I don’t remember the last time I went to a “conference” per say, but I went to one this past weekend that was anything but that. Verge Conference, centered around Missional Community, took place here in Austin this past weekend. It wasn’t really a conference at all. It was a bunch of people looking for something different. It was a lot of people who love the church, and are perhaps frustrated with it. It was Mega church pastors, and house church groupies and everything in between, and the one common denominator: our love for Christ and His church. I wont tell you who spoke, because it didn’t totally matter. I wont say who led worship, because I know he wouldn’t want the notoriety. You can visit www.verge2010.org to see some quotes and what people are saying.

I truly feel like a movement has begun. I believe that this might be the beginning of radical change in the modern day church. I think people are tired of doing business as usual, and they know that Christ didn’t intend for things to be that way. For me, the worship was convicting. Not because of anything anyone said or sang, but because the Spirit was so thick. I’m a worship leader. I’m in worship services all the time, and I genuinely can’t remember the Spirit having ever been that thick before. I think it was also good for me to be in a place where people seemed to get it. They weren’t there to play church games, or learn the next new strategy for growing their church. I believe we met to hear God say “I want justice… that’s what I want” (Amos 5:24 The Message). I’m still processing all that I felt, learned, heard, and thought. I’ll try to post more as those things become more clear.

Just a quick update on adoption: We’re still in “wait mode”. The opportunity to foster a Haitian child has pretty much closed. The Haitian government is not letting any more orphans out of the country who don’t already have adoptions in process. We’re okay with that… we just felt like God wanted us to make ourselves available to foster a child when that opportunity was in front of us. We haven’t heard any new news from China. The process is pain-stakingly slow. We’ve prayed about other options (different country, special needs child) and we just keep hearing God say “wait”. So that’s what we’re doing. We are so thankful for all of your prayers, support, and encouragement. If anything changes, or if there is any “new” news. We’ll post immediately. Until then… we continue to choose to love those around us… and we hope you do too.

WOW! You just never know what a week could bring!  Thanks for taking this ride with us and praying for us!  I wanted to give you guys the latest on what is happening…so, here goes….

HAITI:

The word, as of today, is that Hope for Orphans is working with Haiti Children’s Rescue Mission (HCRM).  They are working with the U.S. Embassy to gain approval for 21 children who were in the process of adoption before the earthquake hit to leave Haiti and be united with their forever families.  They also have +/- 40 children who were not in the process of adoption yet, but were orphans before the earthquake.  Hope for Orphans and HCRM is going to approach the U.S. to try to gain approval for these kids to enter the U.S.  These 2 organizations have families who are homestudy approved and ready to go for these kiddos.

Justin and I received a call from Robyn, who is with Hope for Orphans, and had an informal phone interview with her.  She wanted to know our story and how far along we were in the adoption process.  She asked about our journey with wanting to host/adopt a child from Haiti.  We had a GREAT time talking on the phone.  During our time on the phone she wanted to know what age of child we would be interested in.  In these situations it is SO HARD to have a preference!  We want to just do whatever God wants us to do.  However, in our almost 2 years of being on the adoption journey, we feel strongly that Jaxon needs to stay our oldest child.  Unless God makes it VERY clear otherwise.  Birth order is important and we want to be wise in our decisions for Jaxon.  She looked through the profiles of children that were available and the youngest was 5 years old.  I was disappointed, but she affirmed that it is a wise decision to keep your oldest child, the oldest.  She told me it looked like that door was closed for now, but they would keep our information on file and if any more new developments happened with younger children, she would let us know.

It was a big drop on our emotional rollercoaster.  I am naturally an optimist, so I just knew this was going to work out.  We have been trying and waiting to grow our family for over 2 years now.  I was SO excited about the possibility for God to use our family as He gave us our hearts’ desire for more children.  So, here we go again….struggling through this risky walk of faith!  I am BELIEVING A BIG GOD TO DO BIG THINGS IN OUR LIVES!!  We will continue to pray and hurt for all the HARD things happening in Haiti…knowing GOD sees ALL and He will be those children’s BIGGEST Advocate!

JUSTIN’S BACK:

Sunday we finally had to make a trip to the ER.  Justin was in just excruciating pain.  We had the easiest ER experience in the history of ER experiences!  We got him wheeled in straight to the back and onto a hospital bed.  The nurse was waiting on us and the doctor was in the room within minutes.  He got a powerful pain killer shot and was feeling better…still in lots of pain, but better…within the hour.  He had an MRI done Monday morning which confirmed that He had 2…yes 2…bulged discs.  They were bulging into his spinal column hitting his sciatic nerve….aha….that explains all the pain!  He has started an intense chiropractic/physical therapy regiment.  Today has been his best day!  He is still needing to take some of the pain medicine and muscle relaxers, but he is able to slowly walk. YAY!  It is going to be a slow recovery, but thankfully it looks like he will be able to make a full recovery without surgery!! Thank you SO much for everyone who prayed for him!!  We would LOVE for you to keep him in your prayers as he works to make a full recovery!

I do need to brag on Jax for a bit.  O.K. he is the kindest little boy!  I mean, he was a champ at helping with Justin.  He would bring him ice, water, his houseshoes…anything he thought he might need.  Usually we wouldn’t even ask him.  He just wanted to take care of his dad!  What a blessing!  In the midst of a crazy, emotional week, it sure was fun watching him and seeing the amazing little dude God has made in him!!

THANKS for being on the journey with us!  We feel so BLESSED to have friends and family like you guys in our lives!!

THANKS GOD!!

Just wanted to let you guys know…

I just got on the Hope for Orphans blog (hopefororphansblog.com) and found out some new information.  It looks like the Haitian government has said that ONLY those children who are in the process of adoption will be allowed to leave the country.  Even if Hillary Clinton and the State Department allowed refugee visas, the children will not be allowed to leave the country if they are not currently in the adoption process.

Please keep praying for these children.  Proverbs 23:11 in the Message says that orphans have a powerful Advocate who will go to bat for them.  Keep asking and believing God to provide EXACTLY what these sweet little ones need!  HE can work a miracle!

We will keep you posted if there is any new information.