Kevin and I had a busy New Year's weekend! Kevin was invited by Trinity Baptist Church from Southaven, Mississippi to lead a retreat for their youth students at Fall Creek Falls State Park in Spencer, TN. We were absolutely delighted to be able to spend time with the youth minister and his wife, Brad and Elicia Walker and their student group. Brad and Elicia have two biological children and have also been able to experience the joy of adoption by adopting their third son domestically. I absolutely loved talking to another adoptive mother! She had so much wisdom and advice to share! We were blessed by what God taught us through this weekend!
Brad, Elicia, Will, Jackson and Benjamin Walker
The youth group of Trinity Baptist Church
Now it’s 2012 and I wonder what it will bring for my life. I wonder if Kevin and I will be able to travel to Africa to pick up our child. I wonder what this next year of youth ministry will bring. Etc, etc, etc. I think, worry, and wonder about many different things. I was reminded that God is merciful and gracious, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness (Exodus 34:6). No matter what 2012 will bring I can be certain of God’s beautiful attributes. What happens next year will NEVER change who God is. God is the meaning and purpose of our lives. I have tried to tune out the clatter of what our culture says our lives and goals should be! I pray that I would reflect God in my daily life and that I would love and serve other people for the sake of the Gospel. Take the time today to pray that you would live 2012 to glorify God by serving and worshiping only Him!
Where we are in our adoption process…….
We had our final meeting with our social worker on December 26th. She has made a couple changes to our home study paperwork and we are currently waiting for our agency to approve it. Once we get it approved and finalized we will be able to 1) Send in our I-600A (Immigration paperwork) 2) Start applying for grants and 3) Finish our dossier. Our dossier paperwork is coming together nicely and we are currently just waiting to receive documents back from several people that need to sign or produce a document for us. Hopefully we will have our dossier completed by the end of January! Woo Hoo! Keep praying for us!
Found your blog through pintrest ... LOVE IT! My husband and I are just starting to explore adoption and we are hoping to adopt through Rwanda. I was wondering where did you get the widget on the side of your page? Its an outline of Africa and the it appears to be filling in as people donate? I think that is really cool! Im wishing you loads of luck through your adoption journey and hoping that 2012 is the year you bring a baby home.
ReplyDeleteBelinda, I am so glad to hear that you are considering making adoption part of your story! It has been a true and absolute blessing to be on this journey in uniting with our baby across the world! We will certainly be praying for you and your husband! Our fundraising thermometer on the side of our page is actually a picture that my husband created on our Mac. He just updates the picture every now and then and then he reposts it on our blog. I am sure he can help you guys create one if you would like! Just let me know! Blessings to you!
ReplyDeleteDebbie Weldon
What a great idea that I would not have through of. We are finishing up our AC journey with four more frozen embryos (however with all that we have been through we are pretty certain that they are not going to work) but in the meantime we have narrowed it down to two different adoption agencies and a few countries. My hubby is currently deployed so all the leg work will be done once he gets home and we will be able to start the process with all the paperwork :) Im looking forward to following your journey and will add you to our prayer list for 2012 being their year of blessings! Our blog is
ReplyDeletewww.tearshopeandlove.blogspot.com
Belinda, we will absolutely be praying for you guys as you seek out what God wants for your life! We would love to help you guys in any way we can! PLEASE PLEASE let me know! I will keep up with you via your blog also!
ReplyDelete