To Him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or even imagine…. to Him be the glory.
It seems that only His word is able to truly suffice in expressing our thoughts towards your support in the last 24 hours. The outpouring of love we have received has been a most humbling experience. I cannot seem to relay many of your messages or emails to another without emotions interrupting such. I can only thank you for how you have been obedient in allowing Him to use you…it has drawn us to the Lord even more so and allowed us to truly be in awe of Him and His goodness.
We have longed for days to have a tangible answer from the Lord in regards to His path. And though we have seen glimpses of this along the way, yesterday was such a gift to us. Oh how I await the day we see a picture of the child He has prepared for us, but as for today, the printings of your emails and messages will suffice for the physical gifting from Him.
We are astounded that since sharing, we have already been given 25% of what is needed to bring that little South Korean cutie home! Praise be to God.
From our depths, we thank you.
I am confident of this, I will see the goodness of the Lord in the land of the living. Wait for the Lord: be strong, and take heart and wait for the Lord.
Psalm 27:13-14
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“My endurance has perished: so has my hope from the Lord…But this I call to mind, and therefore, I have hope: 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.” Lam. 3:18, 21-25
There is such value in one’s story. I am amazed by how the Lord shows that to each of His children. Our story is none more important than another’s, and my prayer is that I am able to fully give testimony to all the ways He has been evident, faithful, and good to us in ours. His Story has sustained our own daily, really moment-by-moment.
Truly the gift of life guiding us in our journey to a new little life.
Our journey to adoption seems to have begun long before we were even aware. The ways the Lord works on our behalf without our knowing is something I am constantly amazed by. Sometime in the beginning of our journey of going to the Lord on behalf of our longing for a child, the Lord gave me Romans 4 to cling to. He showed me the testimony of Abraham’s faith and how “without weakening in his faith, he faced the fact that his body was as good as dead—since he was about 100 years old—and that Sarah’s womb was also dead. Yet he did not waver through unbelief regarding the promise of God, but was strengthened in his faith and gave glory to God.” Although the Lord had not given me the promise of having a child by way of natural birth, I still could cling to the promises of who He was and His word to be faithful to His people. I had begun to live out for myself the truth of Mark 9 as I cried out “I believe…help my unbelief.” Longing to trust He had a plan and He was leading, but still having days I struggled to believe. Yet, His faithfulness is true. He was pruning and developing our family tree in ways we could not have known. Asking us to have faith when we could not see. And continuing to sustain us with His Word, allowing us to truly experience the fact that,
“blessed is the man who trusts in the Lord, whose trust is the Lord. He is like a tree planted by water, that sends out its roots by the stream, and does not fear when heat comes, for its leaves remain green, and is not anxious in the year of drought, for it does not cease to bear fruit.”
He was pruning and being the true Vine, bearing fruit in us, and allowing us to realize the reality of John 15 that apart from Him we can do nothing. We were at His mercy to fulfill our longing to have children. It has been a temptation to look at our journey to having children as a drought; dormant; barren. However, we stand in awe of Him who has sustained and allowed us to see that He was forming a child for us all along. His ways are far higher than my own. I never imagined our story would be intertwined with another’s across the world.
For to Him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to his power that is at work within us, to him be the glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, for ever and ever. Eph. 3:20-21
The details of our story lie in the fact that we have completed all of the paperwork and home study process for international adoption and are overjoyed to announce that WE ARE WAITING ON A REFERRAL OF A BABY FROM SOUTH KOREA! We truly covet your prayers and are deeply thankful for your part in going to the Lord on our behalf.
We also are sincerely grateful to all who feel led to give toward our adoption. We are attempting to raise quite a bit of money through different available adoption grants, photography sessions, photography classes, and a few of my own little “crafty” contributions. The beginning stages of this program goes quite fast, which means the funds are needed sooner than other programs. We are looking at raising this money in what seems to be an unrealistic timeframe; 4-6 MONTHS! This can only happen with the Lord and your help. We don’t have the time and dates set for the fundraisers we mentioned above, but we will keep you guys updated! Grant has also made a paypal available for those who feel led to give a donation at any point.
Please know it is a most humbling experience to be loved in this way. We have already been completely overwhelmed with how the Lord uses His people to bless us.
We would love for you to continue to see our story unfold and also would love for you to be a part.
“Come and see what God has done: how awesome his works in man’s behalf.” Psalm 66:5
We are sincerely thankful for the opportunity to be going back to Haiti. Our trip seems to possibly look a little different this year. There are plans to play a concert in the center of town, plans to teach at an orphanage, build houses, and plans to encourage the church at Leogane. Although we have tried to prepare for each as best we can, we continually are praying that more than anything we are sensitive to the Spirit’s leading and obedient to whatever task He may have for us. Both Grant and I are extremely anxious and excited to see the Haitians at the base where we are staying. The Lord has created a special bond with these people who serve us and whom we see on a daily basis. We are praying specifically for these relationships and the mighty things the Lord will do with the time we are able to spend with them.
Last year the Lord used the book of I Thessalonians to pave a path of prayer for us. Many of Paul’s teachings in that letter we found to be ones we could echo and cry out to the Lord through. We continue to have this letter at the forefront of our minds as we serve again this year.
Our prayer for all of us and the people of Haiti that we encounter would be this:
For the people of Haiti: ch. 1 vs. 5 “Our gospel came to you not only in word, but also in power and in the Holy Spirit with full conviction.”
ch. 1 vs. 6 “You became imitators of us and of the Lord, for youreceived the word in much affliction, with the JOY of the Holy Spirit so that you became an example to all the believers…”
For us: ch. 2 vs. 2 “we had boldness in our God.”
ch. 2 vs. 4 “we speak not to please men, but to please God who tests our hearts.”
ch. 2. vs. 8 “we loved you so much that we were delighted to share with you not only the Gospel, but our lives as well.”
For the people of Haiti: ch 2. vs. 13 “We thank God constantly for this, that when you received the word of God, which you heard from us, you accepted it not as the word of men but as what it really is, the Word of God, which is at work in you believers.”
ch. 5. vs. 24 ”He who calls you is faithful….”
We are so humbled to be able to give testimony to the faithfulness of the Lord. He has done mighty things already in our hearts. Things we truly could not express in words. He has faithfully used His Word, His people, and the Holy Spirit to teach us more about Himself and we are so extremely thankful. We go expectant of His workings and are asking that we might be instrumental in bringing praise to His name.
:if you would like to follow us as we go, we hope to update daily at epochhaiti:
praise the Lord for His goodness through little audrey mae.
here are a few snapshots grant and i were able to get on her 1.wk. birthday.
i’m.no.photographer.
but my rock star hubby allowed me to get behind the camera for these.
and i’m thankful to the greatest friends for allowing us time with their little girl.
