Rollar coaster again...

We will not be leaving on Saturday to pick up our boys. The paperwork did not arrive today as it needed to for us to be able to travel this week.

So we need to wait two more long weeks...

Adoption is hard and painful but in the end it is a beautiful reflection of what God has done for me.

Trusting in his never ending grace for me...

Falls Pics

Where is Adie?

She is not always into trouble when I wonder where she is.

Meet the Larsen Boys

We passed court - And it was only by the grace of our God! From what we've heard of the story, people drove through the night, offices opened when that were closed, and even the program director was amazed how all of our details came together. Thank you for praying! God loves to answer the prayers of His people.

We'll share more details as they are confirmed. We are thrilled!

So, now that they are legally ours, let me introduce you to our boys:

Titus
Silas
And, Jack!

We'll be traveling THIS SATURDAY to get Silas and Titus in Ethiopia. Jack will be arriving in January. What a miracle! What a day! What a Savior!

Here it comes again...

The emotional roller coaster has begun...up and down and all around...loop de loops and a whole lot more.

Tonight in the middle of the night is our 3rd court date for our little guy. They have found his Dad and he wants to give up his rights. The reason he disappeared in the first place was he thought that he was going to have to take him back if he showed up to court.

We need to pray that he really shows up and the judge grants us the privileged and joy of raising this precious little boy. Then - we need to be on our knees that we can still have the Embassy date of Nov. 5th. Only God can do this all!

I am giddy with anticipation. Join with us in prayer tonight especially if you are awoken in the middle of the night. God needs to move mountains in the next 24 hours which I am believing he can do.

In the end, no matter what happens, God is God and he is infinitely good and working for the best of my family. He is the only one who knows the future and he is creating something more beautiful than I could ever imagine.

If we still get to leave on the 31st, we would arrive back late on Nov. 7th. The next day is Sunday which is National Orphan Sunday...how amazing would it be for our first Sunday back to be that day!

Praying!

Water for Christmas

I have a blog friend who along with many others started Water For Christmas. They partner with Charity Water. They are working on building wells in Africa so that everyone can have safe clean drinking water. It is pretty much amazing.

They also set up an Etsy site...check it out! Buy your Christmas presents while supporting well drilling in Africa! I love supporting a cause while accomplishing something on the home front (like Christmas presents:) Many people have done this with Adoption Wings and I am truly thankful.

"But these things I plan won't happen right away. Slowly, steadily, surely, the time approaches when the vision will be fulfilled. If it seems slow, wait patiently, for it will surely take place. It will not be delayed." – Habakkuk 2:3 (NLT)

“It is inconceivable to think that God would give us so much to do that we can no longer spend extended time with Him.”

(Gordon Smith)

I found this on another friend's blog...ooooh it is so good for me!

NEW COURT DATE!!!!!!

It is set for Monday. I simply can't believe it!

I am bursting with excitement. There is still a small chance that we could travel on Saturday. But I am believing that God wants us in Ethiopia! God is so good and merciful. It is only by HIS power that these boys will be adopted into our family.

I read this in church on Sunday and it has been with me all week. It was actually verses beyond what the pastor was preaching. I have to be honest, I wasn't paying attention to him at that moment. I was drawn to this verse and read it over and over and finally had to underline it.

"Therefore, the LORD waits to be gracious to you and therefore he exalts himself to show mercy to you. For the LORD is a God of justice; blessed are all those who wait for him." Isaiah 30:18

One of the lyrics from a song that day was..."strength will rise as we wait upon the LORD..."


Thank you for praying...keep it up because so much more needs to happen!

My girls

Role reversal happened this week. Lydia and Adie wore matching outfits instead of Grace and Lydia. Adie was tickled pink knowing she matched someone - can't you tell from her face. I actually had to wash their outfits last night so they could match again today.

Story time with Daddy

Down to the wire

Great news - they found his Dad

Bad news - he can't make it to Addis in time for tomorrow's court date.

