I AM SO AMAZED!!

Sunday was an especially worshipful day for me! It is one that is going down in my special book. It was the day we got to reveal the rest of the story to our congregation. We were scheduled to share the latest update on our adoption and show the pictures of our precious new children on the big screen. I stood in awe from the moment our worship began and the tears never stopped streaming down my face. Every single song we sang to LORD truly spoke from my heart as I stand AMAZED at what HE is doing in my life. I felt as if no one else was in the room and I was pouring my heart out with gratitude, with pure love and joy to MY HEAVENLY FATHER! My arms were raised high, my heart was wide open and my eyes flowing with tears of joy! At one point I opened my eyes just to check on the boys and to my surprise, they were standing at my feet with both of their arms raised high and waving as if they were worshipping as well. They have NEVER done that before. I didn't say a word to them, they just stood there as serious as could be, with their hands raised up during the praise songs as if they knew exactly what they were doing. This brought even more joy to my soul.

It was also a special day because John Paul Taylor was home from Iraq. He is a young Marine in our church who had just returned from his second tour in Iraq. My boys have faithfully prayed for him since he left. There was one night when we got home late and I was rushing them off to bed. I turned out the light and they both yelled out, "Mama, we have to pray for John Paul in Iwak!" I was so convicted that I forgot about him but they did not. They pray for him at every meal, sometimes in the middle of the day and at bedtime. I have been amazed at how they are so little, and yet they have minds of their own and think of John Paul without any prompting from me. The boys could not wait to get to church to see John Paul. We knew he was going to be there and we brought a big cake to celebrate his homecoming. The boys ran up to him and gave him a big hug. I could not hold back the tears as I saw the joy in their little faces and the reality of them knowing their prayers had been answered and the LORD brought him home safely. It was wonderful to have him home and to be able to hug and kiss on him!

One song that was especially meaningful to me this day was:

How Great You Are

A thousand sparkling stars
Upon a midnight summer sky
The majesty and wonder of
The ocean's endless tide
And the more I see
The more I can't explain
How the one who set
The world in place
Could even know my name
And I'm amazed I'm so amazed!

How great you are how small I am
How awesome is Your mighty hand
And I am captured
By the wonder of it all
And I will offer all my praise
With all my heart for all my days
How Great You Are, How Great You Are
How Great You Are!

A million snowflakes gently fall
Yet no two are the same
The colors fill the canvas of
The seasons as they change
And ev'rywhere I look
I see your hand
Why you would love
Someone like me
I'll never understand
And I'm amazed, I'm so amazed!

How great You are, how small I am
How awesome is Your mighty hand
And I am captured
By the wonder of it all
And I will offer all my praise
With all my heart for all my days
How great You are, How great You are
How great You are!

So as we stood before the church sharing our story, with the pictures of my precious children on the big screen behind me, I was overwhelmed with the magnitude of this whole thing. As I looked out at the faces of everyone I realized they all had a role in these children being on this screen. Little seven year old Anna had gone around her house, lifting furniture cushions and collecting coins to give us $6.00 toward our adoption. The young family who had a yard sale and gave us all the money they made, the great sacrifices of everyone who gave us a total of $5000. This was done within two weeks of starting this process.

Everyone came together, sacrificed and joined us on this journey of faith to step out and pursue this adoption. And in five short months there they are, looking at their sweet faces. How AMAZING. As we were sharing our latest update, we considered telling them we still need approximately $10K to complete this adoption. We decided not say anything about it. We had prayed just the night before for the LORD to reveal how we should go about getting the rest of the money. We just decided to wait and trust HIM. When we finished speaking, a precious family came to me and handed me a check. They said, "We have wanted to help you guys all along but we just never felt peace about what to give. Well, God just spoke to us while you were sharing and HE even told us the exact amount to give you". We later discovered it was a LARGE amount of money. I AM SO AMAZED!!! What a sacrifice! What a joy to see God's people come together, to care for the orphan...to do HIS WORK. I pray as you read this blog today, that you are encouraged, that you know that GOD loves you, and HE has a plan for YOUR LIFE, and He will provide everything we need when we are in HIS WILL, doing HIS WORK! May HE bless you today!!