Good Morning! I received positive feedback about my blog and I'm even more excited about continuing A Rain Story! So I'll get back to where I left off.

We managed to finish our lunch after talking excitedly about the possibilities! I remember saying, "We are the perfect family to adopt." Not that we are in any way perfect by definition, but because we had the extra room in our home and in our hearts! We felt we were indeed ready for this. Once we returned home from lunch we hopped on-line and started visiting adoption agencies. If we were really going to do this, we needed as much information as possible. We were a bit stunned when we saw the expense of an international adoption! We had thought of domestic adoption, but only briefly. For some reason we just felt that we were being directed to international adoption. How is this possible? How can we do this? We are a one income family by choice and this seemed enormous. It took the wind out of our sails but nonetheless we had several agencies send us information.

At the time I was attending a junior college and doing quite well. School and education in general are way up there on my priority list. As some of you may know, I homeschooled Alexa for four years and felt that the time I was able to give her really contributed to her academic success. What I'm trying to say is that that experience had some benefits even though I felt that I was mediocre at it. If I could fast forward here, I plan to homeschool my future daughter until I feel we are ready to send her to school.

That was a little sidebar, let me continue with my next revelation. I was going to school and felt good about my accomplishments. I was invited to an academic club for good grades and felt that I was on a "roll". I don't share this to "toot my own horn", there is a point to this, bare with me. Well, during a devotional reading I came across this verse and for some reason it was as if the words were talking directly to me. It read, "If anyone would come after me, he must deny himself, take up his cross daily and follow me." At this time this verse was only a subtle whisper, but it did grab my attention.

Life continued, but it seemed that it was going to get pretty interesting. During the next couple of weeks I did a lot of reading. Not only did I read my Bible, but other books as well, mostly from Christian authors. I'm not exaggerating or saying this for effect, but I came across that verse way too many times to not believe that God was telling me something. I didn't want to "give up" school. School was the one thing I had that gave me, a stay-at-home mom, some kind of worth. "Maybe He was really saying something else", I thought. A book by Charles Colson titled Loving God confirmed what I knew God was telling me. It read, " All my achievements mean nothing in God's economy...It is not what we do that matters, but what a sovereign God chooses to do through us. God doesn't want our success; He wants us. He doesn't demand achievement; He demands our obedience." So this is what 'deny yourself' meant. I struggled with this thought. I didn't want to deny myself anything. I felt that I had already denied myself too many things. But that evening we looked at the numbers closely and I announced, "I'm quitting school." Steve said, "No you're not. We can make this work." Of course I could see that my very supportive husband didn't really believe the words coming out of his mouth. I said, "This is what needs to be done at this time so we can move on with this." I knew that school would always be there. But this chance to give a loving home to someone in need, at our age, had to happen now! I ended the semester with another invite to another academic club and a couple more A's to add to my resume and felt great about my decision. I was going to be a mom again!!!!

More later...By the way, remember that this blog is about my life and in no way an attempt to persuade you to "give up" anything. It is just my story and I hope you enjoy getting to know me a little better.

Peace