Counting the Days Until I Can Post Mei Mei's Pics!

Within the next few days, we will finally be far enough along in our adoption journey when we will have the complete blessing of the Chinese government to post our youngest China-born daughter's pictures on our blog! Keep checking back! It won't be long now!

Our Reason to Hope and to Love

"And be ready always to give an answer to every man that asketh you a reason of the hope that is in you with meekness and fear.
1Peter 3:15

Dear Readership,

Life is good! Life is good because of God! Life is good because of the God we serve (who is Merciful, Gracious, Kind and Awesome)!

Our God has a plan for us. His Plan for us is so indescribably grand and all-encompassing that if we were to realize but for a moment all that is involved in Him bringing us to His Will, we would stay on our knees continually praising His Mighty Name for I have found that the Lord our God wants to bless us!

I never understood until most recently just how much our Heavenly Father loves each of His children. More specifically, He loves me! He wants to bless me! He always has wanted to bless me even when I couldn't see my own worth.

In the past I always pictured Him loving everyone else, or I pictured that there was only so much love to go around so if I wasn't the center of attention and shining more brightly than everyone else, then I wouldn't be able to receive any of His love. Strictly a performance-based mindset, I am grateful to report that was a long time ago.

To go from not feeling the love of the Father to feeling the love of the Father; to go from not feeling His desire to bless me to feeling His desire to bless me is my journey to date on this earth in a nutshell.

Now I know love and blessings go together. They are not separate in His eyes. We separate them with our mortal eyes and with our limited, earthly understanding, that is all.

Not long ago, I went to the mailbox and found a card addressed to Randy and me from a dear friend. Contained within the card was a lovely note and a sum of money. When I saw the amount sent, I felt an electric charge (the Holy Spirit) through my entire body, and I had to sit down before I fell down. And I wept...for a good ten minutes. Not because the sum of money was so large in comparison to our whole adoption bill, but because I knew this person had to sacrifice a lot in order to help us.

And I wept because I felt the delight of the Lord all over me and through me, and He gave me a picture in my mind of how much He plans on blessing this young woman - for her obedience to Him, for her desire to do His will for the sake of doing His will and for no other reason than this.

And the Lord showed me the reason he wants us to obey Him is because He knows that when we obey Him, He can bless us fully and richly. There is no way to receive His blessings than through our obedience to Him.

He showed me what delights Him more than anything, what gives Him the most joy, is in blessing His children who obey Him for the sake of obeying Him and not because they are seeking a blessing! It is so simple really yet so profound for my mortal mind to comprehend such a love as this!

In my daily life, it is not so easy for me to see His Hand of Blessing in certain situations because I already have an idea in my mind of how something should go or how something should be. For instance, Sonya's filling fell out today which means we need to go to the dentist tomorrow and pay to have a new one put in which wasn't in my plans or our budget.

Very quickly, initial discouragement led to agitation over the whole situation, and I forgot to Praise the Lord that we have dental insurance or even that Sonya could feel the whole in her tooth with her tongue to let me know there is something wrong that needs to be fixed in order for us, her parents, to help maintain her oral health. Which, is our job, BTW.

Praise You, Father! Thank you for Your desire to help me to grow and to overcome and to learn lessons and to be the woman You designed me to be, free from fear and doubt and anxiety and hang-ups and all the things in my past that prevented me from feeling You and hearing You! Thank you for giving me a sharp mind and a ready heart! Thank you for hanging in there with me and knowing from the very foundations of the earth that You always would! Lord, I know and You know I am not perfect. I am "a work in progress", but man oh man, have I come a long way through Your extended Hand of Grace and Mercy! Lord, please continue to guide, guard and protect me as I seek to do Your will as a mother, wife, friend. Thank You for my many blessings! Help me, Father, to never take them for granted. In Jesus' Holy and Mighty Name, I pray. Amen and Amen!

When We Are Called

God has put so many people in our lives for this adoption who have been truly supportive and understanding of what this whole journey has meant to our family. It's really not just about adoption, though. It's about obedience to our Heavenly Father. For the most part, most of us will live on this earth for maybe seventy or eighty years, but this is not our home. We are simply passing through. As born again believers, we can be sure of eternal salvation through Jesus Christ alone. As born again believers, we are called to be His hands and feet and to minister throughout the four corners of the earth to a lost and dying world - sharing with them the good news of the Atoning Blood of Jesus Christ.

