Psalm 42:5a

Why are you downcast, O my soul?

Why so disturbed within me?

Put your hope in God,

for I will yet praise Him,

my Savior and my God.

Each step closer to Kate, makes it emotionally harder and harder to wait. Sometimes I wonder if this is really for real!? I feel like I'm losing it..... I just want to move on already!!! This endless waiting and forever expecting is tough on the nerves! We are now "in the clear". My phone just needs to ring.... Every day that passes, we say, "maybe tomorrow......".

We have Visa Interview!!!!

Kate is scheduled for her visa interview tomorrow at 1pm at the Embassy in Seoul. (that's today already in "Korean time")!!! The Embassy should grant her a visa within 24 hours of that appointment, and once our agency has that in hand, we can go!!! Wahoooo!

Sweet dreams....

So last week I was real discouraged about waiting longer than we thought to travel to Korea. It was a real struggle for about 3 days. I just couldn't shake the dissapointment off. Then, I had a dream, and I woke up thinking it was a present from my God! I dreamed I was with a group of women and we were being taken into the labor room at the hospital. We were all in various stages of labor. One got taken almost immediately back to the delivery room (someone from our agency that had just welcomed their daughter home days before). It was a happy time for all of us there, because every one in the labor room knew delivery was IMMINENT! The dream was so incredibly "real" to me, and after a 3 day discouragement battle, I was so encouraged that God indeed knows and understands our hearts! After that dream, I woke up with NO discouragement and all hope was amazingly restored! What a great God we have!

I need an EPIDURAL!!!! NOW!

There comes a point in every birthing process when you would rather be knocked in the head and wake up blissfully as they are placing your baby in your arms. TODAY is MY day! After waiting expectantly for many days, anticipating EVERY phone call to be our agency saying we are free to travel, I learned this morning we might be waiting a couple MORE weeks.... Uggghhhh! How many times have we thought, "just a couple more weeks". Apparently Kate still has not been scheduled for her visa interview at the embassy in Seoul (which is the FINAL step in the process).

I was overwhelmed with saddness and disapointment this morning. A family in our agency that received their referral AFTER us, is welcoming their baby home TODAY. There never seems to be a "rhyme or reason" to anything in this paper pregnancy process. I'm estatic happy for them, but battling a pity party for me. The ONLY way I made it to cell group at church this morning was deliberately taking my saddness and laying it at the feet of my Lord. (I had to do it many times, and am having to continue to determine not to go back and pick it up through out my day). He is a good God. He is in control.

Pressing on....

The real St. Valentine

Valentine, along with Marius and his family helped and served the Christians who were imprisoned and martyred under the persecution of Claudius 11.

Eventually he stirred up the wrath of Claudius and Valentine himself was arrested and sent by the Emperor to the Prefect of Rome.

The Prefect tried to make him recant of his faith by promising all kinds of favors. When these had no effect on Valentine and he insisted that Christ was the only way and continued to condemn the idols, he commanded him to be beaten with clubs, and beheaded on the Flaminian Way on February 14th 270AD. A Roman officer, Asterius, was converted together with his wife and family.

He refused to retract his praise of Christ when he was beaten and went gladly to prison. It was said that during his stay in prison he prayed for the jailer’s daughter, who was blind. She was healed and when Valentine went to the executioner for execution, he left her a farewell note of encouragement - "From Valentine."

His name is celebrated as that of a godly servant and martyr in many martyrologies.
Julius is said to have built a church in Valentine’s honor near Ponte Mole and gave name to the gate now called, Porta Del Popolo, formerly Porta Valentini. His remains are now in the church of St. Praxedes.

from:www.goodnews.netministries.org

Oh, happy day!

Sweet baby Kate is 8 months old today! Perhaps this time next month, you'll be here with us!

He's got the whole world in His hands

New President-Elect of South Korea is an Outspoken, Committed Christian
Teresa Neumann (February 7, 2008)

"God must have been so pleased with Lee's outspoken endorsement of Him because the divine entity blessed Lee in his running for the presidency. Otherwise, how else can Lee—a person who attributes all matters of life to God's divine providence—explain his victory?" (Beijing)—

The new president-elect of South Korea, Lee Myungbak, is a committed Christian. As mayor of Seoul in 2004, Myungbak declared: "I declare that the City of Seoul is a holy place governed by God; the citizens in Seoul are God's people; the churches and Christians in Seoul are spiritual guards that protect the city...I now dedicate Seoul to the Lord." (Photo: Wikipedia)

Reporter Sunny Lee noted that Myungbak was born into a devout Christian family and later became an elder in his church. He also noted that upon winning the nomination from the Grand National Party as its presidential candidate, Lee visited the Christian Council of Korea (CCK), where Reverend Lee Yong-kyu, head of CCK, greeted him saying, "I congratulate you on being nominated as the party's presidential candidate, which was possible because of God's power and authority that was behind you in your going through this difficult time. I trust that God will lead you to the eventual victory."

Said Sunny of Lee: "His unconcealed self-identifying with Christianity [could have] undermined his presidential candidacy because South Korea historically has a huge Buddhist population, in spite of the very aggressive evangelism outreach of Christians, seen in its recent history...but, apparently, God must have been so pleased with Lee's outspoken endorsement of Him because the divine entity blessed Lee in his running for the presidency. Otherwise, how else can Lee—a person who attributes all matters of life to God's divine providence—explain his victory?"

Referring to the history of Christianity in Korea, Sunny said that among other things, Koreans had a positive image of Christianity, "particularly after the Korean War in the 1950s when American church groups and missionaries helped the poverty-stricken nation by providing food, setting up hospitals and schools. During the dictatorship period under President Park Chung-hee, church leaders fought for the nation's democracy. And many Christians volunteered to hand in their gold and other jewelry in a mass effort to bail out the bankrupt nation during the Asian financial crisis in 1997-98.

"The president-elect attends the Somang Presbyterian church. Some non-Christian detractors are already complaining, saying that the new government should be called the "Somang government" after the name of the church, but ironically, the word somang means "hope" in Korean. South Korea is a religiously divided country, possibly on the verge of a tipping point for a sweeping revival. Pray that this new president will allow God to use him to achieve His purposes.
Source: Sunny Lee - Asia Times

In the meantime...

We are in the final stages of our wait to bring home baby Kate. We expect to receive a call within the next 2-3 weeks letting us know that we are cleared for travel.... It's a heart-pounding, extremely exciting time in our house! In the meantime, would you pray for SMOOTH TRANSITIONS for us all! That Tim and I would be submerged in grace and mercy, that Callie and Claire would quickly and happily adjust to another sibling, and mostly for Kate ~ who will be facing the greatest changes of all. Everything she knows is about to change: familiar places and smells, the sound of the Korean language, a major time change, her formula, her foods, her surroundings, sleeping in a crib, new faces, riding in a car seat for the first time.... the list is endless! It is to be expected that Kate will most likely have a period of grieving. Mainly for the loss of her foster mother. Grief is a good thing. Please pray that her grief be healthy, and hopefully short-lived, and that she will then bond and attatch to Tim and I quickly and in a healthy way. Pray with me that the Holy Spirit will groom her heart for these changes, and that she may embrace us readily!