Humbled

Wow!  What a crazy weekend.  The garage sale fundraiser was a huge success!!  Thank you to each and every one of you who donated goods, came out to help with set up/manage garage sale, and just stopped by to say hi!  We are so blessed by your help!  A huge shout out to our Life Group.  SO many of you guys stopped by or helped.  We love each and every one of you guys and are so thankful for your placement in our lives during this season.  So, before the garage sale, I really had a feeling that we were going to have a good result.  And did we ever!!  We made exactly what our goal was!!  Such an encouragement of God's faithfulness!  My eyes have been opened so much to what happens when you "LET GO AND LET GOD" as the saying goes.  We have seen God's provision, and I am certain that we will continue to until we reach our ultimate goal of $25,000 to bring our little munchkin home!  Every day I fall more in love with him.  And every day, I grow impatient to get to meet him.  We are still so far out.  And things seem to be moving so slow.  Clay has been traveling nonstop lately.  Which basically puts a lot of the stuff we can do on hold.  But, I do know that God's timing is perfect.  And he has this whole process perfectly mapped out for us.  So, I will *try* to relax and continue to LET GOD. 

I continue to be amazed by people during this process.  I will admit, before all of this, I really had gotten a bit of a negative attitude towards people.  I had lost faith in mankind.  But, man have my eyes been opened.  A few weeks ago at church we had a family that we do not know very well, come up to us and hand us a check for $500.  They, too, had adopted, but still!  That is no small chunk of change!  Saturday at the garage sale, a family from our life group gave us a check for $200.  What a blessing!  An old friend from my old playgroup not only gave us a ton of stuff for our garage sale, but also a check for $100.  And Sunday, I got a text from an old friend that I used to work out with every morning at Crossfit.  We haven't seen each other in several months.  She had texted me a while back and said that for Lent, she was giving up her cheat meal every week.  And she wanted the money she would spend on it to go to our adoption.  WOW!  So, I met her yesterday and she gave me $100 for our little guy.  Really!?  Tonight I got an email from a friend from nursing school telling us they wanted to send money.  I am completely humbled by each one of these people.  God is using them to show me His faithfulness and provision.  I feel so blessed to know each and every one of these people.  But, it's not just those who have given us money.  It's those who have prayed over us.  Said encouraging words, or just been there to listen to us talk about our little guy.  We are so thankful for our support system.  Thank you, all of you, who pray for us through this walk.  We love all of you and hope that we can one day be there for you the way you have been for us. 

John 15:12-15 “This is my commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you. Greater love has no one than this, that someone lay down his life for his friends. You are my friends if you do what I command you. No longer do I call you servants, for the servant does not know what his master is doing; but I have called you friends, for all that I have heard from my Father I have made known to you.

Exciting news - Short and sweet!

Another NON- adoption blog post!  But, this HAD to be documented.  And, since I am not a journal person, or a blogger  (this doesn't really count does it?), I will document it here!  Last night in the Richey house was a big one!  Tuesday nights I am not home because I am busy making people want to puke at Crossfit Endurance classes (yes, I find pure joy in this!).  So, unfortunately, I missed the biggest thing to happen at our house yet.  But, I got the full report when I got home.  Last night, our sweet sweet Jack made a decision that will change his life forever.  He and Clay were in his bed for his normal nighttime routine, and he told Clay "Daddy, when I die, I want to go to heaven."  He wasn't asking how this happens, he wasn't asking questions about it.  He knew.  He knew without a doubt that he was ready to make that decision.  That would change his eternal existence.  The topic had come up a few times before, and Clay and I just thought to ourselves, he is too young.  He doesn't really understand.  So, we answered his questions, but never acted on them.  Well, last night was different.  And, Clay knew.  So, Clay pulled out his handy Iphone Bible app, and went over Romans 3:23 with him.  And then they prayed together, and Jack accepted Jesus Christ as his personal Savior!  I was in tears when Clay told me about it.  This is what we long for in life....our children...the little creatures that we love most in this world, to decide to follow Jesus!  What an awesome thing!  We just kind of have a feeling that Jack is going to take after his namesake and go into the ministry one day.  We could be wrong.  Just a hunch.  He has such a pure view.  I love how innocent children are.  They are not yet corrupted by this world we live in.  So innocent.  So simple.  So pure.  One day we will have that pure life again.  Can. Not. Wait! 

