Magnolia Heart

Uncovering Beauty, Embracing Brokenness, Discovering Joy.

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Thread of Hope: Prayer Four

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Hope on the Horizon
Written July 13, 2015

I lift up my eyes to the mountains— where does my help come from? My help comes from the Lord, the Maker of heaven and earth. He will not let your foot slip— he who watches over you will not slumber; indeed, he who watches over Israel will neither slumber nor sleep. The Lord watches over you— the Lord is your shade at your right hand; the sun will not harm you by day, nor the moon by night. The Lord will keep you from all harm— he will watch over your life; the Lord will watch over your coming and going both now and forevermore.” Psalm‬ ‭121‬:‭1-8‬ NIV

Lord, you have her. You have always been her comfort, her place of belonging. You are the Maker of Heaven and Earth and you are preparing a way. Over mountains and oceans, Your limitless love has come. You will bring her home.

I ask that you would plant a seed of hope in her heart. Help her to know that you are near and that you have plans to give her a family and a future. Your timing is perfect and no matter how long the wait, you will sustain and protect her.

I lift up my eyes to the horizon. I will wait for You. When my heart grows weary and anxious, I will draw near you. I will trust in your unfailing love and I will rest in your abounding comfort. In the Mighty Name of Jesus, I pray, Amen.

Thank you for linking hearts in prayer and becoming a strong, unbreakable Thread of Hope, crossing mountains and oceans on behalf of our daughter and family. His love will bring her home! To God be the Glory.

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Thread of Hope: Prayer Three

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Heart Connections
Written April 21, 2015

See, I am doing a new thing! Now it springs up; do you not perceive it? I am making a way in the wilderness and streams in the wasteland. Isaiah‬ ‭43‬:‭19‬ NIV

Lord, give me eyes to see you. To perceive the many ways that you are at work. Continue to prepare our hearts. Renew our strength daily. Teach us how to love one another better in this time of waiting. Give both Robert and I the insight on how to best nurture this tender, new love in our children’s hearts for their soon to be sister.

Soften her dry, parched heart. Restore her ability to receive this great outpouring of love. This love that only comes from you. A never ending spring of living water. You are making a way, forging new streams for your love to flow.

In Jesus’ wondrous name, I pray, Amen.

Thank you for linking hearts in prayer and becoming a strong, unbreakable Thread of Hope, crossing mountains and oceans on behalf of our daughter and family. His love will bring her home! To God be the Glory.

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Thread of Hope: Prayer Two

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Rising Beauty
Written April 13, 2015

He has sent me to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim freedom for the captives and release from darkness for the prisoners, to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor and the day of vengeance of our God, to comfort all who mourn, and provide for those who grieve in Zion— to bestow on them a crown of beauty instead of ashes, the oil of joy instead of mourning, and a garment of praise instead of a spirit of despair. They will be called oaks of righteousness, a planting of the Lord for the display of his splendor. ‭Isaiah‬ ‭61‬:‭1-3‬ NIV

Lord, I ask that you would work in mighty ways in and through our daughter’s life right now. Bind her broken heart, release her from captivity. In your perfect time bring her home to us.

You are the God of all comfort. In her dark, lonely moments, calm her fears. Draw near to her. Bring her comfort as she mourns the loss of her birth family, her birth mother. Prepare her to leave her home country and all she has ever known.

Grant her peace, confidence and a deep understanding that you are with her and that you are providing hope for her future. Let her know in some way, that her family is coming.

Provide a caretaker for her in this time, who is compassionate and caring. Someone who is nurturing and loving towards her so that she may feel your tangible comfort and love. Someone whom she can bond with so that she has the ability to someday form a healthy attachment to me and our family.

The voids in her life, the brokenness, only you can heal and restore. Our love is not enough but Your Love is more than enough. Begin to create strong connections that will bind us together as a family in unity. Ways that will make it clear to her heart and ours that we belong together.

Bestow a crown of beauty in place of her ashes. Anoint her head with overflowing joy. Cloth her in a glorious garment of praise, removing all layers of despair.

Lord, in You, may she rise from the ashes as a great oak. Reaching up tall and strong to meet the splendor of your glory and grace. Her arms and heart stretching wide to all the beauty that you have in store for her life.

In Jesus’ mighty name, I pray, Amen.

Thank you for linking hearts in prayer and becoming a strong, unbreakable Thread of Hope, crossing mountains and oceans on behalf of our daughter and family. His love will bring her home! To God be the Glory.

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Thread of Hope: Prayer One

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Neat Rows
Written April 6,2015

In their hearts humans plan their course, but the Lord establishes their steps.
Proverbs‬ ‭16‬:‭9‬ NIV

Lord, I give you all my best laid plans. I give you my fears and doubts about the future. I give you my family, my children. You know what is the very best for us. I desire your best.

Thank you for leading our family on the journey of adoption. You have planted this desire long ago in my heart and it is amazing to see you working towards bringing our fifth child, our baby girl, home to us. I can see your hand so clearly in the many ways you have provided along the way.

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Thread of Hope

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“I was made and meant to look for you and wait for you and become yours forever.”
-Robert Browning

I never anticipated that we would still be waiting. By now, I felt certain I would be sharing precious tidbits of our daughter’s personality, sweet pictures of siblings loving on their little sister and life together as a family of seven. Yet, here we are with hearts still longing for our little girl.

