make the arrangements for the tickets."  The entire expense of the airline tickets is gone!  That was our next major expense!  My God is so GREAT! 

But that was not all!  She asked me again what the remainder of the legal fees were.  "You don't need to worry about that.  I will have the $3000 to you.  But I need to ask you a favor."  She needed to ask me a favor?!  "Of course!  Anything!"  This is what she told me and it is very important that you know:

"My Daddy went to sleep on Saturday night and on Sunday morning he woke up in Heaven.  I have no doubt in my mind that he is there.  My daddy loved children.  He loved his grandchildren.  He love all children.  I want to bring your boys home in honor of my Daddy.  His name is John A. "Jack" Gordon.  They are to come home in his honor."  Trying not to cry hysterically I told her that we would be both honored and blessed to do this in Jack Gordon's name!

In Matthew 9, Jesus is approached by two blind men.  They called to Jesus asking Jesus to have mercy on them.  The blind men had followed Jesus "and he asked them, 'Do you believe that I am able to do this?' 'Yes, Lord, ' they replied.  Then He touched their eyes and said, 'According yo your faith will it be done to you'; and their sight was restored," (Matthew 9:28-29).  God told us that He would provide the funding for this adoption.  Russell and I had faith in God and trusted in Him.  Yesterday He asked me if I believed that He was able to do this.  "Yes, Lord," was my answer.  The timing was His timing not mine.  He told me when I was supposed to proceed.  He had prepared Marie's heart before I even called.

Through out the Bible Jesus spoke of the mustard seed.  In Matthew 17:20, Jesus said, "I tell you the truth, if you have faith as small as a mustard seed, you can say to this mountain, 'Move from here to there' and it will move.  Nothing will be impossible for you."  God took that mountain that looked so huge and He moved it!  He took our faith and made it grow!  I can not emphasize enough how important it is to have faith in our Father!  Remember, we may not see where God is taking us, but once we get there, the journey is so amazing.  It is not by our hands that this was done.  All the honor and glory go to our Heavenly Father.  Thank you God!  Thank you for your amazing love!  Thank you for loving me, someone so small and unworthy.  Thank you for entrusting Russell and me with our beautiful blessings.

"Shout for joy to the Lord, all the earth.  Worship the Lord with gladness; come before Him with joyful songs.  Know that the Lord is God.  It is He who made us, and we are His; we are His people, the sheep of His pasture.  Enter His gates with thanksgiving and His courts with praise; give thanks to Him and praise His name.  For the Lord is good and His love endures forever; His faithfulness continues through all generations," (Psalm 100).

Please let this be an encouragement for you who are walking in faith allowing the Lord to lead your way!  "Wait for the Lord and keep His way," (Psalm 37:34).  "Be strong and courageous.  Do not be terrified; do not be discouraged, for the Lord your God will be with you wherver you go," (Joshua 1:9).

Please continue to pray for our boys.  Pray that the relinquishments happen soon.  Maybe they could be home by Christmas, but it is all in the Lord's timing.  Pray that the Lord will guide the staff at the orphanage in finding the birth parents!

God Bless all of you!