SPECIAL Sunday!

The most beautiful site I've seen in a long time!  Praise be to God for HE has done GREAT and MIGHTY things!  Sunday, November 14, Audrey An chose to stand before her church family and tell them she loves and believes in Jesus!

 Last Wednesday our Minister to Children taped a video testimony of Audrey An to share on Sunday morning prior to her baptism.

 

We had a blessing and celebration for Audrey An with a few of Audrey An's favorite people and teachers!

She even picked out the cake.  At the end of her video she said, "I'm God's little princess!"  So I thought it was appropriate to have a cake with a a crown and scepter! 

Beautiful flowers for the beautiful girl!  Thank you, Stevens family!

 David praying a special blessing and thanksgiving for God's gift of salvation for his youngest daughter.

Abigail made her mei mei a crown for her special day!

Sunday was quite a day for our family.  We started the day by David and I sharing with our Sunday School class some exciting news.  Remember a few posts ago how we couldn't get out of our heads and hearts about a decision we had turned down back in May?  Well, God saw fit to give us a second chance.  We shared with our class that we are moving overseas!  It was a bitter sweet moment for us.  David has taught our class, and I have directed our department ever since we moved here.  One of the hardest parts of this decision has concerned our class.  You see, we're invested.  We love, care and pray for our class.  God took just a few couples 5 1/2 years ago and began this class.  The Lord has multiplied it, developed friendships, and given us a burden for the young adults in our church.  It's hard to let that go, but at the same time we're excited to let them sprout their wings and fly...without us.

After we shared with them they gathered around us and prayed for us.  They encouraged us.  They made me cry!  Then...I had the privilege of standing in honor of my newly adopted daughter be baptized and give testimony of her "2nd adoption" that took place last Monday night.  WOW...as soon as her toes hit the water I lost it!  What a sense of awe I felt.  How absolutely miraculous that the Lord chose our family to care this tender little heart.

Special doesn't even begin to describe our day on Sunday.  I think perfect was more like it!

2nd Adoption!!!!

Is this one happy little girl or what!

All I can say is WOW!!!  Praise God from whom ALL BLESSINGS flow!  I wasn't quite expecting for my husband and I to experience a 2nd adoption this morning when I woke up, but guess what?!?!  We did!!!  We had the privilege of leading Audrey An to Christ tonight.  What an incredible night for Audrey An...and for her blubbering-like-an-idiot mommy,  pretty choked up daddy and very excited sister! 

What a beautiful night it has been! So here how it went it down as best as David and I can remember.
8pm- I'm snuggling with AA in my bed right before I tuck her into her bed and just finished praying together for her foster family, birth parents and Ms. Kitty.  She then looks up at me with those chocolate brown eyes and and begins to stutter (like she does when her little brain is moving faster than her lips!) and asks, "Mooooommyyyy,  yayayaya ya know that chriiiiiissstiian thing we've beeeeeen taaallllk taaaaaallk taaaaalking about?  How do yooooouuu do that?"  I say, "Oh, that's such a great question...let's go get daddy and we can all talk about that together."

AA asks again.
David- "Well, there are some things that you have to know and believe.  Who is Jesus?"
AA-"God"
David-  "Where did He live?"
AA- "heaven"
David-"Okay, where else did he live"
AA- can't remember exactly what she said
David- "How did he die? or what happened to Jesus?"
AA- "He was in a tomb."
David- "Yes, He was in a tomb.  Was he dead or alive in the tomb?"
AA- "dead"
David-"Who put him in the tomb?
AA- "soldiers"
David- "Did he stay in the tomb?"
AA- "No, he came out."
David- "Why did they put him in the tomb?"
AA- "They hurt him."
David- "Yes, they hurt him.  How did they hurt him?"
AA-  They put nails in him.
David-"Can God die?"
AA- "no"
David- "Can man die?'
AA- "yes"
David- "Jesus the man died."  Earlier you asked how to become a christian.  If you pray and tell God you know and believe these things and ask God to be a christian and Jesus to come into your heart, He will!"  Is that something you are interested in doing??
AA- Yes!    She then hesitated and fumbled around with her answer then said, "No, I think I want to wait.  Maybe just for a little bitty bitty bit (as she is showing us with her two fingers what a "little itty bitty bit" is!)
Me- "Well, how long do you think that will be?" (sweating bullets as I'm glaring at David cause neither of us want to coerce her into anything FOR SURE!)
David- "Do you mean like a year? a day? a month?"
AA- Yeah, I think I'll wait a year.  (yes, she probably has no concept of time!)
David- "Do you think God would want you to wait a year?"
AA- OH, no!  Let's do this now!  (SOOOOOO precious...soooo innocent!)
Me- "What do you think you'd say to God in a prayer?"
AA- was at a lost for words so David stepped in
David- "Do you want daddy to say a prayer and you repeat after me?  We could do that."
AA- Yes!
David- "Okay, let's pray.  Dear God,  Thank you for your son Jesus.  Dear God, thank you  that Jesus dies on the cross for me.  Thank you that He came alive again.  I know I do things that I shouldn't do. Please forgive me so I know I'm okay with you.  Pleas come into my heart so that I can become a christian and live with you forever. I love you.  Amen." (and she repeated word for word)
AA- "Now I'm a christian?!"  Can I tell  people?!"
Me- "Oh, yes!  That's exactly what God wants us to do is to tell others about Jesus!"
AA- Can I tell my teachers tomorrow?  and Reagan? (her sweet friend at school)
David and me-  "Oh yes, they love Jesus and love you and will be so excited!"

