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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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| 7/25/2006
Can you believe July is almost over??? I cannot. That means my summer "vacation" is coming to an end. However, this week, with gymnastics, swimming lessons, and football practices going on, I haven't felt like it has been much of a vacation. But it has been good to be home to do all of those things. :) Well, we got our high chair today...you know, that was the "last holdout" for me. And I actually bought a package of diapers today...my other "last holdout". I expect anytime for that phone call to tell me there has been an error, since I have already taken the plunge. :) Seriously, I am having to rely on my old faithful, Proverbs 3:5-6, right now. It is easy to almost be "superstitious" and think things are too good to be true. But I am having to continue to rely on God that HE will direct my paths. And even if my path takes an unwelcome turn (they do that on occasion), HE is there with me. Oh, going back to the high chair, one cool thing is that it EXACTLY matches our table. It looks like it came WITH the table. Mark really wants a new table, a circle one, but that is just not financially wise right now. This high chair is an answered prayer...much cheaper and it works. I am feeling better today. I am really beginning to think that the pains in my side and back are indeed pulled muscles. I don't know who will deomonstrate the "bridge" to Maria when she is in gymnastics. It obviously won't be me. (And Lauren cannot either...she STILL cannot do it even after my high risk demonstration) Then throwing in moving furniture around my classroom...well, that may be just the reason for the pain. That or lung disease. (Not that I am really high risk, but these days you never know...) I just have to share how incredible God is. In the last week, almost daily, I have had some kind of encouragement or something about Guatemala or Maria. These are not big things, but the little things that mean so much. The many guestbook entries and "congratulations" e-mails. The unexpected gifts. Just the other day, another friend I have met via Internet through this adoption process sent me a picture of Maria. Now she is adopting from a totally different agency but through the same orphanage. I cannot express HOW neat it was that her agency took random orphanage pictures, and there is Maria, reading books. How cool is that? And just today, I received an e-mail from another friend who just went on a mission trip to Guatemala. She was kind enough to share her pictures of her trip. There were some pictures of Antigua, which is like our home away from home there...just seeing the familiarity brought tears to my eyes. Those pictures remind me of Maria. We are so eager to bring her home, yet we are not yet discouraged about the wait (well, occasionally maybe) Yet even without asking, God is there, reminding me of how awesome He is, and how central HE is to this adoption process. Please continue to pray for pink which is the FINAL step and call to pick her up. Please also continue to pray for our many friends who are waiting either to get into PGN or to get OUT of PGN. And finally, please stop by and visit Cole and sign his guestbook...he just needs a little extra prayer. His family, though we have never physically met, has been such an encouragement to me when I thought I was going to be the one doing the encouraging! Just another example of God at work! |
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| 7/26/06
Dear Friends, I hope you are having a good week, a little cooler (relatively speaking) than last week. I am worn out. If you know me well, you know I am a homebody. This week we have had gymnastics, library, errands, and swimming lessons�I come home to nap and go to bed. Not to mention, our eating habits are pretty messed up with football practice in the evening. I will say it keeps our minds busy though�well, kind of. Deuteronomy 4:7 What other nation is so great as to have their gods near them the way the LORD our God is near us whenever we pray to him? Something about this verse just reaches me today. I am glad we have a God NEAR us when we pray. I will be honest, I am a little �down� today (discouraged). We had thought we were just a few weeks (now a couple) away from bringing Maria home. I tried not to get my hopes up, but obviously, that is difficult. We have been praying for almost a year to bring her home to our family. However, today, from some information/e-mails, it sounds like it still may be a few weeks (3-6?). Sometimes I feel so close to her, but I just cannot reach her. Anyway, please continue to pray that she will come home in GOD�S time�not ours, not the governments, etc. We are just ready for her to be here with us. Well, I better finish things up here and get some sleep, or I am going to be a walking zombie tomorrow. Thank you once again for all of the prayers and kind words and the guestbook entries...they mean a lot. :) Adoption Tip of the Day: If you know others adopting, share their stories...if they are positive. However, when someone is in the middle of an adoption, don't share the horror stories you may have heard about the adopted child turning against his/her parents later in life or the adoption that fell through. Trust me, adopted parents know those are all risks...hearing them again and again doesn't make them less real. :) (I can honestly say that this has not been a problem for us, but I have heard others say it has for them...) |
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| 7/27/2006
If you think about it, I have an appointment with the dermatologist tomorrow...I am a little nervous. Still waiting for our little girl...thank you for waiting with us. :) |