Good evening friends!! Today has been a beautiful day, but filled with many, many emotions!! Church was awesome followed by some amazing fellowship! It was wonderful to be encouraged, edified and prayed for with all things concerning the adoption! It's encouraging that so many are for us and holding our hands us on this journey! I am constantly amazed at what the Lord is doing! We've had gifts given from some that just know we are adopting, without knowing what all will be involved with costs, etc. I know that the Lord is providing the means for this adoption, and it won't be the way that Jarrod and I may invision it!! God has a perfect plan, and we are learning to let go of our plans and move forward in His plans!! For example, the idea of having this cute little family (not that we aren't cute, lol!), perfect home, nice suv. We are ready to trade everything in for the chance of saving lives, changing a child's destiny that the enemy has deemed ruined. I'm ready for that 15 passenger van, that house that is simply filled with love and not necessarily material things! I used to want all the things"normal" people wanted.....like the material toys, putting my kids in every sport they wanted to be in, shopping sprees, cool cars, and the list goes on.....I wanted to better myself and my family, as I believe the American dream goes. Well, I have a better dream, to live what God has called pure and undefiled religion, which is found in James 1:27 "Pure religion and undefiled before God and the Father is this, To visit the fatherless and widows in their affliction, and to keep himself unspotted from the world."

Although the great support, there are a few who have objected what we are doing. We do this not for ourselves, we do this because the Father has revealed His heart to us, and we are being obedient to the call He has placed on our lives!! While I have wanted to "defend" our cause, the Lord has shown me that He is our defender!! Psalm 59:1 "Deliver me from mine enemies, O my God: defend me from them that rise up against me." This is such a relief, b/c I know that God will defend those that rise against me, but I'll admit it's also hard to chew on at times! Out of natural reaction and needing to justify things, we want to defend! A friend reminded me of Matthew 5:11-12: “Blessed are you when people insult you, persecute you and falsely say all kinds of evil against you because of Me. Rejoice and be glad, because great is your reward in heaven, for in the same way they persecuted the prophets who were before you." This is a comfort, for we are BLESSED!! When someone comes against you, it does make you question things, and I always search what they are saying to see if there is any truth! This too can be humbling, b/c many times the Lord may be speaking something through this person!

So in my evaluating our lives and our love for our daughter Julia, here are some things that God has revealed to me, and it's so beautiful!! I have 3 birth children...Noah, Hannah and Jonah. Each time I was pregnant with these children, I loved them before I even saw them! The Lord placed them in my womb and handpicked me to be their mother. I had a love for them that I had never known before, it was AMAZING, well I should say is AMAZING!! I would lay down my life for them. John 15:13 says "Greater love has no one that this, than to lay down one's life for his friends". A mother and a father understand that love. We will never understand that love to the magnitude that the Father does, but we grasp a little of it with being a mother and a father!! I would go to the end of the earth to get my child, I will fight for them and their protection, I will recruit others to help me if I need something out of my hands for them.

This is no different than our love for Julia! When we met her in December and were able to spend 9 magnificent days with her, there was no DOUBT that God had placed the love of a mother and father in our hearts,and He handpicked us to be her parents! It was just the same as He did when we were pregnant with our other 3 children, only she's a bit older!! It is not something we can force, it is something that only the Father could do and put in our hearts! So with that being said, we are ready to fight for her, run to the ends of the earth, ask others to help us bring her home to us! We want to save her life from a life of destruction. God gave us this vision and He will carry it about! He has put some amazing friends and family in our life to walk with us through this, and it's slowly coming together! It's not cheap, it's not easy, but we will do this. We understand this is our hearts, this is our calling, but the Father that has called ALL Christians to walk out James 1:27, so when others join in this effort to bring her home, they are operating in pure and undefiled religion!! I do believe that the Father speaks to hearts and moves them, even in the unbelievers hearts!!

So with that being said, we are beginning our first fundraiser! We are having a raffle, and we have 23 friends so far committed to helping us sell raffle tickets! I am overwhelmed with the love and support of this, but I am also expecting that the Father will move on hearts!! I had been stressing on fundraising, then God put this amazing family in my life (who is also currently walking the adoption process), who gave me some amazing fundraising ideas and encouragment!! So, if you haven't heard about the fundraiser, here's the info!! Buy a $20 ticket for a chance to win a CHOICE of ONE of the items: $500 gift card, iPad, Kindle Fire. We will hold the drawing on 4/30/2012. If you are interested in buying/selling tickets, please contact me via email @ amythorpe7@charter.net. We believe this fundraiser will be a success!! We have a few more things coming up too!!

So thank you for letting me share a bit of my heart and I pray that God will bless you with an abundance of Him over this next week!! Leaving you with pics of Jarrod, Julia and I; Tan, Ryan, Chelsea, Julia and Hannah; and our family!! Good night!!