Pure and Holy Passion

Well progress is steady with the adoption. We had our USCIS appointment last Monday to get our fingerprints done...now we wait for the I-701 form, which will make our adopted child a US citizen when we land on US soil. It can take anywhere from 2 weeks to several months, so we're hoping for speed!!! Once we have that paper in our hand, our documents get sent to Austin for certification then we send EVERYTHING to our agency...who then sends it on to Ethiopia!!! Thus far I've felt peace and patience about everything. I'm hoping these final two steps go smoothly so that we can just sit back and wait...without worrying about what's left on our adoption to-do list! :)

Our social worker told us that we should have a little girl home by next summer. The adoption process is always unpredictable, though, so we'll see. In the meantime, little Miss Hannah is quite the busy bee! She loves playing outside and her new obsession is rocks. She could play all day with rocks if we let her, pouring them from one container to the other. Yesterday daddy gave her a bunch of jolly ranchers (not to eat, to play with) and she played with those things for hours!!! It was so cute to watch her imagination run wild! She is changing every day, and learning so much!

I wish I had more time (and energy) to get on here to blog all that we've got going on, if anything just to be able to look back myself and say "oh yeah I forgot about that!" Time goes by so fast...I'm hoping we'll feel the same way as next summer approaches and we hopefully are on the verge of recieving our referral!

Lots of songs have been in my head lately, but I think I'll share one that I heard the other day for the first time in a while. It's sort of a "theme song" that I wish I could adhere to every day...the lyrics are below. I also attached a link to the audio version I love from one of my favorite cds...

Pure and Holy Passion

Give me one pure and holy passion

And give me one magnificent obsession

Give me one glorious ambition for my life

To know and follow hard after You


CHORUS:

To know and follow hard after You

To grow as Your disciple in the truth

This world is empty, pale and poor

Compared to knowing You, my Lord

Lead me on and I will run after You

Lead me on and I will run after You





I look around at so many people and see how we're all on this race to accomplish things on our to-do lists, always going going going, never having time to slow down and just breathe and enjoy what's in front of us. I'm very goal oriented and I think it's great to look ahead and dream and make plans. But we've also got to live in the here and now. Yes, partially because we never know if there will be a tomorrow. But more than likely there will be a tomorrow...and someday we're gonna look back and see all the opportunities we missed while "waiting" for other bigger, better things to come. My little Hannah is growing up so fast. I want to look back and know I spent all the time I could nurturing her, loving her, showing her God's love and demonstrating to her what its like to live a fulfilling life...one of loving and serving. If I could wake up every morning and meditate on these lyrics, and revolve my life around what they mean, I think I'd be setting a pretty good example for Hannah and for those around me...