Why Are You Cast Down, O My Soul?

Psalm 42

Why are you cast down, O my soul, and why are you in turmoil within me?

Hope in God; for I shall again praise him, my salvation and my God.

My soul is cast down within me; therefore I remember you

from the Land of Jordan and of Hermon, from Mount Mizar.

Deep calls to deep at the roar of your waterfalls;

all your breakers and your waves have gone over me

By day the Lord commands his steadfast love,

and at night his song is with me, a prayer to the God of my life.

I say to God, my rock: "Why have you forgotten me?

Why do I go mourning because of he oppression of the enemy?"

As with a deadly wound in my bones, my adversaries taunt me,

while they say to me all the day long, "Where is your God?"

Why are you cast down, O my soul, and why are you in turmoil within me?

Hope in God; for I shall again praise him my salvation and my God

I try so hard not to get my hopes up about things, yet I do... I can't help it. I always get my hopes up and so often I am disappointed. The cycle has played out again... again I got my hopes up and again I am disappointed. 

I had really hoped and believed that the case heard for evidence on July 2nd was our case. It took several days for them to post the notes from the case online and each day that passed my heart sank lower and lower. This morning at 7:30 the notes were finally there. While Lance and the boys were asleep I checked the notes in silence and quickly learned that Case No. 92 was for a little boy... not three little girls. Definitely not our case. I shed a few quiet tears and went back to sleep. 

I've been low in my spirits today as the reality that we now have no idea where we are in the court process sunk in. My hopes of traveling by the end of August disintegrated into thin air. The "end" that I could almost touch with my hand just disappeared over the horizon. I'm tired and weary.

As I read Psalm 42 tonight, I was reminded my hope is in God, my salvation. So, while my soul is cast down I am going to follow in David's footsteps and remember the Lord from the Land of Jordan (or the Land of Adoption). I want to recount what the Lord has done because I SHALL again praise him!

Remember with me and let us rejoice over all that God has done! Let's start from the very beginning...

• God opened our eyes to see the beauty of the gospel and to understand that we ourselves were once orphans, but because of the great mercy and love of God he sought us out relentlessly and now, through grace, we are heirs with Christ! Praise the Lord!
• God made it so perfectly clear to us that we were to adopt. He led us to India and gave us a desire for daughters! Praise the Lord!
• God gave us the most amazing Valentine gift ever in 2013 when we saw K, K and R for the first time. He gave us the peace and courage to move forward with what seemed totally crazy! Praise the Lord!
• God has given us prayer warriors and Godly council to direct us, challenge us, prepare us and support us throughout this journey! Praise the Lord!
• God opened so many doors and lead us as we navigated uncertain waters. Praise the Lord!
• In May 2013, when we sent in our dossier God provided the $15,000 we need in less than 7 days! Praise the Lord!
• In September of 2013 when we lost the referral for the girls God sustained us. He so beautifully comforted us and gave us peace beyond understanding. Praise the Lord!
• In November 2013 he led us to Eden and he taught our hearts to trust him and seek him more fervently. He taught us to pray with faith. Praise the Lord!
• Because of our pursuit of Eden, we were connected to the founder of the Forever Families Foundation who later so generously gave us the grant that brought us to being fully funded. Praise the Lord!
• In January God performed a miracle and he brought our girls back to us! Despite our confusion over Eden, he made it so clear to both me and Lance that this was the work of his hand and this was the path we were to walk in. Praise the Lord!
• In February, a year after first seeing their faces, we held K, K and R's official referrals in our hands! Praise the Lord!
• In March God blessed us with an amazing Both Hands project in which we were honored to serve Ms. Wright. God provided over $11,000 through this project! Praise the Lord!
• When our agency lost accreditation in March, God protected us and provided for us! We didn't lose any of our funds and our transition to a new agency was smooth! Praise the Lord!
• In April we received our Article 5 Letters from the US Embassy saying we had approval to make the girls US citizens! Praise the Lord!
• In May, we were FULLY FUNDED! God provided over $60,000 for our adoption! Praise the Lord!
• Also in May we received our ARC and NOC approval in record time! Praise the Lord!
• On Mothers Day God provided a vehicle that would fit our family of 7! Praise the Lord!
• In June our girls got to see pictures their family for the first time! Praise the Lord!
• God directed me to the court websites where our case can be tracked! There is progress in this court! Praise the Lord!
• God will continue to move on behalf of K, K and R! Praise the Lord!
• God will bring them home in his perfect time and he will comfort us all while we wait. Praise the Lord!

