Season of Celebration!

Season of Celebration!

Posted by Candace

The holidays have arrived! Seems they come quicker every year, and this year I just don't feel prepared. I'm so tired of going through the motions...of trying to live up to the hype. Don't get me wrong, I love Thanksgiving... I love Christmas... I love all the things that come along with them. What I don't love is the distraction and expectation. I haven't felt that great lately...haven't really felt like bringing out the mistletoe or decking the halls or planning to attend 15 Christmas events. I haven't felt any particular holiday cheer or been in the mood to play carols or anything holly jolly like that, I don't know why. But because at this time of year there is an expectation for everyone to be "merry and bright", I have felt almost wrong in not at least putting on the face of "Christmas spirit". "What is wrong with you?" I ask myself continually and really have begun to worry. But today I remembered... all this stuff is just fluff. Sometimes we enjoy the fluff, but it isn't necessary for the celebration. The real joy is in the reason that we celebrate. Are we celebrating because we get to do all kinds of Christmasy things and feel warm fuzzies, or is it because a Savior was born 2000 years ago bringing grace to a world desperately needing it?

Let's say it's your birthday and every year on your birthday you throw the most fabulous party for anyone who wants to come. And let's say that, at first, only the people closest to you attend, and they give you gifts and sing you songs and make you feel like the most loved person on earth. As the years go on, people who don't even know you hear about your parties and they start coming cause there is free food and cake and lots of party spirit. They enjoy all you have to offer, but they could care less if you are there or not. After a couple of years of just attending, the people who don't know you begin to come up with new ways to make the party better and more fun. They start to add games and decorations and songs that even your closest friends enjoy. As the years pass, a good many people forget it is even your birthday. Some of the people grumble and complain that an event as great as this shouldn't even be about you. Even some of your closest friends are so distracted with all the activity and stuff, that besides a quick glance every now and then, they overlook you. It is rare that you even hear "Happy Birthday" any more, let alone "Thank you for such a wonderful party" or "Gosh, we love you so much".

I really think that God has allowed me to feel "normal" during this year's season, so that I can get back to what this is really all about. I think He is looking for some people who will breath through this time of celebration and enjoy Him most. People who will allow Him to bless them with little random gifts of love, instead of struggling to keep up with expectations. People who will rest...yes, I dare say "rest"...as they keep their focus on Him and celebrating who He is.

As I was driving along this morning, the thought that brought holiday joy to my heart was "Jesus, you're my favorite!" Christmas is a celebration of a Savior that came when we needed saving. A Savior that still offers His grace and His friendship to anyone willing to lay down all the other stuff and say "Yes" to Him. Nothing is wrong with the celebration! But the celebration, itself, is not what brings the true joy. We seek and seek that joy in all the hype and when it's all over, we feel let down. We go about the year thinking "Next year we will do it bigger and better" or even "Next year we will do it smaller and simpler". We have missed the entire point when we "do", instead of "be". Be a Christ follower this season. Rest, give, love, and celebrate with a heart focused on the enormity of what happened one night long ago. "Glory to God in the highest... and on earth, PEACE, goodwill toward men. A Savior has been born to you this day...Emmanuel, Christ the Lord."

Meet Katherine Hope Roberts...

Meet Katherine Hope Roberts...

Posted by Candace

Very long awaited and still waiting for her parents to come get her...but here she is in all her glory :). Kate will be 2 years old on Dec. 2nd. She is completely healthy and from what we can tell only has some small orthopedic issues. She is waiting for us in an orphanage in Guangdong, China. We are PREAPPROVED TO ADOPT HER.

I can't tell you how excited we are and were to meet her! We got the call on November 7th, but we had to wait to share her with you all until we had preapproval from China. She is absolutely perfect in our eyes and we can't wait to bring her home. We now have to wait for our Letter of Acceptance which could take anywhere from 2-3 months, then we will have to be issued a date with the US embassy in China and also travel approval, so it will be at least March before we are able to go get her. Lots more difficult waiting, but at least now we know exactly what we are waiting for!

