adoption update 2/26

Talking adoption is both exciting and exhausting.

Exciting because adoption is something so deep and heavy on my heart daily, exhausting... well because adoption is so deep and heavy on my heart daily.  I often feel the need to "guard my heart" with adoption.

 I know that we are in the long haul in waiting to be matched with our child (2-3 years).  I know that as we wait our child will be in an orphanage with many many other children, just waiting for paperwork to process, waiting just like we are, waiting with no parents to love them, tuck them in at night, pray over them, snuggle and kiss them.  In fact many times the ratios are 20-30 kids to 1 adult.  I know that our child with other children will not have access to good nutrition, or medical care.  I know that our little one's road to becoming an orphan will leave them with emotional scars that we will be praying and working through for the rest of our lives.  What I know and what I don't know is exhausting..

This process is and will continue to be one of the hardest things we have done.  But it is also something that is BEYOND AMAZING.  Through adoption we have seen God move in ways like we have never got to personally experience before.  God has moved through us and through others all for the mission of bringing Prather #3 home to us.  I know that when Prather #3 comes home it will not just be a personal victory but a victory of the community that has rallied around us.  I also know that as we raise our child that comes from another country with emotional scars and confusion to deal with, we will have a community that will rise up and fight for our family and our child through this experience.. and that is AMAZING!

I know (we know) that we NEED this community. We NEED you all to hold us up when we can't hold ourselves up. We NEED you all to pray for things we don't even know we need prayer for.  We NEED you to offer support and encouragement when the days seem long and the road seems bumpy.  We NEED this army that God has blessed us with!

Right now we are asking you to consider committing to praying with us and our close family/friends.  We are asking for some specific prayer requests as this road continues.  We appreciate any of you that are offering up just one prayer for Prather #3 or daily/monthly prayer for him/her.  Here are the prayer requests that are on our heart right now  -

First,  I should say that we strongly believe that Prather #3 has been born and is living somewhere in Ethiopia. He or She may still be with their birth parents or may already be in the orphanage just waiting!  In saying that here are our current prayer requests -

*Safety - physically and emotionally
*Health - again physical and emotional
*The Birth Family -  their situation and their hearts
*Those who come in contact with Prather #3 - that they would show our child Love, Compassion, Kindness, and Protect Them
*Protection over his/her heart.
*Wisdom for steps in this journey for us and all others involved

This is our plea and our update.  Yes we are thankful for the financial support (beyond thankful actually) and the financial road for this journey is not over yet either.  Today though we are pleading for this amazing community to join hands with us and send prayers up for Prather #3!

If you are feeling led to commit to pray for our little one, please comment with your name and where you live, we are journaling a list and praying blessings over you and your family as well!

Thank You,
Prayers and Blessings - Dawn <3

New Year New Word(s)

Its the middle of February so I thought it was the perfect time to write about my word(s) for 2014! Who says that blogging about the new year should be done some time in January.. ha ha.. besides I didn't want to compete with everyone else's awesome new year's post so it was strategic not procrastination (just go with it)! 

Last year was the first time that I decided to choose a word instead of setting resolutions.  I was frustrated that most of my resolutions (like most americans) were over by march and forgotten by may.  So I thought maybe with a new technique it would last all year, and sure enough it did!  Last year I prayed and felt the word that God was laying on my heart was Educate (you can read last year's post HERE), it truly was a year of education!  I educated myself a lot on food, clean eating, my body and food, on the Lord and his value in fasting, on whole living, on politics, and on and on. Honestly there were moments last year that I felt overwhelmed by the amount of information I felt the Lord was revealing.  Sometimes it felt heavy and burdensome and not life giving.  I had to pray and ask the Lord what to do with all this information and how to take it from knowledge to action into my own life!  It was a great journey of Education and I am so very thankful for the doors of knowledge the Lord has opened.  

Last year I wrote this - "I am excited for this year of Education, maybe it won't be what I am thinking, maybe God has a different plan... but I do know that 2013 will be an amazing year."

Its fun to look back and read that a year later and see how God moved and educated me and revealed himself.  It most definitely was an awesome year!  

Now it is 2014 and in prayer through November and December I felt the Lord was laying 2 words on my heart.  

Thankfulness and Discipline 

At first I thought I needed to choose ONE and was praying really hard about which of these two words would be MY WORD for 2014.  Of course the Lord was kind and said I could have 2 ... lol...  

So what do these two words mean to me for 2014?  Well just like last year I have speculations on what the Lord wants me to do, but we shall see how this fleshes out throughout the year.  

For Thankfulness I believe it is taking on a grateful heart, and not just when things are going well but EVERY DAY!  At the first of the year someone posted about the #365grateful project. Its a project someone did where they captured things they were grateful for every day for the whole year, then reflected on their year of gratefulness.  I thought this would be a great way to capture my year of thankfulness, I have been doing this through my instagram since 1/1/14 and really love it.  It forces me to find something to be thankful for, even on those days I'm "not feeling it!"  I am also writing thankful things down in my planner and I can't wait to reflect at the end of the year.  I'm thinking the project will probably call for some cool insta collage of the #365grateful project :)  

For Discipline - well this one is a little tougher. I believe the Lord said - "now that you have knowledge it is time to put it to action"  I believe this means to be disciplined in many areas of my life - health/money/business/marriage/friendships/ministry/etc...  I am a "do'er" but not always disciplined and diligent.  I want this year to be a year of moving more towards the person I want to be.  I feel like I have made great strides in being the person God has made me to be.. but let's be honest.. there is always room for improvement! 

So there you have it... its the middle of February, and I want to talk new year's goals, words, resolutions!  What about you? Have you made a resolution that has already slipped through the crack? have you chose a word? I would love to hear about what your goals/dreams/plans are for 2014????!!!!!

prayers and blessings - Dawn