I would like to share with you a story by Loren Eisley entitled:

“A Single Starfish”.

One day an old man was walking along the beach. It was low tide, and the sand was littered with thousands of stranded starfish that had been washed ashore. The man began walking very carefully so as not to step on any of the beautiful creatures.

Since the animals still seemed to be alive, he considered picking some of them up and putting them back in the water, where they could resume their lives.

The man knew the starfish would die if left on the shore, but he reasoned that he could not possibly help them all, so he chose to do nothing and continued walking.

Soon afterward, the man came upon a small child on the beach who was frantically throwing one starfish after another back into the sea. The old man stopped and asked the child, “what are you doing?”

“I’m saving the starfish,” the child replied.

“Why waste your time?... There are so many you can’t save them all so what does it matter?” argued the man.

Without hesitation, the child picked up another starfish and tossed the starfish back into the water. “It matters to this one,” the child explained.

So many times people ask, "Why are you adopting?  There are so many kids out there, does it really matter?"  My reply is, "Yes, it does!"  Out of all the hundreds of thousands of children in Liberia, will it even matter to bring three home to the United States?  Yes, I believe it does.  It may be one of our three that is able to go back and save at least one life in Liberia.  It may be one of our three that will go back and help rebuild Liberia.  It may be one of our three that goes to share the gospel in Liberia.  It matters to each child.  They don't want to grow up in the conditions that they do there.  They didn't ask to wake up hungry when the dawn of a new day approaches.  They didn't ask to see the ravages of war.  But somehow each of those experiences will impact each of our boys and make them stronger men someday!  Does it matter that we are raising children other then those that are of our own "flesh and blood"? 

Obviously, it does.  Why else would God put such an emphasis on caring for the orphans and the widows?    Again, I point out James 1:27, "Pure and undefiled religion before God and the Father is this:  to visit orphans and widows in their trouble, and to keep oneself unspotted from the world."  "To visit."  That does not just mean to go over and say a friendly hello.  "To visit" comes from the Greek word usually translated bishop, a person who oversees God's people.  The Nelson's Study Bible describes pure religion  as this, "Pure religion does not merely give material goods for the relief of the distressed, it also oversees their care."

So in God's eyes, each of these children does make a difference!  As a community of believers we are to take in these orphans and care for them as if they were our own.  Adoption has always been a part of history.  Even the Romans adopted children.  An adopted child in a Roman family was treated just as a biological child if not even better.  Not everyone can adopt, but that doesn't mean that they can't be involved in the adoption process.

There is a church out in Colorado that started a program called  Project 1.27.  This is an amazing ministry.  It really opened my eyes to how the whole church is to be involved in the adoption process!  Their vision is one that brings the entire congregation together.  If people can't adopt, they get involved in other ways...help set up college funds, help provide clothing, baby sit for free, the list goes on.  You see, it becomes more then just an individual family adopting children.  It becomes an entire church investing in a child's life.  "But there are so many children out there.  Could taking in just one child make a difference?"  Each sheep is important to his shepherd. 

We received our immigration approval letter yesterday for our I-600A form!  Immigration has forwarded this approval to the US Embasy in Monrovia.  So now we continue to patiently wait for the relinquishment to happen.  Again, I ask you to help this adoption move swiftly!  Pray continuously for the relinquishment to happen quickly and for there not to be any holdups with passports!  I have heard of adoptions happening and children coming  home in around 6 months.  This would be my prayer!

My heart is drawn to precious little Joel.  He seems so sad in his picture.  He looks as if he is without hope.  Maybe it is a look of fear.  I haven't quite figured that out.  But being only four and surrounded by what only seems like hopelessness, I imagine he is very full of fear.  I just can't even fatham what it would be like to wake each morning wondering if I was going to get a meal that day....not three meals and snacks, but just one meal!  I look at my own precious children here.  They know that they can come up and ask anytime throughout the day if they can get a snack from the pantry.  They know that if they are fearful of something they can come to mommy and daddy and be assured that everything is "ok".  At any time during the day, my precious children can come to me and be held to be assured that they are loved!  Joel is in an environment where he is surrounded by children who are full of the same fears he has. 

I wish I could be there the day that they tell him he has a new mommy and daddy.  Will he understand?  Can he understand that I already love him so deeply even though I have never laid eyes upon him physically?  Can he understand that I long to hold him in my arms and breathe him in?  This brings me to an even deeper thought.  How many people out there don't understand this unconditional love that Christ has for us?  Paul speaks of this love in Ephesians 3:17-19:  "And I pray that you, being rooted and established in love, may have power, together with all the saints, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ, and to know this love that surpasses knowledge-that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God."

