God, what are you doing?

It was wonderful to have time to pray this morning, to spend time with my precious Lord. Lately, with all that has gone on with the house, there have been times I have felt so far from God. I have been praying yet, my mind so FULL of the cares of this world, have not felt I have met with my Abba. I am grateful for this time to "let go" of all that has been heavy on my heart and listen and remember my love for my KING.

As I prayed I felt God wanted to show me something about our next child. HE led me to:

Psalm 72

1Give the king thy judgments, O God, and thy righteousness unto the king's son.

2He shall judge thy people with righteousness, and thy poor with judgment.

3The mountains shall bring peace to the people, and the little hills, by righteousness.

4He shall judge the poor of the people, he shall save the children of the needy, and shall break in pieces the oppressor.

5They shall fear thee as long as the sun and moon endure, throughout all generations.

6He shall come down like rain upon the mown grass: as showers that water the earth.

7In his days shall the righteous flourish; and abundance of peace so long as the moon endureth.

8He shall have dominion also from sea to sea, and from the river unto the ends of the earth.

9They that dwell in the wilderness shall bow before him; and his enemies shall lick the dust.

10The kings of Tarshish and of the isles shall bring presents: the kings of Sheba and Seba shall offer gifts.

11Yea, all kings shall fall down before him: all nations shall serve him.

12For he shall deliver the needy when he crieth; the poor also, and him that hath no helper.

13He shall spare the poor and needy, and shall save the souls of the needy.

14He shall redeem their soul from deceit and violence: and precious shall their blood be in his sight.

15And he shall live, and to him shall be given of the gold of Sheba: prayer also shall be made for him continually; and daily shall he be praised.

16There shall be an handful of corn in the earth upon the top of the mountains; the fruit thereof shall shake like Lebanon: and they of the city shall flourish like grass of the earth.

17His name shall endure for ever: his name shall be continued as long as the sun: and men shall be blessed in him: all nations shall call him blessed.

18Blessed be the LORD God, the God of Israel, who only doeth wondrous things.

19And blessed be his glorious name for ever: and let the whole earth be filled with his glory; Amen, and Amen.

20The prayers of David the son of Jesse are ended.

The verses in red are the ones that stood out to me as I read the passage. I was struck by an overwhelming impression that our next child would come from severe poverty and drought. I reasoned, "Viet Nam is a developing nation and it has impoverished areas", but deep in my heart I knew the only place we would see that poverty was in Africa. As soon as the thought came up I dismissed it my heart. Hadn't God told us we were adopting again while we were in Viet Nam? And we were so in love with that precious country and it's people...

Heading South

We heading down to Florida to visit friend and family and to go to a Christian girls conference. We stopped in Atlanta for a couple of days to let baby rest (she HATES being in the car) AND give the girls a chance to go the American Girl store (I REALLY need stock in that company, LOL!)

So what's up with the adoption? Well on our way down to Atlanta all Samuel and I could do was talk about that sweet baby boy!!! We hope to have some extra time to pray and get direction while we're here.

Money, money, money...

Well with all this "talk" of adoption we are in "trusting" mode with finances. We are seeing God bring in money and need to see HIS hand bring in more quickly if we are really to adopt anytime soon.

The present obstacle is that we must exceed by 125% the federal poverty level for not 6 but 7 family members (it has to include the new baby, member number 7!!!). Not sure still if it is gross, net or adjusted income. Never thought we'd be looking at the poverty level but here we are blessed to be trusting God to bring in the finances through the business He led Samuel to start. Ok you know what is really crazy? That our poverty level is more than some families will see in a lifetime in other nations...

We know God is going to work all this out. After 4 miracle children we know HE is faithful, sovereign and omnipotent. If HE indeed placed this baby boy in our hearts then HE will make a way!!!

Are you in Viet Nam?

We really had a great experience with both agencies (home study here in NC and placement agency in Oregon) we used for Amelia's adoption. After dealing with a few not so great agencies (putting it mildly) we were so blessed to find them and HOPE we can use them both to bring Evan home.

I am keeping up with the placement agencies yahoo group and thngs are getting crazy in Viet Nam. The US embassy is investigating more adoptions and is not approving all VISA requests for entry to the US. Though there can be corruption anywhere in the world this issue is really about cultural differences between the VN government and people and how our government want things done. Well, I am getting butterflies in my stomach and wondering if Evan will be in Viet Nam after all.