Five Days Until....

So five days until we board a flight headed to Ethiopia and seven days until I get to kiss ........


Him!

Gensis 22:14 The Lord Will Provide

I was planning on writing a blog today about my son's love story. My desire is to honor him and Mallory and the way that they have walked out their relationship. Also to brag a little about what great kids they are. I will have to do that on another post. This next post is a long one but if you need encouragement concerning the financial aspect of adoption, please read this.

Today I want to brag on my God!! From the time that I accepted Christ back in 1994, God has continually blown me away with His provision for us. This started almost immediately. When we first began following Christ, we were so far in debt that we could barely pay the bills with both of us working full time. As we began to read the scriptures we realized that we needed to tithe on our income. I remember fighting this so strongly but Doug stepped in and said that this was what we were doing. At the time, our pastor told us that he really had no idea how it worked but he saw time and time again where people stepped out and tithed in faith and God provided. So we jumped right into the deep end of the pool. I would have started with 2 or 3% but Doug insisted on 10%. From that day forward, we never missed a bill. Not only that, I was able to quit my job and stay at home with my children. We got into military housing with only a 3 month wait. It normally was a 2-3 year wait. We also paid off all of our debt.

So you think that right there would have convinced me that God would provide. Unfortunately that was not the case. God had put on our hearts in 1994 the desire for more children. It was not a possibility for this to happen physically without a surgery. Through many tears and years of laying it down, God provided a way for us to add to our family. This came through the foster care system. There is so much to that story but right now I just want to focus on God's provision. When we were getting ready to finalize Faith's adoption, I had to go to a meeting through the county about receiving a subsidy. At the beginning of the meeting I raised my hand and explained that we probably did not qualify for a subsidy because we had a healthy , Caucasian baby. The leader asked me a few questions concerning Faith's birth family. Because of their history, Faith qualified as special needs. This totally blew my mind. We then found out that we would receive a monthly subsidy for her until she turns 18. This also just so happened to be the year that the adoption tax credit would be applied to special needs adoptions. Therefore, we didn't have to pay a dime to adopt Faith. We would get a monthly subsidy and we would also get a tax credit of around $12,000 spread out over about 4 years. Unbelievable!!

Fast forward to Noah's adoption. When we started this adoption, we only had enough money for the home study but we knew that God had called us to this. We knew that He would provide but had no idea how. He provided every single penny through so many different ways. People who hardly knew us helped in ways that blew us away. We are forever grateful for all of their sacrifices for us. God used a hail storm, a fund raiser, cookbooks and a grant from Show Hope. Now we just found out that the tax credit has been increased to $13,170 and instead of being spread over 5 years, we will get it all back when we file our 2010 taxes early next year. So all this to say! God is the one who came up with the idea of adoption. It cost Him the life of His son in order to adopt us! I can say with no hesitation that my God WILL Provide!!!

Single digits...9

Nine days until we are getting on the plane headed to Africa and our boy! Everyone has asked how we are doing and so far we are doing great. I think that we have everything that we need to take. Hopefully tomorrow we are going to pack everything that we will not be using so that we make sure that we can take everything we have. It has helped that we have had a ton of things going on. Last weekend was the shower for my future daughter-in-law. I am so grateful for her! She has been and will continue to be a great blessing to my son and our family! This weekend we will help her move into the apartment that they will be living in after they get married. A friend wrote to me last night that he couldn't wait to meet Seth's wife. As I read it, tears streamed my face. These past 21 years have flown by and now he is getting married. WOW!
Faith seems to be doing ok with the fact that we are leaving. Please pray for her as we prepare to leave. She is so excited for Noah to come home that I think that helps prepare her for our leaving. She has a rough time when Doug leaves for his 24 hour shift. My mom and sister will do a great job keeping her busy. She also gets to have a sleep over with Mallory the night before we come home so that gives her something else to look forward to. Plus I bought her a present to open for every day that we are gone.
Please continue to pray for us as we prepare to leave. Can't wait to share pictures of the newest Robinson in our arms. One last thing, we are picking Noah up on Easter! How appropriate is it that we will be starting our new life together on a day that we celebrate our new life in Christ! Once again I can say without a doubt that God's timing is perfect!!

