We are settling in to somewhat of a rhythm here. Here is a snapshot of what our days look like.

I like to get up early before everyone else gets out of bed. We have a roof-top deck here and in the mornings, with the cool breeze and the beautiful view, it is my favorite place to be. I usually start my day with some exercise. All of my Sun Oaks peeps will be proud to know that I am still doing Group Core and Group Power – even if it is a somewhat modified version. I even did a little Zumba with our kids the other day. Well, in all honesty, they mostly watched and pointed and giggled while I danced.

When I finish my workout, I walk downstairs where our wonderful cook always has my coffee ready to go. I grab a cup and grab my prayer journal and head back to the roof-top for some quiet time. I love this! Just me and God and coffee and this beautiful view.

When I come downstairs, my family is just getting out of bed. We get ready for our day and head down to breakfast. Again, have I mentioned how amazing our cook is? Every morning we have fresh fruit of some kind. Often she will make oatmeal or pancakes or eggs to go along with it. And, she makes fresh juice too! Here is my fresh-squeezed mango juice, my second cup of coffee, and my girl.

Then our day begins. We will often walk around our “neighborhood.” I am so thankful that our guest house is on the edge of the city so we have a little bit of open space around us. This is our neighborhood store. It is two houses down from us.

This man provides an amazing variety of items for such a small space. We will sometimes buy a Coke or a Sprite to have with our lunch. All the sodas are in glass bottles, and we have to return them when we are done drinking.

Here is a beautiful baby who I see often on the back of his mother. His mother speaks very good English and so we have been able to visit. She is a refugee from the Congo and has been here two years. Her name is Caroline. The baby is Shema.

This is the guard tower for our neighborhood.

Everyone who lives here pays just a little bit and together they hire a man to sit in this guard tower and keep an eye on things. I am not really sure what he is watching out for because everyone here seems so friendly. Also, every house has their own guard who stays out front and opens and closes the gates as people come and go. But, this guard tower is almost always occupied.

We spend a few hours every day visiting with our children. We always put some new little item in our backpack to show them, or give them, or play with them. A picture book was a big hit as they flipped through the pages and showed off their English skills. We have colored with sidewalk chalk, beaded necklaces, sculpted with play dough, played on the iPad, taken a million pictures, and of course, every time we visit they want to have another water gun fight. Here are my water gun warriors.

After our visit, we head home to yet another wonderful meal. In the evenings we will often visit with Levi and Jessie and their children. I love that our guest house is so close to them. Our kids have walked back and forth across the fields to visit each other. They are already begging for sleepovers. As all 6 children run around and play, we get to know this wonderful couple who has made Ethiopia their home for the last 3 years. I am so thankful that God connected us with them. Here is Jessie and her littlest girl Everly. Aren’t they beautiful?

I got to work on my first project for Bring Love In yesterday. We are hoping to get this guest house all completed before we leave. Not only will this house be a blessing to adopting families who travel here for court and embassy appointments, but it will also provide a source of income for Levi and Jessie so they can focus more on their ministry and less on raising support. Here is our guard Tesfi and I staining the tables and chairs.

Thank you to everyone who has messaged me, commented on my blog, or left me Facebook posts. I read every single one of them and they bless my heart and make me feel closer to home. Thank you for being a part of this adventure!

Blessings!

Natalie

Ethiopia time is different than American time. Did you know that when my clock says 6 am, it is really 1:00 here? They start counting the hours when the day starts, at 6 am. And then they just start over the next day at 6 am. Did you know that in Ethiopia, it is 2004? Yep. According to their calendar, that is the year we are currently living in. And the dates are different too. Today is not May 31, it is actually May 23 here.

Ethiopia time is different than American time in other ways too. When they say today, it might really mean today. Or it might mean tomorrow. Or maybe next week. The upside to this is that people here take time for each other. If they have an appointment at noon, but at 11:30 someone invites them in for a coffee ceremony, then the appointment can wait. People come first. And they are not rushing from one overscheduled activity to the other. They take time to talk and laugh and visit. When they greet someone, instead of a rushed “Hey!” as they move on by, people stop and clasp hands and kiss each other’s cheeks…3 or 4 times. Left cheek, right cheek, left cheek, right cheek.

