Paris.....Here we come

Oh my goodness, the time is here. I have been looking so forward to this trip that it felt like it would never get here, but today is the day.

I will be flying out of Chicago International this evening with my friend Terri and her daughter Bethany, we have a brief layover in Germany and then we are Paris bound. Once in Paris we will meet up with Terri's youngest daughter Meredeth, who will be completing her Student teaching.

We will be spending five days in Paris then visiting Lyon before we head down to the South of France . We may also take a few day trips possibly into Italy and Spain.

Please pray for us as we leave for safe travels and for protection. Also if you could lift our families up I would greatly appreciate it. I know I will feel the love and prayers of my sisters around the world!

Our God IS so Big!

We had a wonderful weekend, our friends N and J came to town with their son, S. We were able to spend time talking, playing and worshipping together. But wait let me start back at the beginning so you can fully grasp what an amazing God we have.

Twelve years ago we were raising four small children. Three biological children and our second foster child, S. S came to us as a 6week old baby, he stayed with us for two and a half years and we loved every second of caring for him as our own.

But as I explained here, we began doing foster care as a ministry, we felt God had called us to foster care for the purpose of caring for children in between leaving their biological parents until they were able to connect with their "forever families."

So we had fervently been praying for S, his parents parental rights had been terminated and the county was looking for adoptive resources for him. We knew God had a plan for him and we were busy doing the only thing we could for him....praying, praying for a wonderful Christian family for him.

Well during this time my husband attended a Promise Keepers event in Milwaukee, 10,000 men praising and learning more about our God. My husband was up in the nose bleed section with a group of men from our church, there was another large group of men sitting in front of them. During one intermission the group in front of them got up and moved to a different area where they were able to see better. After a few minutes a man and his son came and sat down directly in front of my husband. During another intermission they began to make casual conversation when suddenly this man started telling my husband how he and his family had been praying to adopt a child. Well my husband knew this was no coincidence but also knew enough about the system to know that as perfect as this seemed, its just not how it works. They exchanged numbers are were both very eager to get home and tell N and I.
I will admit I told my husband he was crazy to even think about this, our system has way too many hoops to jump thru and they had already told us they had a number of families that had expressed interest in S.

N began calling and she was sure this was all God, I explained to her also about the system but nothing was stopping her. They asked if they could come down and visit with us, they lived about three hours from us. They were very excited about meeting S. We agreed they could come down and we would explain foster care to them and help them maybe look into foster care in their own home town.

Well they came down and of course feel in love with S. We agreed to give them the workers name and number but we made every attempt at warning them that this truly is not how the system works. I am ashamed to admit that at the time I thought "the system" was bigger than my God. But as we developed a friendship with N and J we all began praying and believing that this would in fact be Gods will.

Well after months and months of praying and crying out to our God, after months and months of being told by workers, who were more than willing to tell us that it might seem like God wanted this, but this is NOT how the system works. One day S' worker (who had told us she did not believe in God) came out for a visit and as she sat at my kitchen table she told me...I don't know this God of yours but you know what, if you four are so sure of this God and so sure that He orchestrated this meeting, who am I to tell you no. We have decided to proceed with moving S to N and J's house and will proceed with making them his "forever family!"

I remember weeping and feeling so truly honored that my God would reach down into not only S's life but into our lives and touch us. He is bigger than any system, He is bigger than any obstacle or absolutely anything that seems impossible! He cares for us and does have a plan for each of us. I thank Him so very often for bringing S into our lives, I thank Him for using us and showing Himself to us in such an real way.

And I thank Him for this wonderful Christian family who loves our S with all their hearts, I thank Him for the awesome godly young man S has become. I thank him for and N and J and for allowing us to always remain in S's life, and for the friendship we have developed over these last 10 years. How amazing it was to sit in church on Sunday and praise our God together!

I know this is long already but I just have to tell you one last thing. Last year S was asking me about his birth mom, and he was telling me what he wanted to tell and ask her when he saw her again. He said Aunt Stacey do you know the first thing I want to ask her when I see her.....no S what would you ask her. I want to ask her if she knows JESUS! As I began to cry I told him how very proud of him I was. Yes, S make sure she knows your Jesus.

Guest Writer

My name is Ally. My mom, asked me to write a little "exciting paragraph" from my trip. 32 people from my youth group recently got back from an amazing trip to Tijuana, Mexico. On July 12th, we flew down to San Diego, spent the day on the beach, then drove down across the border. Sunday morning, we immediately met our families and got to work. This wasn't the type of work I had ever done before. I had gone to Mexico three previous times, but my work then was mainly focused on children or women. Now, I was solely working construction. If you try to imagine 32 high school teenagers trying to build a house, you never would have thought how hard we all actually would work. We were split into two groups, and each group made one full, complete house - from nothing to being lived in. We had four work days, from 8 a.m. to 6 p.m. to finish the task. The house I worked on was going to be lived in by a recently divorced man, who had a child he was never able to see. Before we came down, he was living with his parents and brothers in a small, two room house - barely big enough for them. Our team, laid cement, built 7 walls, put a roof up and tarred it, and gave the house a stucco finish. Both teams successfully completed each house. Our team was very connected, and we worked together well, in a very encouraging way. It was amazing to see how big of an influence our group had been. On previous trips, you would only be able to lay the seed and hope something comes from it. On this trip, we saw the actual planted there. A week after our group left, there was a follow-up meeting with the man living in the house and a local pastor, telling the man that our group of kids went down to help him out, using the love of Christ. We just wanted to show him love and compassion for everything going on in his life, by giving him something we were able to give. This was one of the best trips I have ever been on. God was working in Mexico.

Who is in Control...the big picture

Yesterday my son went flying with one of his best friends. It's hard to believe but his friend Chris got his pilots license this week. I have to admit, I still remember Chris as a young boy so the thought of flying with him or even having Loren fly with him is rather scary.

When I saw some of the pictures they took my first thought was... look at all those controls, oh my goodness. It reminded me of my life and who is sitting at my control panel.

Sometimes its hard, sometimes very hard to give up our control. I have to admit that sometimes I try to take over, I try to make God my co-pilot. But when I think of all those buttons and knobs, I really dont want to be in control. God knows which buttons to push and which knobs to turn, He can keep me heading in the right direction. He is my pilot, I am so glad that He is in control!


The other thing that I saw was some awesome photos of our house, our subdivision and our city. They really made me think of how different things are when we see the "big picture." God has our picture, sometimes I want to see so much more of it than I get to. Sometimes I truly think I forget its even there. You know the times, the times when He says NO, or when He sends us bad news or bad situations into our lives. Its easy to forget there are reasons and that God does have the big picture. I can't wait to see the BIG PICTURE and how God has weaved all the days of my life together.

The Fireworks!!!!