Knit Together

Our God is an amazing visionary.

Whenever I think of visionaries, I imagine the scene in Apollo 13 where the men who are trying to fix the shuttle are in a conference room discussing the problems. A man walks in carrying a box of random stuff. He says to the group " We have to make this (holds up the necessary part) out of this (holds up the box of random stuff)." That's vision.

Our God is an amazing visionary.

When we first brought Micah home our home was nothing short of a war zone. There are no words to describe how desperate, how disappointed, how dazed we felt at the REALITY of adoption. It was so hard. SO. HARD.

I remember telling my great friend Sherry "I feel like this adoption has ruined our life." Yeah. It was that bad. Micah never slept and cried for his nanny all night long. Devon revolted against the crazy life change of having a new brother. He reverted back to diapers and bit, hit, and screamed his way through each day.

If I had only known.

Yesterday we were at an indoor playland and the boys were playing together. I watched as Devon stayed with his much smaller 2 year old brother and played with him, protecting him from other kids who would bump or touch him. I was amazed. Then I heard Devon say to Micah "Micah, I love you. You're the best brother." I burst into tears.

Our God is an amazing visionary.

He created us each as individuals, so different with so many different needs and abilities. Yet, he knew how we would fit together. He knew what we each needed and chose us specifically for one another. It's amazing to me how well suited my sons are for one another. Where one is weak, the other is strong. Yet they have the same joyful, playful, strong, loving spirit.

Our God is an amazing visionary.

He chose a baby born in an underprivileged community in Trenton for a young, inexperienced couple and redeemed an entire family. He chose a starving baby in Ethiopia for that same baby boy to help him grow, to give him a best friend, to change him in ways he didn't want to change and to help him be a more whole individual. And He did it all for us despite our lack of vision and faith.

And right now He is choosing another child to fit into this puzzle of family He has made in us. This child will be exactly what we need and so much more than we can imagine.

That's love, my friends. Visionary love.

Hurry Up and Wait

Happy DTE (dossier to Ethiopa) for the Kulp Clan!!

What does all this mean? Our dossier has been logged in and is headed to Ethiopia (insert sigh of relief). I can't tell you exactly where we are in line but we believe we are in the 20ish spot in line. There are many families ahead of us but some of them are requesting either girl or boy and sibling groups. That being said, this is an unofficial list and doesn't really mean much given the unpredictable elements that pop up in adoption.

January...February...March...Hurry up and wait.

Is it time to buy hair bows yet?

We Have Lift Off!!!

Hello Friends!

I am staring at a completed dossier sitting on my counter. Truth be told, I have been staring at it for 2 months. But, today is different. Today is the LAST DAY I will stare at this pile of paperwork that was painstakingly gathered and has touched many, many hands. Today is the LAST day I will wonder when we will be ready, when we will be certain, when we will be mailing the silly pile.

Because TODAY we were awarded a $3,000 matching grant from Lifesong for Orphans. This means a potential $6,000 towards our adoption, the money we will need to accept our baby gir's referral when it comes.

Our God is so awesome. When we started waiting for this money I was so frustrated. The "whens" turned into "whys" and "hows" and then "how could you's!"

But God is bigger than my ranting, kinder than our imaginings, and more faithful than our expectations. As if we hadn't received enough grace and blessing through our first two adoptions, our BIG God chose to show us his grace in the one area we struggled to surrender: our finances.

He owns all of the cattle on a thousand hills. He has blessed the work of our hands and has given us abundance.

We ask that you would pray with us that the $3,000 would indeed come in to make this grant complete.

Praise Him from whom all blessings (and GRANTS!) flow!