From my devotional this morning.

Be still and know that I am God; I will be exalted among the nations, I will be exalted in the earth!  Psalm 46:10

This Psalm began by exclaiming that God is our refuge and strength.  After affirming that we should not fear, the author then calls upon us to “Be still and know that I am God”.   I think it is important that these two concepts are linked together.  I do not believe that we can know that God is our refuge and strength until we stop and know that He is God.  To be able to appreciate who God is, we must be willing to step back from the chaos of our day and meditate on Him.  When we are willing to take the time to invest in Him with no distractions, God can infuse us with the strength we need to face the obstacles in our life.  Chaos leads to more chaos.  If we do not take the time to be still, we will remain disconnected from God.  Do not let the world keep you from peace.  Stop today and know that He is God. 

AGK

Don't worry about locating your purpose if you are seeking after God because your purpose will locate you. - Tony Evans

Right?!!!!

I am not certain if this has anything to do with the adoption or anything else for that matter, but I am finding that I am becoming weepy in my public prayer life. I find that I choke up even while I am praying with Noble over lunch. It was a simple prayer. I was asking a blessing for the food and giving thanks for the beauty of the mountains and snow and good weather, etc. Who weeps about that?  Apparently I do... now.

I am hoping that this is an isolated time period and not a trending action.


Weeping in Vermont.

So who, I their right mind schedules a vacation the week directly before leaving for Ukraine?  That is the question... But maybe not the one you think... The question really is, are we in our right minds?

Well, we did not actually schedule a vacation the week before our trip to Ukraine. We have had this trip scheduled for some time. For the last two years we have limited our travel. Valerie and the kids wanted to go to Seattle with me for an annual trip for the Kois Cenrer Symposium, but we elected not to so that we could save some money in anticipation of the trip to Ukraine. We THOUGHT we would go last August. We had all of the paperwork in and everything completed, but found out in July that the Ukraine government rejected one of our medical forms. They apparently did not like the Dr.'s signature. So, we had to start over again.  The other documents expired, as they are only valid for 6 months.  More blood tests, more finger-printing, more notarizing (thank you Michelle), more fed-exing. Is that a word?

I mention all of that because at that point we gave up. We were still submitting paperwork and being submitted to various tests, but we gave up -- control. We decided at that point (why did we not decide this earlier?  It seems that it would have been much easier, emotionally) that this was God's plan and therefore subject to His timing. We decided that IF God wanted us to have a child from Ukraine, or anywhere else , then He would have to make that happen if and when and how He was ready. We gave up control to Him.  So, we scheduled our lives. We planned trips, vacations, etc. Keeley and I went to Las Vegas for a gymnastics meet. She did great BTW.   Valerie and Keeley went to Kentucky for another meet. She did great BTW.  Noble and I scheduled our father/son trip. The rest of the family scheduled a ski trip with us for Noble's birthday. I still have a hard time believing that my son is turning 11. ....Pausing to choke back any emotion.... And I am back. So, we decided to move on with our lives and make plans and allow God to work. In Valerie's words, "I'm just going to live my life and if God wants us to have another child, then He will just have to work out the details and we will just figure it out."  And He has. It is incredible how He has orchestrated the events of this journey in every way to allow us to follow Him this far. Maybe somewhere in one of these posts we will share with you the many ways that God has "opened the way" to allow for this trip. It truly is amazing.

So that is how we scheduled a vacation the week before we go. I do not know the number of times that I have said to one of my patients who inquired, "This is God's will, God's plan, God's timing."  So, off we go on vacation.  This post is about shorterned (your welcome) because Noble and I are boarding the plane to Vermont RIGHT NOW.   The boarding door is closing. I'm sure there will be more to come (sorry).

