In Preparation for Thanksgiving

Noah's first encounter with a snake (dead of course)
Leanna and My table at the Ladies Thanksgiving Celebration at our church (above)-theme-Forest glade.
My mom and Rachael's table (below)- theme is Veteran's Day
Our church had their annual Ladies Thanksgiving Celebration today. It is an outreach even where we try to fill our table with women with whom we want to minister to. Praise God all seats at all the tables were full!! Only one seat was vacant and I like to think we saved that one for Jesus to sit at. We had 64 ladies at the luncheon who heard the Gospel of Christ loud and clear. This really got me in the holiday spirit. It also got me thinking of something God has brought to my attention lately which is just how many people that I know within my little circle that are physically hungry. I mean that they don't have enough food for the week. It is something that I have not had to deal with in my life but suddenly all around me there seems physical and spiritual hunger. I help run a small food pantry out of our church and perhaps this has brought to my attention the need. Last week at a meeting I attend once a month, our speaker was a lady that helped run the Food Pantry in the small town where I live. I was shocked to know that they feed 550-600 people every 30 days! I was also shocked at the small amount of food that they were able to give these families. Also last week, a family was brought to my attention with 5 children who had no food in their house. For breakfast they had chili beans and water. It made me so thankful for all of the things I have been blessed with. So my challenge to you is this...... branch out of your comfort zone, see people through Jesus' eyes. Also, try to be very perceptive of peoples REAL life situations. My experience with many families I've seen use the food pantry is that they live in nice houses and don't look like what we believe to be the "typical" person who would need help. After all, we never know when we may need a helping hand.

Adoption Update: I met with the social worker tonight. She was helping me to put together our dossier (papers to send to the Ukraine). A lot of issues in them need to be corrected but strangely I feel a peace about it that I haven't had in a while (praise God!). I know some of you out there are praying and for that I am grateful. So here is the latest time line we are shooting for. November and December I will be fixing my paperwork, getting it notarized, authenticated and state sealed. We will submit the Dossier to the Ukraine Embassy in January. After they translate it, they will send it to the the Embassy in Kiev. This process will take a few months. Then, we will get a letter to fly from the Ukraine (if we are approved) which could be anywhere from a few months out to 6-8 months out. Either way, hopefully 2009 will be the year we'll get our little girl.

PRAYER REQUEST: Pray that my Homestudy will come in the next few weeks (it is finished and we passed!) so we can begin applying for grants and financial aide.
Pray that God has picked out the perfect little girl for our family. It's a little surreal to know that she has probably been born now. Thank ya'll so much for your prayers!