The downside to this is that we have been waiting 15 weeks.

Since we have been in Ethiopia, we have gone into and emailed the adoption agency’s local office every day. There are have been big government/court/adoption meetings here in Addis for the last 3 days so we have had a hard time getting a hold of anyone. We haven’t heard anything new about our case. And then today, as we were hugging and kissing our children goodbye and getting ready to go to lunch, we got a text message from the in-country director of our agency. It said, “Meet me at the court at 1:30. We will go before the judge to discuss your case.”

WHAT?!?!

It was noon. Meet her at the courts in an hour and a half? Okay!

We rushed down to the court house and found the waiting room. It was overflowing. Literally. Overflowing with people who were there for their court dates. Every chair was full. People were standing along the walls and between the aisles. People were outside in the hallway. It turns out that everyone who had a court date scheduled anytime in the last 3 days (those same 3 days where everyone was in the government/court/adoption meetings), was re-scheduled to show up today. We settled in for what we assumed would be a long wait. Instead, we were the second case called.

We walked into the judge’s chambers (or maybe it was the court room. I am really not sure). Our adoption agency director and the judge then started discussing our case – in very rapid and very undecipherable Amharic. 90% of the time we had no idea what was being said. Every now and then the judge would switch to English and ask us a few questions. The outcome of the whole unexpected meeting is this….

The judge is giving the local court (the court we have been waiting on for 7 weeks to finish our last document) until next Wednesday to submit that document. We have an appointment with the judge next Wednesday at 2:00. At that point, we will proceed with or without this needed document. We are hoping that “proceed” means that she will assign us a court date. We asked how far out our court date would be scheduled. While making no promises, she seemed to imply that it would be very soon. In fact, our agency director said that it was a possibility that our court date would be within days.

Hallelujah! Information and forward progress!

Best case scenario….we meet with the judge next Wednesday. She assigns a court date. That court date is Thursday or Friday. We are home with our kids by next weekend.

Worst case scenario….actually, I don’t really want to think about that.

As I think about my frustration with Ethiopian time and my expectations of American time, I am reminded that I can trust in one thing. No matter what, this is all in God’s perfect time. I read a quote by Elisabeth Elliot this week that really struck me.

I don’t know, when I’m asking for something here on earth, what is going on in the innermost shrine of Heaven (I like to think about it, though). I am sure of one thing: it is good.

God’s timing is good.

No….God’s timing is perfect. And I just have to trust in that.

Blessings!

Natalie

PRAYER REQUESTS

*For our case to find favor with the judge

*Next Wednesday at 2:00

*Our petition for Naomi

We had a rough couple of days here in Ethiopia. My poor Joel was so sick! We expected to go through a period of tummy troubles as our digestive systems got used to the food and water here. And boy, did we ever! As we left the Transition Home after meeting our kids on Monday, Joel was throwing up. He got worse and worse as the day went on. My poor boy was sick every 5 to 10 minutes for several hours! He was down sick for two days but is doing much better now. What made it even more interesting was the fact that we had no water for two days! No flushing toilets. No washing hands. No showering. It was kind of funny, actually!

This morning we all woke up feeling much better. And…this evening we got water! So now we have all showered and it smells much sweeter around here.

I went with our cook to do the grocery shopping this morning. I so enjoyed the experience! She went to three different stores to get what we needed. And as we walked from one store to the other, I snapped a quick picture of this…

Yep. Just walking down the sidewalk next to us. Donkeys are everywhere here. Most of them are busy carting something around. They are on the sidewalks among the people. They are in the roadways among the cars. They are everywhere! We have several living in our neighborhood and we can hear them braying loudly at odd hours of the day.

