The Resurrection

This Easter season I have been overwhelmed by the Love of the Lord. The way He has poured His love on me and my family. The way He has changed my life, and given me an amazing (and ever growing) testimony.

This Easter we really wanted to point the kids to the cross, to explain and show them the love that is poured out through the cross.  We want them to see that Easter is just as exciting as Christmas (if that is possible).  In an effort to get excited as a family for this holiday we did a few activities - color pages, bible story reading, and our Resurrection garden.

It is a fun idea that I saw on a friends blog. It was a great way to have a conversation with the kids about the cross, Jesus paying the punishment of our sins, being put in the tomb, and raising from the dead three days later.

Our supplies before hand. 

Owen  loved playing in the dirt.

Eliana drew a picture of Jesus to go in the tomb, that now is out for Easter morning :)

And Daddy added the three crosses and the big rock for our "boulder"

Our Resurrection Garden is a great family conversation piece and will stick around for a while. It will definitely be a family tradition for years to come. 

As the Easter Holiday will wrap up tomorrow with celebrations, eggs, food, and candy I am just feeling beyond thankful for this life. For my little family that went to our Good Friday church service and took communion together...

For my husband who is the most amazing leader and best friend that I could ask for. For a family that is supportive and loving beyond words. For friends that love me/us unconditionally.

And for a God who would have died on the cross just to save ME, just to save my family, just to save YOU.

There is an excerpt from David Platt's book Radical that I love. And gives an amazing picture of what Jesus did for us at the cross - 

Listen to his words: "My Father, if it is possible, may this cup be taken from me." The "cup" is not a reference to a wooden cross; it is a reference to divine judgment. It is the cup of God's wrath.

This is what Jesus is recoiling from in the garden. All God's holy wrath and hatred toward sin and sinners, stored up since the beginning of the world, is about to be poured out on him, and he is sweating blood at the thought of it.

What happened at the cross was not primarily about nails being thrust into Jesus hands and feet, but about the wrath due your sin and my sin being thrust upon his soul. In that holy moment, all the righteous wrath and justice of God due us came rushing down like a torrent on Christ himself. Some say, "God looked down and could not bear to see the suffering that the soldiers were inflicting on Jesus, so he turned away." But this is not true. God turned away because he could not bear to see your sin and my sin on his Son.

One preacher described it as if you and I were standing a short hundred yards away from a dam of water 10,000 miles high and 10,000 miles wide. All of a sudden that dam was breached, and a torrential flood of water came crashing toward us. Right before it reached our feet, the ground in front of us opened up and swallowed it all. At the cross, Christ drank the full cup of the wrath of God, and when he had downed the last drop, he turned the cup over and cried out, "It is finished."

This is the gospel. The just and loving Creator of the universe has looked upon hopelessly sinful people and sent his son, God in the flesh, to bear his wrath against sin on the cross and to show his power over sin in the resurrection so that all who trust in him will be reconciled to God forever.

These words pierce me and force me into a posture of praise. Forces me to fix my eyes on Jesus and all He has done.  I love what Jen Hatmaker writes in her Broken Hallelujah Post, she writes in a way that feels like a kindred spirit to me. And I just love these words at the end of her post...

Jesus, our Almighty King, our brother and Savior, is in glory, his suffering is done and our salvation is secure. This is our celebration. May Jesus find the Bride honoring the cross exactly like he told us to, for we are so terribly unworthy but somehow, miraculously, against all sense and reason, we are saved.

I pray that tomorrow/today, the Love of the Lord is overwhelming you, overtaking you. and overflowing from you!

Prayers and Blessings always - Dawn

USCIS

So we FINALLY got to file our USCIS.

USCIS is another paperwork step in the process of our adoption.  The first big step is to get piles of paperwork together and complete your home study.  We were able to do that around Christmas time.  Once the home study is approved then you can file your USCIS and build your Dossier (more on this soon).
Filing the USCIS will give us national clearance to adopt from Ethiopia. We have been fingerprinted here at our local court house and given state clearance, but now we will get finger printed again (most likely in DC) and then cleared. This important piece of the paperwork process was only 3 pages, a few questions, and a money order of $890. Crazy huh???

As we wait for our fingerprint appointment we will work on our Dossier (will post on this soon) and look into grants and more fundraising for our Dossier Fees.

