Saturday, December 26, 2009

In God's Time

Are you wondering why there haven't been any posts? Honestly, I've been a bit distracted. I guess God is showing me that everything is in His timing. We haven't had a chance to work on the international paperwork lately. I had the flu, our computer was down,and Seth was sick with a fever,rash and irritability. As all this was going on, I struggled with discouragement. However, I am realizing I need to remind myself,"My times are in Your hand".Psalm 31:15

God has blessed me with 3 amazing children. They need me, and I need God to equip me to parent them. Being there for them and spending QUANTITY time with them is what's most important. As I glean from God's Word, and faithfully be the mom He has allowed me to be, everything else will fall into place. He knows there is a little girl in the Ukraine waiting for a mom and a dad, so He will be our help in the busy times. For example, an important letter needed to be sent to the Ukraine requesting Irina's adoption status. I forgot about it, but my Helper didn't. A family, who is adopting from the same orphanage, called us asking if we wanted to send the letter together and split the shipping cost! Then, we were helped again when our friend drove to down town Chicago to get our letter properly stamped with an Apostille. Let me tell you, if I had to drive to Chicago to get an Apostille, the letter would still be undone!!!! Oh, Lord help me learn to rest in YOU!! Thank You, for Your encouragement, and for working through willing vessels. Thank you, Jesus, Lewis family and Mrs. Traci!

Thursday, December 3, 2009

So Busy

WOW! It has been really busy around here. We finally finished everything we needed for our home study!! Yeah!! We are just waiting for approval from the state. We will hopefully be sending out our I600A form tomorrow, if my printer will cooperate. Now, we begin tackling the international paperwork. It's overwhelming at times, but my husband put it all in perspective tonight when he said,"It's all for her freedom." That blessed me so much. I've never thought about it like that!
We now have an online coffee store set up to help us raise money at www.justlovecoffee.com/Allens. Our store is called Heart's Desire Coffee Shop. Check it out to see what God is doing through Rob Webb. He is helping families with the cost of adoption, while helping to support the coffee farmers. I have heard it is really great coffee!!!