Do Not Be Anxious About Your Life

We'll wake up tomorrow to news about whether our children passed court or not.  And it is so easy to get worried and stressed as I think about it!  But God has been reminding me this week that He is in control, and my anxiety would be a symptom of a lack of trust in Him.

Our God is sovereign over all things.  He knows every detail of our lives and he is intimately involved.  He will do what is right.

Lamentations 3:22-26 The steadfast love of the Lord never ceases; His mercies never come to an end; they are new every morning; great is Your faithfulness.  "The Lord is my portion," says my soul, "therefore I will hope in Him."  The Lord is good to those who wait for Him, to the soul who seeks Him.  It is good that one should wait quietly for the salvation of the Lord.

Psalm 16:8-9, 11 I have set the Lord always before me; because He is at my right hand I shall not be shaken.  Therefore my heart is glad, and my whole being rejoices; my flesh also dwells secure.  You make known to me the paths of life; in Your presence there is fullness of joy; at Your right hand are pleasures forevermore.

Patience

There are only six days until our court date in Ethiopia!! It's getting harder and harder to keep my mind clear. I want my heart to be joyful in Christ even if our kids don't pass court the first time and we need to wait another month for a second court date. But oh how we long for the Lord to show us grace and allow them to pass on February 1! We feel ready to bring them home!

In the meantime, we've been making some rearrangements to our apartment. So far we have one crib set up and it looks great. Thanks, mom and dad!

We have a few bibs, stuffed animals...I look around and think, this is really happening!

We're finishing up some final paperwork and getting travel vaccinations this week. And...we're patiently waiting on the Lord until the news on FEBRUARY 1.

Don't forget

February 9 is the goal date to have all of our matching grant donations received by LifeSong for Orphans.  We are so grateful that they and Louisville Orphan Care Initiative have chosen us for a $4000 matching grant.  They will double everything that is donated, up to $4000.  This means even the smallest gifts are very helpful because they are doubled. We would love to be able to use the full amount of what LifeSong and LOCI are offering.  So far we've raised $1225 toward the $4000 goal.

If you would still like to give, please make checks out to LifeSong for Orphans with "Philpot #1073 Adoption" in the memo line.  You can mail them to:

LifeSong for Orphans
Attn: Philpot Adoption
PO Box 40 / 202 N. Ford Street
Gridley, IL 61744

Your gifts do not go unnoticed by the Greatest Giver!  In fact, your giving is an act of obedience to our Lord, even aside from your generosity toward us.  "Pure and undefiled religion before our God and Father is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself unstained by the world."  (James 1:27)

Haiti

We got a message from our adoption agency saying that the main orphanage they work with in Haiti has been severely damaged and robbed of everything.  They have no supplies and the children are cold.  One of the nannies has died and they can't remove her body yet.  The agency is spending the weekend working to see if they can get humanitarian parole visas to evacuate the children immediately.  Please pray that this would be accomplished.  It would be a miracle, but God performs miracles!

If you'd like to donate to help, you can do that on their website at celebratechildren.org.

Cloth Diapers

Call me crazy...but we're going to try it! We got a big box of cloth diapers in the mail today, so we're all stocked up!

Resurrection

I just found out  today that the baby orphanage where our children are is called Resurrection.  The original orphanage they're from is in the city of Hosanna.

John 11:25 - Jesus said "I am the resurrection and the life.  Whoever believes in Me, though he die, yet shall he live."

Matthew 21:9 - And the crowds that went before Him and that followed Him were shouting, "Hosanna to the Son of David!  Blessed is He who comes in the name of the Lord!  Hosanna in the highest!"

February 1

That's our court date!!!!  We didn't expect to hear about a court date until at least three days from now, and even that was hopeful because last week was Christmas in Ethiopia.  Our God is so good!

So please pray with us that our kids will both pass court on Feb 1.  We don't have to be there for it, but we'll be waiting to know how it went.  And if they both pass...we hope to go get them just before MARCH 11!!!  I have a feeling it'll be a whirlwind of planning until then.

Redeeming Orphans

A blog I enjoy following is Redeeming Orphans. Some posts I highly recommend are The Cost of Saying Yes to Adoption, Adoption is Spiritual Warfare and African Hair Care. They're short and well worth reading!

While you're at it, check out Everyone is Called to Consider Adoption by Jonathan Everette.

Happy New Year!

Fun fact:  In Ethiopia there are 13 months instead of 12.  So even though we just welcomed in the year 2010, Ethiopia is still in the year 2002!

(As you can imagine, that makes it harder to figure out ages if you adopt a child that's older...)

Submitted to Court

It's been an exciting morning!  We found out from our adoption agency that our childrens' paperwork is ready, and our cases have been submitted to court.  I jumped up and down when I read the email!  This is what we've been waiting for.  We know very little about these two precious babies, but this indicates that they are ready to be adopted.

AND it helps us to plan.  They'll let us know in about two weeks what our court date is.  We're thinking we might have a court date in mid or late February, and if all goes well on court day we may be able to go get our babies in early APRIL!