God's love is complete.  It is whole, it is full and it is perfect!  It reaches every corner of our existence.  The Life Application Bible states it well, "It is wide-it covers the breadth of our own experience, and it reaches out to the whole world.  God's love is long-it continues the length of our lives.  It is high-it rises to the heights of our celebration and elation.  His love is deep-it reaches to the depths of discouragement, despair, and even death.  When you feel shut out or isolated, remember that you can never be lost to God's love."

WOW!  The song that I learned as a child, Deep and Wide, doesn't even touch that!  That fountain of God's love is so much more.  It is four dimensional not two!  God's love is in every corner of my life.  I don't ever need to feel unloved because there is someone who loves me unconditionally.  God so wants to wrap us up with His never ending, perfect love!  He wants to be my Daddy.  God wants me to have my eyes fixed on Him.  And not just my eyes, but my heart!

Does my precious, little Joel understand that?  I pray that somewhere in his little heart, that God has given him a taste of His love.  Philippians 4:19 says "And my God will meet all your needs according to His glorious riches in Christ Jesus."  God is so big!  His love is so big!  He will provide me with all my needs.  Not my wants, but my needs.  I must trust that God is with Joel and Samuel and Jeremiah.  I must trust that He is with all the children in the orphanage.

Where are you today?  What corner of your life will you allow God to reach today?  Know that God's love is big!  And know that whatever trial you may be going through, God will meet all your needs.  Learn to separate your needs from your wants.  I encourage you to study on Paul's statement to the Ephesians.  Feel God's love in your life and experience His unconditional love!

I hope to receive a new picture of Joel.  I pray that it is one that wears a smile!  One so small needs a mama for him to wrap his small, fragile body into.  He needs someone to hold him and let him know that he need not worry about his next meal.  That his little tummy will never go hungry again.  He needs a daddy, big and strong, to let him know that he is safe at night.  That no one is going to break in and steal all his food.  He needs to know that he has a great, big God who has a great, big love embrasing him this very moment!  Thank you God for wrapping your love around our hearts!

Praise the Lord!  Our dossier was delivered into the hands of ACFI this morning!!  Now comes the hard part...we must sit back and wait patiently!  Now I can do nothing but pray.  The system seems kind of funny.  When the children are placed in the orphanage, the family rights are not relinguished at that time.  It is not until someone wants to adopt a child that they find "next of kin" to sign off on the paper work.  At the time the boys were placed in the orphanage, both biological parents were living.  I am guessing that they will try to find them first.  They at one time lived in West Point, Monrovia, Liberia.  Please pray that the relinguishment will happen quickly!  This is one thing that can hold up the adoption process is trying to find the "next of kin". 

Once the relinguishment has happened, then the adoption process moves forward.  It takes 3-5 months for it to move through the court system.  Once it has gotten through the court system, then we have to fill out the I600 and the I800 immigration paperwork.  Then the boys get their passports and Russ and Anthony will pick them up!

We also found out that the plane tickets are $2200 each.  I believe that this is just for Russ and Anthony's tickets as they will need round trip tickets.  I am trying to find out the price of the boys' tickets now.  We are hoping that they will be about half the price.  Hopefully, I will know about that today.  We are trying to get some final numbers together for how much will be needed!

Once we get the relinguishment, we can have contact with the boys and a phone number so that we can call them!  We are very excited to get to this point!  We are going to send a disposable camera over with another family so that they can take pictures of the boys and then bring it back with them.  Kristi said that we could go ahead and put a small photo album together and letters to send to her so that once the relinguishment takes place they will have it to the boys!

This all seems like such a huge mountain!  It could make me feel very anxious about everything.  I tend to have an anxious personality at times, but I am working on that!  It reminds me of a verse:  "Cast all your anxiety on Him because He cares for you" (1 Peter 5:7).  These are all things that I have no control over.  I can not do anything and I can not change anything in this adoption process.  God is in control.  He is the one that can take this mountain and move it!  I have faith in that! The Bible tells us in Matthew 17:20, "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."  We must take each individual hurdle as it comes.  The mountain that is before us will be moved one rock at a time.  God is faithful to His word.  Can you believe in that?  I can!  I have seen God do amazing things.  Sometimes things can happen slowly and other times very swiftly.

I have heard God's voice tell me not to worry.  He will make this move through swiftly.  I have heard other things that want to make me put my focus elsewhere.  I've heard others speak of relinquishments that took months....passports taking too long to get...but my faith is not in others, my faith is in my God!  I choose to believe what God's voice has pressed upon my heart.  I choose to keep pressing forward!

