Our Thanks!

As the day is moving closer, we are all getting a little jumpy around here. Even Luke is having stomach issues and we know it’s all the excitement. Our visas arrived yesterday, and we had our travel meeting on the phone with Kristen too. She went over everything we needed and talked about our court time and the questions the judge will ask us. I was thinking, wouldn’t it be nice each time you went on a vacation someone would call and make sure you had everything you needed. It was better then a check list because she would talk back! Do you have the sunscreen? Check! Did you put it in your check luggage or carry-on? Carry-on. Wrong answer; please put that in your check luggage! See how well that would work! I think I just came up with something!

I had a friend come over two days ago and gave me a ton of clothes that her girls can’t wear any longer. She has a heart for adoption and wanted Hannah to have the clothes. I was overwhelmed with her generosity, not to mention her taste in children’s clothing was impeccable. After she left, I sat there putting the clothes away and these words kept coming in my head that are written in my instructions for our trip. Make sure you bring clothing because nothing she has is hers. They will literally take the clothing she has on-off, and I will put her new clothing on. Wow, and here I sit in her new bedroom with clothes hanging in her closet and in her drawers. I cried to think about her and the many other children around the world that have nothing. Nothing in my hands I bring, simply to the cross I cling. This song now has a special meaning for me knowing our treasures are not of this world, whether it’s material things or more, but it’s having our treasures stored up in heaven.

We have heard news from the orphanage concerning the refrigerator. Not only did we raise enough money for the refrigerator, but they have a great need for floor tiles and we are going to help with that too. Their government said they will shut it down if conditions are not improved with this orphanage. It is a very impoverished area and many people work there as part of their livelihood, so it would make matters worse. Thanks to many of you for donating and having such giving hearts, I pray this will help them out! We will have more on this while we are in Russia.