Tickets are booked and confirmed!

It's official . . . we fly out May 14th, on Naomi's birthday. Can you believe it? This is the quickest International adoption I have ever been part of. We were able to call Kristina yesterday and tell her when we were coming. She is so excited and ready to spend time together. We are very thankful about everything that has happened from the moment she stole our hearts, right up till now. Even though our vacation time is now not going to work, we know the Lord will make this all work out how He wants. We will continue to have faith in His ways, for He sees the entire map, and we only see one step at a time. We are thankful the kids are being well taken care of by family and friends and can stay at home. We are thankful our friends in North Carolina got their travel date today and are coming right behind us by one day . . . so we will be able to do things together over there! Thank you Lord, for Your plans for our family.

INVITATION!!!

We woke up this morning to email with a copy of our invitation to travel to Ukraine. We are glad we waited (although not as patiently as I would like to think) because our facilitator said the woman could change the dates, and she did. We don't care though, because God's timing is perfect in every way! We will be having our first appointment in the Ukraine on May 17! Praise the Lord! Now off to spend the day organizing all the details, because now Jon's vacations are not going to fit correctly. Please keep praying for provision with us, as now Jon will have to have unpaid time to travel. Also pray UPS will work with us on his vacation dates. Maybe we can get them changed. This in itself will be a miracle! ;0) Have a blessed day!

Shout to the LORD, all the earth;
break out in praise and sing for joy!

Sing your praise to the LORD with the harp,
with the harp and melodious song,
with trumpets and the sound of the ram's horn.

Make a joyful symphony before the LORD, the King!

Psalm 98:4-6

PRAISE THE LORD . . . and Thank You!!!

We made it through the yard sale weekend. It was as good as a yard sale can be. We drove into town Friday morning to set up around 5:30 AM, and was blessed with a beautiful sunrise. We prayed that the Lord would hold off the scheduled rain until after 3:00. At 3:00 the slight drizzle began and as we got everything back in the garage, the showers began. Thank you Lord!
Today, Saturday, it was so beautiful for an April day. The sun was shining, the breeze kept the bugs away, and stuff sold! WE are blessed and happy to report that we, together with all your help in donations, raised $1950.00 this weekend.

As I reflect on all we have been doing, and all the prayers and support we have received, I am still in awe of how GREAT our God is. He asked us to move on Kristina's life, and in doing so, He has been faithful to show us how. What seems impossible to us is always possible for Him. We are still not at the goal yet, but know He has a plan He will reveal in His timing.

We are counting down to two weeks until travel day. Can you believe it? What we thought would be a long process has come down to starting in Feb. and leaving in May. Our fund raising efforts had to become more intense. We do ask that you pray about if the Lord has put it on your heart to be part of bringing Kristina home. I can honestly say this is His church family effort, and each part, whether big or small, has made a huge difference in the life of this child. Since our hot tub still has not sold, we know the Lord has other plans for raising that $4000.
If He is calling you to be part of this miracle to this 16 year old, you will be a huge blessing. I can't wait to see all the Lord is doing through this trip. It appears we have an opportunity to make a difference in a community that needs a "light" right now.

Thank you again and may the Lord bless you and your families with all He has for you.

ADOPTION YARD SALE!!!

Whatever it takes! We said when we started, we believed God could make this all happen if it is His will, and Jon continues to repeat, "God is seldom early, but He is never late!" Thank you all, the Spaghetti Luncheon brought in $3000, which will purchase our flights over and back for the first trip, and maybe more depending on if we need to change the return date once we are there. This was such a blessing, not only the funds raised, but the volunteers and the love and support shared with us that day. It was refreshing and such a blessing.

Now, we have a few days to get this yard sale together. It will be held Friday and Saturday in Bangor. We are in need of tables! If you have any we can use, please let us know. Also , any donations are welcome. We also will be selling some soda and cookies if you would like to add to the "bake sale" table. WE will have signs up sharing about Kristina, and the adoption, so tell your friends to come. We are swamping out our home the next few days, and then we hope that Thursday, we can be in town to have donation drop offs. I haven't even checked the weather yet, I just want to pray it will be good.

The Lord has been faithful to give us just what we needed right when we needed it. We are trying to walk one step at a time, and He keeps giving us just enough encouragement to strengthen us for the next step. We should be hearing sometime this coming week what our travel date will be. Please keep us in prayer, and feel free to share this blog site, or facebook posts to let people know we are praying for $4000 to come in before travel day. I know God knows where it is coming from, and we will do all we can to bring as much as possible. We still have our hot tub for sale if you know anyone who might want it. God bless you and more updates coming soon.

Remembering and celebrating Patrick's life . . .