I hope on this day that you to can choose to keep pressing forward.  Place your focus on Him, always looking heavenward.  God can take that mountain that seems so huge in your life right now and help you to move it one stone at a time.  You only need to have faith as small as a mustard seed to accomplish this!  Faith so small but yet big enough to move mountains!  Isn't walking in faith an amazing adventure?!

After a pit stop in New York, the dossier has finally left and is now in Belgium!  From Belgium it is a straight shot to Liberia (or at least I think it is)!!  The funds were received yesterday at the ACFI location here in the states.  My contact there is named Kristy.  She is really sweet and very helpful.  I am looking forward to working with her through this adoption process.  It is always pleasant to work with someone who enjoys their work and their ministry!

I continue to read Where Little Ones Cry.  I have almost completed the book.  It has taken me some time to get through because it is just so hard to take it all in.  I can not even imagine what the children have been through.  Its not just the children, but the entire country.  The stories amaze me.  God's hand was always at work even during the time of war.  God spoke to different people and provided them with what they needed to help the children.  John 10:27 says, "My sheep listen to my voice; I know them, and they follow me."  Psalm 25:9 says, "He guides the humble in what is right and teaches them His way."

God so wants us to hear His voice.  He longs for us to know Him.  God DESIRES our hearts.  Doesn't that just blow you away.  God desires in me.  He wants my heart, my whole heart.  Little me.  How can I  be of any significance to one so mighty and great?  But yet I am...I am significant in the eyes of my Lord.  God wants to work through us. "I tell you the truth, anyone who has faith in me will do what I have been doing.  He will do even greater things than these." John 14:12.

What is God calling you to do today?  Don't ignore His quiet whispers.  God wants to do amazing things through you.  He wants to show the world how great He really is.  God wants to use us as a vessel to share His love.  I never dreamed that we would raise $7500 in less then a month!  But should I have expected anything less?  God has given us this vision...this vision of bringing home orphans.  "Now to Him who is able to do immearsurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to His power at work in us, to Him be the glory." Ephesians 3:20.  How Great is Our God!! 

I encourage you to humbly get down on your knees today and give your whole heart to God.  Let Him use you...let Him work through you.  You are significant in the eyes of our Lord.  Hear His call.  Choose to obey our Lord.  Then let God lead you and you will see miracles! 

Prayer Request:

Ellen JOHNSON SIRLEAF is the President of Liberia.  She is being called the Mother of Liberia.  President Johnson Sirleaf has been in office a little over a year now.  She has such a HUGE undertaking!  This woman strongly needs our prayers and our support.  Please pray the God will give her wisdom and guidance and strength!

This evening we went to a missions conference at our church.  It is so amazing to see how people hear God's calling and then act upon it.  Sometimes it is a call within a person's own country and sometimes it is a call to "go to the land  I will show you." (Genesis 12:1).

Did you ever think of adoption as missions work?  I had never really thought of it as that before until a very dear friend who has been like a father to me told me one Sunday that we were doing God's work....that we were missionaries by taking in the fatherless...the orphaned.  WOW!  That really struck me!  Then a couple weeks later, Dr. Dobson had a week long special about adoptions.  Dr. Dobson said the same thing.  This really touched me deeply.

I haven't always had confirmation about our past adoptions from those closest to our family.  Some don't understand why we would take in someone who was not born of our own flesh and blood.  The thing that they don't understand is that our children whom we have adopted were born from me...they were born in my heart!

God had planted a small seed in my heart when I was very young.  I always knew that one day I would adopt children.  Before Russell and I were married, I had shared this with Russell.  I told him two things...first, I wanted a large family and second, I wanted to adopt.  Well, that didn't scare him off!  He still wanted to marry me.  Russell was always very supportive of the deep desire in my heart.  He had told me that when I felt the time was right, just to let him know.  And that is exactly what I did!  Well, Russell has been a man of his word and he joined me in our big adoption adventures!

"How do you love someone that was not born from you?"  How could I not?    Did not my God adopt me?  Ephesians 1:5 states, "He predestined us to adoption as sons through Jesus Christ to Himself, according to the kind intention of His will."  I was "predestined" to adoption!  I am God's adopted child!  How could I not be open to adoption?  How could I not love the orphaned and fatherless?

