More Prayers, Please...

I sent an email today asking our agency to pursue the little girl in the previous post as our daughter!

Perry and I have both had a growing sense of peace about her, and today we received two videos confirming that she can walk independently on her knees. If she can walk on her knees, surely she will benefit from prosthetic legs!

But here is where the prayers come in: our adoption agency no longer has her file - it has been assigned to another agency. We will need to petition to have her file transferred back to our agency. This will only happen if the current agency does not have a family for her.

Please pray that God's will be done in this situation. We have a great peace that she will be our daughter. That does not necessarily mean that everything will go smoothly!

Here's another snippet of her cute little self:

Seeking our new daughter.

Our family is in the uncomfortable stage of our adoption where we are looking at the children currently available and trying to decide whether one of them is our daughter. It is a kind of surreal process - accepting or rejecting children based on a birthdate, a photo, and limited, possibly incorrect information. This is not how it should be - every one of these kids should have a loving, godly family to care for them. But it is where we find ourselves.

For months before our paperwork was done, there was one little girl who kept catching my attention on the photo listing for our agency. Her picture was darling and determined looking, and she was listed as having a deformity of her lower limbs. A couple weeks before we were ready to start pulling files her picture disappeared from our agency's list. I asked about it, and they said it had been transferred to another agency.

Several weeks ago her photo showed up again on an advocacy group I frequent. The family that was considering her decided she was not theirs. We have requested her file, and found out that she is 2 1/2 and that her lower legs are indeed deformed - unusable. The best case scenario is that she will need amputation and prosthetic legs. Worst case is that she will be in a wheelchair permanently.

We have requested more information from China, and have found that she is now walking on her knees. She seems developmentally on target, but may not be available to us through our agency.

We are left with the question: "Is this little one our daughter?"

Will you join us in praying about this? If we feel God is saying she is our daughter, we will do everything we can to lock her file and bring her home. If not, we will pray that her parents find her soon.

I can't post any identifying information at this point, so here is a picture of her little hand holding something - a ball? an orange?


There is so much we don't know about this little girl, but then this decision can't be based purely on what we know. If it was, we would never adopt any child. But God is intimately involved in this process, and He speaks. Please pray that we hear Him clearly.

Drama Queen's Photography

Drama Queen ventured and and did some winter photography. Enjoy!

Snowpocalypse!

Happy February!




It is good - very good, to be in a warm, comfortable home with full internet and coffee on demand when outside it looks like this:



The kids are enjoying the snow - except when the snow gets in Z's boots. Then not so much with the enjoyment. Number One Son is working very hard taking layers of snow off the sidewalks and the cars. It is so nice to have a big boy!





The neighbors are all out working. We haven't seen this many people out since the block party.


I don't know when we will be able to get out of our alley.



The next street over closely resembles our alley:


But we believe we have a guardian angel named Jim D. who came through in the night with a snowplow and set our street free:


Thanks, Jim!!!

Catch the Fire

I'm here in Toronto for a few days at the Catch the Fire Ministries Pastors and Leaders Conference. (Catch the Fire used to be called Toronto Airport Christian Fellowship.) There are some great speakers here, but people really come here for the presence of the Spirit and the ministry time, which is amazing.

I arrived yesterday afternoon. It took almost a whole day before I was able to settle in and engage with the conference. I came in with a few things on my heart that I felt needed breakthrough. There is an issue of freedom, an issue of forgiveness, and a sort of a block or barrier I want to break down.

This morning Carol Arnott spoke on the Baptism of Fire. She believes there are three baptisms referred to in the Bible - the one of water, the one of the Spirit, and the one of Fire. She shared some great personal stories, and then had the attendees line up around the main room. Those of you who have been here know that there are lines in the carpeting placed very strategically so that people can stand on them, and when they fall down they won't fall into the line behind them.

It's amazing to watch Carol and her team go around at a ministry time like that. Hundreds of people were lined up, and Carol went from person to person - down each line - praying FIRE over everyone. She touched each person on the head, and at least 9 out of 10 fell to the ground immediately. Her husband and another church leader followed behind, praying over the people still standing. After their ministry probably 99 out of 100 had fallen, though there was no shame laid on those who still stood. She progressed so quickly that the catchers were running to keep ahead of her after they had laid each person gently to the ground.

I stood at the beginning of a line, worshipping and waiting for the team to arrive at our section. I told God I was open to whatever He wanted to do, but I was not going to fall just for show. I smiled at Carol as she came over to me, and as she touched my head and said Baptism of Fire my knees grew weak and I collapsed backward. It actually felt a lot like a benign electric shock, complete with twitches.

My mind was still completely active though my body was down, and the presence of God was heavy. I realized this was a good chance to have a dialogue with God about my needs for breakthrough. As I brought each need to Him, He gave me a clear internal answer. His voice is gentle and always loving, and He is often funny, but today we were doing serious business.

About my need for breakthrough of my barrier, God said it is not time yet - that my barrier serves a good purpose and I can trust Him with the timing.

About my need for breakthrough in forgiveness, He gave me peace. I was able to give this person over to God, and He removed my judgment and my need for explanation or apology. Praise God, that is freeing!

About my need for breakthrough in freedom, He said I already have it, to walk in my freedom. I get the impression that it is like baby steps - unsteady and full of falls, but always getting better. I just need to step out.

I look forward to what else this conference may hold!

DTC!!!

We are officially DTC!!! That's adoptionese for Dossier to China!!!

In other words, all divisions of the United States government have officially approved us to adopt, and all our paperwork is on it's way to the Chinese Center for Adoption Affairs in Beijing. It will be hand-delivered on Monday, and a few days after that it will be officially "Logged In" to their system.

In practical terms this means that we will be eligible to lock the file of any child that becomes available on the shared list of Waiting Children. Up to this point we have only been able to lock the files of children who have been on the list for 30 days or more, and though there are more than a thousand children on the list, they are all boys or girls with more involved special needs than we believe God is calling us to add to our family dynamic.

I believe that sometime in the next 1 to 3 months, a little girl will appear on the Waiting Children list who is meant to be our daughter. Please pray with us that God will make this very clear when it happens!

Merry Marshall Christmas

Since we are headed out of town tomorrow, today was Christmas for us. We managed to put the big boys off until 7:45 am, and then we woke the reluctant teenager and began our gift extravaganza.

Drama Queen was content to lay in the chair and have her gifts presented to her, but the boys were much more actively involved.



Even the pets got a little bit of a gift each.

I am so grateful for my sweet family and the chance to give and receive gifts. May your Christmas be as good and loving as the Marshall's Christmas this year.