Wednesday, June 29, 2011

Prayer request

Waiting to be accepted by Children's Hope International. Our letter went out thursday and we have already been contacted by them. As of yesterday there were a few things we went over with them in a phone conversation. Please pray for right decisions to be made concerning the age of the little guy we are bringing home. This organization prefers to stay within birth order and this might change a few details in our home study as well as waiting time and even what was initially on our hearts. A friend :) gave me good advice yesterday, just to earnestly seek out what God laid on our hearts to begin with. Thanks for praying.

Monday, June 27, 2011

Isaiah 40


















I was okay until this moment...Becca put Lyzee’s shoes on and then we prayed around this little group of missionaries in the family room.


... The voice of one crying in the wilderness:


“ Prepare the way of the LORD;

Make straight in the desert

A highway for our God.

Every valley shall be exalted

And every mountain and hill brought low;

The crooked places shall be made straight

And the rough places smooth;

The glory of the LORD shall be revealed,

And all flesh shall see it together;

For the mouth of the LORD has spoken.”

The voice said, “Cry out!”

And he said, “What shall I cry?”



“ All flesh is grass,

And all its loveliness is like the flower of the field.

The grass withers, the flower fades,

Because the breath of the LORD blows upon it;

Surely the people are grass.

The grass withers, the flower fades,

But the word of our God stands forever.”

O Zion,

You who bring good tidings,

Get up into the high mountain;

O Jerusalem,

You who bring good tidings,

Lift up your voice with strength,

Lift it up, be not afraid;

Say to the cities of Judah, “Behold your God!”

Behold, the Lord GOD shall come with a strong hand,

And His arm shall rule for Him;

Behold, His reward is with Him,

And His work before Him.


He will feed His flock like a shepherd;

He will gather the lambs with His arm,

And carry them in His bosom,

And gently lead those who are with young.


Who has measured the waters in the hollow of His hand,

Measured heaven with a span

And calculated the dust of the earth in a measure?

Weighed the mountains in scales

And the hills in a balance?

Who has directed the Spirit of the LORD,

Or as His counselor has taught Him?

With whom did He take counsel, and who instructed Him,

And taught Him in the path of justice?

Who taught Him knowledge,

And showed Him the way of understanding?

Behold, the nations are as a drop in a bucket,

And are counted as the small dust on the scales;

Look, He lifts up the isles as a very little thing.

And Lebanon is not sufficient to burn,

Nor its beasts sufficient for a burnt offering.

All nations before Him are as nothing,

And they are counted by Him less than nothing and worthless.


To whom then will you liken God?

Or what likeness will you compare to Him?

The workman molds an image,

The goldsmith overspreads it with gold,

And the silversmith casts silver chains.

Whoever is too impoverished for such a contribution

Chooses a tree that will not rot;

He seeks for himself a skillful workman

To prepare a carved image that will not totter.


Have you not known?

Have you not heard?

Has it not been told you from the beginning?

Have you not understood from the foundations of the earth?


Lord, let Becca’s feet step off of the plane, and onto fertile ground. Let your Word flow from Luke’s mouth and rest on the ears of those who seek You. You have heard our prayers for the souls of the people of Malawi. Please let anxious hearts find peace in hearing the gospel from those whom You have called to go. Let seeds find fertile soil and begin an widespread growth of deep roots that penetrate into the core of this beautiful nation you have created. God, be their Fortress-- Yaweh, be their Strength.


It is He who sits above the circle of the earth,

And its inhabitants are like grasshoppers,

Who stretches out the heavens like a curtain,

And spreads them out like a tent to dwell in.

He brings the princes to nothing;

He makes the judges of the earth useless.


Scarcely shall they be planted,

Scarcely shall they be sown,

Scarcely shall their stock take root in the earth,

When He will also blow on them,

And they will wither,

And the whirlwind will take them away like stubble.


“ To whom then will you liken Me,

Or to whom shall I be equal?” says the Holy One.

Lift up your eyes on high,

And see who has created these things,

Who brings out their host by number;

He calls them all by name,

By the greatness of His might

And the strength of His power;

Not one is missing.


Why do you say, O Jacob,

And speak, O Israel:

“ My way is hidden from the LORD,

And my just claim is passed over by my God”?

Have you not known?

Have you not heard?

The everlasting God, the LORD,

The Creator of the ends of the earth,

Neither faints nor is weary.

His understanding is unsearchable.

He gives power to the weak,

And to those who have no might He increases strength.

Even the youths shall faint and be weary,

And the young men shall utterly fall,

But those who wait on the LORD

Shall renew their strength;

They shall mount up with wings like eagles,

They shall run and not be weary,

They shall walk and not faint.


"For as the heavens are higher than the earth,
So are My ways higher than your ways,
And My thoughts than your thoughts."


Friday, June 24, 2011

Here we go

My three girls are running in circles around our staircase yelling silly things like “waggy tails” and “yip-yip”...I am surrounded by stacks of papers, bills, sticky notes and unreturned phone calls...and even though there are dishes left sitting in the sink and cereal bowls on the kitchen table, (has the cat been fed?) and the laundry pile has reached the point of tipping, I have to get this started because I will never find time to do it. So Rachel, this is started because you keep nagging me :) to start a blog. I’m going to apologize ahead of time because it will be a miracle to keep up with it, but I will do what I can.

So every wonderful moment of my life has been all to God’s mercy and grace-- and to anyone reading this who doesn’t know us personally, here is what’s happening in a nutshell: despite our imperfections, our failed moments in parenting and marriage... days when we’ve put happiness over holiness--despite the times when we have forgotten how great a High Priest we have in Jesus Christ, and how sovereign God truly is-- the overwhelming passion to adopt a little boy has changed our hearts forever. And so with our eyes set upward and our hearts open to all that is about to unfold, we start to walk this path with nothing but faith.