To God Be the Glory Great Things He Hath Done

This is the song that keeps running through my head today.  Could be because Emma and I led hymns at the nursing home last night but also because we have been overwhelmed by love and generosity the past few days and I just can’t even believe it.  Well, I can but it’s just…..amazing and I don’t have the rights words to convey the glory I want to give to God for using all of you through this.

Today we got our physicals, TB tests and urine analysis’ (yuck!) done.  We had been having some problems with the doctor’s office because the only male in the practice left so Jack doesn’t want to go there and turn and cough for some lady (i appreciate that!) and Jackson had recently had a physical there but since the doctor he saw left they weren’t wanting to fill out his form.  So, I put on my big bad momma shoes and threw out the “my son is waiting in an orphanage in Africa and you’re not even going to use records you already have to get this done?!?!”  Miraculously they decided to fill out the paper and I must’ve been extra scary because I got them to fill out Jack’s as well.  And extra, extra scary because Laila isn’t even a patient there and they threw a TB test in her arm when I had the girls step out of the room while I had my lady exam!  So, once our TB tests are read Friday the kids physical forms should be done.  Jack and I will still need blood work for HIV testing for the dossier forms but that shouldn’t take long either.

We were supposed to go and close on our loan tonight too but all the craziness at the doctor’s office took too long and we had to get all the kids situated where they were going and get to our second home study appointment.

This home study appointment included turning in our second round of homework which was all questions about our marriage.  I’m so very thankful for this amazing husband that is currently hugging me watching me type this.  Our marriage is something that I could never be more thankful for and it’s fun to be able to see what each other will say because we’re actually both doing our own homework and not talking about it before we get there.  We also had to do a compatibility test which will be graded and charted and shown to us at the next visit.  That should be interesting.  We had to go in separate rooms and fill out 180 questions about our self and then about our spouse.  I wonder if we’re compatible ;)   We’re trying to get our schedules to work with our social worker for our next appointment because she is going out of town next week.  Please pray about this because we’re almost done and we were hoping to be able to apply for a specific grant that closes on Dec 31 and doesn’t open again until Feb but we have to have our complete, approved home study to do so and it will be really close whether or not we have it by then.  It’s fun but terrifying to write that if we wait until Feb and then they take 90 days to process the grant, we may have to have most of our funds already paid by then and they don’t grant you money if you’re already done.  Exciting that we’re that close but the money part is scary.  I’ll just keep reminding myself Great Things He Hath Done.

We got the t-shirts ordered this evening.  We had wrestled for weeks on how to handle the t-shirts and whether to take the leap and just order a bunch and put in our own money for the start up order or to take pre-orders and only order what people specifically wanted.  Well, God answered that one for us.  We decided to just take the leap but before we could even make the order we had almost the exact amount of shirts spoken for that we needed to break even and that wasn’t even counting people that had said in passing that they would buy one.  These are dedicated, specific orders.  Great Things He Hath Done :)

We also got our first straight up donation today which was so cool that someone would just want to give with nothing in return.  I love just hearing people say how happy they are to be a part of this with us.  Warms my heart to think about the many people that are going to be a piece of Judah’s story.  I read another blog where the family had written the name of every person that helped on a puzzle piece that then came together at the end to make something they could frame.  I’ll have to come up with some idea like that to give to Judah someday.

One last thing is that our friend Julie Humble has graciously offered to host an online 31 catalog party and donate all of her proceeds to our adoption fund.  Please check it out here and maybe you can do some Christmas shopping!  Sales will be taken through Dec 10th.

Thanks again for sharing with us today.  Anyone have any good ideas for something like what the other family did with the puzzle?