Our God is an Awesome God!

Last November we had a family meeting and decided it was time to be intentional about getting the book written. Every time we speak at an event people always ask if we have a book to get the rest of the story. With only 30 -45 minutes to speak I can only give some of the story and I always feel like I am not giving God all the Glory HE deserves for HIS miraculous works. So we planned for me to get away to the cottage every weekend beginning the first week of January through the last weekend in March, Thursday night through Monday. The goal was to get it finished in this time period but we honestly had no idea if that was even possible.

As the Lord would have it, Amy Smelly,my dear friend who I found through this blog ministry, invited Solomon and I to visit her family in Fort Worth,Texas for a weekend in January. Amy is a Kolfe Mama and had gone to Ethiopia last year. She met Solomon and has fallen in love with her two boys at Kolfe as well as the rest of them. She is very involved in ministry in Ethiopia. She was the instrument God used to pay for Solomons plane ticket to get here to the USA. She asked if he could come visit while on winter break from school. Of course we could not refuse and then she also asked me to visit with him so we could finally meet in person. I told her I really couldn't go because I had to start writing the book and we had committed to make this a priority. Her response was; "Why don't you make this your kick-off weekend by visiting the Gladney Adoption agency where it all started. You can come relax for the weekend before you start working even harder than you already do." This made a lot of sense and I really did want to meet her in person.

So, Solomon and I headed out to Fort Worth, Texas on January 6,2011. After agreeing to visit, Amy said "Would you be interested in speaking if I can get some opportunities arranged? You have such an amazing story to tell." To which I responded, "Absolutely, the Lord has told me to tell this story and I am always ready to share for the purpose of giving hope and encouraging faith for HIS people to be about HIS business. Well, she got busy and before we knew it, she had six different speaking events planned. It was amazing. This was Solomon's first opportunity to share his testimony as well. He did an amazing job!

We had the privilege of visiting the Gladney Center for Adoption facility for the first time in person. We adopted through them but everything was done via telephone and emails. After this visit I am even more excited and confident in Gladney then I was before. I highly, highly, highly recommend the Gladney agency to everyone! They are an outstanding agency that truly desires to serve the Lord Jesus Christ in caring for orphans and widows in their distress and caring for women in crisis pregnancies. They have a facility for women to live there during their pregnancies that is state of the art. There is no charge for the women and they have absolutely everything to help these women choose life and give their baby a loving family. If anyone knows of someone in need, please, please let them know about the Gladney Center for Adoption. I will personally vouch for this facility being the best option out there.

We spent a lot of time with Scott Brown and his wife Monica, as well as their entire family. We were able to fellowship with Ryan & Abby Brown, Scotts son who is the person responsible for finding the Kolfe orphanage and exposing it to the world. Solomon and I were in awe that we were walking the campus and in fellowship with the people responsible for bringing us together at the Kolfe orphanage three years ago. Solomon said he never dreamed he would be at the Gladney office in America some day! They even made a video of him sharing his testimony that will be used in their program.
Only God could have orchestrated all of this to happen!

Amy and her family have the gift of hospitality and treated us like royalty. We were scheduled to come home Monday but the snow storm kept us there for two additional days. We ate lots of yummy food, had great fellowship with lots of new friends and had many divine appointments! The Lord clearly showed himself as we walked by faith and obedience during this week. It was absolutely wonderful and a real treat! Thank you Smelly Family for all the blessings you bestowed upon us!

The following weekend I went to the cottage and started writing the book feeling refreshed and in the will of God. As I sat at the computer I prayed for the Lord to guide my every word and show me what HE wanted me to write about. I sat with my computer, my bible and my blog posts for reference. I sat at the computer about 9:00 a.m. and the next thing I knew it was dark and I had to turn on the lights. The time just flew by and it was as if the Holy Spirit was in control. I was writing so fast that I didn't even realize the time. I was in a zone of concentration and wrote until the wee hours of the morning, about 2-3 a.m. every night. To the amazement of us all, on Monday, January 31, 2011, I finished the book! I could not believe it!

After I wrote the last chapter, I sat in awe and in tears talking with the Lord. I asked for HIS forgiveness once again for having little faith on the beginning of this journey. He had been telling me to write this book for about a year and I kept telling him it was an impossible task for me. I have too many responsibilities at home. I home school five children under seven, clean house, cook meals, laundry, shopping, the list goes on and on!I told him I would write it when the kids got older and my life slowed down. I honestly had a melt down on a few occasions because I was fighting this task with everything in me. It was going to be too hard and take too much time away from my family and responsibilities. But I could not get Him to stop. It was like a fly buzzing in my face that would just not go away. I kept praying and telling my family the Lord would not leave me alone about this and then I finally had to submit to HIS call. When we had our family meeting everyone agreed that they would step in and help me get this done. They all agreed that this was something we all had to work together to accomplish. We never dreamed it would only take four weekends! WE ARE ALL AMAZED!

This is just another confirmation to the premise of the book itself. It is the story of how God doesn't call the equipped but he equips those HE calls. It is the story of our call to do what HE called us to, the trials we experienced and then the miracles God performed to accomplish HIS purpose and will. He always give us what we need when we step out in faith to do what he calls us to do! It is HIS Story that is meant to encourage and give hope to everyone who reads it for the purpose of giving them the faith to do what HE is asking of them. Every time the Lord asks HIS people to do something, the first response is usually "YOU CAN'T DO THAT!" There is always a long list of reasons why we can't do what HE is asking. It's time, money, people will think I am crazy, I will look like a fool, it is just weird, or impossible, it doesn't make sense and is just not logical. This is our story of how we have learned to trust God and surrender our lives for HIS purpose and HIS glory. The title of the book is:

"YOU CAN'T DO THAT!"

(But with God All Things are Possible)

We are in the editing process now and praying for a publisher. Now we wait and SEE what the Lord has planned for the book that HE insisted I write. To HIM Alone Be all Glory Honor and Praise! If anyone has any contacts with a publisher, please let me know!

Solomon is doing amazingly well. He passed all of his classes at Southeastern College and has started his second semester. His English is improving every day and he fits in our family like a glove. There have been a few difficult times along the journey but the Lord is faithful! I know the Lord has great plans for Solomon and look forward to reading his book some day! The journey is just beginning for him. He will be speaking at Blaise Baptist Church in Mocksville, NC at their Adoption and Orphan Care conference the weekend of March 5, 2011. Let me know if you can come on out and hear his testimony and fellowship with us!