We all talked for about 30 minutes.  It was a very factual type of conversation.  She was answering deliberately.  Somewhere in all this conversation she brought up the miracle of Jesus walking on water and she said, "You know he was the only one who ever walked on water!"  Then she said, "There was a really old guy who had a baby."  I said, "Are you talking about Abraham and Sarah?"   and she said, "Yes!"  All that to say that she has been soaking in everything that we and many others have been pouring into her in the last 16 months.  WOW! 

She wanted to call my best friend, Kristina, and her buddies Owen and McKenzie Grace who we've just been with last weekend.  I must say it was a PRECIOUS conversation!  She talked with "Uncle Troy" who first answered, and he was sooooo excited for her and shared her joy (THANK YOU!).  Then she called Kristina who was with Owen at the doctor and had to leave a message.  Owen called back within minutes and said, "You're a christian now?!?!  Yeah!  We're going to heaven together now...yeah!" (I did mentioned Owen was my future son-in-law in a couple posts ago!!).  He's looking out for her : )

Why am I ever surprised at God's amazing grace and perfect timing?  Seriously...why?  When you pray for your child's salvation and then it happens....just wow!  Never in my wildest dreams did I imagine that God would be so gracious in prompting Audrey An to have enough of an understanding of salvation to make her own decision of asking Jesus to come into her heart after being in our family only 16 months.  Childlike faith...that's what it's all about.  I know she doesn't know "everything", but she believes, and she couldn't have been as matter of fact and happy about it all!  Acts 16:31 says, "Believe in the Lord Jesus and you will be saved."  Yes, it's that easy!  It's a process....all adoptions are!  There's a starting point and God in his grace allows us to grow and mature.  Man, I sure don't know it all either!   Never never ever under estimate the power of your words.  Abigail and I were were helping her memorize John 3:16 just this weekend along with illustrating to her them as we carved a pumpkin that all the "gunk" in the pumpkin was like sin in our own lives.  God wants to scoop it all out and make us clean!

So interesting that just yesterday I was asked to give a devotional at a friend's baby shower who has just returned from China about a month ago and I chose to parallel our girl's physical adoption to Christ's spiritual adoption of us.  I made the comment that prayerfully our girls would experience two adoptions in their lifetime...something that most of us would never experience.  I had no idea I would be sharing the absolute JOY in experiencing my own daughter's 2nd adoption the very next day! I've asked God to hep us recall every detail because I want her to know exactly what was said in case she ever has doubts.  I experienced that as an adult and it was such an unsettling feeling.  I'm sure some more details will come to mind and I'll add that to this post.

Thank you, God for this precious gift and answer to prayer!  All you ask is for us to believe.  I'm trusting that is what Audrey An has done tonight.  Help David and I train her in the ways she should go.  Our prayer for her is that she'll love You with all her heart, soul, mind and strength!  Her dedication verse we chose for her last year was Psalm 86:11-13 "Teach me your way, LORD, that I may rely on your faithfulness; give me an undivided heart, that I may fear your name.  I will praise you, Lord my God, with all my heart;  I will glorify your name forever.  For great is your love toward me; you have delivered me from the depths, from the realm of the dead."   Praise God, You have saved her twice!

beaming!

Abigail sharing in her joy!

telling her good buddy, Owen!

She should get some gooooood sleep tonight....I know I will!

udpate on 11/9/10:

Audrey An woke saying, "I'm a christian!" and wanted to read in her bible (totally unprompted!).  Also, as I reflected more about the night I think it's interesting  to David and me that as we were discussing last night about Abigail's spiritual birthday, AA wanted to go get her bible- her CHINESE bible.  It' probably one of my most favorite gifts we've received for her.  Her great grandmother Weedie (the onewho has just passed away last month) and aunt and uncle gave her this the first time they met her.  It's a children's bible written in both english and chinese.  No, she can't read the chinese (nor the english!), but for her momma and daddy it's pretty significant.  To us, it symbolizes her dark past and her bright future all wrapped in one!

