5 down 5 to go!!!

Well thank you for your prayers my amazing friends! I'd like to share with you yet another answer to prayer! I got a call today that we have been approved for the $5,000 NO INTEREST loan with Lifesong! We were hopeful for a grant, but this is still awesome! We had a deficit of $10K at the beginning of this week- we are now at half of that! Is that not totally AMAZING!!! Our God is our provider!

I had a wonderful opportunity to see an amazing woman on Sunday- someone I rarely get to see- yet who I love dearly. Her name is Jan. She is a wonderful support of our adoption and I know she is fervently praying for our son and us during this process. She asked the progress and I told her how we were submitted and just waiting a travel date! I don't remember exactly what was said- but she said that my journey inspires her. Here's the thing- everything that is happening, the money coming together, the people I have met, the changes in people around me- NONE of that has to do with me! It's all a God thing! God is changing hearts, God is providing the money, God is opening eyes, it's all God. I can do nothing without Christ. I am nothing without Christ.

So don't look at us like some kind of amazing people who are doing an amazing thing. We are ordinary people just following through in obedience to what God tells us in His Word. He commands the church to care for orphans- we are just walking in obedience to that command. Some people may think it's radical- I think it's normal. I see this as cut and dry as go and preach the gospel to the ends of the earth or you are saved by grace through faith. It seems logical to me. I don't feel like I am doing some kind of huge sacrifice or anything so unselfish that deserves some kind of reward. God says Go- so we did! My reward is knowing that there is one less orphan and that God had faithfully followed through yet again regarding Psalms 68-

Sing to God, sing in praise of his name,
extol him who rides on the clouds;
rejoice before him—his name is the LORD.
⁵ A father to the fatherless, a defender of widows, is God in his holy dwelling. ⁶ God sets the lonely in families,
he leads out the prisoners with singing;
but the rebellious live in a sun-scorched land.

Amen and Amen. I'm so glad that I serve a God who cares for these sweet babies who are lonely and without a family. I am so glad that He led our path to Pasha and that we will have the blessing of one more sweet child in this home. There is no better gift than that- no matter the cost to get there or the obstacles we may face once he's home. Pasha baby- you are worth it all and more! What we are going through to get him adopted is nothing compared to what Christ faced to adopt us. This journey pales in comparison. If you want to read a truly amazing adoption story- you should read yours! (Romans 5:8)

Here is a segment of a great sermon by Pastor Josh Black:

Adoption was accomplished in the fullness of time through the Son.

Galatians 4:3-7 (ESV) In the same way we also, when we were children, were enslaved to the
elementary principles of the world. 4But when the fullness of time had come, God sent forth his
Son, born of woman, born under the law, 5to redeem those who were under the law, so that we
might receive adoption as sons. 6And because you are sons, God has sent the Spirit of his Son
into our hearts, crying, "Abba! Father!" 7So you are no longer a slave, but a son, and if a son,
then an heir through God.


God the Father initiated our adoption, but he achieved our adoption through his Son. He sent his one and only Son that we might receive adoption as sons. Think for a moment how amazing this is. God the Father already had a Son. And we know from other places in Scripture that God
doesn’t need anything (Acts 17:26). God didn’t adopt us because he needed children. Our
adoption doesn’t fill up something that’s lacking in God – God doesn’t gain anything in adopting
us. Instead God gave something to adopt us. And our adoption cost God greatly. Our adoption
was not cheap and it wasn’t easy. It cost him his own Son.

Jesus is the very Son of God – he is equal with God in every way. But as Philippians 2 tells us
he humbled himself and was found in the likeness of man. He suffered for us and died for us so
that we could become the children of God.

The Son of God became a man, so that men could become sons of God. Or another way to put it
is Jesus became what he never was before (man), without ceasing to be what he always was
(God) so that we could become what we never were before (sons of God), and cease to be what
we always were (slaves). Praise God!

You can read the whole sermon here if you'd like- I highly recommend it! If the link doesn't work- here it is to copy and paste- http://www.fefcwichita.org/pdfsermon/2010/Adopted%20into%20the%20Family%20of%20God.pdf


Loves!!!!