It was on a cold January afternoon that I received a phone call from our social worker.  There was a little girl who was almost two that the court just deemed legally free.  She needs to be placed this week.  Will you take her?  I can email you pictures....my heart is racing.  A little girl for our family!  A little girl named Aubrey.  My heart still races on.  I don't need to see her picture...I have already fallen in love with her.  Right at that moment Aubrey was born from my heart.  Tears fill my eyes.  I am over flowing with joy.  The pictures were beautiful, but I didn't need to see them.  I already held her close to my heart.  We had waited almost 5 months to receive that call!  God is so good.

Not two months later, another child was born in my heart.  This time God warned me!  "Your son is coming soon!" were the words that I heard so clearly that day!  Tears of joy sprang from my eyes.  "Mom.  What is wrong?"  questions my son Anthony.  "God is preparing our hearts.  Your brother is coming soon,"  was my reply.  It was at that moment I fell in love with Austin.  I didn't know his name.  I only knew that he was coming soon.  What a precious gift from my heavenly Father!  Two weeks later my aunt from New York called to congratulate us on Aubrey.  She had made the comment that she heard we were wanting to adopt again.  I had told her that wevwere and that we were hoping to adopt a little boy.  "That is why I am calling!"  Is God not amazing!!!! 

Throughout God's word, He speaks of the orphaned and how we are supposed to take care of them.  It is our obligation as sons and daughters of Christ.   Did you know that Jesus was adopted?  Joseph acted as Jesus' earthly father.  Moses was adopted by Pharaoh's daughter.  Mordecai adopted Esther.  Every Christian has been adopted by God through Jesus Christ.

Not everyone can adopt children.  But there are other ways that Christians can help to care and support children who are orphaned.  There is such a need both domestically and internationally.  Some ideas may be to help with a crisis pregnancy center; become a big brother or big sister to children in the foster care system; help adopt an orphanage, help provide clothing, food, medicines and hygiene supplies to orphanages; short term missions trips to orphanages.  These are just a few things.  Did you know that if every Christian family would adopt one child from social services, there wouldn't be any children left in the system?  That is pretty amazing.

We are glad that you are on this adventure with us and we thank all of you so much for your continued support through prayer and financially.  Please continue to pray for us as we work towards our next financial goal of $7500.  We received a $100 donation today!  Now we only have $7400 more to go!!!  Please continue to pray for Samuel, Jeremiah and Joel.  We are hoping to have contact with them soon.  The dossier is in New York right now!

Well, it only cost $100 to send the dossier to Liberia!  Wasn't expecting that!  We have a tracking number.  I will keep everyone posted on when it gets there.  Please pray that our paper work arrives safely and moves swiftly through the court system.

I was playing dolls today with Hailey Rose and Aubrey.  While we were playing, Hailey Rose pulls another doll out from no where and says, "Here is my sister!  I bought her!  She is adopted!"  When we adopted our two other children, we never talked about raising money for them because the cost was very low and attainable.  This adoption has been different.  Funding has been very important....every penny counts!  I tried to explain that the money is for fees for the attorneys, but I don't quite think Aubrey and Hailey Rose understood that because Aubrey turned around and said, "I bought my sister, too!"

I know it is not a concept that they will understand for sometime. It makes me wonder how many people stop to think about the price that Jesus paid for each of us!  Each of us were bought for a price...a very dear price!  Jesus shed His blood for each and every one of us to wash away our sins.  Did He complain about it?  No.  He knew that greater joy would come from it, "Let us fix our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy set before Him endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.  Consider Him who endured such opposition from sinful men, so that you will not grow weary and lose heart." Hebrews 12:2-3.

This will be a good time to present this to my children!  In their young minds, they think that we are "buying" our boys!  Now I must share with them how Christ sold His life for ours! 

The dossier is packaged and ready to go!  The check for the first $7500.00 is in the mail!  We are all so very excited.  We are praying that this will move through the system quickly, that it will fly like it is on eagles' wings!  It appears that there have been hold ups on getting the orphans their visas and passports.  Please pray that this process will start to speed up.  There are so many children whose adoptions have been finalized, but they can only sit and wait!  Please pray earnestly for this!

I know that God is with us on this adoption.  He has opened the door for us.  Revelations 3:7-8 states: "What He opens no one can shut, and what He shuts no one can open.  I know your deeds.  See, I have placed before you an open door that no one can shut.  I know that you have little strength, yet you have kept my word and have not denied my name."

You see, there may be hold ups with legal issues like getting passports and visas, but we need not to worry.  God has chosen to open this door for us and He has opened it wide!  He is faithful to His word and to His promises!  I believe that!  Again in scripture we find that God is faithful.  Genesis 28:15 states: "I am with you and will watch over you wherever you go, and I will bring you back to this land.  I will not leave you until I have done what I have promised you."

