Update on Pastor Willi

He was moved into a room over the weekend. Finally out of ICU!! In an email I got from his wife, she says that he is speaking almost in complete sentences and the speech therapist said that he was a miracle! He is still very weak and hasn't got his appetite back yet. So please keep him in your prayers. God is so good!!

A great way to start a long weekend!

Can you believe I got my passport back already?!? I just sent it off the beginning of last week! I think that's a world record or something! I was a little bummed that I didn't get my old one back though. I had almost filled up every page with stamps and it just seemed like a little bit of history to me. But my new passport will represent new beginnings and I hope my first stamp in it is the one that brings Flor home!


EDIT on 5/27/08: I ended up getting my old passport in the mail on Saturday... :) yay.

no news yet.

They say "no news is good news".

It has been three weeks and one day since I was fingerprinted by immigration. I haven't received any response from that yet. But I go to the mailbox faithfully every day expecting whole-heartedly to see a letter from them. And every day when walk back home from the mailbox empty handed, I lift my head and thank God, and say to myself, "there's always tomorrow".

Mom's night out

I love getting together with these girls! Our little group is growing. Last time it was just Melodie, Amy, Laura, and I, but this time Meredith (Ethiopia), and Staci and Gracie (Guatemala) were able to come as well. It is so encouraging to hear from each other, our struggles, our praises. To know that we are all going through (almost) the same situations, day in and day out. They are such a gift from God!

And just in case you didn't know already: we are mothers in waiting; expectant mothers; pregnant on paper. We are mothers with all of our hearts. Just in case you didn't know.

URGENT prayer request

Please lift up a dear family in your prayers tonight and whenever you pray! A pastor of one of the churches that supported me faithfully through prayers and donations while I was in Guatemala had a 4-wheeler wreck last night. He started responding today by squeezing his family's hands and the swelling of the brain stopped overnight thankfully. Please pray for Pastor Willi... (God will know who you're talking about!)

Happy (late) Mother's Day!!

Well, I'd like to wish you all a very happy mother's day (late)... I had a great weekend of relaxing on the lake with friends. I got a sweet "Happy Mother's day" text message from Gino yesterday and several calls and emails. It is so cool... and surreal to think that it is true. I am a mother.

Mother's day is always hard without my mom here. I miss her so much it is impossible to even begin to explain. It is always hard hearing friends talking about what they are doing for mother's day and what they're buying their mom's for mother's day.

She was a very special lady who I am so grateful to have as a mother. She was just plain ol' nice. Nice, nice, nice. I miss her laugh. So bad. Like, sometimes I just try really hard to remember what it sounded like. I can definitely see her face when she laughed, but I have to really try hard to remember the sound. Memories can make me laugh and cry at the same time, which is amazing. I wouldn't bring her back from where she is for anything, but I sure wish she'd be here when Flor gets home or when Gino and I get married. I hope none of you ever take for granted your mothers. Tell them how much you love them and spend as much time with them as you can!!

sweet video

Please go see this video that some fellow parents have made for all of us adopting in Guatemala...

Carry you to Jesus

How sweet it is to know that YOU are bringing our children to the feet of Jesus with your prayers. Thank you.

PGN on hold for a month

I'm sitting here reading about PGN closing down for a month. Apparently the new leaders have decided to interview all birth mothers from all cases currently in PGN. Making sure they are the true birth mothers, that they were given no incentive, why they gave their child up, and to let them know that they still have to right to change their mind. Flor's case is abandonment and she wasn't even in PGN yet, so I'm not really that it wouldn't affect her at all in that way, but it definitely will delay all adoptions. I'm not sure how long. I'm not really sure that I will notice a difference. Hopefully by the time I get my INS approval, get my three remaining documents authenticated and sent to Guatemala, everything will be rolling again!! Pray with me that it will not affect me getting my girl home. I know that God's hands are all over this. I pray that he touches the hearts of the attorneys and judges in charge of these cases.

The king's heart is like channels of water in the hand of the LORD; He turns it wherever He wishes. Proverbs 21:1

It's really amazing to me how this sort of thing doesn't really faze me very much. I'm so thankful for the faith that God has grown in me to trust in Him with all that I am. I know in the very depths of my own heart that Flor is my daughter. Bottom line. Period. There is no question. It's not a matter of how long is this going to take, it is a matter of God's timing. There's nothing that can stop Him. No man. No government.

This is the same God who created the universe. He created man. He grows babies in their mother's wombs. How much more of a miracle is it that He brings a baby from across the world to her mother in His perfect time?!? That is nothing to Him, but it is everything.