31 Weeks

Do you ever find yourself collecting buttons around the house that no one ever knows where they came from? In our home, I probably pick up a button every day with no one to claim it, so it goes in my button box. I have come to love buttons since they are all unique and are so colorful (especially when you have kids and their clothes tend to have the cutest little buttons!) So in anticipation of two new children in our home, (bringing two times the "floating buttons"!), we made a number "31" with all of our fun little buttons!

30 weeks and......

.....still waiting. As the kids were snacking on the left over dried fruit(papaya, pineapple and cranberries) from our granola, we decided to make a number "30" with it! Another Gladney family, the Fournet Family, just received their referral on Wednesday for 11 month old boy and girl twins, so we shouldn't be waiting much longer!! At least, I hope not too much longer!!

Yummy Granola!

I had happened upon a recipe for homemade granola that looked really good, so last week, Brittany, the kids and myself decided to give it a try. Here is the recipe below:

Yummy Granola
2 cups rolled oats
1 cup whole almonds
1 cup pumpkin seeds
1 cup unsweetened shredded coconut
1/4 cup brown sugar
1/4 cup honey
1/4 cup coconut oil

Mix together and spread over a baking sheet. Bake at 350 degrees for 30 minutes turning every 10 minutes or so.

Elijah pours in the rolled oats.....

Isabella pours in the shelled pumpkin seeds......
...then the almonds and coconut!

Of course, I didn't really follow the recipe completely as I decided to add some other ingredients that I thought would be a great addition! Since the kids love dried fruit, we added some dehydrated banana chips, diced dried pineapple chunks, dried cranberries, and diced dried papaya (about 1/4 cup of each)!
Isn't it so pretty?!

29 weeks

These are the rose petals from the flowers the kids gave me from Mother's Day last week. They were dying so we put them to good use and the kids loved pulling the petals off the stems!

So far, 29 weeks have come and gone and we continue to wait for our referral. Every day brings a new emotion in this process whether we are waiting anxiously or patiently. The idea of a new brother and sister is somewhat fading from Isabella and Elijah's thoughts. They pray for them at every meal, during our morning prayers and at bedtime religiously, but it is almost like they are aimlessly repeating a stock prayer when it comes to their "babies in Ethiopia". Then, a couple of days ago, Isabella told me she wanted 7 children but she didn't want to adopt because it takes too long. It allowed us to talk to both of them about waiting on the Lord and how precious His plan and timing is for our lives! But, it made me sad that I had neglected to realize that even though they are so young, they are being affected by this wait as much as we are.

Some days, at random times, I can hear Isabella quietly talking to the Lord asking Him to bring home her brother and sister from Africa. The Lord is not only working on us but He is shaping our children as well by teaching them to petition Him and to "pray without ceasing". During this time of waiting on the Lord it is sometimes easy to get lost in what we want or desire instead of spending this time in constant fellowship with our Lord. He is faithful and true and He will unite are children with us at His perfect ordained time! In the meantime, I will rest in the encouragement of this passage:

"The steadfast love of the LORD never ceases; his mercies never come to an end; they are new every morning; great is your faithfulness. "The LORD is my portion," says my soul, "therefore I will hope in him." The LORD is good to those who wait for him, to the soul who seeks him. It is good that one should wait quietly for the salvation of the LORD." Lamentations 3:22-26

Launch Ethiopia

I received this email about the Launch Ethiopia project from the Red Letters Campaign:

Subject: Launch Ethiopia Project

Tom Davis and Children's Hopechest are doing a conference call THIS THURSDAY, May 15.

If you are interested in what RLC is doing and the Launch Ethiopia Project we would LOVE for you to call in and have a chance to hear for yourself what is going on. The RLC representatives will be on the call and we want to hear from you.

We will be discussing the need, strategy, next steps, and the vision trip.

Time: Thursday, May 15, 9AM MDT (make sure you translate the time difference)
Conference Dial-in Number: (712) 432-1620
Participant Access Code: 1083603#

If you are going to participate please RSVP to daniel@hopechest.org

Feel free to post this on your blog if you would like to help spread the word for RLC. Thanks and I hope you can be a part of this exciting journey with us.

Red Letters Campaign

Please watch this video to learn about the Red Letters Campaign!!



I am so excited about the Red Letters Campaign!! It is a wonderful grassroots campaign that began with Tom Davis' book Red Letters: Living A Faith That Bleeds and is partnering with Children's Hope Chest! This will hopefully gain immediate and widespread attention! I am looking forward to working alongside many others who share our passion for orphans!

Tom Davis

I am not sure how many of you have heard of Tom Davis, but I had never heard of him until Brad and I started this journey of adoption. Two years ago, when we were pursuing an adoption in China through AWAA, I happened upon a book called Fields of the Fatherless that was written by Tom Davis. Here is an excerpt:

In this world you are an orphan—
eagerly anticipating your adoption as God’s child.
In this world you are a widow—
longing for reunion with your Bridegroom.
In this world you are a stranger—
a pilgrim waiting to become a citizen of heaven.
And in this world, God has called you to care for the orphan, the stranger, and the widow.

Fields of the Fatherless is a journey that brings you back to what Christianity is all about:
Giving yourself to others
Being Christ to a hurting world
And living for the one that comes next.
It was an amazing book that spoke so deeply and profoundly about orphans and my passion grew even more for adoption! One day, as I shared about this book to one of AWAA's staff, she shared with me that Tom Davis was actually her brother-in-law!! She was able to share more details about his passion and many of the trips he had taken already along with some future trips he would make all to help the people and children in suffering from extreme poverty, etc.

