Notice

Through the examination of the basic condition of the adoptive family Wayne and Martha Mason and plan of treatment and rehabilitation for the child Ma Fang Zhou from Chengdu Children's Welfare Institute, Sichuan welfare institute, it is agreed that the adoption will be carried out through the procedure for adopting children of special needs after the submission of application documents of the adopters according to their wish.

This is the translated wording of our pre-approval to adopt Samuel. YIPEE!! I guess they like the plans we have for Sam. I am so grateful to our agency for advocating on our behalf, our family coordinator pours her heart into her work, and prayerfully put together a letter to send with our Letter of Intent and rehabilitation plan to promote us as the best candidate for Ma Fang Zhou.

After submission of our dossier they will review our complete file and then by God's grace issue Travel Approval. We hope to have our dossier complete by mid April and hope TA will come 3-4 months after that. Traveling mid to late summer looks possible. Crazy!

We are so grateful to all those who have been praying for us during this time. Please don't stop! I need constant patience and peace during this process. I need perseverance to keep up with the rest of life, homeschooling, training the little 2 year old chinese beauty, discipline to meet with God on a regular basis and to not spend too much time dwelling on the adoption.

God has been showing me so much lately how much he cares for me and my family. He is so faithful to meet us where we are and give us everything we need. All Glory to Him!

What The New Year Will Bring

We hope against hope that 2007 will be the year we add Samuel to our family. We will be sending our Letter of Intent to the CCAA this week and will be praying fervently that they will have favor on us.

I do hope to dig deeper into the Word this year.I began reading the book Simplify Your Spiritual Life by Donald Whitney. In the section titled 'Take Up Your Cross Daily and Follow Jesus" he explains "the theology of the cross" it was put in a way I hadn't thought of before, or perhaps didn't have ears to hear before.

The theology of the cross means that we get to know God and fellowship with him through our humanity, all our sufferings and struggles, all the tragedy and grief, all the things that so many people want to deny are there. The every day sufferings of broken relationships, physical pain, emotional pain, our sorrows over another's sin or our own patterns of sinfulness. All these things can bring us into fellowship with our Savior. So often we want to live for the next victory, the next blessing, because we feel that will be evidence of God in our lives and that will increase our faith. I want to find God in the opposite, in my failures, in my trials, in my inadequacies, I want to feel close to Jesus in my weaknesses.

This year I hope to embrace the struggles and to count it pure joy whenever I face trials of various kinds as I know this will perfect my faith. I want to learn more of the cross, and the sufferings that Jesus suffered so I can walk with him. I want to take up my cross daily to follow Him.

Noble words but when the trials come I will have to choose to either fall on my knees and go to the cross or rely on my spirituality, my ability to figure things out,my plans and ideas. I pray I need knee pads by the end of the year. I'm afraid choosing God's way will itself sometimes be a struggle, pride and self sufficiency rear their ugly head so often.

My first goal though is to read through the gospels. Sticking close to the word and seeking Jesus on every page and applying it to my days I hope will be a good start to staying God sufficient.
I started this morning reading Matthew Chapters 1-5.

I was struck by the faithfulness of Joseph to do exactly as he was told. God chose Joseph to be Jesus' earthly father. What an honor and privilege and he apparently carried out this roll faithfully; leading and protecting his wife and child through dangerous times.

I was also reminded of how Jesus passed the tests of temptation in the wilderness. He passed the tests that I and everyone have failed. How often do I put food or other pleasures before the word of God, how often do I tempt God by doing what I shouldn't hoping that God will save me, and how often do I desire glory for myself and idolize the things of the world rather than the creator of them.

I hope I can remember these lessons and look to Jesus when I am tempted, because HE is strong when I am weak.