May we always remember all that the Lord has done for us on this journey! When our soul is cast down, may the remembrance of his faithfulness bring us peace and joy!

If you would like to pray for us, you can specifically pray that the next case being heard on July 11th will be our case. You can also pray that God would work our travel plans perfectly around Brayden's 8th birthday. He does not want us to be in India on his birthday and I want to be sure that we can properly celebrate his eight years of life! Finally, you can pray that God would be with the girls and comfort them while they wait.

Thank you so much for your continued prayer and support!

Until next time! -K

Both Hands Project – Snapshots of the day

When we began planning our Both Hands Project, I had no idea how amazing it would truly be. God gave us an amazingly gorgeous day full of amazing people who had amazing joy while doing amazing work for an amazing lady... AMAZING! It was one of the most memorable experiences of my life, and I loved being able to focus on the needs of somebody else for the day. It was exhausting work, but there's something so beautiful about pouring yourself out to serve others. I am so grateful for the family and friends who spent their day with us helping Ms. Bernice. I just have no words to express how humbled we were by their support. 

Honestly, if we never raised a single dime of sponsorship for our days worth of work, it would have still been worth it, but we have raise a few dimes... 57,500 of them to be exact. If you're like me and not so great at math, that's $5,750 which is just over 25% of our goal (we set big goals). We are overwhelmed by the generosity of those who have chosen to sponsor our Both Hands team and help our little girls get closer to home. 

God is "the father to the fatherless" and "the defender of widows" and HE "sets the lonely in families!" We still believe that God can and will move mountains to provide all that is needed for our daughters to be ransomed from their lonely place as orphans and set into OUR family! While 75% of our goal not yet being met should be discouraging, we are not discouraged! We KNOW where our help comes from. Our help comes from the Lord! He will help us!

If you feel led to be a part of K, K and Rs story and would like to still sponsor our Both Hands Team for the work that was done for Ms Bernice, you can still do that by visiting our Both Hands webpage. Donations are tax-deductible and can be made online or by mail. 100% of the funds donated go to help bring K, K and R home! No donation is too small!

Here is a list of tasks that our team completed for Ms. Bernice on March 8th:

• Pressure washed the back patio
• Dug holes for new shrubs on both sides of the house
• Planted a truck full of new shrubs on both sides of the house
• Placed landscaping timbers
• Spread multiple bales of pine straw
• Planted flowers
• Painted the front door
• Painted the shutters
• Removed wallpaper in the guest bathroom
• Removed wallpaper boarder in the breakfast room and kitchen
• Cleaned baseboards and outlet covers
• Patched holes in two walls
• Painted foyer
• Painted living room
• Painted breakfast room and kitchen
• Painted guest bathroom
• Painted both hallways
• Painted garage
• Painted exterior back wall of house
• Cleaned all the carpets
• Cleaned light fixtures
• Replaced light bulbs
• Replaced broken toilet seat
• Fixed stove

The very beginning of the day as we assessed the landscaping.

Me on the phone with our House of Heroes partners.

Breaking ground and digging holes for the new shrubs.

A truck load of new shrubs and top soil ready for planting.

Laying landscaping timbers on the side of the house.

Allison laying pine straw around the newly planted shrubs.

Lance and the boys pressure washing... the camera man?

My boys loved being a part of the day.

Mark the master cutter!

Painting the foyer.

John put down the camera and grabbed a roller for a bit.

