Nothing new

Isn't this so cute! My sister in law and I made these shower invitations for my brother and other sister in law's baby shower, and I have to say that I am quite proud of them. I am really excited about the shower. We already had our shower back when we had our other referral, before Shiloh. It was a torture for me not to be involved or know what was going on, but just to show up. I love planning the parties, so it is a lot of fun getting to be involved this time! And if you know Tara, don't worry if you haven't received your invite. We haven't sent them out yet.

By this time in two weeks we will be in Guatemala with Shiloh! I am so excited about it! It is making it hard to focus on anything past that time, but at the same time I think it has been making me a lot more tense as I wait to hear new news about what is going on in the process! I have to keep reminding myself that just because I don't know what's going on doesn't mean that God's not working. We are going to L.A. tomorrow for a week, so I know we will be in Guatemala before I know it! Please be praying for us that we will get some good news about the process before we go. I have been really hoping and praying that we would be in PGN before we left.

Trusting

I just bought our tickets and we are 3 weeks away from seeing Shiloh for the first time! I am so excited! I know it is going to come so quickly!

This summer has really been an emotional roller coaster and such a beautiful time of growth for me! Our church takes a time of rest during the summer when our groups slowdown and the focus is to focus on God. When the summer hit, I was really not in that place. I was an emotional wreck from the whole adoption and really didn't feel myself focused on growing closer to God in this season, but I guess God had other things in mind. I feel like all summer long He has been reaching out to me, comforting me, and speaking to me. The whole focus and idea has been about knowing His power and authority over everything and really trusting and hoping in Him.

When it comes down to it, that is the only thing that brings me peace in this time of waiting. There are times when I want to take control over everything or make it all work to the "time line" that I have in my head, but the truth is that I have no control over any of it, and that the only thing that I can do is trust and hope in God. It is the only thing that really brings me peace in this process, otherwise I am sure I would have gone out of my mind by now.

I have been reading in Psalm, and every scripture that I have come across lately talks about trusting and hoping in God.

"For the Lord God is a sun and shield; the Lord bestows favor and honor; no good thing does he withhold from those whose walk is blameless. O Lord Almighty, blessed is the man who trusts in you." Psalm 84:11-12

"To you, O Lord, I lift up my soul; in you I trust, O my God. Do not let me be put to shame, nor let my enemies triumph over me. No one whose hope is in you will ever be put to shame," Psalm 25: 1-3

"I will say of the Lord,'He is my refuge and my fortress, my God, in whom I trust.'" Psalm 91:2

I am just really learning even more to trust God and know that He knows what's best and that He is good and wants good things for us!

I don't know if any of you relate to any of this, but I thought I would share where I am at and what has been encouraging me and keeping me sane.

Beach Babe

For all of you who are back to school and welcoming the first hints of fall, here is one more glimpse of summer sunshine! By popular demand I bring you the new pictures of Shiloh! The are the cutest ones yet! They make me just want to eat her up!

We got our PA!!!

We got our pre-approval on Saturday!!I am so excited!! Now we just need to get out of family court so we can get a move on into PGN!!! I guess all the interviews and everything is done, we are just waiting for the judge to sign off on our file. Please be praying that he will do this ASAP!

This is really such an encouragement to me because I really felt last Sunday that God was telling me that I needed to let go of everything and trust in Him. I have been working really hard at releasing it all, which has been hard this week because we have been getting e-mails from our agency about all the problems going on in the Guatemalan government. It was such a blessing to see God working in our case!

The letters in the picture are the letters for her room that I made this week. They were so easy to do and turned out so cute! They are hanging over her crib now, and we have been doing other things to get the nursery ready. It is almost done! I can't wait to take pictures to post here for you guys to see!

I have always said that I wanted to take advantage of all this waiting time before Shiloh comes home to get into shape. Now we are hopefully only a few months away from getting her home and I am still saying it, though not taking a whole lot of action to do anything about it.

The weather here is finally making the change for the cooler. No longer is it the suffocating heat from the summer. We decided this weekend to take advantage of the weather and take a bike ride with my brother and sister-in-law. The last time I rode my bike was about a year and a half ago, and I could only go for about 20 minutes because the seat hurt my butt so bad. I convinced Filipe to buy me the cushy, lazy boy of bike seats, assuring him that if my seat was more comfortable than I would go riding with him. And here we are a year and a half later.

Needless to say, I was nervous to go for a group bike ride. I figured that I was completely out of shape and was expecting to only be able to do another slow 10 minute bike ride before I ruined the party and told everyone that I needed to go back. Tara (my sis-in-law) assured me that she would be slow and couldn't go that far either, so they convinced me to go along.

The first 15 minutes were easy! Tara and I were patting each other on the backs saying that this was no problem and we were obviously in better shape than we thought. Then we started getting tired and thinking about turning around. The guys were planning on going all the way around the lake, so we started asking if we were half way yet. They assured us we were, so we figured there was no point in turning around. After a while I needed a quick break, so we stopped at a clearing where we could see the other side of the lake. It turned out we were only maybe about 1/3 of the way there! They guys had been lying to us for the past several miles! I was feeling better after the break, so we decided to trek on anyway. To make a long story short... we made it the whole way around! It was 9 miles! I was incredibly proud of myself (though I won't tell you how long it took us), and decided to start riding on the weekends to finally pursue my dream of losing some weight before Shiloh comes home. Now that I have put it in writing, I guess I have to stick to it.

Also, Guatemala is having their elections for a new president next week. Be praying that the new person elected will be pro-adoption and will have a desire to get these processes moving! The current president is also trying to cause some trouble before he leaves, threatening to close down the hogars in Guatemala. The US government has responded negatively to his actions, and our attorney doesn't think that he will be able to do it, but it is still a threat at least for another week or two. I have been praying a lot about it and am really feeling peace about it. I feel like God is going to protect the children there, and I know that God is stronger than any president or government and that he loves my little girl more than I do. Please be praying for these things! Thanks!

Hurricane Felix

Please be praying for protection for Guatemala and for all of the children there as hurricane Felix comes through today! Pray that it will dissipate before it reaches Guatemala! Thanks!