Thursday, October 22, 2015

Bumps And Blessings - God's Continued Faithfulness

It's funny how we make such amazing plans for ourselves, yet we overlook how little overall control we have of the world. There's nothing wrong with planning, preparing, saving, investing, and all that, and maybe we even budget for unexpected health crises or for house repairs and car problems, but we cannot be 100% prepared for everything.

That's where TRUST comes in. Trusting in God's provision, faithfulness, and GRACE!

So, here's a brief description of some things of our lives of late to illustrate how life just "is" - the bumps and the blessings - and typically the bumps come with blessings mixed in, and the blessings come with bumps mixed in - crazy how that works, right?:

Let's start with a

*BLESSING*

Dawn and I are pretty consistent with a "Date Night" weekly. It doesn't always happen, but we earnestly try. This is from one date night this past Summer. Florida has its perks, right? It is definitely a blessing living here, and a blessing that we have older kids who can babysit so we can escape.



*BUMP*

Recently our Air Conditioning decided to go out on us. Here's proof of the temperature inside:

Although the work and parts were covered by our home warranty (Blessing) the refrigerant was only covered at $10/lb. It costs about $75/lbs and they estimated up to 20 lbs (20 lbs times $65 = lots of money!!). The A/C company did cut us a deal (Blessing) and said they would only charge us for 10 lbs regardless! It actually ended up only needing 11 lbs, but that additional $65 was covered by them. The big BLESSING in this bump was the fact that some sweet friends of ours let us stay at their beautiful home whilst our air was out (They were on vacation). Talk about God's faithfulness and provision in the midst of our situation! We were also able to pay cash for the A/C work, so we're grateful for that. God is so good. Here's a picture of us playing at the pool of the friends who let us stay in their home, and Michael enjoying the water (Which is so good for him physically - another BLESSING in the BUMPS):
 


*BLESSING*

Working as adoption consultants is something we LOVE doing, but it means that our income is variable, and some months this year have been pretty tight, which brings its own levels of anxiety and doubts (Bump). However, during Christian Adoption Consultants recent Fall discount promotion God has blessed us with some new families! Praise God for His provision and faithfulness to our family - He never stops blessing us! Here's a picture of Dawn's new home office space (Complete with sleeping cat and hot beverage),


*BUMP*

Florida Carpenter Ants have decided to visit us! Right now as we speak.

Yes, they are that big (At least they're easy to see - I don't know if that's a blessing, however). After research and advice we have contracted a professional pest control service to take care of this. They are coming next week. I did a little research with the company and saw that the are an "Angie's List" award winner, and I found out that I could get a $35 discount with them for being a member. So, I went online, found a coupon code (Blessing), re-activated my expired Angie's List membership for half the cost they wanted to charge me, and we are still saving money by paying for the membership, so that's a win! So, although it's going to cost, yet again God has provided for us to do this (Blessing), and we get a little discounted rate. Sometimes we have to look at the silver lining. It may still rain, but it's not ALL doom and gloom. I have to continually examine my outlook.

Let's close with a

*BLESSING*

How about 9 of them:

Oh boy - life isn't easy, and parenting is the toughest job on the planet (I think being a nuclear physicist must be easier than this!), BUT we make a conscious choice each day to exact "Love In Action" to one another even when we don't "Feel" it. When the "Crap hits the ceiling" (Bumps galore) with behaviors, attitudes or lack of respect we can make the mistake of only seeing the behavior when we look at our child, rather than a precious child made in God's image with simply a need being expressed (Can you tell we're also Empowered To Connect Parent Trainers?). We often make mistakes and have to practice "Repairing Our Mistakes", but I declare in the name of Jesus that our children ARE A BLESSING and inheritance from the LORD, and I am so glad God saw fit for me to be their Daddy. I am truly a blessed man, and I have lots of blessings to count!


When the bumps and blessings come:

"But the LORD has become my fortress,
and my God the rock in whom I take refuge."
--Psalm 94:22

"For the LORD is good and His love endures forever;
His faithfulness continues through all generations."
--Psalm 100:5


Monday, October 12, 2015

For I Know The Plans I Have For You: Kevin & Katie's Adoption Story



With any adoption there’s always the ‘nuts and bolts’ parts of finding a reputable agency to write your homestudy, getting background checks taken care of, creating a well presented family profile book, and filling out applications for placing agencies.

Then comes the waiting.

That’s the easy part.

Said no adoptive family ever!

Often times as adoptive parents we get so busy and focused on the process and all the working parts of adoption that we can lose sight a little of God’s hand in it all. Although it’s important to get the “I”s dotted and “T”s crossed with the adoption process, and that takes effort, diligence and patience on our part, it is so important to remember that God is working in it, bringing things together in a way none of us ever can.

Whether we’re in the waiting part, or in the middle of the ‘trying process’ parts it is worth remembering who holds all things together, and that He is a faithful and loving heavenly Father who wants to bless us, and we believe wholeheartedly that He does in adoption, because it is so close to His heart!


“Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find;
knock and the door will be opened to you.
For everyone who asks receives; he who seeks finds;
and to him who knocks, the door will be opened.”
– Matthew 7:7-8


Kevin and Katie, one of our amazing families, got started with Christian Adoption Consultants on March 1st of 2014. Katie shares:

“We were excited to start this journey after having two tragic miscarriages that almost took my life. Together, my husband and myself along with our 9 year old daughter were opening our hearts and our home to a little baby. We were open to birth mother cases of any gender or race. We anxiously put together our profile book. Our home study was completed very quickly and we were ready to start showing. We remained hopeful even after presenting our book to more than 15 situations. It was very difficult to understand that there is a reason behind each time we were not chosen. Together we prayed and hoped for God to place our book in the hands of the birth mother who was carrying the precious child who was meant to be in our family.”


“But they that wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength;
they shall mount up with wings as eagles;
they shall run, and not be weary; they shall walk, and not faint.”
– Isaiah 40:31


Almost 5 months after getting started with CAC Kevin and Katie had their profile presented to a birth mom and they were chosen. Katie continues:

“The birth mother had made us her #1 pick! Our official match for our little boy due August 2014 happened on July 29th – just a few months after starting our journey with CAC. We had to wait a couple days while she made her final decision and I talked with her on the phone. After that, we had a little over 2 weeks to make final travel arrangements across country. The total adoption experience took a short 5 months from beginning to end.”

One amazing way that God connected the dots for Kevin and Katie, in a way they never imagined was through their profile book:

“There are so many huge signs with the connection to our family to the birth mother's family. In our profile book, the first page had the bible verse Jeremiah 29:11 which happened to be the same verse that was read at her other 2 boys' baptisms. There was no question that this precious boy was meant to join our family. The moment he was in our arms, all of the tears and struggles, wondering and praying finally came clear. God had a plan for us all along. The waiting game is tough and seems impossible at times but today is our baby boy's first birthday and he is nothing less than a miracle.”


“For I know the plans I have for you, declares the Lord,
plans to prosper you and not to harm you,
plans to give you a hope and a future.”
– Jeremiah 29:11


Christian Adoption Consultants wants to help your family adopt by offering a 10% discount. Any new families who sign up between October 13-16th will receive 10% off
our full service consulting packages.

*This discount does not apply to our self serve consulting package,
returning families, or special needs consulting packages.


Please feel free to call or email today with any questions or if you're ready to get started: wrights@christianadoptionconsultants.com or Dawn's direct line (813) 360-7368

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