Haitian Giveaway

Hi All ~

I LOVE following blogs - and I follow ALOT. So much that I think my husband wants to throw the computer out the window sometimes :-)

I've added a link to a blog that I follow quite often. This is a gal from MN!!!! She is an amazing lady with a BIG heart for the children of Haiti. She is working on starting her own 'home' for children infected with HIV. She wants to give them a loving, nurturing environment.

She is thinking of creative ways to help her raise money for her new adventure. Please go over to her website and check it out!!! She has some pretty amazing Haitian art to giveaway!!! Go quick though because it ends tomorrow!!! (Oops - I meant to get this done sooner!)

http://www.becausehecalled.blogspot.com/

The Big Questions...

Why did THIS have to happen?

Why are things not going how WE had planned?

How is THIS supposed to be used for God’s ultimate plan?

Why does God allow THIS to happen?

These are some very common questions I’m sure many of us have asked ourselves and God at some point in our life.  Cory and I ask some of these questions a lot – and we are trying to learn how to STOP asking the question. Asking the question doesn’t matter. Life happens, and you move on. Sometimes renewed – sometimes heartbroken and shattered. Sometimes you know the answer and find clarity– other times you grasp trying to find an answer so you have something to hold on to. Stop asking the questions...

Instead – ask God to give you the peace you need to keep going. Ask him to give you the wisdom and the courage to rely on him. We will never understand it all – so why do we keep trying?

The past few days (…weeks…years), our hearts have been very heavy and we have been asking some of these same questions.

* Cory’s dad has his scan on April 11^th, and we did not receive the news that we wanted. The cancer spots on his liver have grown, and he has also gained new spots.

* My brother continues with his chemo treatments.

* Today we received an email that the other little girl that we had in Haiti also passed away. Both girls that we loved with literally all our hearts are now in the arms of Jesus.

* We have struggled with ‘unexplained’ infertility for over 3 years.

* There are many others with illnesses, broken hearts, and unforeseen circumstances.

So many instances to start asking the questions of "Why" . We can sit here and yell, asking the same questions and still not understand anything – or we can move forward  with confidence. We likely won't understand, but we know that God is with us as we take our next step.  We don’t know what tomorrow will bring but we have our time right now. Our hearts are heavy…but we continue on…because there is no other choice.

The one thing that I keep thinking back to is the book Heaven is for Real. If you have read it, I’m sure you know what I’m talking about. If you have not read it – READ IT!  I was just talking with my sister-in-law last night about that book. Reading it gives you such a sense of peace. A peace about dying – a topic that is often too difficult to talk about.

I know my father-in-law has been heard making the comment “I win either way” in relation to his cancer. If the Lord decides to give him many more years on Earth, he wins by being able to spend more time with his family. If the Lord calls him home, he wins by being in eternal heaven forever – waiting for the rest of his family to meet him there. He wins!

It’s hard finding out that our 4-month old and 1 year old girls in Haiti have died - it hurts with words that we can’t describe. But after reading the book Heaven is for Real, I just keep picturing baby M. laying peacefully in Jesus’ arms – with her little smirk smile that makes her look so peaceful. Hearing the news today about our other little girl passing away hurts too, but again I picture baby A. sitting in Jesus’ lap, giving him her little sassy scream and smile! Our trips to Haiti really opened our eyes to the precious time we all have in our life. Life may be short – or it may be long. We have no control – just the choice to love with all our heart everyday of our life that we have.

Ups and downs

Cory and I keep plugging away with the 'paperwork' phase of the adoption. We had our homestudy visit on Tuesday at our house and it went really well. This should hopefully be our last homestudy visit, and now we just wait on our social worker completing the paperwork. Then we will submit it to our agency, who will likely want some changes (usually inevitable :-)   - but it is better to get the language accurate now so we don't run into snags in the future!

Once we get the approval from our agency on our homestudy, we work on submitting our 1-600 form into the United Statesd Citizenship and Immigration Services. They are essentially giving our adopted child permission to enter the US. So still some running around to do!

For some clarification, we do not have a referral of a child yet. That could be years away at this point as there are still so many changes going on and no one is really sure of where they will go. Once we get all of our paperwork submitted and approved, we will get put on the child waiting list. Hopefully we will get monthly updates on where we are 'unofficially' on the list.

Other than that, life is just going on as normal. We are just anxiously awaiting for spring to arrive! I LOVE warm weather!!!

We ask for prayers again for Cory's dad as he heads down to Rochester tomorrow for another scan. Hoping that the chemo is shrinking the cancer in his liver! We also ask for prayers for the children and volunteers at Children of the Promise. They have a nasty little bug going around, and we have found out that the little girl that we had on our last trip, passed away on Thursday. Our hearts are broken... This little girl was being adopted by a Haitian couple and they were literally just days away from taking her home.