I know with certainty that there is no accident to this long wait. We have not been forgotten or overlooked. It’s all part of God’s gracious and better than I can imagine plan. A plan that is not void of hardship, heartache or loss but one where I can see His fingerprints of faithfulness at every turn. His love and comfort restoring, bringing forth wholeness and new life each step of the way. Hope glimmering bright as it weaves it’s way in and through our journey towards bringing our daughter home. [Read more…] about Thread of Hope

Far Sweeter

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““I am the vine, you are the branches. He who abides in Me, and I in him, bears much fruit; for without Me you can do nothing.”
‭‭John‬ ‭15:5‬ ‭NKJV‬‬

Today as a pulled off clusters of tiny green apples from our Pink Lady apple tree, I was reminded that sometimes we have to let go of something good to receive something better.

As I plucked tiny apple after tiny apple, I felt a little remorse yet even more, I felt anticipation. Early this autumn, there will be homegrown pink blushed apples to enjoy. Far less than I have had to discard yet they will be ours, ripe and sweet. If I failed to thin the tree, it would not produce such wonderful fruit and the burden of so much would only hinder both the fruit and tree’s growth.

This simple yearly task reflects my own journey. How I too have had to let go of good desires so that God can fulfill even greater purposes in and through me. How His desires for my life far exceed my own.

This season of waiting and abiding has been tough. Laying down my own timeline, desires and expectations has been a painful process. Yet I know that with God, my waiting is not wasted. He is cultivating something much richer and deeper, far sweeter than I can imagine.

“Now to him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to his power that is at work within us,”
‭‭Ephesians‬ ‭3:20‬ ‭NIV‬‬

Family Update:

As we continue to wait much longer than anticipated, we can see how God continues to grow our hearts and our family, preparing us for all that our journey holds. This season has been amazing in many ways yet also extremely hard. Especially on my mama heart.

I am finding contentment and pleasure in the simple things in life right now. Wonder-filled moments with our ever growing children, our four new chickens and our thriving garden are all bringing renewed life and a positive distraction in this extended season of waiting.

I share with you these simple pleasures yet keep in mind that you are not seeing our true reality. These pictures do not capture the noise, siblings squabbles, meltdowns and the just plain messiness and complexity that life lived together brings.

Our prayer needs:

We know that the Ministry of Justice in Bulgaria is considering our family on a weekly basis. What we are waiting for now is a child that fits our family’s profile to be ready for adoption.

Join us in praying that God will open wide the doors that need to be opened for us to be matched with our daughter. We believe that this is a spiritual battle. The evil one does not want orphans to find families. Even so, we know that Our God is greater and He has already proclaimed victory over our daughter. Please pray that we will continue to trust in His power and perfect timing. May His peace reign in our hearts and home as we wait.

Thank you so much for your prayers and continued support. We are ever grateful.

Finding Her Song

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“By day the Lord directs his love, at night his song is with me— a prayer to the God of my life.” Psalm 42:8 NIV

When I was a little girl, I loved to sing. I always had a song in my heart and I was not afraid to sing out, loud and bold. Mostly, I sang the songs I heard each week at Sunday school. Songs about God’s love and Jesus. I came to a saving knowledge of Jesus at the young age of four. I had a sweet and pure love for my Savior and I was confident in who he made me to be. My dreams for my future were crystal clear. I wanted to be a wife, a mother and a nurse and maybe have a singing career on the side. The sky was the limit!

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Cultivating a Quiet Heart

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“Who you become while you are waiting is as important as what you are waiting for.”
Louie Giglio, “Waiting Here For You”

I have been quiet and unable to put pen to paper for a few months now. I am not sure where to begin. How to express all that I am experiencing in the waiting. In some ways it feels too personal, too deep, too vulnerable, too tender. I feel closer to Jesus than ever before. I hunger and thirst for His word, waking each morning eagerly awaiting every morsel of goodness He has for me. His word like cool rain drops, quenching and replenishing my parched, weary soul. I can’t get enough, it is all I can do to truly feel alive.

This month marks 26 months of waiting for our daughter. The last six months has been the hardest. We completed our yearly home study and dossier update last month which has taken a huge burden off our shoulders. The paperwork process can be long and so tedious. This year seemed to drain me more because I did not think we would still be waiting.

Even though the wait has been long and seemingly silent, I am know that God is at work. He continues to reveal His presence in and through our adoption journey in countless ways. He has graciously supplied for our family every step of the way. I have no doubt that He is going before us, making a way. He is holding and hiding our daughter, safe in the palm of his hand. In His perfect time, I am confident that He will being her home to us.

This has been a season of digging in and fighting hard for God’s goodness and peace in my own heart and in our home. A season in which I have never felt more broken or reliant on Jesus.

Yet, it is in the breaking that my heart has become more pliable, more receptive.

God has become my strength and my portion. This time of waiting has not been wasted. It has been beneficial and refining. It has taught me what truly matters and that the best things in life are worth waiting long and fighting hard for.

My desire in the waiting is to cultivate a quiet heart. A heart that has been broken yet in the breaking has become more pliable, more receptive to the God who redeems. He is mighty to save, bringing forth life from death, beauty from ashes. This truth, it is enough. Enough to still and restore this restless, weary traveler.

He leads me onward, beside quiet waters. I am not sure where this unknown path will lead or what hardships we may face but I do know that His goodness and love will follow me all the days of my life.

“I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit in you; I will remove from you your heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh.”
‭‭Ezekiel‬ ‭36:26‬

“The Lord is my shepherd, I lack nothing. He makes me lie down in green pastures, he leads me beside quiet waters, he refreshes my soul. He guides me along the right paths for his name’s sake.

Surely your goodness and love will follow me all the days of my life, and I will dwell in the house of the Lord forever.”
‭‭Psalm‬ ‭23:1-3, 6‬ ‭NIV‬‬