God has promised us our children from Africa.  He will bring them home.  This isn't our plan, this is the plan that God saw before we were even born.  This is the plan that He has knit together.  This is part of the beautiful tapestry that God is weaving together for our life.

Is God speaking to your heart this morning?  Has He given you a vision for something to come in the future.  Hold tight to that promise.  When the time is right, you will begin to see the beautiful tapestry that God is weaving together for you.  Isaiah 41:13 states "For I the Lord, your God, who takes hold of your right hand and says to you, Do not fear;  I will help you."  Believe in God's promises.  CHOOSE to believe in God's promises!

Isn't walking in faith the coolest thing!  It is all part of growing in our walk with our Heavenly Daddy.  He so wants to give all His children His precious blessings, but we have to choose to walk out in faith.  Faith is believing what we can not see.  It is like the song Amazing Grace, "I was blind, but now I see."  Today is a day that I see things so clearly!  I hope that you, too, can have a day like that!

I will close with this last verse from 1Peter 1:8-9:  "Though you have not seen Him, you love Him; and even though you do not see Him now, you believe in Him and are filled with an inexpressible and glorious joy, for you are receiving the goal of your faith, the salvation of your souls."

I have had several people ask me if we met our first $7500 goal.  The answer is no.  We are pulling what we had in our savings to reach this goal.  We feel that it is important for us to get the dossier in so we can get the whole process started.  Please continue to pray for the finances to come in.  We still have a long way to go!  We now need to work on getting the second $7500 together and then the airline tickets.  We will have more time to pull this together as it takes 3-4 months for it to get through the courts.  Plus more immigration paper work to fill out!

We have had several good friends speak to us recently about some possible upcoming fundrasiers.  Please stay posted! 

Our fingerprints are completed!  Russell and I left for Charlotte at 6:00 am so we would get there on time.  I think we were the only Americans there other then the immigration workers!

After getting that done we went and had our last document notorized at the bank.  I am going to put the whole dossier together tonight.  I will be checking it twice, making sure all the i's are dotted and the t's are crossed!  This is so exciting!  Now we will be sitting on pins and needles waiting for everything to go through the court system over there. 

Please pray that the paper work will go through smoothly and that there won't be anything that will hold it up.  I am anxious to get the boys over here, but I also know that I must be patient.  God is teaching me so much about patience.  That is hard for me at times.  It is hard for me to just sit back and wait.  But the Lord has a plan and I must sit back and let Him do the leading!

Both Lysa TerKeurst and my sister Mandy have given me the same Bible verse.  I think God is trying to send me a message!  "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  God is leading this journey.  Our family is just along for the ride.  He has given us a small vision with our Liberian boys.  It is a vision that not everyone can see and that not everyone can support.  But it is a gift from our Lord.  God wants to lead our lives if we only allow Him to.  I am learning that, but I still have a tendency to get anxious about things.  The funny thing is, God knows that!  He knows my every thought.  He knew me before I was born.  He knew that I would be anxious and that He would have to be ever so patient with me to show me that I don't need to be anxious.

God is so good.  He shows me every day, small bits at a time, how I need not worry or feel anxious.  My heavenly Daddy, is right beside me on this journey, encouraging me and patting me on the back.  Thank you God for never leaving my side!

I am not sure how many of you watch the Oprah Show, but Oprah had Lysa TerKeurst from Proverbs 31 ministries along with other members of their church who adopted children from the same Liberian Orphanage that we are adopting from.  Holly Good from Proverbs 31 sent me a link so we could see the show.  I am going to attach the link here so that you can see it.  I hope you enjoy it!

I am reading a very sad book right now.  It is called, "Where Little Ones Cry" by Harvey Yoder.  It is filled with tragic stories from war-torn Liberia.  My heart aches so deeply now.  It is one thing to hear about war, but it is another thing to read about it through a child's eyes.  I highly recommend this book if you if you would like to see what our boys have lived through.  Both Samuel and Jeremiah were born into the war and spent most of their life in this nightmare.

I would like to include a passage from the book here.  I must warn you that it is graphic. 

Like hunters closing in on a trapped animal, the ULIMO fighters circled around Mayango's father.  They prodded him with their guns.

Rising up out of the bush, the fighters had surprised Mayango and his father as they cautiously made their way back to Guinea.  Mayango, several hundred feet ahead of his father, had immediately dropped to the ground among the potato plants.  The fighters had obviously not seen him, but they had seen his father.  They immediately surrounded the helpless man.

"Where are the rest of your people?"

Mayango heard a solid blow.  "This is for killing my brother!"

