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| If you return to the Main Page, we hope that you will sign our guestbook. We hope to share the encouragement and kind words with Maria someday. |
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| 4/1/2006 Happy April! I hope you had a fun-filled April Fool's Day. I endured the typical "jokes" by my children. "Mom, there is a desert behind you." "Mom, we are going to Guatemala today." A laugh a minute, I tell you. :) I have never been too big an April Fool's person, so I am glad it is almost over. Well, except we have to lose an hour of sleep tonight. I am not looking forward to that. :) Nothing to report here. Of course, it is the weekend, so there isn't typically an update. You can't help (or we can't I should say) that we might hear something. We did get good news on a Saturday once. But it is pretty rare. We did have a "moment" today. I sent in some of Maria's recent pictures to Walgreen's to be developed (via Internet). I had gotten an offer for a special free 8X10. I decided to blow up one of her recent pictures (very similar to the one at the bottom of this page), since we don't have any bigger pictures of her. I had Mark pick them up. When I pulled it out, we both teared up. She is so beautiful. We knew that of course, but seeing it on that picture...and it was nearly lifesize since she isn't that big a girl. It was almost more than my heart could take. It is so strange to me to think that she has NO idea how much our hearts yearn to have her here. As far as she is concerned, we are just these strangers who whisked her away for a 24 hour visit, talked funny, and snapped lots of pictures. We hope someday she will grow to love us even a small percentage of how much we love her. I am sure I have used this verse before, but it just works while we sit here and wait. Psalms 39:7, "And now, LORD, what do I wait for? My hope is in You." Even though our hearts are aching a little from missing our daughter and not having any kind of update, our hope is in God. If we didn't have that...I just cannot even imagine what life would be like. I sometimes feel like I am in a raging sea of confusion and endless waiting, clinging onto my raft (a.k.a. hope in God). It is the only thing keeping my head above water. Thank you, God for that hope. Thank You for Your faithfulness to not only Maria but me. And thank you that NO matter what hapens or when it happens if it does, You are MY God and love me, comfort me, and guide me. I just have to share a funny story. Last night Lauren and I went for a "Girl's Night Out". Since my boys don't really like to eat Mexican, she and I decided to enjoy a fiesta at a local Mexican restaurant. We talked about how similar the decorating was to Guatemala. We enjoyed the live music that played while we chowed down on chips and queso. On the way home, Lauren commented about the crescent moon. I asked her if she thought it was neat that Maria can see that same moon we do. She was in disbelief that Maria could see it so far away. (Apparently in Lauren's mind, only Arkansas gets the moon each night :) It really made me stop and think. She is far away. And with the adoption process, it feels REALLY far away. But God still gave us both that one moon...we can both see His glory each day. Happy Sonday! |
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| Maria, June 2005 |
| 4/2/2006 Dear Friends or whoever is reading this (it is SO interesting watching the "visits" number each day. We either have a lot of visits or hardly any at all...and I can't figure out the pattern yet :), Hope you had a good day. Any day we can go worship God as a family, I am happy. I found myself once again thinking, "You know, God, if Maria were here, we could be worshipping with her..." Then I have to remind myself that 1) that is a form of manipulation and 2) God knows what is best for Maria...and apparently right now it is NOT being with us. You have to be careful about asking God to teach you...He will daily. :) Okay, today's verse seems to fit the kind of helpless/dependence on God we are feeling...Psalms 42:1, 5 "As the deer pants for the water brooks, So pants my soul for You, O God. Why are you cast down, O my soul? And why are you disquieted within me? Hope in God, for I shall yet praise Him For the help of His countenance." We are just panting for God. We desire to see Him, to feel Him, especially in this situation. We cannot do one thing that will speed up the process, nor can we control any portion of it, like whether our paperwork has been submitted for preapproval. All we can do is Hope in God. And praise Him. Not because we get results we want. But just praise Him for who He is. Now, doesn't that sound strong and mature? Remind me of that on Wednesday when we STILL don't have any news. :) Okay, as we enter Monday and a new week, I have a few specific prayer requests if you just feel led to pray. Pray that I will have the stamina to make it through this week. This week is Parent/Teacher Conferences which means two late nights of conferences and speaking with 19 families. And I have good students...I am not hesitant to share their child's successes with them. It is just exhausting. And hard on me as a Mom. Also, please pray about our final decisions regarding travel. We have been all ready to book the tickets, then I read a little bit about some of the crime in Guatemala (which I made the mistake of reading the last time before we left) and I cannot help but worry. But we so long to see her and have our children see the world Maria is in. Please continue to pray that our preapproval (whether we are in the Embassy with paperwork or not) will go QUICKLY and that we will receive the e-mail this week. Holy Week is next week, so we would love to have some progress before then when work ceases for a little bit. And please continue to pray for the timing of Maria's homecoming and our acceptance of it. Finally, please pray for Maria, pray that her heart is preparing for us as a family, for the transition to the US, and that we will be led daily by God as her parents to fulfill her role as a family, but also in some of the issues that can go along with adoption. We just pray for God's wisdom...Thank you for being a blessing to us! |