If we can be obedient and care for these orphans so that they can be introduced to Jesus Christ and hence gain eternal salvation themselves, then Glory, Glory Halleluiah! So I ask, what's $30,000.00 in the grand scheme of things? Could we ever possibly think that sound financial planning while on this earth is more important than the time we will spend in eternity when money won't matter? I told someone yesterday that even though I do not believe for a moment that God has ever intended that Randy and I go into debt with this adoption, we would take a second mortgage out on our house before we would ever walk away from our child.

Thank you, Father!

Thank you, Father, for a gift to write - for the distinct ability to articulate feelings, plans, images and thoughts on paper. I know with all assuredness, however, that without the hand of the Holy Spirit holding mine, my words would be dull, lifeless, unmoving. As He flows through my mind and then down through my fingertips as they press the keys, I marvel at His well laid out plan to evoke from people I will never know a need, an idea, a resolution, courage to do, think and act in ways in which the Plan of God can manifest through them, to bless them!

Time is short. The time to do right is now. The time to follow God's calling in our lives is now. "As for me and my house, we will serve the LORD."

A Poem About You from Your Mother

One day while living out my life
the Holy Spirit blew my way
and told me,
"You have another daughter."

Scarcely comprehending this Truth
I called my husband to seek his point of view
forgetting soon after it ever happened.
Until it happened again.
And again.

Then while sitting in my pew
the Lord God on High showed me what to do.
Ask my husband to take me up front
and pray for His will concerning adoption.
Or relieve my burdened heart.

Later that evening while at church again
the call to come forward laid on my heart
heavily...until we responded,
approaching our pastor with a fervent plea
to help us by praying
for the Lord's will
in this most delicate issue.

So what began on the wind
made its way inside the church walls
and the lives of our brethren
to hold us up in prayer
for His will to be done.

What seems to have taken place
so long ago
happened only last season
and the time is flying
for our departure
to bring you home.

What of your existence?
Did you only become a reality
when the wind carried your
existence into my reality?

Or have you always been mine
before the very beginning of time?
To daughter me as I mother you.

As the days fly by,
time stands still.
When will I see you?
When will I hold you?
When will I get to kiss
your cheek the way I kiss
your sister's?

Will you like my kisses
and my hugs
like your sister does?

Will you know us as yours?
I pray that you do.
Your big sister has hugs
all prepared for you.

Your sister who is choosey
and not so easily swayed looks
forward to showing you her love.
From the beginning.
When she saw you
for the first time and said,
"Oh Mommy, I want her to be my sister."

And your father
whose love for you is true
presses weights to be ready
to carry two daughters
and not just one.

We heard you asked about us.
"When is my family coming?"
Even though no human being
has yet told you the news.

Our God is preparing your
beautiful heart for your
new life with us as you sleep
...and dream.

Do you dream of us as
we do of you?
I pray that you do.

I cry for you, dear,
as I wait...
aniticipating
the long-awaited
"Gotcha Day."

May the Lord on High
Surround you with His Ministering Angels
as they guard, guide and protect
your every step
while we wait.

And when we meet for
the very first time,
"Please Lord, let their be
a recognition of love and
genuine belonging in
our little one's awareness
from us to her.
From her to us."

We love you, dear Mei Mei.
We always have and
we always will.

"Lord, keep our little Mei Mei
in your loving hands
until you bid us
safe passage."

Support Our 2nd Fund Raiser on May 21st - Parking Lot Sale at Avalon Missionary Church

If someone would have asked me even six months ago if we would ever adopt again, my answer would have been “No”. Now we as a family are eagerly awaiting the opportunity to travel to China to bring home our second China-born daughter and a little sister for our first.

What started out as a prayer on December 5th, 2010 has turned into our adoption journey. With this journey comes a huge expense both emotionally and monetarily. Not only are we enduring the long wait of finally being united with a daughter and a sister who was always meant to be with us, we are also faced with the financial hurdle of collecting the necessary funds to bring the adoption to fruition.

