Appreciation

Something that I feel that I haven't done in too long of a time is express my appreciation. I have a great sense of appreciation for those who have supported us financially to be here. We do not have a high number of supporters and are not rolling in the dough, but through those of you who support us, God is meeting our needs (nearly to the penny). We give great praise to God for His work through His people and we thank you for following His direction. If God tells you to stop donating to us, don't worry - He'll meet our needs in other ways as He always has. First and foremost, be obedient to Him.

I also appreciate the words of encouragement via email and through comments on this blog - especially through the last few weeks of my traveling to the States and exploring the job possibility. I have not replied to everyone's comments directly, but I do read them and appreciate them all!

We take the emails and comments that are sent seriously. Our eyes and views may be tainted by our frustrations and circumstances, so having people drop notes our way is very helpful. Pointing us to our one true source of knowledge and hope, the Bible, is a great thing that most have done - we may not be reading on our own what the Lord is saying through your words to us.

We have had a number of people suggest that we talk to government officials in the States to see if they can do something to help us out. We are not experts in the Haitian governmental system (is anyone?), but the experiences that we have had tells us that having someone from the States tell someone from Haiti what to do does not work well. And if they did tell them what to do, the person holding the paperwork may still do what they want regardless of what someone tells them. This is not to say that it would NEVER happen and that God could never work through a State-side government official, I am just saying that it may not work quite like we may expect it to. I don't want to shut this possibility off, however.

This adoption scenario is teaching us many things and that is where your support in prayer and comments is greatly appreciated. We are constantly struggling with knowing how much effort we ourselves put into finishing the adoption and how much to let God take it over. We often times feel that there is NOTHING else we can do. Then once in a while we think about driving to the place our paperwork is and seeing if we can't get in and personally request that they work on our papers. At what point are we doing everything that we can, and at what point are we striving to get the adoption done in our own efforts, either way continuing to trust God for results. It seems that we could always be stopping in on our orphanage director, but we don't know if this would make things worse... Basically, we often struggle with what to do next and waiting is one of those possibilities. What we ACTUALLY do often depends on what we feel is best at the moment which sometimes changes from day to day. As I type this paragraph, I don't know where or how to end it... Perhaps that is a great example of not knowing what to do.

Boring Car Stuff...

I like filling up the vehicles with fuel. I know exactly what to do and that feels good. :-)