Eve...amended (just a little bit!)

Given the fact that I don't like to talk bad about anyone and can't fake my feelings about anything, let me set the record straight in case anyone (other than myself!) reads this blog.  I must give credit where credit is due and make a slight amendment to my yesterday's post.  Dr. H, my doctor who performed my hysterectomy and delivered my first born, is a wonderful, caring, christian doctor who happens to be a man.  I think he must be the only one of his kind!  He is NOT the doctor I saw this week either.  Okay, so there- I said it.  There is ONE male doctor that I've encountered who should keep his license : )

All male doctors (especially those who practice gynecology) but Dr. H should not graduate from medical school without passing "Bedside Manners 101" and "Understanding the Female Brain", AND these courses should be written by females, ya know?   Yes, this is what I was thinking about at 3:30 am today when I couldn't sleep.  Oh brother, I really need to get a life!

Thanks a lot, Eve!

Okay, let me just get it off my chest from the get go-  Men should NOT be in the field of gynecology...JUST sayin'!!!!!   How could you be a doctor who has a post-op hysterectomy patient sitting laying in front of you bawling her eyes saying she feels so horrible and to PLEASE help her with her hormone levels not be sensitive to that???  Seriously???  What is wrong with this picture?  Did he get up on the wrong side of his bed or is HE going through menopause?  Oh my word, I'm so extremely frustrated.  I'm just waaaaaay too young to feel the way I feel, and I'm bound and determined to find someone who is willing to help me get all this figured out.  God, I'm asking you to send a female doctor who is patient, sensitive, and willing to expend some energy on me...just me- and to do it...like- NOW (pretty please).  ALL women are uniquely made, and unfortunately, my mom, my sister and me (oh, Lord, please spare my daughters!) have always fallen into the medical category of "oh, that only happens in 1%-2% of cases"....uggh.

Psalm 139 says I'm uniquely and wonderfully made, but Genesis 3 says that there was a woman named Eve that totally goofed things up for me (and all other women- thank you...ha!), too.  Ummm, not feeling "wonderfully made" right now, but I DO KNOW that God will help me get through this.  So...maybe I should go clean my house now with praise music blaring (that's what I do when I feel out of control!).  Oh my, is that why my house is usually so clean?  Okay, nevermind.  Don't answer that!

50 fingers

my future son-in-law

my sassy goddaughter

my beautiful cowgirl

my li'l punk'n

best of friends...ready to conquer the Fall Festival!

This past weekend I had the privilege of spending time with my best friend, Kristina, and all these cute kids.  I'm so grateful for all the memories we've made over the years and look forward to many, many more!  I don't think I've ever seen kids play, adore and love each other as these kiddoes.  I think often why these 40 fingers have such kindred spirits like their mommy and I do.  I think know it's because we all pray for each other.  We all have shared some great joys and some great sorrows as well.  In May of this year my best friend and her husband lost their 24 week old baby, Rex.  For some reason (only God knows) Kristina didn't get to deliver and bring home her bouncing baby boy like we had prayed and hoped.  Instead, she experienced a very traumatic event in her life, and I continue to pray that God will heal her (and her family) wound of what she experienced.  Tragedy doesn't just effect the mommy.  It effects the daddy, other children and those close to them.  We all respond to grief in different ways. We often times don't know how to respond in a crisis like this- I didn't, and she's my best friend.  She's the one in my life who knows me better than anyone-other than my hubby.  She's the one who "gets" me and I with her.  David "gets" me, but he "gets" me as best as he can through his "maleness" (love you, babe!). She's the one who is on her knees for me (literally!) at 4:30 in the morning because she loves me and prays fervently for me (and so many others).  Before I boarded the plane back home on Tuesday I had to ask her to forgive me.  I got a lump in my throat.  I was sweating like a pig. I was trying to control a quivering chin.  I was streaming tears (I get that way when I'm nervous!).  You see, I haven't known how to help her through this grief in her life- a tiny little baby boy named Rex but a huge loss.  Kristina, I love you dearly.  I can't even imagine the pain you continue to feel.  I do know the the God whom we both love and serve PROMISES to heal the broken hearted.  It may not come in the timing we want (OH, how we both know that!), but He is the One who heals our wounds and wraps us in His arms in tender mercies.  I know we had such fun with these 40 fingers this weekend, but I'm sorry there weren't 50 fingers with us, too.  I love you.