After grocery shopping, we went over to spend a few hours with our kids. What sweet joy it is to be all together as a family. I am so proud of how Joel and Hannah have been throughout this process. They are so warm and loving to their new sister and brothers. Joel especially gives each of them several impromptu hugs throughout our visits. I hear him saying “whud a shahlo” and “whud a hahlo” to them frequently. Hannah has been inseperable from her sister. On Monday, Hannah took off the necklace she was wearing and gave it to Abigail. Today, it was her bracelet. She took it off her arm and fastened it around Abigail’s wrist.

We had a family water gun fight today. I brought over those miniature water guns – you know the ones that are smaller than the palm of your hand? We filled them up and had a Putnam Family Water War. Chasing eachother and laughing. Then I organized all the kids together to gang up on Daddy. What fun memories!

I am so impressed with the amount of English my kids have learned. They know their colors, letters and numbers. They know many animal names and body parts. I videotaped them today as I asked them to point to their eyes, nose, mouth, etc. They are smarties! Our adoption agency, AWAA, does a great job with the schooling of these kids. The Transition Homes have a schedule and the kids all go to classes every day to learn more English. Here is a picture of Micah and Abigail’s desk.

Quite the difference from my other children’s school, isn’t it?

One last picture to share with you today. My family. Love them.

Blessings!

Natalie

PRAYER REQUESTS

*Our continued health

*That we would hear SOMETHING before the end of the week about our court case

*Bonding for our family

How do I even begin this post? I know I won’t do justice to the experience and feelings of our family today. Last night as I lay in bed I was thinking of this old hymn…

Bind us together, Lord, bind us together

with chords that cannot be broken.

Bind us together, Lord, bind us together

bind us together in love.

I pray this for our family. We may look diffferent. We may have a completely different heritage and background. We may not speak the same language. But I know that with the Lord’s help, love can bind us all together as a family.

We arrived at the Transition Home where our children have been living for the past 9 months. As we walked through the gates, our eyes searched the crowd of about 50 orphans who were outside playing to try to find our children. And then…it was seriously almost like the crowd of children parted. We saw our boys. They were running towards us. Of course, tears immediately filled my eyes. There they were! My boys! They had no reservations as they ran in for hugs. Taking turns passing from Scott, to Joel, to Hannah, to me. And in the midst of our hugs and family huddle, our daughter came running from the other side of the playground and jumped right in the middle of it all. I got to touch their little faces. I got to kiss their little cheeks. Holding their hands. Picking them up and hugging them close. Breathing in their sweet smell for the first time.

We spent the next couple of hours playing together. Simple things. A game of frisbee with all of us in a big circle. We got out some sidewalk chalk and the boys immediately wanted to show us their English capabilities. I was very impressed. Micah can write his alphabet! Levi thinks he can write his alphabet 🙂 It was actually a lot of letters in a jumble, but boy was he proud! I painted Abigail and Hannah’s fingernails a vivid red. We played soccer. Micah pretty much showed up the rest of us with his ball handling skills. Abigail confiscated my camera and spent a good 30 minutes walking around taking pictures of everyone. We handed out bouncy balls and miniature dinosaurs to all of the kids at the Transition Home. I can hardly believe it, but we got to spend time with our kids today!

There is so much going through my mind right now. Here are a few of the special moments that I am holding close to my heart.

Micah and Levi following Joel everywhere. They wanted to play only with him. Soccer. Sidewalk chalk. Cars. If another boy from the orphange tried to join their game, little Micah would just shake his finger at that boy. They called Joel brother.

Abigail pulling on Scott’s arms and asking to be picked up. Then sitting in his lap. And not wanting to get out. She was fascinated by him. She pushed up his shirt sleeve to look at his arm. Then she asked him to make a muscle and giggled while she poked his bicep.

When I pulled out the finger nail polish, Abigail picked bright red. Then she pulled Hannah’s hand and patted the seat next to her. She said “Sister.” She wanted me to paint their nails the same color.

Joel pulled out the bag of plastic dinosaurs and divided them into color piles. Then he played a game with Micah and Levi where he had them name the color of the dinosaur. Then he had them count the number of dinosaurs in each pile. Those boys did great! They know much more English than I thought they would.