Giving HIM the Glory

So I will start with saying this blog post isn't really about adoption.  Whew.  Nice change huh?  ;)  It's about something I heard today at church that got to me.  And, the funny thing is, I have heard this about a million times throughout my Christian life.  But.  Today it just made sense.  Sadly, it made sense because this is the first time in the 22 years of being a Christian, that I was actually READY to hear it.  Sad.  Why do we do that?  If we don't want to hear something important we just block it out, ignore it.  So, I will just get down to it.  The thing that got to me was when Pastor Kirk said, "you have to be willing to DIE to live your life for Jesus."  Yeah, yeah, yeah.  Heard it a million times.  So why was it different today?  And, let's think about this.  Am I willing to give up everything I have for God?  Really?  Because if the answer is no, then, well, things, they gotta change!  Why do we get SO caught up in ourselves.  In our lives, our kids, our house, our clothes, our next meal, where our kids go to school (ugh- always a dilemma for Jenny!).  Why are we so selfish.  Kirk explained it perfectly.  Because we are imperfect beings.  We are sinful.  It is human nature to be selfish.  To not want to give up everything for others.  And, the American way of life does nothing but encourage that thought process.  So does that excuse us?  NO.  Read this verse from Matthew 10:38-39
"If you refuse to take up your cross and follow me, you are not worthy of being mine.  If you cling to your life, you will lose it; but if you give up your life for me, you will find it.”  What?  For reals?  You mean, I have to give up MY plans, MY hopes, MY dreams for you, God?  No way.  I can't do that?  Well.  I mean, we kind of are.  We are starting to.  All of Clay and my plans for our future have been thrown out the window to follow God's plans for our lives.  And are we better off?  HECK YES!  I could write a whole other blog post on how we have been blessed just the past month with living our lives for HIM.  But, I have a confession.  So, we are definitely doing that on the adoption front.  But, are we doing it in other aspects of our lives?  Hmmm.  Good question.  Kirk shared a verse today about doing things "without grumbling".  Oh.  Uh oh.  If you know me, you know I am a "grumbler".  ;)  Darn.  Have to stop that too.  So, is this easy?  No.  Will we stumble and fall.  Yes.  Do we need to worry about all of this?  NO!  Now, read this other verse from Matthew 6:31-33, "So do not worry, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’  For the pagans run after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them.  But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well."  Ok.  Maybe I can do this.  Stop worrying.  Stop focusing on things that don't matter.  Focus on GOD.  You know, I will share a little inside view of the Richey house just to give an example of this.  A couple weeks ago, when we were signing paperwork to be sent to a certain Eastern European country, we realized that soon after the paperwork gets there and is cleared, we will need to send another $8000 to our agency.  What?  We just sent $3500.  Well, Jenny had a little meltdown.  Ok.  A huge meltdown.  Freaking out about where the money would come from.  Clay (who hardly ever worries about things - especially financial) says, "we will just take it out of savings."  Yeah.  Sure we will.  When I disagreed calmly...ok.  Not calm.  At. All.  Clay says, "Jenny.  This is not our money anyways.  We are going to use this money for God's purpose.  He will take care of us.  He will provide.  What do you need the money for anyways?"  Um.  I don't know.  Rainy day funds are nice to have.  But Clay was right.  God promised us in Matthew that He will provide if we are living for Him.  And you know what?  In some ways, it is so freeing to just let go of all the "plans".  To just enter life like you are some awesome ride.  To go out and live each day to better yourself and others.  To give it all up and hand it all over to GOD.  So, that is just what we are going to do.  Will it be easy?  No.  It will be hard.  Did I share that verse from Galations 1:10 on the last post?  If so, then I am sorry.  But I just love it.  So, here it is again, "Am I now trying to win the approval of human beings, or of God? Or am I trying to please people? If I were still trying to please people, I would not be a servant of Christ."  Yes.  Stop worrying about what others think.  Cause, when it gets down to it, that is what prevents me from doing things I know I should go out and do.  Right?  That or just laziness.  So, what's your excuse?  I am sick of making excuses.  It's time to get real.  Will it be easy.  No.  Will I always be successful.  No.  Some days you may see me and you may just laugh that Jenny can't handle things.  Well, that may be true.  But, I am working on it.  And, God knows my heart.  And He knows yours.  Let's do this together.  Let's give HIM the glory. 

