Next

Well our last sermon series was very on track for both of us.   And the new study is "Next A Study of Joshua".    Amazing, we decided to name our new son Joshua because this whole adoption has required a huge step of faith.

Early in the process I used the analogy of Indiana Jones in the scene where he faces the great canyon but he knows he has to step out on faith and trust that something is there.   We felt like that as we prayed about this adoption.  This morning we saw that video clip as the intro into the sermon.   Faith, stepping out into the unknown.

Have you ever felt like the preacher is preaching directly to you?   We have had a lot of that lately.   A verse that really plays in for us is Joshua 3:5 Consecrate yourselves, for tomorrow the Lord will do amazing things among you.   

Looking at this today I see that Joshua was fearful of the unknown.   Several times he was told to "Be Strong and Courageous"  God was telling him to pull together his courage and to have faith.   Even Joshua needed God to tell him to have faith.   That makes me feel so much better about the days when I feel more like Jonah.   I want the faith of Joshua but now I see that he too needed God to tell him to Be Strong and Courageous.

So we are well out into the unknown.  Home study is complete, we are filing with USCIS, we are authenticating documents.   We are paying fees and making progress toward bringing Joshua home.   There will be many expenses, there will be unknowns and frustrations but we need to be strong and courageous.   We need to trust that God will provide needed finances and that He will prepare Joshua for our arrival and that He will help him bond with us and that he will understand all the changes that will be forced on him.    We can see a few steps in front of us and we can trust that He who called us will pave the way to the end.

Joshua 1:5-6  As I was with Moses, so I will be with you; I will never leave you nor forsake you.  Be strong and courageous....   Then in verse 7 and 9 he reminds Joshua be strong and very courageous, Do not be afraid, do not be discouraged, for the Lord your God will be with you wherever you go.   I wish I had gone back and read these versus a few months ago.   What a motivational talk that Joshua received.

 Well let's see what the coming week holds.   It has been a week of adoption expenses.  I have been debating funding for adaptions and feel like that will be a future blog post.  For now signing off.

Is 8 enough?

Is Eight Enough?   Interesting question.   Well for us we know that 7 is not enough so 8 it shall be.   This weekend we were at at the beach and every time it was table for 6 with us and the 4 little ones.  Well it will now be a table of 7.   Yes there will be another stocking on the mantle, another plate at the table during big family dinners, another car seat in the car.  8 children total but 3 are grown and on their own (for the most part) but yes 5 little ones at home.

A beautiful sunset at the beach.

  Another smiling face to join this crew!

"What!!! you ask?   Are you crazy?  Do I need to have you committed?  Are you opening an orphanage in your home?  Don't you know when to stop?"   "How many do you plan to adopt?"  "Are you rich?"  These are just a few of the responses we have received as we have shared this news over the past few weeks.

First of all the main reason for the delay in the announcement was respect for Aaron and Karen's wedding.  We promised them that we would not announce the latest adoption until after they had their time.   Well that time is passed so now we are talking about this news.

Now some background:   This all started back in March, our friend Carrie sent us a photo of a little girl that could have passed for Maria's twin.  We both said that if she was adoptable we would go for it.  Well as it turned out she was already locked by someone else.   So at that we thought it was a closed book.   Then in late June, Robin saw a picture of a little boy that looked a lot like Shaun.   So we started praying about adopting again.   At first I thought "No Way" I really was not wild about starting the process again.  But over the following weeks we talked about it a lot, we both prayed about it.  We prayed that if we were not on the right track that God would close the door.   However doors kept opening.   We both clearly felt God leading us to do this again.   It is hard to explain how you know when God is speaking to you.   For us it was in many ways, through bible study, prayer, conversations with people, sermons at church etc.  Back during the time we were praying about the little girl, we met a child with the same condition that our new little guy has and were able to see how wonderfully she was doing.

