Moving Right Along

Our process to Karsynn is now moving right along.  We received our finalized home study finally on Monday.  Receiving our home study is really the end of one step of the process and allows us to begin the next step.  We are now officially done with the original agency and have completely switched to the agency we need to be with to help us through the rest of this journey.  We now send a copy of our home study to homeland security for our I-800a application, along with about $1000 for fingerprints (because Katelyn is over 18 and has to be fingerprinted as well), for their approval to adopt internationally.  As we wait for that approval, we send our documents all off for authentication and certification with the state.  Once those all arrive back, we will finally be DTC which means our documents will be on their way to China!  That is always an exciting time because that marks the end of all the endless paperwork.

Here at home we are entering into our busy time which is also known as swim season.  The good news is that this year it is only Bradley we have to get to and from practice (including 5:30am practices) and attend meets of.  Tomorrow is his first meet.  Katelyn is flying through her first year of college already and has recently met the most amazing guy.  She is looking forward to her spring break in a week.  Brayden is doing pretty well in school and we are working hard to remind him that his hard work in school will help him in the future; he thinks his video games will.  We are looking forward to celebrating 7 years with Kennedi home with us next month and cannot believe she will be 13 soon.  We just went to Disneyland and experienced their Chinese New Year Celebration which was a blast!

Here's your Day 5 of the Seeds of Change Devotional:

"When our family stepped out of our comfort zone and into the world of adoption, our lives were forever changed.  Having personally witnessed the plight of orphans in Haiti, China, El Salvador, Africa, and here in the USA, having seen their pain and heard their heart's cry, we knew we needed to respond.  Our journey has not been easy, comfortable, or something for which we were even prepared.  Yet God was calling us to step out, be different, and start responding to the command of James 1:27 to care for orphans in their distress.

I have sat in church services with thousands of Christians, all crying for justice, saying that God is up to something-that a new "thing" is happening.  But we are staying there, in that place, arms raised high but not reaching out.  After we hear the plight of the hungry, the needs of widows, the reality of the fatherless...what?  How do we Show Hope in a world that is so desperate, a world that is truly hopeless?  How do we respond?  Beyond what is comfortable, beyond what is easy, beyond simply enough to cross it off of our list of "Christian" things to do.

If we will respond to the needs of orphans to the same degree that God responded to the need of His orphans, by sacrificing His only Son, then imagine, just imagine what could start happening.  If we respond beyond our ease, beyond our convenience, with our focus on Jesus Christ and Him crucified for us, what would start to happen?  If we respond like a people who have been given the best, the greatest gift in the world, life eternal, through the hardest sacrifice ever made, what would we do?  Would we take the path of least resistance?  Or would we throw ourselves before the Lord, exulting in His goodness and plead with Him to show us what our role is.

All of our parts are different, and I am the last to pretend to know what is right for each of us. That is truly between you and God.  But I am asking one thing.  Be willing to go beyond easy.  Ask God to have His way with your life, even if it means that He must really stretch you, really push you to the limit.  You may find yourself adopting when you thought you couldn't.  You may find yourself serving in another country when you thought you would never go.  You may get involved with the fatherless children in your neighborhood who were orphaned by divorce or death when you thought it would be too much.  I am so glad that our family has walked some of the harder roads, because the difficulties we have experienced pale in comparison to the blessings of the peace, joy, and purpose that God has given, just as Christ could take our place at the cross because of the joy that was set before him.

Really pray, and really consider the cost that has been paid for you.  Our salvation was purchased at an astronomical price, the price of an only Son.  How great is the love of God!  are we willing to share that kind of sacrificial love with the orphans for whom God has asked us to care?  Jesus called us to love as He loved because He wanted His joy to be in us so that our joy "may be complete" (John 15:10-12)."

~Mary Beth Chapman

I am always so glad that we decided we would not play this thing called life "safe".  God has sent me (and our family) on some amazing and humbling journeys that I could have never imagined going on.  Be brave.  Follow God's calling on your life, you won't regret it!