Meet HIM

 SO.  The big news as most of you know.....we officially have a son.  Gosh, that sounds weird.  ;)  Due to country restrictions, we cannot tell you his name or what country he is in.  He is in Eastern Europe.  He will turn 2 in June.  And, we have about 12 months before we get to bring him home.  Isn't he the sweetest thing?  I laugh that they have him in a Mickey Mouse shirt.  When I show Chandler his picture, she calls him Goofy.  Seems appropriate to a 3 year old, I suppose!  12 months before we bring him home.  In some ways, I am relieved.  More time for me to get past this fear of a 3rd child!  But, when I get past the ME...then it becomes about him.  And then, more about HIM...and serving HIM.  At our last adoption meeting at our agency, the lady told us, "adoption is not about you.  It is about the child."  So, so true.  God has asked us to give up our plans and take in this child.  This awesome, perfect child.  I get so sad thinking about him sitting in his crib, alone, with no mommy or daddy to sing to him or kiss him or love him.  No big brother and sister to play with him.  He is almost 2 and still drinking out of a bottle!  No real food yet!!  Boy, are we going to fatten that kid up!!  ;)  We have been chosen, hand picked by GOD to raise this beautiful child.  How blessed are we?  And, it's true.  This is about him.  It has nothing to do with us.  We have pledged to *try* to forget about ourselves in this life.  It is now about him, while serving HIM.  We have had so many people tell us "I am glad there are people like you out there....I could never do that."  Be careful what you say!  I would have said the same thing a year ago!  LOL!!  I read the most amazing verse this week: Galations 1:10 "Am I now trying to win the approval men, or of GOD?  Or am I trying to please men?  If I were still trying to please men, I would not be a servant of Christ."  WOW!!!  Pretty awesome.  And pretty true.  Being a true servant of Christ is no easy walk in the park.  But, again, we knew that.  It is an absolute honor to dedicate our lives to God's will.  We are thrilled to welcome this child into our family.  12 months.  Oh.  12 months and I get to hold him.  And rock him.  And love him.  He has never experienced love.  Break.  My. Heart.  But he will.  He will know that he is loved.  Not only by his family, but by his heavenly Father.  And it makes my heart melt to think that one day, he will know of Jesus' love for him.  And, that my friends, is redemption. 

So, what happens over the next 12 months?  Lots more paperwork.  And more background checks.  Tomorrow is our home study.  So say a prayer for us!  Am I worried or nervous.  No.  Not at all.  Our social worker is super nice.  And honestly, we are super awesome so why wouldn't we pass!!  Totally kidding!!  ;)  But, it will be nice to have that checked off of our list!  And what else will be going on the next 12 months?  Fundraising!!!  The photography fundraiser was a hit!!!  We made $1000!  Thank you Shannon!!  Our garage sale is coming up in April, so if you have anything you want to get rid of, bring it over!  We would love to sell it for you!  Our goal is $1-2k!!!  Ok.  Maybe just $1k.  ;)  And the biggest most exciting fundraiser!!!!  We have been asked to be a sponsored family in the ONE LESS race  in Boerne!!!!!!  http://www.onelessrace.com/default.html  Check it out!!  This is a HUGE deal guys!  And we would love for all of our friends to participate.  We are so blessed by this opportunity.  We are also thinking about doing a dinner/auction.  But, we need some things to auction!!!  If you have any ideas or are a business owner and would like to help out, let us know!

So, that is it for updates for now.  Feeling super blessed and thankful.  I read a quote on pinterest this week that made me laugh:  "God gives us only what we can handle.  Apparently, God thinks I am a bad ass."  LOL!!!  Yep.  Praise HIM for the ups and downs this process brings us.   It is only making us stronger. 

God WINS. Every. Time.