Lying face-down in the potato patch, Mayango could see the circle of fighters gathered around his father, and hear the anger in their voices.  A deep, buring hatred boiled over with each accusation.

Swallowing a dry sob, Mayango lay frozen in fear.  He did not dare make a move. 

"It was your people who killed my ma, molested my sisters, and destroyed our village!  Now it is our time for revenge!"  The fighters were stirring themselves into a frenzy, screaming and shouting.

With vicious stabs and cruel blows, they tortured the helpless victim.  Their yells were savage and bloodthirsty.  "No, no!  Oh, please don't!"  Mayango could hear his father's screams of terror and anguish rise to the heavens.  Mayango stuffed potato stems into his mouth to keep from screaming.  His tears puddled in the dust under his grimacing face.  He thought his heart would explode.  Only the day before, his father had found him.  They had been so happy to be together again.  Hope that had risen up in him was now beaten into the ground.

As the yells of the frenzied men rose higher and higher, Mayango could no longer hear the cries of his father.  But surely he wasn't dead yet, or the men would stop their hideous yells and merciless blows.  Of one thing Mayango was certain.  They would not stop until they had killed his father..............

The story does not end there.  Mayango gathers up all the pieces of his father's body in a basket and buries him.  Mayango's father never had killed anyone.  He never fought in the war.  The fighters continued to beat his father until there was hardly anything left of him.  It is a very heart wrenching story.  It is only one of many!

I guess I take for granted living in such a great nation.  You always hear about war...hear about third world countries...but I guess I never thought about it through a child's eyes or thought about it in a way that made me realize how much the children suffer.  Samuel and Jeremiah were born into the war.  I can't imagine the things that they have seen!  I know that God has and will continue to protect them!

I have had so many friends that have said they would love to help with fundraisers.  Well, now is your opportunity!  The City of Newton is having May Fest, May 12, 2007.  Here is a description of the event:

This full day of family fun and entertainment will feature a wide variety of bands, craft vendors, children's activities and merchant sidewalk sales. Other events will be pig races, pizza eating contest, Choo-Choo rides and the first ever Newton Kazoo bands, which your employees can join. The festival site will be around the Catawba County Court House in downtown Newton and extend one block north on both North College Avenue and North Main Avenue.

I have contacted them and they are going to allow us to set of a vendor booth in the craft area to sell items to benefit the adoption.  Hannah will be making her spoon dolls and bracelets.  My sister, Mandy, is going to work on making aprons.  Anthony will be making balloons.  We are also going to have an informational board up about our adoption in Liberia.

Do you have something that you are "crafty" at that you would like to make to donate to our fundraiser?  If you do, please email me and let me know.  Also, if you would be interested in helping us run our booth, it will be open from 9 am until 6 pm.  Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Please help us make this a huge success!!!  We want to bring our boys home as soon as possible!!!

Friday afternoon my wonderful sister, Mandy, offered to watch my precious children and let me go for the remainder of the day to go see Lysa TerKeurst speak at the Home and Garden Show.  This was an exciting event for me because Lysa has also adopted from Liberia.  She and her husband, Art, adopted 2 beautiful teenage boys 4 years ago.  It was very nice to hear her story and how their family grew together as one.

Lysa's assistant, Holly Good, also spoke with me for quite a while.  She really encouraged me to journal my thoughts, feelings and experiences through my blog.  So I will continue to do so.  I hope you don't mind my thought pattern too much!!

Hearing Lysa speak, I couldn't help but to think that our thought patterns are very similar.  Many of her experiences were similar with mine.  She made me laugh and made me cry.  But there was one message that I kept hearing....Listen for God's little whispers and be willing to say "Yes, Lord!"

You see, so many times in my life, I hear God speaking to my heart, but so many times I doubt whether or not it is the voice of God.  I have a close friend in Louisville who has been telling me for quite some time that I am supposed to meet Lysa TerKeurst.  She wouldn't let up on it!  I would always brush her off.  But then Liberia happened.  A book happened.  A speaking engagement happened.  God made it happen.

God wanted me to hear a message.  God wanted me to know that it is His voice that I hear.  It is not my imagination.  God wanted me to know that He has been speaking to my heart and that we are following the path that He has laid out before us!  WOW!  Our Heavenly Father is so close to each of us, but so many times we push Him out.  Why is it so hard to say "Yes, Lord.  I am listening!"

God's great hand is at move here.  I can't explain it, but I feel it.  He has so much planned with this adoption.  Its bigger then this adoption.  I can't wait to see it all unfold.  4 years ago, God gave Russell and I this verse:  Psalm 32:8, "I will instruct you and teach you in the way you should go; I will counsel you and watch over you." 