I have learned in the past two months that there are millions of orphans world- wide who will never know what it is like to belong with anyone. Although my heart breaks in two at the thought of my youngest daughter living in an orphanage for the past six years of her life, I also rejoice in the knowledge that her longing and waiting for a Forever Family will be recognized the day we travel to China to bring her home. While I am happy for our circumstance, I am still left with the knowledge that money and knowledge of the Lord’s vision is what keeps the countless millions of orphans from ever being adopted into their own Forever Families.

As her parents, my husband and I are doing everything possible to raise money to bring our little girl home. As some of you know, we are asking for donations from friends, neighbors and strangers in the way of gently used household items we can then sell on Saturday, May 21st at our anticipated HUGE parking lot sale.

The collection process has begun! Please contact us and let us know what you can donate at c.hoium@yahoo.com. We will be happy to come and pick it up. Thank you once again for caring! God bless your day!

My Salvation Testimony

In order to apply for Christian adoption grants, Randy and I were asked to pen our salvation testimonies. I am sharing mine with you now as a testament to our Father's enduring faithfulness and mercy and love for His children. God is revealing to me in my life right now that He has always loved me, and through His Healing and Sanctifying Love, I am learning to love others with His agape love, to care more for their souls than their pocket books or their high esteem of me as a person. I am learning that speaking the Truth in love is a priceless demonstration of our true love for others.

We are called as Christians to be the hands and feet of Jesus Christ to the four corners of the earth and thus to minister to a lost and dying world. Let us be "salt and light" now to our neighbors, friends, associates, loved ones and even our enemies for the purpose of glorifying our Father in Heaven whose ultimate joy comes in blessing His children in their obedience to Him!

The following, then, is the submission of my Christian testimony to the adoption grant process:

For many years, I thought I knew Jesus. I thought I knew the real Jesus who loves everyone no matter what their beliefs. I was partially right in that Jesus loves everyone no matter what, but I simply could not comprehend that the way we believe could kill us - by causing eternal separation from God our Father in a place called hell. Back then, I was completely misinformed about what true salvation looks like or even feels like. That is because I did not know the bible – at all. I did not know God’s Word. I did not know that Jesus is the Word and that the Word is Living.

Because of my lack of biblical knowledge and understanding, I was prone to poor judgment involving the character of others and hence trusting people who were untrustworthy. Because the Word was not LIVING in me I would fall victim many times over to the deceptions and half-truths of man, for I had turned to man and not to God for the truth.

It was in November of 2009 when I experienced a shattering realization about how far “good” people can stray from God’s will without ever knowing it. My husband Randy and I had made a decision concerning our future that we thought was God’s good and perfect will for our little family. When we discovered that not only was our decision not God’s will for us but because of our faulty judgment we were standing completely outside of His will, I wept bitter tears. Never in my life had I experienced such sorrow of spirit. I felt complete humiliation, and a deep despair welled up within my very bones. I thought I had it “all figured out”, but it turns out I didn’t know a thing.

I can see now how God used that experience to draw me closer to Him because it was in the experiencing of humiliation that I was humbled. For the first time in my life, I fell down on my knees and repented of my every sin. I called out to the Lord to save me. It is then while I lay weeping and sobbing with my faced pressed up against the floor that the Lord spoke to me and said, “Learn my Word so that this may never happen to you again.”

It is then that I finally yielded myself to God completely and began the journey of understanding His Truth from His own mouth. And again I say, AMEN! It is then that I finally understood that when I am walking close to the Lord I will feel the warning of the Holy Spirit and hence avoid the snares of the adversary, and in this be able to sing All Glory, Honor and Praise to God my Father. Amen! “Acknowledge God in all your ways, and He will direct your paths.” Proverbs 3:6

In December of that same year, the Lord led me to search for a church that would preach the Truth of the Word in its entirety and fullness. I covered much ground, and felt disappointment time and again when I could feel the presence of the Holy Spirit lacking within the walls of so many churches I visited. Or I might find a church loving and kind yet when comparing their doctrine to the Holy Bible it would not match up with the Word. I almost gave up until it dawned on me that if God told me that my family and I belonged in church, then God already had a church picked out for us.

