One Year Closer

This is our 'One Year Closer' anniversary. We got on the waiting list with our adoption agency exactly one year ago today and began a wonderful year of waiting on the Lord for Marlee Joy to come home! I wanted to come up with a list of some of the blessings this year has brought as we've been on this faith journey...
1. obvious building and growing of our FAITH!
2. learning about and deepening our PRAYER life!
3. watching MYLES grow in his knowledge and excitement of adoption, and just growing another year bigger!
4. having so much fun watching God PROVIDE for our adoption financially!
5. being ENCOURAGED to press on by our wonderful faith family and friends!

This month has been no exception! I've been praying (along with many of you) for 9 baby girls to be referred to their forever families this month and I have watched God do amazing things! Our agency has opened up a partnership with another orphanage full of waiting kiddos! We have seen SO many children matched with families in July-though they've not been all baby girls, it's been only a movement of God that He has been so gracious to show us His power! I'll be anxious to tell you what our official number is on the last day of July (hopefully!) since I have no clue yet where we are :) I'm certain we have moved 9 spots down though!!

Marlee,

On this one year closer anniversary we are encouraged that God has a perfect timed out plan for us to become a family. We are waiting on the LORD to bring you home and we have really loved praying for you, watching our family grow in our faith, seeing Myles excited about his 'brown baby sister', and receiving so much grace from the Lord to press on in the journey to you! We've been standing on His promise that 'those who wait upon the Lord will renew their strength', and we will be united! We love you so much already!
love,
Mommy, Daddy, and Myles man

Pennsylvania Picures

You've missed the best part if you ever visit PA and you miss seeing a Lake Erie sunset :) Myles and I loved skipping rocks while we waded in the water during the sunset with Nana and Papa (mom and dad)


We went to a fourth of July parade and it was about as exciting as Myles face here...

but he also got to ride a dragon!

We love having campfires and making smores!

Myles was kinda obsessed with his 'kingship' while at Nana and Papa's house ;)

We got to visit the farm and my sweet cousins-what a treat! This was so good for my soul :)


And Myles got to play his first round of 'tut tut golf' as he calls it...and now he is obsessed! He asked for it everyday and so we finally took him again the last day we were there! We LOVED our visit to PA!!

Double blessing

Isn't this double rainbow awesome! We took it last week one night during the week it never stopped raining ;) It was two perfectly bright arcs right over our neighborhood! It was the sweetest blessing to see, and I think just a precursor to more blessings to follow. Our heavenly Father LOVES to bless us when we seek Him, and I've got to tell y'all a story about our latest 'shower of blessing'!

I've been letting this blog post ruminate for about a week now and when I think of what I want to say, I'm still at a loss! I'm humbled. I'm grateful for God's promises and provision. I'm thankful for our church body and encouraged by their support and love. well, here goes...

Last sunday evening we were invited to a small group get together from several couples/families in our church. I thought it might be the perfect time to say 'thank you' to Michael for all of his hard work he's put in to ministering to the people of Pinelake these past 10 years. His '10 year anniversary' was in april of this year, but it was CRAZY this spring as we were short staffed and preparing for Easter. So I thought the summer would be fun to get some people together and surprise Michael with some appreciation. These amazing families were all about it, and they went to work inviting even more folks and organizing food etc! As we gathered in the living room to let Michael in on why we were all gathered, one of the small group leaders started talking to me in front of the whole group and explaining that they had all been selling homemade Mexican blankets to help support the Mexican orphanage that our church partners with. (as an aside,; I knew that they had been doing this). What I didn't know, was that they had increased the price on the blankets with the hopes that they could also bless someone else from this project-they just didn't know who it would be. This very same small group leader who never gets on facebook, 'just happened' to get online and saw some friends of mine supporting an adoption through the profits of their business, then he saw a post I had put up under theirs with my blog post about our family doing an adoption fundraiser (our garage sale). He said that when he saw that, he knew he was supposed to give US the extra money for OUR adoption costs!! The group presented us with a sweet card and the money and I was just crying! Michael knew they were going to do this for some time, but wanted them to surprise me! :) Then I turned around and told him that we were so grateful for HIM and all his hard work at pinelake and our fellow staff said some sweet words too. They gave him a cake, a pack of mountain dews and homemade oreo balls ;) they know him well! It was awesome. Those sweet folks may never know how much it all meant to both of us. Let me just encourage you to encourage your pastor whenever you feel the holy spirit's leading because it's a tough road sometimes! Another cool part-the amount of money they gave us was the amount we needed to finish paying for our referral fee! That's the $ due when we are matched with our daughter and will probably not happen until this time next year...but you never know! We have been praying this month for 9 baby girls to be matched to their forever families, and we have some exciting movement news to share at the end of this month so stay tuned and keep praying!!!

New Number

So We got our June 2012 # finally over this past weekend and we also just returned from our trips this past weekend (Michael in NOLA, and Myles and I in Pennsylvania) We moved one more spot closer to Marlee Joy than last month, and I believe everyday is a small step closer! For last month we are officially #79! And I know of several referrals that have gone out already in the last days of June and first week of July that are putting us lower and lower :) I'm praying a bold prayer this month-that 9 baby girls would be referred out in July! This isn't just selfish to move us down to 70, but my good friend, Alison is at #9 on the list and I've been praying that she would get a referral before the rainy season court closure in August...would you PRAY with me?! This would also bring a referral to my sweet friend Jenny, and she would have a girl! (ok, that girl part is kinda selfish:) I also have a friend, Katie, that I've met during this adoption who received their referral for their son, and just got back from their first trip to Ethiopia! I am praying for their next appointment with embassy, and for all the preparations they are making to welcome a 5 year old boy into their home! I'm learning how to pray them home. Speaking of home, check out this sweet pillow my friend Katie got me with 'home' on it for Marlee's room! I've been so spoiled with encouragement over this journey-but I'm not complaining-Thank You!!