We reached out to some friends that had adopted a child with this condition to learn about their experience.   Before we could even talk to them they sent us a picture and asked us to pray for this child to find a family, it was the little boy we were already praying about.  We met people that had been down this road and learned so much about a medical condition that we had not worked with before.   People came into our path that were unexpected  We connected with a wonderful doctor that helped educate us.

So in July we started the process again.  This time with a new agency since they had his file and would not release it.  So far they have been fine to work with.  We are expecting our home study this week and will get into the immigration process.  If all goes according to plan then hopefully we can travel next May or June.

I guess by now if you have been following along you are just ready for a picture!  First some facts.  He is 19 months old, he has a hearing condition.  His name will be Joshua. 

So now finally introducing Joshua Collier the latest addition to our family.

Isn't he cute?

He looks a lot like Shaun.

You may think we are crazy but for us we know we are right where we are supposed to be and that this little boy needed a family and that we have room for one more.  Please pray for the process to go smoothly and quickly.  Pray for him to have good care while he waits for us.  Pray that he adjust to us quickly.  Pray for the other kids as this will mean change for them too.  Pray that all the finances required for an adoption come together so we can get him home quickly.  Pray for us to seek God's will in our lives and in this process.

So there you have it after weeks of talk about being "All In" and going where "faith is without borders"  this is our All In for this season.   Trust me we have been taken to places where it has required a lot of faith to step out on this path. 

What does it all mean

So what does it mean to be "All In"?   As I have stated previously it is often a daily decision to be all in.  It requires stepping out on faith.  It requires the faith of Joshua and not giving in to the fears of Jonah.   At times it requires just taking that first step and trusting God to shine light on the next step.

For the past several months we have been struggling with a major decision and many things we have been reading and hearing have been so timely and have spoken to us in a great way.  One of the things I heard recently was an interview with David Platt as he talked about taking the new position as President of the International Mission Board.   In this talk he spoke about making our lives a blank check and putting that blank check out before God and allowing Him to spend our lives as He sees fit.    Then today our pastor talked about this same thing and even gave us "All In" checks that we could sign and lay on the altar.   In the memo it says "Whenever, Wherever, Whatever.    Wow this is a huge statement.   Am I willing to do whatever, wherever and whenever God asks of me?  Am I truly "All In"?

 I need to fill out my commitment card and decide what I "will put down" and what I will "pick up"?   I know part of it and need to pray about the rest.

I know that whatever I put I must be completely surrendered to Jesus and continually decide to surrender to Him and allow Him to be the leader of my life.  It will require daily decisions to put down and to pick up. 

So what would you put on your blank check of your life?   Are you willing to follow where ever He leads?

I mentioned that we have been struggling with a major decision.   It all started back in April.  We thought a door was open but it was not.  But looking back we now see that it was just something to prepare us for another opportunity that would come up in late June.   So many things that we saw in April were directly related to the opportunity in June.   Often God works that way, He will give you a glimpse and will  prepare you for something that is down the road.

Well we made a decision back in early July and I had intended to talk more about it today.  However I will hold off a few more days until we get a little snag worked out.    We know that this is what we are supposed to be doing.  We know that His hand is in this and we know that He will provide through it.   We believe that there will be blessings as a result of being willing to follow but would do it without the promise of any blessings.   We know that many of our family and friends will think we are crazy.   First of all I don't recall asking for their approval or permission.    Secondly I have never really cared what others think. But I can say we are "All In" on this decision.   More on this in the coming days.

For now think about the blank check of your life.   What should be written on your check?   Are you to adopt, foster care, go into ministry, change jobs, drop an addiction, be more submerged into God's word?   What do you need to pick up?  What do you need to put down?  Are you willing to be a blank check?  How can God use you?   Be willing to get "All In" 

As full disclosure I will also state that I struggle with being all in.  I like to be in control and being all in requires that you operate on faith and that you are not in control so for me it is a daily decision and it is a decision topic by topic.  The goal is to daily turn more of my life over to Him and allow Him to be more in control.   Through these daily steps of turning over I will hopefully become more All In over time and will become that blank check that I need to be.

