Showers of LOVE!!

I have the bestest, sweetest, greatest friends in the world!! They gave me a surprise shower today.....my FIRST (baby) shower ever! When I was pregnant with Riley, about four months along, we moved from South Florida to Charlotte, NC. I didn't know a soul in our new town except the new people I worked with and they didn't know me well enough to give me a shower. Thank you SO much ladies.....it was a day I will not soon forget!

STILL waiting to hear when we will travel. It's hard to believe we passed court nearly a month ago and still have no word. These tests of patience are very tough but I know we are going to look back someday and think about what a sweet time of prayer and dreaming we had!

Uh....update....as I was finishing up this post....BIG NEWS!!! We're going to Ethiopia!! August 26th is our Embassy date. Don't know our travel dates as of yet. Oh girls......HERE WE COME!!!!

Good news......Bad news....

Good news: We got new pics of Misrak and Mistire today!!! I cannot WAIT to hold them!

Bad News: We are STILL waiting to hear when our embassy date will be. The Ethiopian government branch known as MOWA (Ministry of Women's Affairs)has decided to close for two weeks for personnel training. They are the folks that create birth certificates, visas and passports and of course we cannot take them home without these documents. We can get these documents at our embassy appointment. We will most like not hear until after July 28th as to when we can go get them. Might get to travel in August...but might have to wait until September :(

So for now.....we have these sweet faces to gaze at.

.....Your Kingdom Come....

Scriptures tell us that

Where there is fatherlessness and death,

where there is fear and violence,

where there is oppression and exploitation,

where there is racism and greed,

where there is human trafficking and child prostitution,

where there is a bloated belly and an AIDS infected mother,

where there is a contaminated wellspring and a empty library

where there is a soccer ball made only of rags and

dolls made only of straw

that is the place where we have been called.

So therefore when we

care for the orphan and grieve the loss of a loved one

when we turn the other cheek and walk the extra mile

when we stand up to the bullies and reach out to the victims

when we provide a warm towel and a fresh bowl of rice

when we pay for a $99 cent immunization and a $5 dollar mosquito net

when we invest in water filters and new wells

when we put a ball in a boys hands and a

doll in a girl’s arms

when we do all of this and a thousand other things

we are meditating God’s shalom.

This is our mission.

This is our task.

This is the story that God calls us into.

It's his story.

His dream.

His mission.

His task.

So let us be about shaping our lives around Jesus' prayer:

your kingdom come, your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven.

Gloria Deus.

Unbelievable! Unforgetable! Undeniable!

We are in disbelief.....Our family of 3 has become a family of 5! God has graciously and mercifully given us two precious girls from Ethiopia named Misrak Grace and Mistire Hope and we are SO excited to show them now to the world! Girls, we cannot WAIT to meet you. Looks like we will travel in August.