This is Amazing Grace, this is Unfailing Love...

More and more I'm realizing what a strong passion God has put in my heart and the heart of my husband for children from hard places.  We LOVE being given the opportunity to love on these littles and show them a little of what God's love looks like.  I talked with my adopted nieces last night and was just in awe of the relationship God has built there and how he brought those precious girls into our life.  There are SO many stories of children he's brought in over the last three years.. my cup runs over with love for these kids.

I started thinking today about the future and wondering how God will use this passion in the years to come.  I am married to a man that is so honorable and so full of righteous indignation when he sees the "meak" hurt and abused.  I love that about him.  I can't wait to see how God molds that in him and how those passions will lead our family in the future.. orphanage work, long term missionaries, working with local ministries, starting one ... I don't know but I do know there is adventure yet to come!

This week has been a week of anticipation for us as we have been told a very important meeting would take place this week.  We've known about a sweet sibling group for about a month now and as we've learned more and more about them we've just been at peace with requesting to be considered to parent them.  We were told that a meeting would be held this week but since it's the state we know things can change all the time.  They're supposed to meet tomorrow but a time hasn't been set so we're just praying it can be set right now.  We are SO ready to get some direction and find out if these littles are ours.  

Please pray with us that we'll hear about the meeting today and that we can get a definite direction SOON!

I'm sitting here thinking about the last few weeks and honestly there have been some really rough moments.  Our dogs got into a horrible fight on Easter sunday that resulted in over $1200 in veterinary bills, my husband dealt with some shock issues associated with that fight (it was incredibly violent and bloody and he was right in the middle of it) and we grappled with our finances yet again.

I've noticed our area seems to really be feeling the impact of our crappy economy lately.  Food prices have gone up, gas is crazy and most people are carefully counting their pennies.  We have been right there with everyone else with that... literally counting our pennies lol!

This week we realized we had two outstanding checks that had not yet cleared and vet bills had killed out budget.  So we prayed and went on a $ scavenger hunt throughout the house.  We always save our coins so we dumped those and counted everything, dug through our cars and laughed our way through what could have been very stressful.  In the end we had $30 MORE than we needed and we gleefully praised the Lord for his faithfulness!  Steve and I are two spenders who have been gently (and sometimes not so gently) refined by the Lord as he's taught us how to handle that illusive dollar.  We've fallen in love with the Dave Ramsey method and proudly have paid off a ton of debt over the last three years.  We still have a lot of learning to do but God has been so faithful to provide every step!

So there's a little update on our life.. we're sometimes calmly waiting for news on kids, learning how to be grownups with our money, dreaming of adventures to come and raising chickens on the fringes...

Be blessed!

This is on repeat for me today!  Enjoy :)