God is so good...still

Wow, long time, no post! Hi everyone! I'm so sorry it's been such a long time since my last post. We've been busy trying to get into routines, had Jasmine's baby dedication and we've all been fighting colds and such so it's been difficult to update. It's hard to believe that as of tomorrow, we'll have had Jasmine for 2 months and we'll have been home for 1 1/2 months! What an amazing adventure this has been! I continue to reflect back over the last year and am so humbled at how good God has been to us. Isn't it awesome that God's love and provision are not dependent on our behavior?! One of my favorite songs that we sing at church is called "Savior" The lyrics are:

"I have seen with my own eyes your faithfulness, oh, God.
I refuse to believe the lies that war against my soul.
You rescued me from all my fears, and loosed the chains of
wasted years.

You're my Savior, restorer, rebuilder, rewarder.
My refuge, redeemer, defender, my healer, Savior

Now my heart is overwhelmed by all sufficient grace.
For I have found my weaknesses become your perfect strength.
You rescued me from all my fears, and loosed the chains of
wasted years.

You're my Savior, restorer, rebuilder, rewarder.
My refuge, redeemer, defender, my healer, Savior

Behold the One who holds me in His hands.
The God who comes and turns my mourning
into dance.

You're my Savior, restorer, rebuilder, rewarder.
My refuge, redeemer, defender, my healer, Savior"

A few weeks ago, I was at church by myself (sick kiddo) and when we sang this song, I felt like God showed me how He has been all of these things to us, especially in this last year. He broke the chains that bound us for years. He is our savior and He's restored us, rebuilt us, rewarded us, been a refuge for us, a redeemer and he's defended our names. He's healed us. Praise God for His incredible faithfulness! No matter how many times we may walk away, get frustrated or not do all of the right things, He is still faithful! We had communion that day and I was reminded again at how God met us at our point of need at the cross. Wow, that hit me big time. Not only has He met us at our point of need over this last year but He did it at the cross too. I am forever His child, adopted into His family because He met me at my point of need! How amazing is that?! He will ALWAYS meet us at our point of need! There is hope, no matter how tough your situation is, because God will meet your DEEPEST need! Psalm 46:1-11 says:
"God is our refuge and strength,
always ready to help in times of trouble.
2 So we will not fear when earthquakes come
and the mountains crumble into the sea.
3 Let the oceans roar and foam.
Let the mountains tremble as the waters surge!
4 A river brings joy to the city of our God,
the sacred home of the Most High.
5 God dwells in that city; it cannot be destroyed.
From the very break of day, God will protect it.
6 The nations are in chaos,
and their kingdoms crumble!
God’s voice thunders,
and the earth melts!
7 The Lord of Heaven’s Armies is here among us;
the God of Israel is our fortress.
8 Come, see the glorious works of the Lord:
See how he brings destruction upon the world.
9 He causes wars to end throughout the earth.
He breaks the bow and snaps the spear;
he burns the shields with fire.
10 “Be still, and know that I am God!
I will be honored by every nation.
I will be honored throughout the world.”
11 The Lord of Heaven’s Armies is here among us;
the God of Israel is our fortress.

We are living some of this right now with natural disasters right and left and a government that is out of control. But God is in control and is our refuge and strength. Amen to that!

One more thing to share about what I'm learning. The following week at church we were all able to go together and one of the things they shared in the worship set was from Psalm 3:1-6. It says:
"O Lord, I have so many enemies;
so many are against me.
2 So many are saying,
“God will never rescue him!”
3 But you, O Lord, are a shield around me;
you are my glory, the one who holds my head high.
4 I cried out to the Lord,
and he answered me from his holy mountain.
5 I lay down and slept,
yet I woke up in safety,
for the Lord was watching over me.
6 I am not afraid of ten thousand enemies
who surround me on every side."