More on being "All In"

We continue the thoughts on being All In.

Being all in requires great sacrifice.  It requires that you take imitative.

This leads to an altered life (ALLtered).

It requires giving yourself away daily.  

A quote from Jim Elliott many times in the past but it resounded with me today.   "He is no fool who gives what he cannot keep in order to gain what he cannot lose!"

So are you all in?  What is your all in about?   I know clearly what my all in question is right now and we will talk more about that soon.   I think our all in items change depending on what our focus of the time is or what mission God has for us at the time.   But at the same time I think that All In is an attitude and that if you are willing to be all in it will permeate to all of your life and will allow God to use you in so many ways.   It boils down to being willing to surrender all.   

There is a song that goes "I give myself away so you can use me"  that has been running through my head all day today.  

I think for all of us we need to examine our attitude daily and be willing to be ALL IN!

Stay tuned for more big news in the coming days.  

Wedding Pics

here are a few photos from our son's wedding.

 My beautiful bride.

Us with our boys.

Our girls with their grandmother.

The wonderful couple.   We are very excited for them and can't wait to see how God uses them.

Changes and growth

Just a short post.   Today we gained a daughter.   Aaron married his princess Karen.  It was a beautiful wedding.  She looked like a Disney Princess, it brought tears to all of our eyes when we saw her in the beautiful gown.    It was one of the most beautiful weddings I have ever attended.  They had a worship service during the wedding.   (I will post pics soon, too tired tonight)

So two of our sons are now married and we have added two wonderful daughters to our family.

There are more changes and more news in the works.  We will have to post more about that later.  We can only handle one event at a time and must allow time for this blessed event to pass. 

We could not be happier for our son and his new wife. 

To say we are tired would be an understatement.  We had 7 kids in the wedding today from the Groom, 2 groomsmen, 3 flower girls and a ring bearer.  They all looked so wonderful but it is hard having that many of your kids in one wedding but great to see them all standing up there with their brother and to have everyone home. 

We are blessed to have a big family.   We were also blessed to have close friends and family along side us for this weekend.  Mammaw (Dad's mom) was here along with dad's sister, brother and sister-in-law so a wonderful time of reunion.   It has been a great week and a wonderful wedding.

Stay tuned for pictures and for more on being All In!  Have the faith of Joshua and not the fear of Jonah.  I pray daily for the faith of Joshua!

Being All In requires intimacy

I have been very interested in our current sermon series of All In.   It has really been timely for us in many ways and has spoken to us in many ways.  Some ways are obvious and others will become obvious to others over time.

This week the lesson was; "Being All In requires Intimacy"  A symbol for intimacy was the Yoke.    If you are in a yoke you are side by side, shoulder to shoulder, pulling together to achieve a task.  You are hooked to the plow.  You are stronger together than either of you would be alone.   This year was our 30th anniversary and I can't imagine being yoked to anyone other than Robin.  We have been side by side often pulling together to get something done.

Earlier this year there was a time when I a dominant right handed person had an injury to my right wrist.  At the same time Robin a dominant left handed person had a cyst on her left wrist.   We had both had limited  use of our primary hand.  But we teamed up and got everything done that needed done.   We helped each other and worked together to accomplish what we had to do.  Both using our non dominant hand and working together.

This week one of our sons will be married.  He will be shoulder to shoulder with his new wife.  There will be times that they will pull together, there will be times that they will pull against each other.   The yoke is their commitment to God and family to stay together and get through the bad times and to pull together to serve God.   We pray that their bond will be strong and that they will have a blessed life together.

To make it in marriage you have to be all in.  You have to consider the yoke to be long term.  You have to be all in for the duration.  "Till Death do us Part".  I am thankful that we made it through the difficult times.  I am thankful that we kept our shoulder to the task and pulled through difficulty.  

For us this week is focused on the wedding and preparing for family and friends to be here.    Stay tuned to see how this series of All In turns out.   It seems like I learn something new about it every day and see ways how it is being played out in our daily lives.