When Abigail had my camera she was taking pictures of everything and everyone. But she kept coming back to me. She took so many pictures of me. I just looked through all the pictures she took today and there I am. Pointing. Hugging Hannah. Passing out bouncy balls. Playing dinosaurs with the boys. Smiling.

When in the midst of a crowd of children, I felt a tug on my arm and heard Abigail say for the first time “Mama.” She wanted me to come with her. She called me Mama.

When we were leaving today. Hugging. Saying goodbye. More hugging. And to hear Joel and Hannah telling their new brothers and sisters, “Wud a hahlo” “Wud a shahlo.” And to hear Abigail and Micah and Levi replying, “I love you.”

Here are a few pictures from today. Aren’t my children beautiful?

My 3 boys all writing their letters

Micah and Joel wrote their names and traced their hands

2 of my girls...can't wait for all 3 of my girls

A picture Abigail took of her sister

A picture Abigail took of her Mama

The Putnam Family minus one

Blessings!

Our first Sunday in Ethiopia. Here is just a taste of our day…

The view from the clothesline after morning laundry.

I decided I need one of these back home! It would save electricity and I found it very peaceful to be outside hanging all that laundry. Of course, when we are a family of 8, I will need a very loooong clothesline!

We moved into the guest house. This is our cook Waday and our maid Meheret.

We ate a wonderful dinner together. Our cook tried to make a traditional American meal for our family. So thoughtful of her! We had spaghetti and garlic bread with a side of french fries. Delicious!

We have a guard for the guest house. He is constantly avaiable to us. He watches our home and locks up our gate anytime we are coming or going. He and his wife and child live directly across from our gate. Here is their home.

And here is a picture of the church we attended. We were so blessed to be a part of this body today!

We even got to be present for a baptism. Here is a short video.

Now we are heading to bed to prepare ourselves for our VERY EXCITING day tomorrow!

Blessings!

Natalie

What a journey! And really, it has only just begun.

We landed in Addis Ababa late Friday night. Our kids were such troopers with all the traveling and the time changes and the strange food!

The flight from San Francisco to Frankfurt was only about 10 hours. When we arrived in Frankfurt, we spent the first day just dealing with jet lag and the time change. After that, we got to enjoy 5 days together as a family just wandering around. We saw some amazing castles.

We rented a car and fulfilled a life-long dream of mine….we drove to Paris and saw the Eiffel Tower!!!

We spent our 15-year-anniversary in Europe!

I am thankful every day for the amazing man God has given me.

Then on Friday, we flew about another 10 hours to Ethiopia. The family that we are staying and working with for the next few months (Levi and Jessie Benkert) picked us up at the airport, even though it was the middle of the night! We came to their house and fell asleep completely exhausted. And then this morning, they took us around to see a little of our new home. The streets of Addis are simply overwhelming. Traffic and people and goats and cows all vie for a place on the roadway. The streets are lined with beautiful buildings right next door to shacks built out of corrugated metal. Well-dressed business men share the street corners with women and children who are begging. I saw one man with no legs, his pants pinned up to form a cushion for his body, “walking” down the street on his hands. We have been here less than 24 hours and my feelings are all jumbled up. The people here are friendly and beautiful. The need here is immeasurable.

We took all the children to a craft market and out to lunch. Levi and Jesse have 4 kids of their own who have promptly become best friends with Joel and Hannah. They have been inseparable all day. Playing and laughing, hide and seek, boys playing the Wii (yes, even here in Ethiopia!). We are going to attend church tomorrow morning and spend the day getting settled in to our guest house.

And underlying all of this is the constant sense that I am in the same city as my children. They are here. Somewhere. And I will finally get to hold them in my arms on Monday. We are going to meet them for the first time Monday morning. We will take Joel and Hannah and spend a few hours getting to know these little souls who are about to be a part of our family forever.