She told me about his vision with Children's Hope Chest and gave me the link to his blog so I could follow all his efforts! (If you go to his blog, make sure you watch the videos on the right side panel of his blog! You will be changed!) I have been following his blog for some time now and I continue to be humbled by his selfless servant's heart he has for those less fortunate than him. He has such a love for people and a determination to help them and bring awareness to others!
He has written another book called Red Letters: Living a Faith That Bleeds that was published back in September 2007. I was really excited when I watch the video promo for the book and the many excerpts I have read from this book proves to be deeply convicting and honest. I bought it for my sister when she came to live with us several months ago and I am looking forward to reading the entire book instead of just the excerpts!

I urge you to pick up a copy today and get involved with the work he is doing for the "least of these". Also, check out his blog....you will be glad you did!

"He will reply, 'I tell you the truth, whatever you did not do for one of the least of these, you did not do for me.' Matthew 25:45

Now What?

Week 28

This week I decided to look up the number 28 just for "grins and giggles" and see what I found and I found the following on Wikepedia:

It is a composite number, its proper divisors being 1, 2, 4, 7, and 14.
Twenty-eight is the second perfect number. As a perfect number, it is related to the Mersenne prime 7, since 22(23 - 1) = 28. The next perfect number is 496, the previous being 6.
Since the greatest prime factor of 282 + 1 = 785 is 157, which is more than 28 twice, 28 is a Størmer number.
Twenty-eight is a harmonic divisor number, a happy number, a triangular number, a hexagonal number,and a centered nonagonal number. Twenty-eight is the sum of the first five prime numbers, and the sum of the totient function for the first nine integers.
It appears in the Padovan sequence, preceded by the terms 12, 16, 21 (it is the sum of the first two of these).
It is also a Keith number, because it recurs in a Fibonacci-like sequence started from its base 10 digits: 2, 8, 10, 18, 28...
Twenty-eight is the third positive integer with a prime factorization of the form 22q where q is an odd prime.
Twenty-eight is the ninth and last number in early Indian magic square of order 3.
There are twenty-eight convex uniform honeycombs.

Absolutely none of this makes sense to me, but what struck me was that the "28" is the second "perfect" number (only after "6" which is the first perfect number).....Since we have already passed week "6", week 28 just seems the "perfect" time for our referral! However, if week 28 passes by, surely we won't have to wait for the next "perfect number" week seeing as it is number 496!!!

Rash of Referrals!!!

After what has been a seemingly dry season of activity in the referral department, a string of referrals brings hope and excitement to everyone!! Chris and Shasta, Christine, Zach and Erin, and Chad and Susan all received referrals this week and we are thrilled for each one of them!!!

There have been several court dates revealed (finally!!!) and several families who have just returned home with their precious cargo!! The Treat family brought home precious Samuel, Angie and Anil brought home adorable little Noah Arone, and the Roberts family brought home their gorgeous little girl, Maleah! With each little child that is brought home, our hope is renewed and our trust in the Lord's timing grows even stronger! We are so thankful that so many of these precious children are being brought home with a bright future ahead of them!

"Who has blessed us.....

....with every spirtual blessing." Ephesians 1:3

All the goodness of the past, the present and the future, Christ gives to His people. In the mysterious ages of the past the Lord Jesus was His Father's first elect, and in His election He gave us an interest, for we were chosen in Him from before the foundation of the world. He had from all eternity the perogatives of Sonship, as His Father's only-begotten and well-loved Son, and He has, in the riches of His grace, by adoption and regeneration, elevated us to sonship also, so that to us He has given "power to become the people of God." The eternal covenant, based upon surety and confirmed by oath, is ours, for our strong consolation and security. In the everlasting settlements of predestining wisdom and omnipotent decree, the eye of the Lord Jesus was ever fixed on us; and we may rest assured that in the whole roll of destiny there is not a line which militates agaisnt the interest of His redeemed. The great betrothal if the Prince of Glory is ours, for it is to us that He is betrothed, as the sacred nuptials shall before long declare to an assembled universe. The marvelous incarnation of the God of heaven, with all the amazing condescension and humiliation which attended it, is ours. The bloody sweat, the scourge, the cross, are ours forever. Whatever blissful consequences flow from perfect obedience, finished atonement, resurrection, ascension, or intercession, all are ours by His own gift. Upon His breastplate He is now bearing our names; and in His authoritative pleadings at the throne He remembers our persons and pleads our cause. His dominion over principalities and powers, and His absolute majesty in heaven, He employs for the benefit of them who trust in Him. His high estate is as much at our service as was His condition of absement. He who gave Himself for us in the depths of woe and death, does not withdraw the grant now that He is enthroned in the highest heavens.

In all my sadness and trying to somehow calm my anxious heart during this wait for our children, this morning's devotional was just as timely as it was encouraging. The very first line ("All the goodness of the past, present, and the future, Christ gives to His people.") put my heart at ease knowing that the Lord will provide as He has always done. How can I forget all the precious blessings He has given to me? And yet, so many times, I do forget who He is and what He has done for me; complaining rather than being thankful. I am slowly learning what contentment is in the Lord. I am constantly reminded of His sovereignty in all things, that He has already orchestrated things I can and can't see and that He is the true Comforter!

“He has made everything beautiful in its time. He has also set eternity in the hearts of men; yet they cannot fathom what God has done from beginning to end.”
Ecclesiastes 3:11

Laminin?

Do you know what it is? I had never heard of it until I saw this video of Louie Giglio on Emily's blog and just had to share it here as well! Louie Giglio used to lead a worship and Bible study time at the Hippodrome in Waco called CHOICE when I was at Baylor. He went on to share his passion for God's Word in Atlanta and brought together thousands of young people in a 4-day conference called Passion! He is still as charismatic and passionate as he always was years ago! Please watch this video as it is pretty amazing!

27 weeks

No news to share. We continue to wait as week 27 concludes. The kids made this number "27" with Play-Doh. We are all sad.