our life lessons

It amazes me how everyday circumstances can provide life lessons and character development. One of the things I appreciate about God is that He does not waste circumstances in our lives...He will use everything to teach us.

About two weeks ago, my wrist began hurting. I decided it would be best to not paint the chi alpha house and give them a season to rest. A week later, we went to the doctor for some adoption paperwork and I shared with him about the pain. He was quick to diagnosis it as tennis elbow with Leland grinning because he earlier told me it was that. I have started physical therapy and have begun the 6-8 week healing process.

On Sunday, I was praying and asking God to teach me whatever He wants through this process. I have learned that if God wants to teach me I want to learn quickly. Especially if pain is involved. I quickly realized that I was placing value in my ability to work...I need my value to be in Christ (not my daily achievements). I shared with Leland what I was learning and he quickly responded, I need to learn how to serve better.

So, right now we are learning to do less...and learning to serve more.

miracles along the way

On Thursday, I saw God answer a surprising prayer and I want to share. Before I do, I want to give a little background information. Adoption paperwork is different than most things I have worked on. We are currently working on about 10 different things for the dossier and many of them are dependent on different government agencies or people. Adoption teaches me life lesson, that I am not in control.

Thursday morning, I was talking to God about the FBI clearance paperwork. The FBI paperwork takes 6-8 weeks to receive and I have heard of people waiting up to 14 weeks. I started asking God for us to receive it in the mail soon. Then I realized I mailed it in June and it was unrealistic for God to get it to us...so I changed my prayer to, "God can we get it earlier than expected."

I got home and found these envelopes in the mailbox...our FBI clearance. Friday I talked to someone from AGCI (All God's Children International) and she was shocked that we received them so fast. She has never heard of anyone mailing in the fingerprint cards and receiving the paperwork in 3 weeks.

Thank you Jesus.

roadtrip

This past week, Leland and I took a mini-vacation to Vicksburg, MS and Jackson, MS. It was a great opportunity to let leave our busy schedules and simply relax. It was also interesting to explore some history in the area.

Here are some of the things we visited.

The train station in Vicksburg. It must have been a hopping place during its peak.
The bridges in Vicksburg across the Mississippi.
Mississippi state capital.
The southern states know how to make elaborate state capitals. It is indescribable.
We ended our trip finding the old train station in Jackson, it was a surprise.

the garden

Here are a couple of pictures from the garden. The vegetables are looking wonderful. They are also demanding a lot of water because this week the temperature is in the 100s.
The tomatoes are starting to turn red...now we are just waiting for them to get ripe.

We have a couple of little peppers.

It is wonderful to be able to cook with fresh herbs.

We doubted that the zucchini would actually produce fruit, this is the first glimpse at the possibility of having some. I am excited to see what happens.

joy of paperwork

I knew when the summer came and students left my life would change drastically. When you spend the majority of your time hanging out with people, the mass exodus of summer changes things quite a bit. Things with Chi Alpha are keeping me fairly busy, moving facilities is a lot of work.

The biggest change of the summer for me is focusing on administrative things. I am working on the paperwork for our Dossier. It has been a long time since I have done an administrative project, so this is a stretching for me. I am growing through this process and remembering how to focus on details again.

I am focusing on one thing at a time and I am slowly plugging away at this project. I can see how God is going to change me through this process.

We are also celebrating the small victories. Here are some of them:

• FBI fingerprints are in the mail and being processed.
• We collected the addresses for every place we have lived since we were 18. It included 5 states for Leland and 10 Washington addresses for Jenni. Interesting fact from the process: WSU's recorded did not go back to my freshman year.
  
• For every state we have lived in we have child abuse clearance we need to receive...the paperwork for them is completed.
• We have finished a homestudy.
• Three of our adoption education courses are completed.

Adoption is a unique process that includes a lot of paperwork, government departments (state, US and Ethiopian), and lots of waiting. The process is full swing forward and we are trying to take it one thing at a time.

adoption update

We have not written much about the adoption process, mainly because we were in a stand still.

In May, we officially contracted with All God's Children International. Now we are in the paperwork phase. We received our planner and a workbook in the mail.
The paperwork phase of the adoption has officially begun.

break in a storm