Still no word on a court date! We will have a meeting this week with the in-country head of our adoption agency. We will try to get an update from the courts on Tuesday. And you can bet that we will be calling and praying and emailing and doing everything we can to speed the process of making these children ours. But in the meantime, we will be starting the long journey of growing together as a family, a few hours at a time.

Blessings!

Natalie

PRAYER REQUESTS

*Our court date!

*That the government officials would do everything in their power to get the needed documents completed quickly.

*Our first meeting with our children.

*Our health as we adjust to the water/food here.

What a week! Up until the last few days my feelings about this adventure have been overshadowed by excitement. And then, as the reality set in that I won’t be seeing my friends and family for three long months, I started to get a little teary. My friends always tease me about how often I cry! Well, you can imagine the amount of tears I shed this week! Happy tears, though 🙂

Many of you have asked about our plans for after we leave. We are departing San Francisco tomorrow to fly 12 hours directly to Frankfurt, Germany. Originally, we had a 2 hour layover in Germany before we caught our connecting flight down to Ethiopia. When our court date was not scheduled as we had anticipated, we decided to extend our layover just a bit. Instead of spending 2 hours in Germany, we will be spending 6 days!

Just another example of how God blesses us! 15 years ago I married this guy…..

We were just babies! We were only 19 years old when we got married. Young, I know, but I couldn’t let a man like him escape! We have had many great adventures. And we always said that we would do it up big for our 15 year anniversary. Go overseas. Europe. Australia maybe. 16 months ago when we started down this road of adoption, we shelved those big plans for an overseas vacation. And then a few weeks ago I thought we would be spending our anniversary in Ethiopia – and I was okay with that! But, in timing that only God can ordain, our 15 year anniversary falls during the 6 days that we will be in Germany. Not only do we get the blessing of adopting these children, but God is also giving us an unexpected anniversary present!

Here are a few pictures of our past week…..

Mother's Day

Cousins On Mother's Day

My Beautiful Mother

Just 2 of my power peeps - saying goodbye!

Last day of Zumba...there were a few tears:)

Saying goodbye to his dog.

Sucking all the air out to fit everything in our bags!

9 suitcases, 4 carry-ons, 4 personal items, oh my!

Going away get together-I love this lady!

I will be updating as often as possible while we are away. I can not wait to post pictures and videos of our family of eight!

Blessings!

Natalie

PRAYER REQUESTS

*Rest for our family, especially my husband.

*That we would hear of our court date soon!

*That our court date would BE soon!

Our Ethiopian children are living their lives 10 hours ahead of us. I constantly find myself thinking things like…

“I am eating breakfast right now, but they are eating dinner.”

“I am just lying down to go to bed, and they are just waking up to another morning.”

Last night as I lay in bed, I was thinking about those unknown lawyers and judges in the courts in Ethiopia. Because last night while I lay in bed, they were supposed to be assigning us a court date. I kept waking up and looking at the clock. Wondering. Have they gotten to our paperwork yet? Have they given us a date yet? What is the date that we will finally become a family of 8?

It turns out that what they say is true. The only thing you can expect in international adoption is the unexpected.

This morning we emailed our agency at 5:50 am. Because by then, most of the court’s work was done for the day. We called at 6:45. I checked my emails and messages at 8:00. And finally, at 10:00, we got the call we did not want.

We were not assigned a court date.

Instead, the courts looked at our paperwork and said that something was not right. One of the pieces of paper that we have been waiting on for the last 4 weeks was completed incorrectly. It needs to be re-done and re-submitted.

This was VERY hard news for me to swallow. Our airline tickets are on hold. Our children’s teachers know when their last day of school is. Our jobs know that we are leaving NEXT FRIDAY!!! We have plans!

And now, we don’t.

Before I get to the silver lining in this cloud let me say something here. Just yesterday I was having a conversation with another adopting mom. She was telling me how hard this waiting is. How she feels like she is being emptied of her desires and her plans and her wants. How every time she expects something to happen, it doesn’t. I listened with empathy and told her what I believe to be true. That in order for God to fill us up with Himself, He first needs to empty us of ourselves. If we are full of our own plans for our lives, where is the room for God to do His work? I believe this! I shared this with her! But secretly, way down deep inside, I felt smug in the knowledge that my waiting was over. I knew that today I would get my court date assigned and next Friday we would be flying off to Ethiopia.