David was able to sleep, despite being surrounded by enemies because of His confidence that God was stronger than His enemies. The speaker pointed out that we all believe that God is stronger than others but did we ever stop to think that God is stronger than me? So, Jesus is not only stronger than my enemies but He's stronger than me! That means that I don't have to worry that I'm weak because Jesus is stronger than me. Thank God for that! I don't know about you but I know that I'm not strong enough so it's a huge load off to know that God is. Period!

Well, I just had to share some of what I'm learning. Hope that was ok. On the family front, we're all hanging in there. We've had good and bad days trying to figure things out but God has been good. We continue to bond and some days are tougher than others but we're trusting God to be faithful to complete the work He began in our family. Jasmine is doing well, health-wise, other than an on-going cold. We're still waiting to hear back on some of the tests that were done but overall, she seems to be doing well. We've decided to hold off on having her evaluated for delays for a few months to give her a chance to get used to her new surroundings and get a better feel for the new language. Sometime this summer, we'll go ahead w/the evals. and see where we're at, delay-wise. We did have her baby dedication on March 7 and it was really special. Thanks to our precious family and friends for making it a really wonderful day! God is so good! We'll try and get some photos at some point to post.

Lily is doing better, overall. Switching the rooms around and trying to have more one-on-one time has really helped. We're still dealing with on-going issues of teaching her to be more gentle and kind to her sister but all are within the normal range so that's ok.

Finance-wise, we are really amazed and thankful at how God is making our dollars stretch! We were really panicked after we got home, trying to figure out how to make things work out with all of the new expenses and medical costs but somehow, God is making it work. We bought a Dave Ramsey book and have implemented his strict plans to paying off debt and it's all working so praise God for that! I HIGHLY recommend his materials, if you're in a similar place. Awesome tools and it's an easy read! At any rate, we've eliminated our cell phones as part of our debt reduction strategy so if you get a strange message saying the phone was disconnected, you know why! :-) Regardless, our new budget is working well and God is incredibly faithful so thank you all for your prayers for us!

That's it for now. We continue to thank God for all of you for your INCREDIBLE support and prayers on our behalf! We are so blessed to have such wonderful people in our lives and we are so incredibly grateful for all of you! I will try and do a better job of posting more often. I do have some new pics to upload and post so I'll try and do that soon. In the meantime, I'm going to finish this so I can take my girls to the zoo! It's supposed to be in the 70's today and I'm not going to miss a great opportunity to be outside on a beautiful day. Love you all and talk to you soon! :-)

Getting settled in

Hi everyone! We want to thank you all SO much for all of your prayers, encouragement, emails, etc. All of your suggestions have rocked and all seem to be helping us all settle both girls into more of a routine. We're still having our moments with Lily but the severity, compared with last week, has lessened considerably! Yea God!

So, we've mostly got the girls' rooms moved and are trying to put some things back together. We're still unpacking from the trip but overall I feel like we're finally settling back in and feeling more comfortable with each other.

As far as Jasmine goes, we have another upper G.I. scheduled for Thursday morning that will be a little more in depth to take a look at whatever the radiologist saw last time. Additionally, we're going to be consulting a orthopedic about Jasmine's wrist as well as consult w/one of the local pediatric rehab centers about evaluating Jasmine's delays. Our hope and prayer is that all of these will go smoothly and will require little or no further follow-up.

We decided to try 1 more time to appeal to the Gift of Adoption grant and see if they will come alongside of us to help us with the last of the adoption costs. It's frustrating and yet amazing because we've not gotten help from 1 single grant organization and yet God has still come through for us. We're so thankful that we have a God who promises to provide for our every need and we continue to trust Him in all things.

I almost forgot! This Sunday, we'll be dedicating Jasmine at church. My family will be driving down from Denver-area and a few friends will be joining us to dedicate this precious girl. I'll be sure to post plenty of pictures for you all to enjoy! If you live in the area and want to come, please let me know ahead of time so I can reserve some seats for you.

We'll continue to keep you posted but in the meantime, I wanted to share a couple of pics of the "flower girls", as I like to call them! :-) Thank you all for your continued prayers! You have made such a difference in our lives and we are truly thankful for all of you! :-)