We Received Our Invitation

We received our invitation to travel to Kazakhstan today after a tiny delay. We have applied for our visas and will be receiving them sometime in the next week or so. We still aren't quite sure when we will be traveling, but it will be very soon.

Kristin and I have been in incredible awe of some of the things that God has worked out lately. Last week we decided to go shopping for boots and other various assorted travel items. Before we went into Payless, I prayed "God, we don't have much time to look at too many places, and we don't have much $$ to spend on shoes, so please lead us to a pair that will work -- knowing that men's boots are not in season right now. The first pair of boots that I looked at said "waterproof" and I said "OO, that's interesting, that's what I need." I tried them on and said "wow, these are warm". I looked down at the tag and it said "made for extreme temps up to -22 degrees farenheight. They fit perfect, they were inexpensive and they are SO warm and comfy...PRAISE GOD! Kristin also found a great pair that works and that were inexpensive, it just wasn't as much as a suprise as women's boots are in style right now.

This same night, we got home and I had a message on my e-mail from my administrator (bosses boss) at school. She said that they have been looking for someone to take my place because no one that I suggested was working out and I was getting stressed about my students learning music while I am gone. I man applied to substitute at Madison earlier in the year because His church cut his hours and he was looking for some work on the side. On his resume, it showed that he sang in 2 choirs at Cedarville (where he graduated from), sang for Franklin Heights HS choir growing up, and he's the choir director at a local church. He came in to meet me and watch what I do...I was impressed. In the process of our conversation, he told me that his daughter is a missionary teacher in Uzbekistan which is the country just south of Kaz. I about killed over...:-).

God has been slowly but surely providing the finances we need...we have enough for our first trip and some of our second, and we will need a little more to buy airline tickets for our 2nd and 3rd trip and a bit for our post-adoption costs...BUT, he's provided this entire step of the way; I'm sure He will provide now!!

We were supposed to recieve our invitation last Friday, but it didn't come in and I got really dissappointed for a while. I was so excited to get the process rolling that when it didn't happen, I got really frustrated. Kristin and I talked and she reminded me that it's God's timing...I said today that "God and I had a meeting (fight)" and we all know who wins when we fight with God ;-). After about an hour, I calmed down and God enabled me through His Spirit to trust His perfect and awesome will.

I was at Church on Sunday morning accompanying the congregational singing. All of the songs that we sang were about God providing all of our needs and one song in particular said something like "even though we don't always know and things don't always work out our way we can rest in the peace of knowing that God is in control! I was playing with a humungeous grin on my face..."Okay God, I get it..." It just so happened that Pastor was preaching about stewardship. WOW, a double-whammy. About half-way through the sermon my mind started thinking about my attitude on Friday and about the whole adoption process in general. I knew that if our invitation would have come last Friday, I probably would not have been as thankful for it, AND, and would not have payed as much attention to the message that I NEEDED TO HEAR on Sunday morning. This is what I took out of it...

GOD IS IN CONTROL...HIS WILL IS PERFECT AND BEST even though it's hard sometimes to be patient for His will. I learned to give up our agenda and our time-clock because if we expect everything to go perfect or exactly our way, we're not only crazy, but we're not leaning on the will of God. While in Kaz, I'm sure there will be times when we will need to be flexible and stop and wait on the Lord's timing instead of trying to force things on our own. I think that maybe, just maybe God wanted us to learn that before we took a 19 hour plane trip across the world and begin this process...

Needless to say, we got our invitation today and as far as we know (it's up to God), we'll be traveling soon...we're waiting on our visas.

Please continue to pray that God would give us wisdom as we travel and make decisions, and especially as we are faced with making a decision about our child. We are so incredibly excited and at this point, we're still a little shocked that all of this has happened so quickly. Please pray for our safety and for our child's safety especially while we're away from him/her. Our child is alive right now and waiting for us to come and hold them!! It blows my mind! We are so ready to travel, and we are ready to hold our child and express our love to him/her. The day couldn't come quick enough...BUT we're being patient in knowing that we're waiting for God's timing!

Praise the Lord! There's nothing else I can say but Praise the Lord!