Until I breathe my final breath........

Until I breathe my final breath, I will continue to bring awareness to the orphan crisis!!! November 7th is National Orphan Sunday. What are you doing to make a difference?? If you are a Christ-Follower, doing nothing is not an option! James 1:27 tells us this. Not all of us are called to adopt but all of us are called to act! If you need ideas on how you can make a difference, feel free to contact us and we will help you find a way to make a difference in the life of an orphan.

Do Something Now from Children's HopeChest on Vimeo.

Moving........

Several times in previous post I have talked about wanting to be closer to our church family. Well, God has provided a way for that to happen. This past weekend we moved into a home that we are renting for at least the next year! We are so excited about this new season of our life. This house is a perfect fit for our family. The move has been the hardest on Faith. She had a lot of great friends in our old neighborhood who she is going to miss so much. Noah has been a trooper. He is one of the most easy-going kids. As long as his family is with him, he is good!! We are looking forward to making an impact in our neighborhood and community. It is exciting anticipating what God has next for us.

So on to another way we are moving. We are moving forward and adding to our family again through adoption. We have officially accepted the referral of a little boy who was on our agency's waiting child list. This was not on the radar for us but we know that he is our boy. We saw him at the beginning of the month and took some time to pray before accepting. We will be starting a new blog that will be private at least until we get him home. We want to make sure to tell his story just as we did Noah. I will put a link to our new blog on here as soon as it is set up. In the meantime, please pray for our little guy. Please pray that he would remain healthy. Please pray for us and the children. Pray that God would prepare all of our hearts for our new addition. Also, please pray for the finances for this adoption. This is much earlier than we anticipated returning to Ethiopia. If it was up to me, I would have waited to adopt again until we had our tax return in our hands in March(we get back all the money we paid for Noah's adoption which is enough to pay for this adoption). The problem with that is that we take away the opportunity for God to show up. From the beginning of Noah's adoption, we said that this had to be God's story or we didn't want to be part of it. That is still true with this adoption. God MUST show up!! Thanks so much for all of your prayers and support. This blog will continue with updates on Noah. So here are a few new pictures of our cutie to enjoy:)

6 Months Home......Really??

Six months ago this week, we held Noah in our arms for the first time. Where has the time gone?? In some ways it seems like yesterday and in other ways it seems like he has been here with us forever! We have come such a long way since that time.

I have heard that the one month, two month and six month home marks are monumental in seeing changes with the children. I would have to agree. As we got close to the 6 month mark, Noah's language has exploded. He is understanding so much more but better than that is that he is communicating so much more. Some of that is because he knows more English but most of it is because he is more settled and feels safe. He is now expressing his feelings, wants and needs. He has quite the sense of humor and loves to make us all laugh. He is incredibly affectionate with us. At times I feel as if my heart might burst with how crazy in love I am with this kid! All I can say is that adoption ROCKS!!! The joy and laughter that has been added to our home because of Faith and Noah is worth every tear, every night of lost sleep and every penny spent!! Who knows......we may have to just do this again:)....to be continued...........

We are now in the process of moving. Two and a half years ago, God began knitting our hearts with a church community almost a hour away. I have written about our journey in other posts. In the beginning of September we had an awesome opportunity present itself concerning our housing. God opened some doors in order for us to move forward. As we have been studying what it means to be on "mission", we have begun to look at our lives in a completely different way. As hard as this is to move, I wouldn't want to be doing anything else. This season is a time a shedding for us and I feel more alive than I have in a long time. Please pray for us and especially our children. This transition is going to be hard especially for Faith but we are believing that God is at work in her heart and preparing her for the good works that He has planned for her.

So the crazy ride called life continues for us. I couldn't do any of this without the grace of God and the most wonderful husband and father I know!! I leave you with a couple of pictures.