That was huge for me.  You see, if you remember from previous entries, it was 4 years ago that God gently whispered on my heart that we would be missionaries in Africa.  It was 4 years ago that a friend had told us to come to his Christian outreach because he wanted this woman to pray over us.  It was 4 years ago that when we were leaving this Christian outreach, that this woman flagged us down and said, "God wanted me to give you this verse!"

God is leading our way.  He is directing our paths.  Does that mean that trials won't come or that there won't be hard times.  No!  They will come just as they came with Job.  Even though those hurdles come in our life, we still must press forward.  And though we press forward, we do it not alone.  For God is always with us.  I love how it is said in the King James Version in Job 12:13, "With Him [God] belong wisdom and power."  God is all wise.  Proverbs 1:7 says, "The fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge, but fools despise wisdom and discipline."  So you see, God wants us to listen.  He is our Father, our Daddy.  He needs to direct our paths.

I think that sometimes we go through trials to draw us closer to Him.  It is sad, but so many times we humans use prayer as a last resort instead of a first resort.  God wants us to call upon Him.  We are to lean upon Him.  We are not to lean upon our own understanding.  Proverbs 3:5, "Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding; in all your ways acknowledge Him, and He will make your paths straight."

Oh, how true that is!  This adventure of life gets more exciting each day!  I encourage you to listen with your heart.  God is speaking to you.  God loves you!  Please continue to pray for this journey that God is taking our family on and especially pray for Samuel, Jeremiah and Joel.  Pray for their protection.  Pray that they will have food.  Pray for their health.

I am so amazed to watch and see how God's mighty hand has been involved with this adoption!  We are approximately $1400 short of raising the first $7500! I was just looking back over our dates and when we actually made it "public" and do you realize that it has not even been a month yet?!  Now tell me how big is our God?! 

This brings to mind Deuteronomy 10:17-18:

For the Lord your God is God of gods and Lord of Lords, the great God, mighty and awesome, who shows no partiality and accepts no bribes.  He defends the cause of the fatherless and the widow, and loves the alien, giving him food and clothing.

How GREAT is my God!!!  He has called us to this adoption to leave our country and to go to the land that He will show us....LIBERIA!  He told us not to worry about the money.  He IS providing!  See how important it is to listen to His quiet whispers?  God's hand is in this adoption and He is moving in big ways.

This is all about God!  Someday we will be able to share with our boys how great our God is.  I look so forward to that day.  Our lines of communication will soon be open.  What a glorious day that will be.

Thank you to everyone who has given us support either through prayer or financially.  Please continue to pray as we are close to meeting goal #3!!

Just a financial update:

As of Tuesday, March 6, 2007 we lack $1951.25 to having our first $7500 payment!  God is so good!  Please pray that we will be able to attain the remainder of these funds by the end of next week so that we can send our dossier in!!  The sooner we get it sent in, the sooner we can have contact with our boys!!!

God so amazes me!  It amazes me how God works and how He speaks to us and how, if we allow ourselves, to have open hearts that we can hear His quiet whispers.  I wonder how many times I have chosen to NOT listen to those quiet whispers.  How many times have I said, "No, Lord." and missed out on the blessings that God so longed to give me?  God speaks so often to my heart, but then Satan throws in those words of doubt making me doubt whether or not I am hearing the voice of God.  I am learning to hold up my shield of faith and choosing to believe God and what He has to offer me.

I have a close friend in my church who has been a father figure to me.  He has been a man who has given me much encouragement in my ability to be a good wife, a good mother and most importantly a daughter to my Heavenly Father.  This wonderful man is my friend Dave!  Last week he gave me a book by Lysa TerKeurst from Proverbs 31 Ministries (Proverbs31) entitled What Happens When Women Walk in Faith.  This was so exciting to me because it was Lysa TerKeurst who indirectly led us to adopting from Liberia.  Or I should say that God placed her in our path!!

You see, we are adopting from the same orphan village in Liberia that she and a large number of other families from the Charlotte, NC area adopted from.  It just happens that Lysa will be in Hickory this Friday!  Of course I am going to hear her speak and I pray that God will allow our paths to cross!

