In the Beginning

"No eye has seen no ear has heard, no mind has conceived what God has prepared for those who love him." 1 Corinthians 2:9

Welcome to our blog! I am so glad that you are here! This is where we will record details of a journey which will once again takes us across the globe to China to welcome another precious son into our family. It is a journey that we have taken once before and we can't wait to be awestruck by the creativity of God as we follow Him on this path to our darling little boy.

So, let me start at the beginning which actually is 17 years ago when I became the wife of the most amazing man. Little did I know that on the day I became his partner in this life that I was beginning an adventure that would be filled with so much excitement, intrigue, fun, surprises and yes, sadness, all to bring glory and honor to the One who made me and calls me His Own. I haven't always been a willing participant and I fail miserably every day in the tasks He has called me to do but as I sit here today I am thankful that He is patient with me and has chosen to bless me beyond all my comprehension. I have to admit that it all didn't turn out exactly as "I" had planned and I am so glad it didn't! Gods ways are always so much higher and greater than ours!

Now back to the "beginning" .... shortly after our marriage we began the fun of trying to start a family and after many years of "trying" God delighted us with a son. I didn't birth this beautiful baby boy but God chose him for us and brought him into our family by way of adoption. That was almost 13 years ago and how honored and awed I am by God that He would have thought enough of me to allow me to share in the miracle of receiving Cody as my son. Over the course of the next 5 years we had the incredible honor of receiving two more precious babies by way of the miracle of adoption. In 2000, God gave us another son, Connor and in 2002, a baby girl, Grace entered our family. Each of their adoption stories are evidences of how God reaches into the lives of humans and brings about the most beautiful things even in less than perfect circumstances. The weaving together of our family was a process that wasn't always easy but resulted in the most incredible works of art I could have imagined. Take a look at these beauties....

As I basked in the joys of being a mommy to these wonderful children our world came to a screeching halt on October 31, 2003 when our son, Connor made his unexpected journey to Heaven as a result of an accident at our family home. This event set our entire family to the depths of indescribable grief and despair. As we walked through the valley of the shadow of death we clung to a God who we know loved us and long to bring us out of that valley and give us gladness instead of mourning. Through our healing, God gave me confidence that He longed to bring "beauty from the ashes" and that despite the pain and suffering engulfing me, He would return us to a place of joy. Those promises came very slowly and there were little nuggets discovered along the way that furthered the fulfillment of that promise and little by little we began to feel the healing. A golden nugget that God offered us came in the form of a suggestion by our son, Cody in the summer of 2005. God moved upon the heart of an 8 year old little boy to plant a seed in the mind and heart of his parents. After viewing a video at Vacation Bible School about orphans he announced that he thought we should adopt an orphan. This was such a shock in that throughout our adoption experiences we had never considered an international adoption. Cody, Connor and Grace were all three domestic adoptions orchestrated prior to their birth by private attorneys and were fairly easy processes. therefore we had never explored another option. This announcement altered the trajectory of our life and led us down a path that would take us to China in 2007 where we would once again experience the touch of a Holy God through the receiving of a baby girl. Our hearts were impacted in ways that human words cannot express through the process of bringing Emily home and 3 years later we are still standing in amazement at how God has used here to bring "beauty from the ashes" in the life of our family. You can read about our journey here.

Since bringing Emily home the life of our family has been filled with new adventures. We have encountered life changing medical diagnosis's for our son Cody, retirement for my husband, cross-country moves, homeschooling among many other things that have been quite a shock to the system of our family yet in the midst of upheaval, God was at work in bring about another miracle in us. Stay tuned....there's more to come!