Instead, God had to remind me again that His plans are better than mine. That He is all-seeing and all-knowing and sometimes I try to step out in front and lead the way. Why do I do this over and over in my life? I say that I believe in the goodness and providence of my God, but sometimes, I believe in my own plans just a little bit more.

And now for the silver lining. This time around, the wait for the needed documents is expected to be much shorter. (There is that word again. Expected.) Our agency says that we could hear something in a couple of days, but most likely no more than 2 weeks from now. So what do we do in the meantime?

Scott and I have both said that this trip to Ethiopia is about so much more than our family. It is about the opportunity that God is placing before us to work among His people. To serve. To give. To step out of our comfort zone in faith that He will provide. And just because we don’t have our court date, does that mean that there is no longer the opportunity to serve in Ethiopia? No!

We are still going to leave next Friday. We don’t know exactly what this is going to look like just yet. We might fly out to Ethiopia next Friday. We might leave Redding and spend a few days together as a family somewhere re-charging our batteries, and then fly to Ethiopia the next week. These past few weeks have been wonderful and exciting and full of anticipation, but they have also been exhausting! Maybe this is just another little blessing from God. Time. To recover. Before we jump into this next adventure with both feet. But whatever we decide, we are heading to Ethiopia to see what God would have us to do there. We can wait for our court date while we love on God’s people in whatever way we are most needed.

I wanted to share this prayer with you. Today when I got the news about our court date, I messaged 2 ladies whom I have never met. They are both moms who are waiting for their own court dates for their Ethiopian children right now. I “met” them online and we share a lot of the same struggles and joys. When I sent them a message, I received this prayer back. It ministered to me greatly.

“Father, I come to you right now and ask for your peace to just overwhelm Natalie.  Please let her know that what she is going through is not in vain.  Help her to be patient once again.  She can’t do it on her own.  Supply her every need, and Scott’s, too.  Be with her children as they wait for her and she waits for them.  Help them to know that mommy and daddy are coming as soon as they can.  Please show yourself to her children in Ethiopia.  Thank you for her witness and her friendship.  Thank you that there are people she can call on who understand how she feels.  Please just be near today and every day during this wait.  Quicken the hearts of the people in Harar who need to redo the paperwork and let them be understanding of how desperately this needs to be done faster than last time.  I also ask for all of our families to pass court before the closures this summer.  This is the desire of our hearts, and we plead for this to be done.  In Jesus precious name, Amen.”  

Yet another blessing of this adoption journey. New friends. Who love me and pray for me even though we have never met.

Blessings!

Natalie

It has been 11 weeks since we first saw our children’s faces.

11 weeks of waiting.

11 weeks of experiencing God’s miraculous provision.

11 weeks of waiting.

11 weeks of looking at sweet pictures and dreaming about sweet children.

And, after 11 weeks of waiting, we finally have a ray of hope that we will be meeting our children very soon!

Our case has taken longer than most because the courts requested extra paperwork. We got word this last Thursday that the paperwork has arrived! Our agency has it all ready to turn into the courts. They even tried to turn it into the courts, but were told to bring it back this coming Wednesday and we would be assigned a court date!

This coming Wednesday, unless something unexpected happens, we will finally know the date when we will go to court to legally adopt these sweet children. And, based on current court date assignments, our agency is guessing our date will be sometime during the last week of May.

So yesterday, we put our plane tickets on hold!!!! AAAAGHHHHH!

It looks like we will be flying out on Friday, May 18th. That is less than 2 weeks away!

I am so excited that we see some forward motion! For the next 5 days, please join us in praying that nothing else comes up to hinder our court date assignment.

