Whoa, this is even more crazy than before!

This is truly even more crazy than my previous post here. A friend and I joined a small church nearby for their annual ladies Christmas get-together at a fun and fancy restaurant nearby in Oberlin, Kansas. They were very kind to invite us and have become quite an encouragement to us in our endeavor of planting a new church here in McCook. Anyway, somehow (not of my doing) the topic of conversation came to adoption. I shared the fact that we were in the process of adopting from Ethiopia and one of the waitresses standing near my friend Michelle quietly said something to the effect of, "No! She didn't just say that!" And my friend Michelle assured her I did and she shared with us that she and her husband had just started paperwork for adoption of a baby from Ethiopia! From there we excitedly chatted for as long as she could spare. The Lord has revealed a new piece of the beautiful tapestry he is weaving just today :) I can't even begin to think of all the pieces that the Lord has orchestrated to make this happen, the whole big adoption plans, the fact that just as I was saying this, this particular waitress was listening. This waitress was also able to give me the name of the lady that has adopted two older Ethiopian children just recently. Specific answers to prayer that have been revealed just today have been for:

• a connection for my child to his/her home country (in real live fellow kids!) even in older kids that might be able to share with my child about what Ethiopia is like . . . or teach them and us some Amharic!
• Fellow adoptive families to be support and wisdom for one another
• A new group with which to share the beauty of the gospel in adoption with
• A confirmation, as best I can tell, of the fact that this truly is the path to which we were called by the Lord. He is honoring the specific prayers I am lifting up in a way which can not be explained by my own wisdom.

Yay! I boast in the Lord for He has been so gracious to our family!

"The Lord is near to all who call on Him, to all who call on him in truth. He fulfills the desires of those who fear Him, He hears their cry and saves them."

Ps 145:18,19

"This is the assurance we have in approaching God: that if we ask anything acording to His will He hears us. And if we know that He hears us - whatever we ask - we know that we have what we asked of Him."

1 John 5:14,15