God bless you all (both of you 😜)

This morning I am overwhelmed.  Overwhelmed with His love for me.  As I read Matthew 27:45-54 and look at Jesus' separation from His Father so that He could bear my sins and give me life, fully here and in heaven with Him - overwhelmed.  That is how much He cares for a sinner like me.  His love, when I really open my eyes and take the time to look, is all around me.  The outpouring of love from family and friends.  His love shown through my caring husband who keeps me centered.  His love through my daughter and sons.  He even continues to remind me of His love and care in little things, like today's devotion from Jesus Calling:   Keep your eyes on me!  Waves of adversity are washing over you, and you feel tempted to give up.  As your circumstances consume more and more of your attention you are losing sight of Me.  Yet I am with you always, holding you by your right hand.  I am fully aware of your situation, and I will not allow you to be tempted beyond what you are able to bear.  Your gravest danger is worrying about tomorrow.  If you try to carry tomorrow's burdens today, you will stagger under the load and eventually fall flat.  You must discipline yourself to live within the boundaries of today.  It is in the present moment that I walk close to you, helping you carry your burdens.  Keep your focus on My Presence in the present.  - Psalm 73:23; 1 Corinthians 10:13.  I know the next year is going to be tough, but He has got me.  That is evident all around me if I just open my eyes and stay focused on Him.

Maybe some, of you.... that is assuming there is even one of you... are wondering why we have chosen to adopt a child or children from Ukraine.  If you are not wondering that at all, then you may skip this post :).

The long story goes like this:

When we were in high-school and started dating, way back in 1885, err, uh, 1985, Valerie informed me that she was not getting married until she was 40 and was not having children.  She had aspirations of being a high-powered attorney -- which she totally could have done.  At that time, marriage and children were not quite my focus, so I said, and I quote, "O.K."  After a year or so of dating she informed me that she could see that I would make a great father (her words) and she had decided that she would have one child, one of mine.  Of course, this was still not my focus in this relationship, so I responded, "O.K."  Some time later, she informed me that she had considered this one child issue and had decided that we could not have just one child.  She recalled that she has and had a wonderful relationship with her brother and would want the same type of sibling relationship for our child, so we would have to have two.  My response?  "O.K."  After we were married, she asked me, as if I had any say in the matter, how many kids I would like to have.  I responded that I had always thought I'd like to have three kids.  She said, "Oh, no, we cannot have three kids.  That would always leave an odd man out.  We would have to have four.  After Valerie became pregnant with Keeley, I asked her if she still wanted four kids.  She said, "let's just see how this one goes."  After Keeley's delivery, she said, and I really am quoting this, "If they are all this easy, we should have five."  I think there may have been some drugs in the IV?  So, she gets pregnant with Noble.  Her response this time?... definitively... "WE ARE DONE!"  It took me a few years to convince her, but she became pregnant with Levi.  Even before I could ask, she stated that SHE would NOT have another baby, no matter what I thought about it.  She stated that her body would NOT ever go through that again.  In fact, she informed me that I HAD TO go to the Dr. to ensure that her body never went through that again.  So, we had our three children. We would casually discuss another child and she softened a little, saying as long as she did not have to have it.

Now that is the true, yet humorous (if only to me) story.  The back story of it all was God's perfect plan and God's perfect timing.  My cousin Teresa was/is involved with an organization out of Ukraine.  She invited me on a mission trip with her and I was ready to go, but the timing did not work out for me, but this put me on the mailing list or Facebook list or email list or something.  One day, I got something that announced some pending changes in the laws concerning adoption from Ukraine.  Apparently, the government was dramatically changing the orphanage situation which would make it more difficult for the children to be adopted.  Reading something like this:

Foreign Adoption laws in Ukraine have changed.  At the present, children are being moved from the state run orphanages, to foster care homes.  Unless they are diagnosed invalids, which then they will be moved to ONE central regional (oblast) invalid home.   Orphanages ARE closing, and children are being placed in foster care homes, where the foster parents will have a ‘voice’ in and IF the child is adopted; and it will become harder and harder to adopt any child from Ukraine, with the government moving to this system.

Further, the laws are changing in the US making it more difficult, time consuming and more expensive for international adoption, reading something like this:

This change WILL cause a domino effect, and unfortunately, the cost of international adoption WILL rise.  Thus, understanding that cost is prohibitive for some people to even consider adoption, Cornerstone Adoption Services, has drastically reduced their fees, in order to place as many children as possible before these laws come into effect. 