I know you all will be so thrilled along with us. Many people have already told us that we are doing wonderful thing by rescuing this little girl from a abandonment. Kate will, without a doubt, be unfathomably treasured by our family and hopefully one day by our society, but she will also deal with a great amount of grief in the process. This little girl was left on the steps of a government building as an infant by her parents because, for whatever reason, they could not keep her. We will probably never meet these people or be able to thank them for such an amazing gift and neither will she. She will never know the woman who carried her for 9 months and chose to give her life. She will wonder, even though we will teach her of God's plan from the beginning for her to be our daughter, what her parents look like, sound like, and why they left her. How could a little girl not? Even though she has been raised in an orphanage and we all know how much better off she will be here, she will not come to this brand new place thanking us for saving her... she will grieve! We are tearing her away from her caregivers, from the only home she has ever known, from her country and culture and language... and yes, we do it for her own good, but she will not realize that for many years. She may also continually question her permanancy in our home. My heart breaks for her even now, because our love alone will not fill the void in her little heart. It will take time and a great big God to help us all adjust. And we are so incredibly thankful that we will have both when Kate finally comes home forever.

God's perfect plan is for children to be raised, loved, and cherished by their birth parents. When that doesn't happen in this imperfect world, He has made a way. He's really good at making a way. Adoption is a perfect picture of our relationship with our God. Picking us up, just because... cleaning us up, caring for us, and giving us a forever home. He protects us and loves us, in spite of our inability to be grateful enough or to earn it. We are blown away by this opportunity to follow in His footsteps.

Please continue to pray for us and for our sweet Katherine Hope gift! How GREAT is our GOD!!

God sees.

God sees.

Posted by Candace

So I thought my next post would be one introducing Katherine Hope to you, but a few delays later I am writing just because the knots must come out some way. The matching list that was supposed to come out on the 20th was delayed until Nov. 1st. which was last night in China. Alas, it still has not come out, we have not been matched yet, and so goes what I am told is normal in the adoption process. There are no guarantees. There are no adoption C-sections. The entire process must have its way and there isn't anything we can do to change that.

Needless to say, I have spent the last 3 days vascillating between excitement and anxiety. David, too, has felt the pressure of waiting. At random moments we find ourselves looking at each other and asking "Are you ready?" As if that will hurry things up. Waiting is hard! If you have ever experienced waiting for a child to come into your world, the difficulty of patience is tripled. In both my pregnancies the last week before labor was the most difficult. Not knowing when the contractions would begin, but knowing it could be any moment... I feel that exact way right now. That feeling of just enough weariness to make you want to cry, but just enough hope to keep the tears from coming.

I had to call our case worker this morning, so I could at least move on with the day and think of something else. Emily is so gracious to us and understands every bit of this having gone through it twice herself. She says that she doesn't know what is going on with the list... she is going to call some people a little bit later in the day and find out. My temptation is to doubt, to worry, to be discouraged, but I kinda got an email from God this morning. Strange thing to say, I know, but let me explain. David and I waited up last night for news and disappointment sank in when we went to bed without any. We checked our phones a couple of times during the night and still nothing. I have an app on my phone that gives me a random daily Bible verse. It changes to a new one at midnight and alerts me. I didn't look at it last night because I was so focused on whether I had gotten a phone call or an email, but this morning when I looked at it, the verse jumped out at me. "For you did not receive the spirit of slavery to fall back into fear, but you have received the Spirit of adoption as sons, by whom we cry 'Abba, Father!'" Romans 8:15. What??? There are only a few verses in the entire Bible that have the word "adoption" in them. Speechless!

God sees... He sees us here waiting breathlessly for our daughter. He sees my dear friend who just found out she has a mass in her breast as she waits for news about her health. He sees my loved one who has been devastated by her spouse as she waits to see what will play out in her marriage. He sees my husband who is wading through company changes as he waits for others to make decisions that he has no control over. And He sees you...wherever you are, whatever you are waiting for, God sees you. And He waits too... He waits for you to care, He waits for you to believe, He waits for you to follow... He is waiting every day for sons and daughters. I have no words to describe a God such as this. A God who would message me this morning just to say "I see you."

So we may meet our daughter today... or we may meet her next month. Waiting is still hard, but He is here... He's right here beside us...and because I know and believe that, I can face the moments, the hours, the days of waiting.