Sunday, December 21, 2014

Enlarge and Gather: Our 2 words for 2014 that God is making true:)


So a dear friend and fellow RR mom, Lisa, encouraged her friends last year to ask the Lord for a word(s) that He would want to declare and speak over each family in the coming year. So I wanted to take the challenge! I asked the Lord and one verse was on my mind constantly for weeks. It was the following:

     Isaiah 54:2-4

  " Enlarge the place of your tent, stretch your tent curtains wide, do not hold back; lengthen your cords, strengthen your stakes. For you will spread out to the right and to the left; your descendants will dispossess nations and settle in their desolate cities. Do not be afraid, you will not suffer shame, do not fear disgrace;you will not be humiliated."


So I knew one of my words was "enlarge". I knew that God wanted to enlarge our lives in certain ways. I was not sure if we would go back and adopt at that point, but it was certainly the most obvious way I thought we may "enlarge". However, God's ways surprise us sometimes, and so I was guessing myself what this could be.

The second word I felt in my heart was "gather". And this was my entry on January 15, 2014.

        "GATHER- Jesus, gather what? gather who? gather where? when, how? Your thoughts?"

I sincerely was at a loss for "gather". But I really felt it on my heart, and so I trusted God would help me figure it out as we went.

Tonight I have been reflecting over this entry. It made me smile. I showed it to my husband and he said I should write a blog post about it. About God's plans that were put into place before we understood. Because, YOU KNOW WHAT? We are enlarging! We are gathering! God has put us on a journey to go and gather more sweet beautiful children and bring them into a FAMILY! His words to us are more relevant now in so many ways. He has been preparing us and teaching us how to trust.

Isaiah 43:5 says " Do not be afraid, for I am with you; I will your children from the east and gather you from the west.

He who called us is faithful!

Thank you for walking with us,
Monica:)




Thursday, December 18, 2014

Beautiful and Messy

This life that we live. Its so imperfect. Finding joy in the hard stuff; that's where I am at right now. And it seems funny to me because the 'hard' stuff is not coming when it's easy to battle. It comes amidst the battle already waging. But my God has kept proving Himself faithful, faithful, and more faithful.

Today was a tough day. I am not great at seeing my need for Jesus, and then immediately calling out for Him. But He pursued me today. And praise and worship was on my heart and in my mouth. It blessed me so much to see Him be faithful to me over and over again.

We were greatly blessed with a special video of our future sons and daughter saying "hi" to my husband and I! Ill post the video in the links!

If the Lord puts it on your heart to support us, you are more than welcome to go here:
http://reecesrainbow.org/84178/sponsorsotolongo-2


Thank you for walking with us,
Monica:)

Monday, December 8, 2014

How God Answered Our Prayer, and Why We said YES to adopt again!

Hi beautiful friends. On the eve of my 30th birthday, I wanted to tell you the story of how God led us to adopt again. We aren't special, Seriously we aren't. Adopting Nikita was a God adventure like none other that my hubby and I had experienced. But like all God adventures, it was RIVETING at times, and desperately hard in others. We knew to go back to Ukraine, to adopt again, meant we were going to be holding very tightly to the Lord for every step. We should be like this everyday honestly. But for my hubby and I, adopting put us in a place of clinging like never before. And so as we thought and prayed about returning for some very beautiful kids, the following happened:)
    In early September of this year I was asking the Lord if we should go back. I felt like I wanted a sign, something tangible so that I "knew" for sure that this was where God was leading our family. As I was thinking about what that should be, the thought "200 dollars" came to mind. I knew I hadn't thought that random number on my own, so I felt it was the Lord leading me to ask. So that is what I did. I asked him to bring us 200 dollars specifically for our adoption. I knew this would be hard for 1 reason. Nobody knew that we were contemplating going back to adopt from Ukraine right now. There were some who knew we were thinking of it, but not for right now. So I knew for God to send 200 dollars for our adoption would be, in fact, a miracle.
   Fast forward to about 3 weeks later. I was a bit discouraged. I felt like I should keep trusting and praying, but God had not sent any money. I was tempted to tell somebody, but I knew this was a big decision. If God wanted us to go, I needed to trust He would answer in His timing. So I went to the mailbox one day, and received a card in the mail. I opened it up, completely expecting a nice card reciprocating a deep friendship I had with this person. Instead I opened it up to find a check for 100 dollars, and a note stating that God had put our family on their heart, and they wanted to give us 100 dollars to invest in our adoption. I NEARLY JUMPED OUT OF MY SEAT! I just knew that I knew that it was God answering me! But, it was only for 100! At this point I was fully confidant that God was going to bring the other 100. I knew it!
  Everyday I would go to the mail, awaiting the second 100. Weeks passed, and I didnt know what was going on. "C'mon God", I thought! "Let's get this rolling". I talked to my hubby about it, and we agreed that we would wait together. So early in November, we were ready to take a small step. We were going to commit to our sweet Olya and set up our FSP on Reeces Rainbow. (An FSP is a tax deductible account where you can donate towards our adoption! We had one with Nikita, as many of you can recall!) That morning my hubby was going to fax the paperwork necessary to set it up. But he overslept, and I wasn't ready, and he had to head to work. Boy, was I frustrated. And then I considered what happened, and realized maybe God was giving me a chance to pray and think through something else that had been strongly on our hearts-adopting 3! Yes, adopting 3. So my hubby and I decided to really pray, and my hubby asked God to very specifically bring the last 100 dollars if we were supposed to adopt the 3 we were intently considering. AND 2 days later, God sent us that last 100 dollars, specifically for our adoption, in UKRAINIAN MONEY! 200 dollars. The very number He put in my head, He had supplied!!!!
  So our newest additions, the 3 we prayed uniquely for, are being pursued by our family, and a God Who loves them and smiles over them! Our journey has begun!:) We have no idea what this journey will look like, but we are following a God Who answers prayer!!!!!!!!!!!! Glory to God!

To see updated pictures, go to the blogpost below, entitled "You Make Me Brave"!

If the Lord puts it on your heart to support us, you are more than welcome to go here:
http://reecesrainbow.org/84178/sponsorsotolongo-2

Thank you for walking with us,
Monica:)

Wednesday, December 3, 2014

You Make Me Brave ( New Pics !!)

So yes friends! We are going back to Ukraine! There are three beautiful children who captured our hearts when we went to get Nikita. They have stayed on our hearts and in our minds for many months. They were incredible children too! Maxim was just a ball of smiles! Seriously, he gave me a hug when I went, and my heart simply melted! This boy is AWESOME!



Yura is the epitome of fun! He was constantly moving, playing, laughing. Despite where they live, they find everything in the world to have JOY about! It blows my mind.



And sweet Olya, who is learning to stand now! When we were at her orphanage a year ago, she was rolling on the playroom floor. My husband saw her army crawl once, and that's it. It amazes me to see the work that Maya's Hope is doing there. She really is a God send.



So those are the 3 incredible children we are pursuing. I will update you with new pics and information as we go!


As to the title of this post, I wanted to share one thing God has been growing in me. Bravery! Bravery! I desperately want to be brave. In all things. In adoption. In raising my family. In enduring trials. In my walk with Christ and others. I want to be BRAVE.
I think we all do. I am excited about this season of life, but it has not come without walking through the fire. Honestly I still feel like Im walking through the fire. But God is very real, very true, and very faithful!

Please stay tuned to our journey towards our 3 newest treasures:)


To donate to our Reeces Rainbow fund, you can go here: http://reecesrainbow.org/84178/sponsorsotolongo-2

Excited to journey with you,
Monica :)