Today, I am taking time out to remember Patrick Grover, a wonderful man, husband, and father, who went home to be with the Lord on Monday this week. My Scripture today was:
And whoever does not bear his cross and come after Me cannot be My disciple.
Luke 14:27
Patrick is a disciple of the Lord. He followed the Lord, and shared what he knew with others. Although he will be deeply missed by many, we want to spend today celebrating the blessed time we had to know him, and look forward to when we will meet again in heaven.
I will remember his hat! He always looked like he was heading out on some new adventure. And I will always remember his love for his wife, but mostly his son Isaac. My sons are friends with Isaac, and we enjoy having him stay with us. We know how much his dad loves him (used loves because I believe that doesn't stop through eternity), and cared about his best interest at all times. And Isaac, if you happen to read this, I want you to know that sharing stories is such a blessing. It is a gift your dad had, and you passed one on to me the other day. Now, whenever I hear the rain on the roof of my car, I smile and think about how much Patrick loved to hear that, and I think of you, and how you like the rain. It is a special connection you had with Patrick, and now it makes me smile as I think of you both.
Today is the memorial service, and although it will be difficult because we will all miss him, and we all feel the pain of his family, we will celebrate that he is with Jesus in heaven, with no more pain, no sorrow, and no worries. Please join me in praying for his family today and the days to come.

So Blessed . . .

Yesterday was our Spaghetti Luncheon, and what a wonderful day! We were blessed by all the donations to this event, but what was really special was to see the mix of people that came out on a Saturday afternoon, to show their support for Kristina and our family, but mostly for adoption. We had a mix of old friends, new friends, friends from our old neighborhood, and people we just met. We had family, including a special family that Jon considered his "second home" growing up. This "mom" brings Jon almost to tears every time he sees her, because she is so special to him. What a blessed day! We send a heartfelt THANK YOU to everyone, and an extra special THANK YOU to all our volunteer workers who put so much into making this go smoothly. Praise the Lord, the event will purchase our airline tickets for one trip! That is sooooooo AWESOME!

We are in recovering mode today. We will go to church, and try to relax while also getting the house in order the best we can to tackle the beginning of this coming week. We know we need to move right on to the big yard sale, since our travel date has been moved up to May instead of June. We lost 5 weeks of fundraising, but get to see our daughter much sooner! I believe the dates for the yard sale will be: April 23-25

We also hate to see it go, but are trying to sell our hot tub to help with expenses. It is in great shape and has been well taken care of. Here are some photo's if you know anyone who might be interested. We are asking $4000 but will pray about offers.

As we spend today grateful for the work we see God doing in our lives each day, and the lives of others, I will leave you today with words from my Stormie Omartian calendar:

Surrendering everything means being willing to say, "Lord, whatever You want me to do I'll do it. I say yes to anything You ask of me, even if it means dying to myself and my desires. I will give up the things of the flesh that I want in order to have more of You in my life." This attitude of surrender means putting God first and submitting to His rulership. And it makes all the difference in our lives.

Isaiah 55:9

"For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are My ways higher than your ways, and My thoughts than your thoughts."

Wow, what an amazing week! It is very unusual for an international adoption to move so fast, but God has a plan, and we have believed from the beginning, since we were not out looking to adopt when Kristina found our hearts, that His plan was way bigger than anything we could imagine. And since we did not have the funds for this, but believed He was telling us to do it, that He would show us how to make it work. Well, He is continuing to show us His power because suddenly we went from an earliest travel around June 12th, to looks like May 12th! That just knocked 4 weeks off. I am so excited, I can't believe we will get to see her in a few short weeks. We are still waiting for the final official travel information, but this is amazing in every way.

We want to thank everyone for all you are doing to help bring Kristina home. I can't believe she may be with us for the 4th of July this year! That was one of my dreams. You have helped us raise over $3700.00 already. We now need to raise another $4000 in 4 weeks in order to travel to the Ukraine and complete this next phase. Please, pray about what the Lord may be asking of you, from a pledge, to just helping spread the word of this need, to prayer, or ideas to share with us. We are doing all we know how to do, and are seeking God's wisdom and strength to push on till the end. We still have a hot tub for sale and will take offers. We were asking $4000 for it. We will be putting together a big yard sale if you would be able to help in any way. As soon as the spaghetti event is over Saturday, we will focus on the yard sale. I hope to see you all on Saturday!

AWESOME MISSION: It appears we will have an opportunity as some of the first Christian Americans to be involved with the orphanage. We are beginning to see more of what God might have planned for us and others. The kids are in need of shoes! We are trying to collect 160 - 200 pairs of shoes before we travel. If you have any interest in taking on this mission, we would love help. Also, we may be seeing a missions group of workers going to help build new showers for sanitary purposes as well as repair or replace windows at some time. If God is putting a trip like this on your heart, please contact us. It would be a two week trip most likely. Please keep praying for God's will to be done in His purpose for bringing us to the Ukraine.

Have a blessed day!