13 Days but Who's Counting??

13 days until we leave on a jet plane. Some days I feel as though I am going to burst with excitement and then other days I am asking myself what in the world have we gotten ourselves into. This weekend is crazy with a fund raiser for some friends today and then a shower for my future daughter in law tomorrow. Things should slow down a little this week so that I can focus on getting all of our bags packed with the supplies we are bringing for Sele Enat and Drawn from Water.

This morning I woke up to something that increased my excitement to get to Africa. Here is a short video of the cutest little boy in Africa.


http://sharing.theflip.com/session/ea43e9e37868909d3e5cccc42c49270d/video/11762192

Humbled by People's Prayers for Us

I saw this message today in an email for a church's prayer requests:

Please pray for Doug and Monica. In about a month, they will travel to Ethopia to bring home their child Noah. Pray for safe travels. More importantly, pray for Noah, that he falls madly in love with his new mommy and daddy, that his life will be of service to God, that he will flourish and grow with his new family. Pray for Monica and Doug as they see their child for the first time. May there be an undeniable bond between them, that all the legal stuff will go smoothly, and that they will raise Noah to fully know Christ.

It was incredibly humbling to know that people are praying this way for us!! Can't believe that we leave in 15 days!!

My Love

The past week has been a rough one. The stress of the upcoming trip and all the ups and downs of waiting for our embassy date has taken a toll on our marriage. This morning I decided to start my date with being grateful for the man God has given me. I took some time to rehearse all that we have been through in the past 24 years. Here is the list:

1.A 3 week courtship. Yes we were crazy and yes it is an act of God that we are still together:)
2. A long-distance engagement.
3. The death of my grandmother a week before our wedding.
4. Wedding (enough said)
5. Purchased a home
6. 6 month Mediterranean cruise
7. Pregnancy
8.Birth
9.Pregnancy
10. Birth
11.Several surgeries
12.Dive school
13. lots of dive jobs
14. near divorce. This happened a lot but we were in the process in 1994 until God intervened
15. Becoming Christ followers
16. Homeschooling
17. The death of my beloved Grandma
18. Move to Ohio
19. Unemployment
20. Job as a firefighter
21. Foster care
22. Paramedic school
23. adoption of Faith
24. putting our oldest daughter in public school
25. Starting our international adoption
26. Both of our older children moving out
27. Planning a trip to Africa

Add in a number of health problems, changing of churches, loss of friendships and I am amazed that at the end of it all, we love each more today than yesterday. Please enjoy this picture montage of us through the years. I am amazed once again by God's mercy and kindness to us through the years!

Make an on-line slideshow at www.OneTrueMedia.com

So Much Happening

There has been so much going on the past week that my head has been spinning. At the beginning of this process I had determined that at the end of it I wanted to reflect Christ more. When I asked for that I knew that would mean that the fire would have to be hotter in order to burn off the dross. I was essentially asking for trials. They have come so that my faith, of greater worth than gold may be proved genuine and may result in praise, glory and honor when Jesus Christ is revealed. I do believe that this has happened. My God is worthy of all praise, honor and glory! He has answered the prayers of this momma's heart. When I became a believer someone was praying for our family. She said she saw a little boy who looked nothing like us and he was one of our children. I have never know how that would play out until this past December when I saw our boy's face. We now have a son who looks nothing like us but I do believe that as he grows up, he will reflect our heavenly father. I hope that as he sees Christ in us, he desires to look like him!

So here is what is happening. We have a confirmed embassy date. We will be together with our son in a little over 3 weeks. We have every dime that we need to travel. We got an amazing deal on tickets. We are flying Emirates and that makes this girl who is afraid to fly feel a lot better. We are hoping while we are there that we will be able to meet with Noah's birthmom. Please pray that this happens. We would love to be able to thank her for her selfless sacrifice.

Here is how you can be praying for us:
1. Please pray for us as we prepare to travel. Please pray for Faith that her heart would be prepared for us to leave. Pray for me. I am not to fond of flying and flying over the ocean just scares the poo out of me! Please pray that we would be able to get everything done that needs to be done in order to make our homecoming less stressful.
2. Please pray for all of our friends who are in the process of adopting from Ethiopia. There are big changes happening right now in the country. They now are requiring two visits to Ethiopia. This is an added expense but also takes a toll on the families and children emotionally.

