God gets up before I do!

I am an early riser...always have been. I drove my folks crazy at 3 a.m. getting up and typing out my homework. You remember typewriter. Noisy, heavy, no spell check.
So I got up today and started looking for something on the computer. Was typing in the address bar looking for a site I had visited recently. 'chr' and up popped a line for Christian Book Club. OK, I haven't looked at this site since before last Christmas. But what really caught me was the sub addresses. 'Max Lucado' and 'outlive your life'.
I listen to Max; I have even visited his FB page, but I do not own one of his books. I really do not remember ever searching for one. But I had heard him quoted on K-Love concerning orphans. I even e-mail the station to see if they could tell me where I could find the info to share. They were very gracious, but said they did not have the audio recorded and that it was Max, but they didn't know where the info was quoted from.
Well, the answer was in my address bar this morning. I clicked on the link and was taken to the "Outlive your Life" preview page, clicked on the sample pages from the book and there was the info I had heard and wanted to share! Here is a bit of it. I am sure I am breaking some law by posting this.

And we have enough bedrooms to house the orphans. Here’s the
math. There are 145 million orphans worldwide.8 Nearly 236 million
people in the United States call themselves Christians.9 From
a purely statistical standpoint, American Christians by themselves
have the wherewithal to house every orphan in the world.
Of course, many people are not in a position to do so. They are
elderly, infirm, unemployed, or simply feel no call to adopt. Yet what
if a small percentage of them did? Hmmm, let’s say 6 percent. If so,
we could provide loving homes for the more than 14.1 million children
in sub-Saharan Africa who have been orphaned by the AIDS
epidemic.10 Among the noble causes of the church, how does that
one sound? “American Christians Stand Up for AIDS Orphans.”
Wouldn’t that headline be a welcome one?

You can find more on Max's book here:
http://www.christianbook.com/Christian/Books/cms_sp?sp=110600

Ok, so it can't be done. You can't get up before God! You can't fool, trick, or ignore Him. He gives you what you need. Even what you want sometimes. He will get in your face and say "Here I am!" even in your darkest moments, when you are shouting "do you really exist?" He does and He is going to be there FOR YOU, no matter how early in the morning you get up!

You have a really itchy mosquito bite...God will heal that
Hurt your ankle playing...God will heal that too
Need a dependable car..God does provide
Trying to find a job...God is in control
Feel like your are all alone...God is your very best friend
Lost a loved one...God has him now
Insert your need here...God WILL handle it!

In fact, He already has it handled before you ask. So, as stated by many of my friends recently:
Let go and let God

Lots of Love Today and Tomorrow.

Well, that's done!

Home Study complete! A very nice women spent several hours getting to know us, the whole time taking notes on one of those yellow legal pads. Talked to me, talked to my son and the older girls...think things went well. But I still have work to do. The agency wants prospective parents to have 12 - 15 hours of training prior to adoption on such issues as attachment disorders, transracial families, FAS, etc. They want you to be fully informed of all the things that could go wrong. Hey, I've done this before, doesn't that count? Guess not. And of course, there is more paperwork to be done. Now starts the dossier. I'll do more on that later. For now I want to say (after my not so cheery last post) that my spirits are a LOT brighter. No, I did not find 25K in the back yard or anything, but once again, I am confident of who is in control...it ain't me! God is so good and will bring it all together! Yes!
OK, please do this for me--pray. Let God lead you in the particulars-He knows my heart and yours and will lead you accordingly. Also, please share this blog with a friend and ask them to do the same. If you share; it's one more prayer.
And if you visit...please leave a comment. That's the only way I know you were here! Lots of Love today and tomorrow.

3 days to go...

And I hope they are better then the last 3. Made the sad decission to have our 15 year old pound puppy put to sleep. She was blind and deaf and such a part of our family that we really put it off longer then we should have. Sad day. And so little progess on the cleaning that I am ready to say--here it is. Take it or leave it! And the bank said no to my loan request...so I am really wondering what I have got myself into. Geez, what else could happen! Road blocks made of iron and I am not superman. I am looking forward to the Home Study on Thursday. I'll see what the road looks like then...
Please take a minute to pray for the children of Russia and China. MANY children are adopted each year from these coundties and right now they are under great stess with heat and smoke from wildfires in Russian and coping with floods and mudslides in China. Thousands in each country have died. They are in need of our most earnest prayers.

PrePlacement Report (The Home Study)

2005
Oh my gosh, you have to let total strangers into your house and ask you all kinds of questions! They want to talk to your family, check to see if you hid your dirty dishes in the stove, see if your grass is 2.3 inches tall...ok, so I was terrified, and totally excited at the same time. And everything was going to be perfect! I took off work to clean my house! I had signed on for a toddler age boy, so I toddler proofed everything. Made sure I had child safety locks on the cupboards, locked away cleaning stuff, raised the 'breakables' out of 3 foot reach...and cleaned...and cleaned...and cleaned...you get the picture.
A very nice women (herself an adoptive parent) came and spent several hours talking to me and my kids. We had a great talk about parenting, adopting and kids in general. She did look around the house; at the room for the new addition, out the back door to see if it was fenced in and she did ask a lot of questions! She did not even once look in my stove.
Total Cost for Home Study, 2005---$900.00

2010
Scheduled my home study today with Lutheran Community Services (I have their number if you are interested!) It's next Thursday. One week from tomorrow...time to put myself into gear. I don't think I will take time off work. How crazy is that, I mean it's just a home study.
Who am I kidding-JUST A HOME STUDY-no such thing. Again, I am terrified and excited. It's only the most important thing that determines whether or not you are qualified to adopt! I've got to clean, pull weeds, clean, fix a bedroom, clean, patch some walls, clean, check my stove, clean...
With my sincerest apologies to all the future dads and moms out there waiting to adopt your forever kids because you can't have bio kids, think of the home study as the first tri-mester of pregnancy. It's the hardest part to get through, but once you are through, you know there is no turning back. Very scary. Just remember, God is in control. It's a good thing He is, I would so mess this up.
Total Cost of Home Study, 2010 --- $2,688.50 (ouch)