New prayer request: Pray that God would be merciful and give us a Friday court date so we could still travel the following week.

Prayers

We have two days until court.

I still don't think they have found our little guy's dad. He really needs to come to court because this would be the best way for us to pass on Wednesday.

There are MANY obstacles in our way at this point of getting on the plane in 12 days! I can't list them all, but trust me if you were sitting in my kitchen drinking hot chocolate with me, your eyes would grow large once you heard it all. But this all the more reason to only trust in God. At the end of this adoption journey our boys are going to be able to look back and realize that it was all about Jesus. He wanted these boys in our family and against all odds they will be adopted into our family.

Today I am keeping my focus on how God adopted me into his family and how I am forever his.

Pray for boys and pray for me that I will be a good mom here to my three girls and that I am ever present when it feels like half my heart is on the other side of the world. Also, I know of another family who has court today. Whenever you think about adoption, pray for all the forever families that God is creating that day!

The "NEW" family room

This morning when I woke, the whole family was in our room.

Last night Lydia had an accident in her bed so she crawled into the toddler bed that we keep at the end of our bed. (I can't remember if I have blogged about this before or not, but our room is huge and so we keep the spare toddler bed at the end of our bed to keep little munchkins out of our bed. It works great for when there are nightmares, sick ones or whatever they can come up with in the middle of the night.) The toddler bed works awesome for Grace and Lydia, but Adie, well, she won't sleep in it. She needs to be right in the middle of us...surprise, surprise.

Last night, she wanted me of course and I tried to ignore her for awhile to see if she would fall back to asleep on her own. Nope...she was by Carl's side of the bed in a few minutes. Instead of bringing her back to bed, he let her crawl in and sleep between us.

Now a couple of hours later, Grace woke up with nightmares. Carl tried to put her back to bed, but she was a little delirious. He grab her blankets and put her on the floor because Lydia was already occupying the toddler bed.

This brings me back to all the kids in our room when I woke up. It was precious to hear all of them breathing in the early morning. I couldn't help to let my mind wander to the boys and wonder what they were up to. Even though they do not reside at our house, they are forever on my mind and in my heart.

Feelings and life goes on

I wanted to first of all say Thank you for all of your prayers, phone calls and encouragement. Yesterday was hard.
But today is better because God's mercies are new every morning. I am not saying that I haven't cried today, but I am saying that there is a peace within my tears.
When I talk about the boys, I naturally tear up because so many emotions come to the surface. Yesterday I was hit hard by the fact of all the loss that they have experienced in their short little lives. Having to wait a week to find out if they are both forever ours is a spit in the bucket comparatively. I just want to kiss them goodnight, snuggle with them and tell them that they are loved unconditionally and will be apart of our family forever! Who wouldn't want to do this for their child? And we waited so long for this court date that it was a big blow not to pass, but God is in control and so we trust and wait some more.

So here is what you can specifically be praying for the next 6 days.
- that his Dad shows up to court - best case scenario
- if this is not possible that the relative can have safe travels back and forth from the hometown- which I am told is 10 hours one way and that she can get the piece of paper needed from the police department.
-the judge would have mercy on our situation and pass our little boy through court
- no paperwork would be lost
-for BFAS (our agency) that they would endurance - there are a lot of families with court dates and details can be overwhelming.
-Lastly pray for our boys that God would unite their hearts with ours and that he would do a miraculous work in and through them.

And if I see you on the street or at church, be prepared that I will cry. I can't help it...tears flow very easily right now- which is God's way of making me weak, humble, honest, vulnerable and totally dependent on him. I won't be giving you the Christian answer of "good" or "fine" when you ask, "How are you doing?"
____________________

On a completely different note. I haven't posted anything lately on my youngest who will soon be ousted from her queen bee role around here.
I found her the other day with a the whole loaf of bread in her mouth. I laughed so hard and ran and got the camera. Her response... "I hunree." She wasn't pleased when I took the picture. She is notorious for swiping a piece of bread from the cupboard, but with homemade bread...there are no slices, so naturally she took the whole loaf. As for the coat and hat? I have no idea why she is wearing it...I don't question what she wears as long as she is dressed.

