Precious Moments

I have wanted to write more lately but have a hard time putting into words things I experience here. Let me start by saying it is wonderful to have my friend Kendra here. She actually has gone by the nickname "Corky" ever since she moved away from Greenville after our 16th birthday. Her little girl, JaneBatson, and Nate love to play and fight and apologize to each other and then hug and start all over again. I love it!
The twins are here for a visit. I had a precious moment this morning with Gina. I was fixing her hair and she looks at me and says, "mommy, you used to live in heaven until God saw that we needed a family and so then you came down from heaven to live here and be our family." Can you say "oh my word that is the sweetest thing I have ever heard" ? Well, its the sweetest thing I have ever heard. I just love them so much and can't wait to end the chaos of visiting and get settled into real life with them. It is so chaotic to me when they are just here for a visit because they never get settled into family life. I believe they will settle in beautifully when the time comes. We await our day in court anxiously and await to see the outcome of whether or not the aunt decides to pursue them. Please pray that she decides over Christmas that she will just release them to be with the only family they have ever knonw! She has only visited them twice and she has grown children and she said she would speak to them when they come for Christmas about what they think she should do.
We will be putting up the tree tomorrow and the kids are so excited about that except Georgie isn't excited that there will not be presents tomorrow :-). Pray for Georgie that he will learn how to play with his siblings without being aggressive and combative. He has had some struggles this visit because he is just so used to being rough all the time. He is such a sweet little boy and I love the twinkle in his eye when he smiles. I need to figure out how to channel all that energy into something good!
I hope you all have a wonderful Thanksgiving. The Lord is good and worthy of our thanks and praise. He saved us and made us His children and that is something to sing and dance about! So, sing happy songs and leap for joy because of the inheritance you have received! He pulled us from the pit and the miserable existence we would have had trying to do it on our own and set us on the Rock! Sing, sing praises to His name.

Visit with the lawyer.

We went to Oradea and met with a lawyer. He looked at our file and listened to our story. He seems to think if she really is the aunt that she has a good chance of getting them...if she really and truly wants them. He did say it was suspicious that she showed up after never meeting them before. He said he would investigate for us. We also talked with the director of the children's home and were encouraged a little by that conversation. She seems to think the aunt isn't being really aggressive. She has only visited twice in two months and didn't show up for a visit on Saturday like she said she would. She has filed no papers as of yet and she knows another family is puruing them. We will proceed with our court date and more than likely receive custody of the twins. We will wait for about 30 days for papers to go through and then they can move in with us. We will have to call all of the family for the adoption court date and that is when it may be a problem. She or anyone else could show up and say they want them. The good thing is they would have to meet a certain standard of living before they could actually be approved to take them.
We are waiting on God who is our help and who is always good. We will trust that He will do whatever is best. We will have the twins for a visit next week.
Please continue to pray as this will likely drag out for many months to come.

What I am learning.

I will be honest and tell you I am sick to my stomach with thoughts of loosing our twins. I am trusting and claiming God's peace. These are the passages I read this morning:
Psalm 52:9 I will praise You forever, Because You have done it; And in the presence of Your saints I will wait on Your name, for it is good.
Psalm 62: Truly my soul waits for God because my expectations are in Him alone.
Psalm 71:14 I will hope continually.
Psalm 28:7 My heart trusts in Him, and I am helped.
Psalm 50:15 Call upon Me in the day of trouble, I will deliver you, and you shall glorify Me.
Psalm 42 Why should my sould be disquieted in me, my hope is in God. He is my hope and the one who lifts up my countenance with his love.
Isaiah 40 Those who wait on the Lord: shall renew their strength, shall mount up with wings as eagles, shall run and not be weary, shall run and not faint.

Please pray that God will grant the peace to not fret and worry about the what ifs. Pray for us as we meet with a lawyer on Monday that he will be an honest one and one who will fight.

Need More Prayer.

Obviously we need prayer today because it is election day in American. We need prayer as a family here in Romania. We were hit with the news a few days ago that the county where our case is got in trouble for not giving more rapid court dates. So, we had a lawyer go check on the possibility of getting us a court date sooner. This was good news and we were excited about the possibility of getting our date moved up.
Today we received bad news, the twins aunt has showed up again. This time she met the twins and told the director she has bought a place to live in their town and her husband has a job and she wants to take the twins home with her.
Please be in prayer for the twins and for us. I am leaving out a lot of information but just know we need your prayers. We will fight for them and pray and believe God wants them in our family. We feel like they are our kids and no one has the right to waltz in and take them. We just pray the law seeks out what is best for the kids.
We appreciate your prayers.

Homeschoolers

I am thinking of making a curriculum switch. Any homeschoolers out there feel free to give me some input. I am using a mixture right now simply because I received a lot of free stuff but I am not happy with what I am doing. It takes a lot of planning and work. I have been looking at a Sonlight catalog and so far am impressed with what they have to offer. They have a lot of reading which I like and it is all planned out for you which I like. I think the biggest draw back is the price but education is expensive. So, I guess I would just like to hear from someone who uses Sonlight or has heard about it and can recommend it. I always start planning for next school year around this time because I have to get it ordered so it gets to my parents before they come in the spring. I would greatly appreciate any input.