One Sought Me

Haiti Trip Journal Day 4 Wednesday This morning I got up at 5:15 a.m. to get ready to paint by 5:45 a.m.  It was dark enough that I needed a flashlight but within 10 minutes it was light enough to get to work.  We (Barb, Chuck, Daniel, Brogan, and Katelyn) took the supplies from the shed over to the orphanage gate.  Just across a dirt road alley from where we stay at the guest house.  First up, the yellow trim....one swipe of the roller and the paint was thin like milk.  This could be trouble.  Further investigating to the paint container and making out what we could in reading French, the paint was water-based paint.  Not good for exterior painting at all.  So we looked at the other paints that had be purchased yesterday and yep, water-based too.  So we re-grouped and asked if the Pastor was available and willing to go to the store again.  Lincoln had gone yesterday too and said that there just was no red and blue paints at all.  If only we had the red and blue oil then I could m

Haiti Trip Day Three Journal Entry Tuesday 6:15 a.m. Rise and Shine! Read my Bible this morning in my favorite verse, Jer.29:11 but reading through verse 14 in thinking about the freedom in Christ and how bound I keep myself- wanting to be free from the shackles and walk out the door of the jail to that freedom in the life Christ offers.  So many times I focus my mind on worthless things, but today I want to focus on what the Lord will have me see and what He wants me to do for Him today. Breakfast today was very good- cold oatmeal.  I had made the oatmeal last night while making my dinner then put the oatmeal in the fridge/cooler.  First cold thing in my mouth in three days and it was great. This morning was busy as we made plans for the mural, assessed the supplies in the shed left from other work groups, and saw what paint colors we had to work with.  We measured the gate then with random supplies, mostly that we had brought with us, we sketched out the drawing.  A blessing t

6-1-14 Journal Entry Day Two There were so many moments today that I'm sure to be out of order at some point. Right now it is 6:15 p.m. and I'm sitting on the covered deck.  Dinner is about to start.  I'm waiting for the cooks to be finished so that I can use the gas stove for my meal.  Tonight for me is rice, peas and carrots. As I look over the deck I see two children walking along a dusty, course pebbled path.  One girl has a 5 gallon bucket carried on her head  She looks about 6 or 7 years old.  I wonder if she is going to get water for her dinner preparations. Back to the start of the day...after breakfast we traveled about 1/2 hour to a church in the town of Lanzac.  One of the room parents of Alex's House is the pastor at that church.  Along the way I saw goats, donkeys, and baby horses.  As we got more into a town area I saw a girl, maybe 10 years old, walking down the side of the street.  She was wearing a brilliant white dress that almost glowed from th

Dear friends!  I know it's been awhile since I've posted about our waiting for 'the call' to hear news that two children in Ethiopia have been matched with us and well, there just isn't news to share....we wait...we pray...and we see God working all around us!  When we can see and experience the blessings in the wait then I can't imagine the wonderful, God-directed things that are happening that we can't see! All is going well with movements in Ethiopia. Thankfully other families who had their referrals from the January and February time frames are now getting their court dates and will be ready to travel in the upcoming weeks!  More court dates and more children being legally released to the their new families mean new openings that the foster home for new referrals!!  We are praying our turn is soon to come. The kids have really had the referral on their minds and hearts.  For about four days straight now Buggy, our six year old, has wore her adoption

It's hard to believe that our baby is turning 4 !  When we started this adoption process he was just turning 2 when the Lord placed it on our hearts to expand our family through adoption.  Now, most likely, the birth order will remain in our family and the new little ones to join us will be younger than MJ.  Praying for news but as we wait we enjoy our family size of 6! Today we were working together in preparing for MJ's birthday party.  MJ is a fun-loving, active boy who loves to laugh and make others laugh.  For his age he is very coordinated and plays soccer, dribbles a basketball, and can run all over the Wii U game system!!  Above all, even beyond soccer, this little fellow has a strong sweet tooth!  He loves sugar anything!  So when we were brainstorming party themes we landed on the thought of a candy party.  Little bit of searching on pinterest and bam!  Here we go Candy Land Party!! So far we have been making decorations and today we baked the cake.  The tie-d

I'm soooo excited that several of our friends through our adoption agency are now in the traveling stages!!  Just recently there has been a swarm of court dates issued and several families will be visiting Ethiopia for the first time to meet their new children!  Thrilled and excited for them! Though I'm not a super traveler expert by far, but I did want to share my travel list for my recent travels to Haiti.  During the trip and the ins and outs of the airports, I was constantly taking mental notes and thinking of what my next travels would be like when going to Ethiopia. So for the sake of my traveling friends in hopes to give a few tips, I'm sharing this post with a detailed travel list, ideas, and tips for packing for international travel. It all started out with this!  A huge unloading of my closet where I have been collecting travel items for months! Slowly but surely I added items for travel, with helped spread out the costs too. The medicine pack:  I

5-31-14  Journal Entry Day One Today pictures came alive.  All of the images of a third-world-country joined real life faces and places.  Haiti is not what I expected.  Although I've only drove through over an hour ride from Port au Prince to Kalico Beach, I do not see what I thought.  I thought I would be torn with sadness at the sites, smells, and sounds of the dire straights of poverty.  But instead I saw women and children, boys and young men.  I saw families together: women combing and braiding their children's hair, men watching their children play -  Neighbors talking and families working at daily tasks of cooking, laundry, and cleaning.  I saw a different kind of community.  God gave me His eyes to see the beauty of people being people. Upon arrival, the airport wasn't as dirty and gloomy as I thought.  We had a difficult time with the luggage and had to tell many men 'no' to wanting to help with our luggage.  They were looking to help in order to get a