Wow.  What a week.  Traveling husband.  Sick kids.  And just that over all stressed out feeling of knowing there is so much to get done, and no time to complete it all.  And when you are down, what do you think Satan is going to do?  Yep.  Kick you harder and push you down further.  Cause that's how he rolls.  Alot has happened with us lately.  And this week was the biggest punch to the gut I have gotten - so far.  In some ways it was a great week on the adoption front.  But, on Thursday night I had a complete meltdown.  One of those meltdowns where you question "Why!!  Why God are you doing this?  Why did you call us to do this?"  Because, as I have said before, our life is *easy* by so many's definition.  Why would we change that?  But I saw a little thing on Pinterest this week that I should share : "We must be willing to let go of the life we have planned, so as to have the life that is waiting for us."  Hmmm.  Saw that on Tuesday.   Posted it to FB.  Kept thinking about it.  Fast forward 2 days and meltdown and questioning of God.  Fast forward 2 more days to Saturday.  Spent our entire day in a meeting with our adoption agency learning about all sorts of things, but mainly about how hard adoption is...after the kid comes home.  How do deal with all the emotional baggage they may have.  How to parent.  How to parent your biological children that are coping with the change.  And more, oh let's say, stressful topics.  So, again.  Thinking to myself, "why are we doing this?  What was God thinking by asking this of us!?"  And then it hit me.  I remembered something that my dear and most awesome friend, Shannon sent me in an email recently : "It's your job and Clay's job to thank God for the storm. Thank Him that he's allowing you to go through this storm. Thank Him that he thought so highly of you to choose you for this journey."  Wow.  Did I mention that I freaking love that girl!  She is amazing.  :)  He promised us hard times.  In fact my first blog talked about that.  So why am I surprised?!!  LOL!!  God chose us.  He is asking us do to his work.  We can do nothing but say YES.  And, once again, confirmation came today in church.  Have I mentioned that I love our church.  Our pastor is beyond amazing.  Perhaps it's because he too is a Baylor grad?  Nah.  He just knows exactly what to say when we need to hear it.  Ok, God does, but God uses Kirk perfectly.  Today he talked about "cat theology" and "dog theology"...and how cats and dogs are like different kinds of Christians.  Are you a cat or a dog?  Cats are all about ME.  They don't get excited about other people.  They focus on themselves.  Dogs - well, they bounce off the walls when people come around.  They are excited to see people and want to please them.   They do things for others.  God wants us to be like dogs.  We have to put others first.  And get excited about it!  Live with purpose and don't worry about how it will work out.  If God is asking you to do something, then go out and do it.  And HE will take care of the rest.  Whew.  The confirmation we needed to keep on plugging on.  (And yes, I am horrible at explaining things and Kirk's version was awesome while mine is terrible I know!)  But, it is just proof again that we are on the right track.  And all the doubts, concerns, stress from people continuing to question us (ugh - can't you people get a clue!!!  STOP asking us if we have thought about this.  I refuse to have that conversation any more.  Did I say that outloud?  Sorry.  It's my blog and I can say what I want.), are just going to continue to LOSE.  GOD wins.  HE is in control of this situation.  We are letting HIM control our moves, decisions, plans.  HE wins.  We are taking the backseat and following HIS lead.  And, it is just plain awesome to be on this ride. 

So, news for you guys.  Yes.  We have some.  Lots of some.  Maybe we will tell you one day.  LOL!  But, for now....we have picked the country.  Definitely going with Bulgaria.  Easy travel, cheapest, and some pretty darn cute kiddos!!  Pretty cool.  Also, please pray for next Saturday.  Pray for nice weather and no more cancellations b/c we are doing our Photography fundraiser!!!!  YAY!!  Did I mention that I love you, Shannon!?  ;)  We are working on a couple other fundraisers too (golf tournament, garage sale, tshirts, dinner/auction) so we will keep you posted as those come around. 