So, the agency decided to drop their fee in half to help get these kids out of this system, to give them some hope of a future that they would not have if left in this system.  We had discussed to possibility of adoption, but had very few serious discussions about the possibility.  We had discussed foster adoption, domestic adoption and foreign adoption, but just light discussion.  When we read this we felt like this was God calling us to adopt from Ukraine.  Stop thinking about it and start doing something about it.  

We have been so blessed in so many ways and we have the ability to give a child or children some hope for a brighter future.  This was over two years ago.  God has lead us and directed us and shoved us a little, even stopped us cold in a few situations to make ready the perfect time for the perfect plan.  Maybe at some point in this blog we will share the things that have happened to allow these event to transpire.  It is definitely beyond us and we are anxious to see how God orchestrates the rest of the journey.  It is remarkable.  

2-26-16 - Friday
I thought starting a blog would be an efficient way to communicate with everyone just in case I find myself in a region of the Ukraine with limited access to the internet.  I am not a writer, never claimed to be, but if you are willing to be patient with my grammar and overlook the incorrect usage of words, this might work :)  I had started journaling the day we found out that this adoption was a go.  It's was just my personal thoughts, but when we get to the Ukraine  I will try to include more information about the child/ children and maybe even pictures.  So, blog it is.  Thanks to my favorite husband for figuring out how to even make this happen.  So, here we go...  together.

2-25-16 - Thursday Posted by Valerie Bynum

Today - ordering “new bills” to take to the Ukraine (they don’t take “old” ones), figuring out a cell phone “plan” - take old iPhones and get a SIM card there, ordering perfume as gifts for the ladies that work in the orphanage, finalizing an apartment for the first 3 days in Kiev, figuring out how to travel with a wad of cash, picking an appropriate suitcase to haul through a city where even the streets are smaller. Then vain things, like my sweet friend putting brown back in my hair so I don’t have to look like a skunk when my roots start growing in after 10 weeks of being away.  All the while, thinking really, this is what You want me to do?  Yet this morning as I was spending time with my Dad I read this by David Jeremiah - “The Lord has a calling on our lives, and we’ll discover His will as we’re willing to obey Him without reservation.  Sometimes it’s hard to say, “I’m Willing”.  But perhaps you can start by saying, “Lord, I’m willing for You to make me willing to be willing”.  In any case, open your life to the fullness of God’s plan for you.  When we learn the will of God, we begin to live in the will of God.”  -  YES!!  That is what I want - to be in His will.  So, I don’t need to be discouraged.  I will not give up until I shout His praises to the generation to come.  Its time to swim against the current.  Keep transforming me Lord!!

To live according to the will of God is to know the life that wins” - G. Christian Weiss

2-24-16 - Wednesday Posted by Valerie Bynum

The countdown has begun.  Levi has been asking how many sleeps until I leave.  12.  12 sleeps.  12 sleep until the totally unknown begins.  I’m not a real sappy person, but I do find myself these days holding on to Levi a little longer,  trying to kiss Noble (as he runs away from me) and sitting with Keeley just to spend time with her even when I have “things” to do.  I’m going to miss these sweet children.  Doubts come flooding into my mind and then I have to once again focus on My Savior.  If I let fear and doubt run my life I would never fulfill the plan He has for me.  I also feel the overwhelming need to share with my children just how much their Father in Heaven loves them.  That His love will fill every need, every desire, ever want.  I’m hoping that through their “yes, mom, we know” it really sinks in.  I just have to stay focused on Jesus and trust His plan.

“For who has known the mind of the Lord that he may instruct him?”  But we have the mind of Christ.   - 1 Corinthians 2:16.  Keep renewing your mind with Him and His word and watch the changes happen.  