I have been diving into her book and thinking to myself, "This woman is writing my story!"  It is teaching me so much about my walk with my Heavenly Father!  Lysa has a quote in her book that just really spoke to my heart.  I would like to share it with you:

When you're embarking on an adventure with God, it's easy to get bombarded by all the "what ifs" of the task at hand.  I know Art [Lysa's husband] and I dealt with our share of these when we were considering our adoption.  We had our own fears, our well-meaning friends and family expressed their doubts, and Satan added his insistent whisperings.  Instead of looking at the impossibilities of the adoption, we ultimately decided to step out in faith according to what we knew God was telling us to do.  When doubt began to take root, we depended on God to work out the unknowns.  We returned to the throne room many times to cast our cares on Him.  We knew we served a big God who could handle all that we had to cast upon Him.  He took it all and-as I shared-worked out every detail.  He put to rest every fear. ( page 67,What Happens When Women Walk in Faith)

We have experienced many of the same types of responses in our journey.  We have received both positive and negative responses.  People that I thought would be positive have not in the least bit been supportive.  Russell and I are walking the path that God has led us to.  I have prayed for a very long time that God would speak to Russell about our next adoption.  God has been teaching me for a very long time that it is NOT in MY time that things will happen.  It is always in God's time.  God has also shown me that I can't manipulate things to make them happen.  I have to sit back and let God lead me in this dance of life.

That's hard for me to do.  I have always enjoyed leading.  But somewhere along the way God showed me that I was not supposed to be the one leading.  He didn't set it up that way.  And the neat thing about that is that when I am faithful to that, God will bless me in more ways then I could ever possibly imagine!  So now as our family is on this new journey, I am learning to sit back and watch God's hand at work!!  You see this adoption journey is not about the Schweighardt family; this adoption journey is all about God and seeing His mighty hand at work!

WOW!  Isn't faith an awesome adventure?!  It can be very scary at times...its hard to sit still at times.  It is especially hard when Satan throws in those doubts in our minds that cause us to second guess.  Russell and I have both clearly heard God tell us not to worry about the funding for this adoption.  You see, God has a bigger plan.  God wants us to see how big He really is!  God will provide the funds for this adoption.  He will speak to people's hearts.  He will make what seems like a huge mountain be slowly changed into a mole hill.  Bit by bit we are seeing our goals being met.

I've gone to the mailbox for the past 4 days to find nothing.  No pledge cards.  No prayer cards.  Satan whispers words of doubt.  Am I to do something?  Am I supposed to manipulate this in some way?  NO!  "Have faith in me, Sonya.  I will provide," is the whisper God places on my heart.  Before I open the mailbox today, I tell God that I have faith.  I know that He will provide.  Nothing in the mail today.  "Lord, I believe.  I have faith.  This is in Your hands and not mine!"  I will hold up my shield of faith.

God is so good!  Tonight we had an unexpected donation!  This is so huge.  Thank you Lord!  I have faith.  I don't want to miss out on the opportunities that God has laid out before our family!  God is leading us on a huge adventure.  It is an adventure of faith and trust. 

Is God leading you on this adventure?  Are you willing to say, "Yes, Lord!"?  God whispers in your ear...can you hear Him?  I can't even begin to explain how I feel inside.  I can only tell you that when you learn to trust and walk in faith, God will bless you.  He wants to bless you.  That doesn't mean that there won't be trials and  hardships.  It is how we handle those trials and hardships that helps us to grow in our walk with Christ.

My cup is running over!  I feel God's joy inside of me.  It is becoming a contagious thing in our house.  Our children feel it, too.  So please beware...it is contagious to those who enter into this faith walk with us!!  God is taking us outside our comfort zones, but through this He is increasing our faith in Him.

I would like to close with Psalm 37:

Psalm 37

Security of Those Who Trust in the LORD, and Insecurity of the Wicked.

A Psalm of David.

Children Concerned will no longer be assisting us with our adoption.  We will now be working directly with African Christians Fellowship International (ACFI).  Children Concerned was assisting ACFI with matching up families and helping families make travel arrangements and also communicated directly to ACFI.  Children Concerned will still be there for verbal support, but we will now be working with ACFI directly.  It seems as if this has been a smooth transition for those that we have spoken with who are further along in the adoption process.

Please continue to pray that things will move forward smoothly!

Well, we have a date for our fingerprints for immigration, Wednesday, March 14 at 8:00a.m.  We have to be in Charlotte at that time!  I guess we will be leaving bright and early that morning!! 

No other news to report at this time.  Hannah has sold 4 more of her spoon dolls and 4 beaded necklaces that she made.  Will Rejoice had his first gig at a benefit dinner at our church.  They are both very excited about there contributions to the adoption.

Other then that, I have no other financial reports to share.  Part of me is feeling a little squeemish....but then God keeps telling me that the funds will be there!  I just need to sit back and have faith in my God!