A Christmas prayer

Just wanted to put out a little Christmas prayer as we get ready for the countdown to the big day!  As an adoptive-father-to-be, I am constantly thankful to God who adopted us all as sons through Jesus.  And this week I am turning my thoughts to Joseph, our most famous adoptive father.  God breathed life into creation, but we would eventually succumb to sin.  Then He promised us a seed delivered through a woman that would crush sin and save us all.  Joseph was faithful to God, and adopted Jesus as his own, raising him, shepherding him, teaching him.  I pray that I can be half the man that Joseph was as I become a father to this little boy.  I pray that I can be faithful to follow the path that God has laid before me.  Merry Christmas everyone!  I hope it brings joy and wonder to us all.  We love you!

Ken

Yes, you CAN cut down a
Christmas tree in Alabama!

Ballet princess Suzy Snowflake! 

Home Study Complete!

Yesterday, Friday December 2nd, we finished our home study!  This is a milestone for us, the last of five meetings.  It will take a couple weeks for our social worker to put everything together, and then it will all go off to immigration.  This is the first big step to get past.  Once we get immigration approval we will send our dossier to China (the next big step), and eventually get our "log-in date".  That's when we will be ready for placement.  So our home study should go off around Christmas, and probably about 3 months later we should be accepted for placement.  That's about as far as we can think right now, anything else would be getting ahead of ourselves!  We saw video this week of a little girl being adopted from the Mao Ming orphanage.  It was amazing to think that our little boy might be one of the faces there among the crowd, yet we don't even know him yet!  It's easy to feel a little helpless at this point, but DeAnna and I believe strongly that God is sovereign in all this.  The day we were born we were destined to adopt this little boy, just as the day he was born he was destined to be ours.  We have to have faith that he will be cared for and protected until the day we can bring him home.  It reminds me of one of my favorite verses, Ephesians 2:8, "For by grace you have been saved through faith. And it is not your own doing; it is the gift of God."  It is amazing to me how simple God's plan is for all of us.  And we take comfort in knowing that this is the same salvation He offers to every one of us, even a little boy born across the world in China.

And as we appreciate His simple road to salvation, I hope you all enjoy this season as we celebrate the birth of our savior.  Let's try to see past the traffic and the lines and open our hearts to the love that He brought into the world.

Merry Christmas!
Ken