Thanks Bets for the link.

my heart breaks

One boy passed court and one did not.

I can't stop crying...

We have another court date next week Wednesday. His dad did not show up for court and the court wouldn't let another relative relinquish him. So now this relative has to travel back 10 hours to the town and see the police to get a report stating the dad disappeared and travel back to Addis for next Wednesday's court date.

This is the hardest journey I have ever been on.

Less than 24 hours

I am giddy...excited...nervous...overwhelmed...and everything in the middle. I have so many emotions running wild inside of me that I feel that I should jump up and down and run a marathon to get them all out. There are moments where I seem that I might just burst...in a good way. I am honestly excited for whatever happens...in the end God is going to get all the glory and I have to trust. Trust that he is working for my good. Trust that He knows best. Trust that even if they don't pass tomorrow that they will in His perfect timing. Trust that He is stretching and molding me to be more like him.

So with that being said, in less than 24 hours we will know if the boys are forever ours.

Prayer for Wednesday

5 days and counting until our court date...

I am trusting God's best for our family. As a woman it is so hard to not obsess over it. Thoughts permeate my mind constantly all the while I am trying to channel them into prayers. I want to have the childlike faith of my girls - I seem to have guarded my heart trying to prepare for the "what-if" situations, but that is not how God wants me to live. He wants me to wholly abandon the worldly scenarios that I play in my mind and to fully trust him.

Adoption is the most mentally - emotionally exhausting thing that I have ever done, but I wouldn't change it for anything. It has taught me so many things about God's character. It has brought a deeper understanding of God and who he is and what he has done for me through adoption.

I wanted to be able to share with the boys all the people who prayed for us. Would you leave a comment with your name and state in which you live? Then I can put it on a map for them to see God's people uniting at his throne of Grace. I know I will be blessed right now and they will be blessed in the future when they can understand.

"Rejoice always, pray without ceasing, and give thanks in all circumstances for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you." 1Thessalonians 5:16-18

I feel so dumb!

It was my night to pick up the kids from RAD (Wednesday church for the kids). I carpool with my sister-in-law.

Well, I arrive at 8:30 thinking that I am right on time to realize that it was done at 8:00.

I felt so completely dumb! Of course they were the last ones there and had already called my husband to see if I was coming. I don't embarrass easily, but tonight I was!

So thank you to the leaders who stayed late to watch my kids...I am really sorry!

Can I live

Wow - this is a great music video. I have no idea who Nick Cannon is or what he stands for, but this will make you think.

More prayers...

Grace came into the kitchen and said, "Mom, wouldn't it be great if God gave everyone in our church the heart to adopt? Then there would be maybe 20, no 30, no maybe even 40 less orphans in the world."

We prayed right there that God would awaken our church and that their hearts would be open to adoption.

How glorious would that be if there were 40 less orphans who lived right here in our little town? I love how God has opened her eyes to His heart.

God answers even small prayers.

I have been praying for an over abundance of apples. Yes, I know it is a small prayer, something that might seem unimportant to most, but I know God cares about all my desires no matter how small. I put a request in our church email - it went out this morning and would you know by noon a dear woman called from church saying I could have ALL of her apples. What to know what makes this even better? I never prayed about what kind of apples, but my favorite is the harrelson apple. Yup, you guessed it...she has two trees full of them.

This was a good lesson for me this morning because so many times I get caught up in my "big" prayer requests that I forget to pray for the small unnoticeable everyday activities of my life. I need to pray more without ceasing and I need to pray aloud so my children can see and hear. It is easy to be a closet prayer, but if I never pray out loud for my kids to hear, how will they ever learn?

I wish you all could hear Adie pray for our meals. Sometimes she can go on for minutes at a time praying for her brothers and for her sisters and mom and dad. And no matter what her prayer is about, she is thankful that she was able to go swimming with her mommy. (I think I need to take her more often.)