Thanks again for all of your support and care. I have to give a shout out to all my girls in our Yahoo Group. Ladies you are the best!! I never could have done this without you! I really hope someday to meet each of you and your beautiful children. For those of you waiting for court, embassy dates, etc... I will love on your children and whisper to them that they have families who love them and are coming soon. I must say that this is the best agency and the best support group ever!

We have confirmation!!

We have an appointment with the Us Embassy of Ethiopia on April 7th, 2010. We are so excited and cannot wait to travel. I will write more later but for now we are getting ready to celebrate!!!

I have to Believe

I have so much to say today but no idea where to begin. So here are a few things that are happening. The first thing is that we got to see the video of our boy finding out about us! It was precious. He just has such a sweet spirit. We can not wait to get him into our arms. We are believing God for the perfect timing of this. That leads me to the next thing that is happening. The Department of State is making some changes to the process after court and before our embassy date. We really do not know what this means for us right now. Our travel could be delayed. We are praying that that is not the case but are trusting that God knows best! You can read more about what is happening here.
Also today was my shower. I will devote a separate post to that but it was amazing. The support from my family and friends during this process has been amazing. This is going to be one loved little boy. So please pray for us as we continue walking this journey. Please pray for us to hear soon about our embassy date.

Travel Detour

I am taking this post to detour for a short time from our travel plans. Last spring we went to visit my in-laws in Florida. On the way down we had the great pleasure to stay with some dear friends in Charlotte. While visiting with them I felt the Lord spoke to me that we were to mobilize for movement. When we left Charlotte, we had what turned into 13 more hours in the car. Doug and I began to talk about just what that might mean for us. The first thing that I started with asking was what would keep us from movement. One of the most glaring things was our consumer debt. The second thing was our mortgage on our house. During our stay in Florida we began to pray about what steps we needed to make to make mobilization a reality. We knew that getting out of debt was the first priority. Not only is being in debt unbiblical, it is also unwise. So we determined that all of Doug's second income from mowing was to go to paying off debt. We made a ton of progress and then God put a halt to it for a season while we pursued Noah's adoption. As soon as mowing starts up again in the spring, we will be able to continue with paying it off and be debt free by the fall. Praise God!!
We also have been praying as to what God would have us moving towards. Since we came to the Lord in 1994 God has placed in us a desire to walk out our faith in fellowship with other like-minded believers. Over the past several years of really not being in a church God has clearly shown us what that is to look like. We have experienced this is in small ways throughout our years of walking with Christ but over the past year the conviction for this has grown even stronger.
In February of 2008 some dear friends asked us to visit a church about 45 minutes away. They told us it was a safe place that we could go and just worship and hear the Word preached. Isn't it sad that we had to look for a "safe place"? Shouldn't all churches be that?? Sorry, I digressed. Over the past several years Doug has developed a great friendship with the pastor of this church. We love him and his family. As we have seen and heard all that is going on here, a hunger has grown in us to be a part of this body.
So you maybe asking why I am sharing all of this. Well, the reason is because we would covet your prayers as we move forward in this direction. When we began the process of adopting Noah, God said for us not to look at the entire financial picture but to do the next thing. Each time we just did the next thing, God showed up. So that is what we are doing. We are doing the next thing. We have 4 weeks until we go to get our sweet boy. During this time we are going to be getting our house ready as if we are putting it on the market when we get home from Africa. We have decided that if the transition home goes well and we still feel the Lord pushing us forward, we will put the house on the market. If for some reason God closes the door, I will just have a really clean and organized house which will be a blessing. So please pray that we would:
1. Have wisdom to know exactly what money to spend and not to spend to get the house prepared.
2. For us to be able to have joy in the process. If at any time this detracts from our family life, we will put things on hold. We have decided that we do not want to miss out on anything this season has for our family. We want to enjoy Noah's homecoming and Seth's wedding. That is our priority right now.
3. Please pray for us to continue to hear the clear voice of the Lord.
Thanks so much and I will update the next post with more about our journey to get our son.