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.