I love posting prayer requests here on my blog, and knowing that I have an army of friends storming the gates of heaven on our behalf. I love that the Lord promises us in Matthew – “Again, truly I tell you that if two of you on earth agree about anything they ask for, it will be done for them by my Father in heaven. For where two or three gather in my name, there am I with them.”

Because of this promise, we have a request for you. Would you partner with us in prayer over the coming months? We know that this journey will require strength, peace, patience and grace above and beyond that which we possess. We know that we will only be able to do this through His power! I am going to be able to blog while we are in Ethiopia. We will be updating everyone on our ministry, our children, and our lives. We will also be posting prayer requests.  At the end of my blog, I will write out those specific requests that we need brought before the Lord. This is what we would like to ask…..

Whenever the clock strikes 8 (in honor of our great 8), would you pray? You can pray specifically for whatever I have posted about that week. Or you can shoot up a quick general prayer for our family. It brings me such comfort to think that on those stressful days, when I think I might not have the strength to finish the race set before me, I can know that at 8:00 I will have an army of prayer warriors beseeching heaven on my behalf.

Thank you for being part of our support system. Thank you for being part of our family.

Blessings!

Natalie

PRAYER REQUESTS

*That we would get our court date assigned this Wednesday.

*That the court date would be before the end of May.

Here are the reasons why I told God that 2 (or maaaaaybe 3) more children was my absolute limit….

#1 – The Cost

International adoption is an expensive proposition. And for every additional child there are added expenses. Court fees, agency fees, visas, passports, plane tickets, etc. We budgeted for 2!

#2 – Our Dining Room Table

I know this one is silly, but our dining room table only seats 6. So, since there were already 4 of us, we should only get 2 more children. Then we can all eat dinner together as a family! And God, I know this is important to you. Family time is a priority!

#3 – Our Car

We had room in our minivan for a family of 7. That pretty much settled the discussion for me. I mean, really God, can’t you see how we would fit just perfectly in our completely paid-for, well-loved van. No need to go out and get another car for any more children!

#4 – My Patience

God, you know me. You see my impatient, fiery, sometimes grumpy heart. You know I feel stressed when I am late. You know I get mad and yell at my children (infrequently). You have seen me (on VERY rare occasions) snap at my husband. You probably shouldn’t entrust me with too many more children to raise!

And here is what God said to me….

#1 – I don’t have limited resources. You need money? I have money! And I am going to use my people to provide it. $30,000 from the car accident settlement for agency fees. $20,000 from your church family for travel fees. $5,000 from people who donate online for visas, shots and passports. $4,000 from your friends at the gym for your in-country fees court fees and agency travel package. There. Done.

#2 – Dinner together as a family? Ok….how about a FREE bench for one side of your table. Then you can fit 3 little behinds all in a row right there. Can you please give me a harder problem?

Room for 9.....now don't go getting any crazy ideas, God!

#3 – What? You need a bigger car to hold a bigger family? How about this? A family from the bay area will GIVE their vehicle to a family in your church – FREE! Then, that family in your church, who has an 8-seat-vehicle they no longer need, will GIVE it to you – FREE! Yep. Now you can fit all 6 of those kids I plan on giving you into your vehicle. And did I mention, it was FREE!!!!

Our New Ford Expedition!!!!

THANK YOU to the Schmidt family!!!

Look at all that room! Room for 4 more children 🙂

#4 – Now this one is going to require a little more work on your part. You will need to partner with me. You will need to set aside your own finite desires (for peace, for quiet, for a clean house, for sleep) and instead focus on the eternal perspective – My perspective. You will need to ground yourself in my word. You will need to rely on the power of the Holy Spirit that I have so freely given to you. But I promise you, my child, that “I will supply all your needs according to My riches in glory by Christ Jesus.” Philippians 4:19.

If my God has proven Himself to me over and over again in the past, why should I doubt Him in the future? He is the same yesterday, today and forever.

Lord Jesus, please help me to remember this when I feel overwhelmed. When I feel frustrated. When I feel scared. Please remind me of exactly who you are and the resources you have. Please help me to operate in your power and not my own.

Blessings!

Natalie