I once again opened up the yellow pages, and saw for the first time an advertisement for a Southern Baptist church located twenty minutes from our home. I promptly called the church office to find out their position on abortion and marriage and discovered they hold a biblical worldview. What’s more, I found out the Preacher was willing to speak the Truth from the pulpit regarding such relevant issues. I decided then and there to pay Waynedale Baptist Church a visit, along with my then six year old daughter, Sonya, to their bible study held that very evening. I learned that night that we had found our home.

Since attending Waynedale Baptist church, I have learned that the only thing which assures us of our eternal salvation is Jesus Christ alone. As the Preacher likes to point out, church membership, tithing, baptism, etc. will not save us. Jesus Christ alone through His atoning blood will.

On July 11th, 2010 Randy, Sonya, and I were immersed together in the baptismal waters, not so that we could boast that by doing so we would gain a free pass into heaven, but that by doing so, we could testify before the body that Christ alone is our Lord and Savior and that in dying to ourselves we can live in Him. Hallelujah! Praise the Lord! “Thank you, Jesus, for dying for our sins so that we may live!”

At Waynedale Baptist Church, I have also learned through studying the Word together in church and in Sunday school that I am a sinner and will forever fall short of the glory of God. Absolutely nothing I will of my own accord will get me into Heaven. Through Jesus Christ alone I am blood-bought, born-again and kingdom-bound, and as a natural extension of my salvation through Jesus I have become a new creature and behold old things have passed away.

Through this new birth spiritual works will manifest through us, only to show God’s Glory, and how He can work mightily through us and in us. Yet I fully recognize and attest that works will never ever pay for my debt and wipe away my sins! Only Jesus can do that!

It is important I share a bit more regarding my salvation experience and the wondrous and mighty Hand of God at work in my life and in the life of my family. It was about three years ago that the Holy Spirit began “building a fire underneath me” for my husband Randy and I to renew our vows. Simply explained, Randy and I were not wed in a Christian church, and the Holy Bible was not at all utilized in the wedding ceremony. I had been for a while feeling deep regret over this, and hidden within my heart was the painful recognition that Randy and I were not fully married.

Well-intentioned Christian friends would tell me that God still honored our vows, but I knew they were in error. I knew that once I found a church that really loved the Lord and practiced true Christian love and forgiveness that Randy and I needed to walk down the aisle and be joined in Christian marriage by a true Christian pastor who believed in the inerrancy and infallibility of the Holy Bible and who was willing to preach the Word from the pulpit. I knew that our renewal would rid me of the nagging feeling that our marriage was still outside God’s Ultimate Plan for us as a married couple.

On Saturday, October 2, 2010 Randy and I renewed our commitment to one another as husband and wife with the Word of the Lord as our Anchor. As we stood at the alter facing one another and as Preacher quoted at length from Colossians, a miracle happened.

Suddenly I felt below us as if someone behind me took a very wide board and slid it below our feet. I felt as though in one moment we were standing on soft ground and then in the next solid ground was placed beneath our feet. Then above us descending from the heavens I sensed or felt a covering placed first over our heads and then draped over our entire bodies. We were completely covered from head to toe standing together underneath this covering, and at that moment, at that exact moment, and for the very first time in my marriage, I felt truly married to my husband.

I believe it is in that precise moment when God sealed our marriage and set us apart from the world. Standing on the foundation of Jesus Christ - our Most Honored Guest - covered by His Atoning Blood, God supernaturally gifted us. No mortal words will ever describe my deep gratitude to My Father for never giving up on me or turning His back on me so that he could ultimately bring us to this place to bless our marriage in this way. All Praise and Honor and Glory be to God our Father, Jesus His Son and God the Holy Spirit forever and ever!

Since November of 2009 I have learned through countless experiences that when we choose to yield our will to the Will of God and obey Him with perfect obedience, He will bless us exceedingly and abundantly beyond the scope of our wildest hopes and dreams.

Our renewal of wedding vows took place in October of 2010, and I can’t wait to share what happened next! Please read our adoption testimony to find out what God was planning for us all along when we obeyed Him through the renewal of our vows…