Sunday, December 8, 2013

For in this HOPE we are saved

The Christmas season is upon us and every year I am amazed that the reason for Christmas gets lost in the shuffle of shopping and parties and decorations.

Mike and I are Christians. We place our hope and lives in the death and resurrection of Jesus. We believe that we are sinful and in ourselves can do nothing to make ourselves sinless. There is no good deed, no good work that I could ever do that would account for my sin. God in His grace and immeasurable goodness saw that only a perfect sacrifice, a sinless life, would rectify the wrong in the world. At Christmas we celebrate God giving the perfect gift of His Son, who would live a perfect life and yet die the death I deserved to die so that I could be made right with God.

We have nothing, no hope hope for righteousness, without the shed blood of Christ. Thank you God for your perfect gift at Christmas.

"For by grace you have been saved, through faith - and this is not from yourselves - it is the gift of God." Ephesians 2:8

"Because of His great love for us, God, who is rich in mercy, made us alive with Christ even when we are dead in transgressions, it is by grace you have been saved." Ephesians 2:4-5

"For in this Hope we are saved..." Romans 8:24

The Waiting Game

Waiting is hard. We have have now been a waiting family for 3 months and have moved 5 spots. We are very thankful for the 5 spots we have moved over the past 90 days...but 77 still seems like a very big number. For those of you who don't know, there has been a slow down in Ethiopian adoptions. To the best of our understanding, the southern part of Ethiopia has temporarily stopped adoptions with the hopes of cleaning up corruptions and allowing for better treatment of the children who need homes. While this in the long run is a good thing, it has slowed down the process significantly.  We continue to trust God and his timing. We feel strongly that He has asked us to bring one of His children home and that His timing is perfect and sovereign...but waiting is still hard. We have heard from other adopting families that this period of waiting is hard because there is relatively little communication with the agency and relative little that we can do to speed up the process. We would ask for your support in prayer for peace during the waiting process, protection of Ethiopian adoption, and a restarting of adoptions in the southern part of  Ethiopia.


2 Corinthians 12:9
"But he said to me, ' My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.' Therefore, I will boast all the more gladly about my weakness, so that Christ's power may rest on me."