The Called

Well hello there!  Before you ask, I will tell you...nothing much to report!  Still plugging away at doctor's visits, blood work, referrals, financial information, pictures of the house and ourselves, reading books and writing reports, and education hours.  WOW!  This adoption stuff is involved!!  Yesterday when I was cleaning the house to take pictures of every room for the home study, I found myself a little annoyed.  But, quickly, my heart changed.  And I was excited.  When I completed that task, I was one step closer to bringing our child home.  And, that, my friends, is how I am choosing to look at this process.  I feel like I can't get to him fast enough....even though we don't even know who "he" is yet!  I love how God is preparing us daily for this adventure.  Clay's devotional was so fitting last night.  And, next week I start a weekly Bible study at church that will stay in line with what we are doing.  We truly do feel the calling to change our lives.  And you know it's funny.  We have had some people question us.  And I completely respect that.  But, you guys have to understand something here.   We did not choose this.  We are not qualified to do this.  GOD chose this for us.  And we are just listening to HIS request.  Believe me, the easy life of having only 2 children and everything mapped out, is way tempting.  But, we cannot go that road when we KNOW GOD has chosen this road for us.  I heard something very interesting last week and again today.  "God does not call the qualified.  He qualifies the called."   WOW!  That is right, we are not qualified to do this.  But we do know that we are called.  And the amount of change we have seen in our lives since November when we answered the call, has been amazing.  We see GOD like we never have before.  He is working miracles in our life and we are so blessed by HIS grace.   I think Clay and I lived so many years as "luke-warm" Christians, that is just became our norm.  But, oh my.  Were we missing out!!  If you are floating through your life not making GOD your priority, then I challenge you to change that.  Now, I am not saying you need to go out and adopt a kid.  Or fly to Africa and become a missionary.  But, spend time with GOD, and he will reveal HIS purpose for you.  Clay and I have found our purpose.  And my heart jumps with joy at the thought of living out that purpose to glorify GOD. 

I want to say a HUGE thank you to my friend Shannon for the photography fundraiser.  Also, thank you to all of you who signed up!  We will be contacting you soon!!   I am as always amazed by people and their support.  We are in the works of planning LOTS of fundraisers!!!  Clay is hoping to put together a golf tournament in April.  We also plan to do a dinner/auction sometime early summer.  We want to sell tshirts and are designing those as we speak!  And we also plan to do a HUGE garage sale in April....so if you have things you want to get rid of, bring them our way!!!  We will gladly sell your junk!!!!  ;) 

So, we are hoping to have the homestudy completely done by March.  We still have not found out who our kiddo is, but (for this week!) we are looking at Bulgaria and Lithuania.  Both countries have fairly easy travel and are cheaper (compared to others!).  Both countries usually take 12 months or less.  It is crazy to sit here and think our little guy could be here a year from now!!  But, the crazier part is knowing that he is out there, an ocean away, all alone without a mommy and daddy.  And we already love him.  And I just cannot wait to see what he looks like!  But, GOD will reveal that to us in HIS timing.  So, until next time.......

Fundraiser and news.

So, what's new with us?!  Alot, actually!!  We finally received our packets from our local agency and are in the process of collecting all the documents to get our home study  in full swing!  Very exciting!!!  And, a tad over whelming!  ;)  I am sure most of you heard about the whole ban on Russian adoptions.  That came as a big disappointment to us.  Just a week before we heard of the ban, Clay and I had actually, finally agreed on the cutest, sweetest little boy in Russia.  We still can't stop thinking about him!  So, you can pray that if this child is meant to be ours, God will open some doors to make that happen.  At this point, we are starting the home study process (which will take a few months), and if at the end of this process nothing has changed in Russia, we have decided to go with the Ukraine.  God knows where our child is and he will reveal that to us in His time!

So, what else??!!   It's FUNDRAISING TIME!!! 

I am beyond excited to announce our first fundraiser for our adoption.  I want to start with a huge thank you to God for blessing us with the most amazing friends.  I always knew I loved this friend, but today, when I got her email offering us 100% profits from this fundraiser, I was in complete tears.  At her love, encouragement, and just complete willingness to do this for our family and future child.  So, are you ready?  This is not some lame fundraiser!  This is pure awesome.  Drumroll please.......

On Saturday, March 2nd, at a location to be determined in the San Antonio area, the talented and awesome photographer, Shannon Lafayette, of Shannon Lafayette Photography, will be offering her services for 45 minute mini photo sessions.  She will offer times every hour from 9am until 4pm.  The cost will be $150 and you will receive a full resolution, completely edited CD of 10 of your favorite poses.  This is a great deal guys!!!  If you want to check out her website to see how talented she is, go for it!!  And then email me or respond below and let us know what time you would like.
www.shannonlafayettephotography.com  So, if you have been wanting some cute family shots, or maybe that special shot of the kids, this is your chance.  A great deal for a great cause!!