Our Dossier Fees and Program Fee will be $3950 + $4,500 -
      $150 Courier Service
      $800 Dossier Translation Service
      $2,000 Program Second Installment fee
      $1,000 Post Adoption Report Deposit
      $4,500 1/2 International Program Fee

whew... seems crazy, but we are excited to see how God will provide!  So far we have invested just over $7,000 in our adoption and God has been faithful to provide. We know He will be here with us every step of the way as we move forward!

And in moving forward, we celebrated!!! Chic fil a and ice cream :) We can't wait to be celebrating our Dossier in Ethiopia!  But until then please continue to pray for us in this journey, and please please pray for the future little Prather! 

Now off to work on our Dossier ;)

Prayers and Blessings - Dawn

Spring Yet?

It may not look like Spring outside (at the end of March) with snow on the ground, but we have been lucky to have Spring Break visitors!

Austen visited with her sweet roommates and filled their spring break trip with lots of fun. They were able to have Georgetown, DC, VA Beach, and of coarse H'burg adventures!

We enjoyed having a house full of girls and all the giggles and fun stories that came with them!  I know they made lots of fun memories and probably needed a nap when they made it home ;)

Then just this last week my mom and brother came to visit over spring break while my sister went on her first mission trip! We missed having her, but hearing about her trip just filled my heart! I know God worked in her heart and through her heart to bless others... priceless :) 

We did lots of fun stuff while nana was here, one being taking her to The Melting Pot to celebrate her birthday. We tried to spoil her a bit and of coarse she spoiled all of us! One of our favorite adventures was to our local pump it up. We were the only ones there and so we all played hide and seek in the inflatables :) lots of fun!  We also saw the new movie The Croods, it was really cute and nice and family friendly (hard to come by these days)  Overall a wonderful trip, and they were able to make it home safely despite the snow!

And now that our visitors are gone we are busy with adoption stuff (update on that tomorrow), and enjoying the Easter Week (more on how we are celebrating as a family soon too).  

But mostly I just wanted to share how full my heart is with the Lord's Love! I am overwhelmed with how He has poured His love out on me and my family, how He uses us to pour out His love, and how His love is never ending and never runs dry (more on this soon too)!  So in this Easter season, may you be so full of the Lords love that it spills out of you and onto those around you!  

Prayers and Blessings - Dawn

Oh and a pic of my "SUPERHERIO" just because :)

LIfe and Lollipos

The month of February came and went!  We shared a lot of love, lots of snuggles, and for some reason lots of lollipops :)  We enjoyed celebrating Valentine's Day or LOVE day as we like to call it and having family adventures. The kiddos got mommy and daddy dates for their Valentine's gifts, and are eager to cash them in! (and really so are we) 

Of coarse we had to celebrate with some fun accessories :) and as always the kiddos had to take some silly pics (Owen has really become such a ham!)

Made a trip out to the kids' favorite place - Sweet Bee's, because as Eliana says "I get to choose my own toppings!!!!!!!!!!"  (she likes lots of cherries and owen lots of m&m's)

Eliana is in full swing with Spring Ballet. She loves it and has some great natural talent from spending her little life on her toes! This girl of ours has some strong calf muscles!!!

We are anxiously waiting spring so we can play outside! But in the mean time I dodge the floor of cars. Owen can send them zooming all day long!

As we wait for spring I made my first piece of clothing for El. 

A cute little skirt. It was easy and I think my grandma would be proud :) I even ironed! Yes Grandma can you believe it? Turns out she was right you have to iron ;)  looking forward to more sewing projects, next on the list is a little spring dress.

Earlier in the month Todd and I celebrated our 6th anniversary with a nice date. 

We were able to see a movie for some laughs and then to a romantic dinner! 

I love dates... and especially when they include sushi (and my sexy husband)!

And one last pic of my cute boys! look at those faces, don't you just want to kiss those cheeks :) 

Just a little update on our little family. We are loving life, loving this life the Lord has given us, and even more excited about the future we see God laying in front of us!  We pray daily for our future African baby and walk in faith in our adoption process. One step closer each day! We pray for all of you and ask for your prayers for our family. We feel God stirring big things in us... and we want to be ready to say YES to all HE asks of us!

Prayers and Blessings to all - Dawn