Beth Moore - Satan doesn’t have to get us blatantly thinking satanic thoughts to have victory over us.  All he needs is to get us looking at life from man’s perspective rather than God’s.  But if we surrender our minds to the things of God, we are safe!  We don’t have to constantly look out for our own best interests, because He’s constantly looking out for them.  Make the deliberate choice to have in mind the things of God when faced with our biggest challenges.  If we don’t, most of us will probably default back to our natural instinct - the things of man.   

2-23-16 - Tuesday Posted by Valerie Bynum

If anyone would come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross and follow Me.  For whoever wants to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for me will find it. - Matthew 16:24-25.

I have read this passage many times.  As I plopped down in my “comfy bible chair” this morning and picked up my bible, I glanced down and this is the first verse I read.  It struck me -  I now know what Jesus is talking about.  Control.  Fully giving up control over ever aspect of my life so that I can fully follow Him. This has never come easy to me - the giving up control thing - but this is what I am having to do with this adoption of His child from an orphanage in the Ukraine.  I am relying totally on Him.  I am giving up my life, my normal, my comfort, my family for two months and my family as I now know it, my language for - His will.  When I think about it, its an easy trade.

Heaven gave its best for me and He will expect no less from me.  

2-22-16 - Monday Posted by Valerie Bynum

My life for the past 9 months has been so comfortable - HA!  Now that I type that it has almost been like a pregnancy - 9 months - but I never thought pregnancy was comfortable :), so maybe not.  Any who, I digress.  My comfortable life for the past 9 months, kids are healthy and mostly self sufficient, homeschooling was going well figuring out high school requirements, a great place to worship, I even have had a chance to have lunch with friends!!  But as Paul lets us know, we are not called to a life of comfort.  So here we go…  I.  AM.  NOT.  COMFORTABLE.  

Believers must DAILY trust Jesus - you can’t just sort of trust, you either do or you don’t.

2-21-16 - Sunday Posted by Valerie Bynum

Plans, plans and more plans.  Two months of being in the Ukraine leads to me making plans for Keeley, Noble and Levi while I'm gone.  Grandma and Papa to stay with them.  Grami to visit to break up the monotony.  Friends to shuttle them back and forth to Science, Spanish, Gymnastics, Wrestling, Karate.  Eyes to watch as Levi plays outside and gets a boo boo that needs kissed.  Bills to pay, meals to plan.  Stocking up on dog food and treats.  Easter to plan while I’m in the Ukraine.   The outpouring of love and help from friends and family is staggering.  Watching God work out the details is almost, dare I say it, fun.  This morning when I woke up my first thought was, oh my, more planning.  It’s amazing how a couple of days can change the trajectory of your life.  See, my life as I would have planned it as a little girl, did not include me being a mom.  Through His perfect plans I am a mom to 3 of His pride and joy’s and now He is calling us to add 1-2 more to His family.  

Life is full of questions.  Put aside my answers and ask for God’s answers.

Beginning Another Faith Journey 

The purpose of this blog:

1. To let family and friends know what is going on  -those that want to know :)

2. To let others, all of those “ordinary people”, know that with God, all things are possible.  Their lives have a purpose and they can fulfill their purpose for His Glory. I am just a ordinary girl - well, not such a girl any more as an old woman :).

Posted by Valerie Bynum

2-20-16 - Saturday

So, yesterday we received an email that ended two years of paperwork, prayers, blood tests, notaries, more blood tests, more prayers, more paperwork.  We were approved to adopt from the Ukraine.  My friends are very excited for me.  I keep telling them, “someone needs to be excited”.  I.  am.  not.  Like much of my life this is a Faith Journey.  Jeff and I want to be completely in His will.  Through different periods in my life where I have been in His will, there is Nothing like it.  There is purpose, a feeling and sense of accomplishment for His Kingdom, the meaning of life, if you will.  When I am in His will it answers all of the “Why am I here?” questions.  So although I am not excited at this moment, I am in His will and with that comes peace for each moment, joy in who He is and immense love for what He has done for me in my life thus far.  

My life is either a testimony of the sufficiency of Christ or it is not. - Jesus looked at them and said, “with man this is impossible, but not with God;  all things are possible with God”.