What is He doing??

Want a simple answer? He is wrecking it. He is turning our hearts inside out. And the peace that comes with actually wanting and allowing Him to do this is like nothing we have felt before.
Are you ready to see what He's doing? Cuz we are pretty stinkn' excited to share it with you!!!

Rewind to the Fall of 2011, we had joined up with two other couples in our church that had the same heart for the need of an organized orphan ministry.  We took it slow, took months of praying and reading The Word.  We stood up in front of our church family that Orphan Sunday and shared how simple the call and how great the need to DO what God asks of his adopted children...pretty much pay it forward.  It's not a suggestion, it's not an "if it works for you", it's "defend the fatherless" (Isaiah 1:17).  Need more scripture? God talks about the orphan quite often through out the Old and New Testament...there's a theme going on...go find it!

Last Fall, we moved forward to defend the fatherless and started our process to become a foster family and in March of 2012 we became a licenced foster family as well as received our approval to adopt in our state.  We were anticipating a placement call right away.  But months and months went by.  Finally over six months later we started getting calls.  But every single time we had to say no.  It was nothing short of heartbreaking.  I took peace in knowing that even though I hung up the phone after just saying no.  The call went out to the next family, and with in hours, those precious ones were in a loving home.  9 more phone calls, several more months. Yet still trusting His plan. 
Finally in December we got a call to do some temporary care for another foster family.  Two little curly haired brothers joined our home for 2 weeks over Christmas break and we LOVED having them! We learned so much about pain and loving till it hurts.  We don't know what He has planned for them in the future, but we still pray for them and trust He will always have them in His care.

Just a month before the boys arrived, along with our dear friends, we had launched by God's grace, our Hope 1:17 ministry at our church. It was a glorious Orphan Sunday!!! The Spirit was moving! He still is!  Family after family shared what adoption looks like.  We heard teaching that Sunday on what adoption looks like as a child of God.
He pursued us!  It was active. It was purposeful. It was risky.

Last year, I visited with my Aunt Deb, she is actively caring for orphans around the world, and I love hearing the passion that she and my cousins have for orphan care.  She introduced me to a beautiful foster home in Asia.  I started following them on fb and reading their blog.  Their ministry to the special need orphan is miraculous.  He is clearly working there, He is actively caring for the fatherless there and the testimony after testimony is evident of His passion.

In late Fall, I read the story of a precious little baby girl that stole my heart.  Her health concerns were lethal, and then He stepped in and directed a path of miraculous healing for her.  He has a plan for her life! He has healed her! We enjoyed seeing updates on her growth and kept praying for her as a family.  We sent a special Christmas package to her, and prayed that she would be out of the hospital a 2nd time in time to be back in the care of the angels at her foster home before Christmas.  She was!!!

As weeks went by, we kept her in our prayers. Our hearts would melt when we would see pics posted of her getting bigger and stronger.  She's so stinkn' precious!!  In the middle of all this heart-melting, our small group Bible study recently started reading together the book "The Forgotten God- Reversing our Tragic Neglect of The Holy Spirit" by Francis Chan.  Nate and I listen to it on CD...
Let me put it this way. It's rocking our world.
Who is The Holy Spirit?
Jesus said, I have to go, but what I am leaving here with you is BETTER.
Do we live like that?
He is with us ALL THE TIME.
What grieves Him?
Do we trust Him?
What are we afraid of???????   And that's the big one.  Are we afraid to trust Him?
Well He is asking us to do something that many consider scary, risky.
And so a few weeks ago, Nate shared with me what The Spirit is making quite clear to him.  We've got to GO get HER.  With many tears, and much prayer, we jumped in.  We MOVED.
So we are adopting.  It's an active pursuit. It's risky.
BUT we TRUST HIM.
So here we go................. let's see what He has in store for our family.  Let's see WHO he has for our family.  We totally trust Him with EVERY detail.  And we can't wait to share with you what He does!