Ladies working hard in the kitchen taking down the boarder.

Jasmine was a high school student who volunteered her day!

Kris and Allison freshening up the front door.

I vacuumed and steam cleaned all the carpets.

I cannot confirm or deny whose bare feet those are.

Me and my best friend Andrea taking a photo break.

We made the news! Thanks WTVM!

We even had some Indians show up! :)

At lunch we has a flag ceremony in honor of SFC Wright.

The kids took advantage of busy adults and climbed trees.

Even my kids climbed trees. 

Noble captured our day on video! Coming soon!

What a wonderful day! Glory to God for his goodness!

So, that was our day in snapshots. I look forward to showing you our video!

Until next time! -K

A Beautiful Puzzle

"Religion that is pure and undefiled before God, the Father, is this: to visit orphans and widows in their affliction" James 1:27

"Learn to do good; seek justice, correct oppression; bring justice to the fatherless, plead the widow's cause." Isaiah 1:17

These are just a a couple of verses in the bible that instruct us to care for the orphan and the widow. THIS Saturday is our Both Hands Project! It’s finally here! Lance and I, along with a team of about 22 of our friends and family, will live out these words and spend our day serving Ms. Bernice, the widow of a veteran in our local community. We will be working on her home doing cleaning, painting, organizing, landscaping and other tasks. None of this would be possible without the help of our local House of Heroes who is providing much of our supplies! This is one “hand” serving the widow!

With the other “hand” we are serving the orphans... our orphans and soon to be daughters! We are are raising sponsorship for our team's day of work (much like people raise sponsorship for running a marathon or playing in a golf tournament), and 100% of all the funds raised go directly to bringing K, K and R home from !ndia. Right now we owe our adoption agency $20,000 and we also need about $10,000-12,000 for travel expenses. This project is one of our biggest opportunities to knock out a large portion of these funds. We have sent out hundreds of letters and made dozens of posts online. We are trusting God to faithfully provide all we need. He’s got this!

I have been brought to tears more than once just this morning as I have considered how much God has already done for our family and how blessed we have been by those who have supported us in this adoption journey. What I love about this Both Hands Project is the fact that the focus isn’t just on our family, but a large part of the focus is on serving Ms. Bernice. I am humbled to be able to serve alongside so many wonderful people and to make a small difference in her life. I am praying that she is blessed by our efforts and that she senses God’s love and provision for her.

I’ve been putting together a puzzle I had picked out when we began fundraising. It is a beautiful HDR image of the Taj Mahal. We are putting names of people and families who have supported us on the back of the puzzle pieces.When I ordered that puzzle I read that it was 2,000 pieces, but it wasn’t until I started to put the edges together that I realized just how BIG this puzzle is. It’s so big I didn’t really have a surface to put it on except for our massive, square coffee table. Once I got all the edges pieced together I had a better idea of how big this sucker was, but I still didn’t know how beautiful it really was until I started filling in more of the middle... the hard parts. 

As we have walked this road of adoption over the last year, I have realized there are way bigger things going on with this than just our family growing or helping orphans. These are just small pieces of the puzzle, and just like this puzzle, when we began this adoption we knew it would be life changing but until we started seeing the pieces come together we had no idea how big and how beautiful this process was. I’m finding odd little pieces of this puzzle that I never expected to be there, but they fit so perfectly! God can see the completed puzzle. He knows every piece and he knows who is involved with every piece.

So, as I sit here with tears in my eyes at the beautiful providence of God all around me, let me ask you this: Are YOU a piece of our puzzle? Are YOU a piece of a different puzzle? Has God  been gently or maybe not so gently tugging at your heart about something? Maybe you know deep down that it’s more than just a thought or a hope or a dream... it’s Him and you know it like you know your own name. What’s holding you back from saying “Yes” to following Jesus? Is it selfishness? Pride? Fear? Doubt? Let me encourage you, Christian... saying “Yes” to following Jesus (whatever that may look like in your life) will NEVER be something you regret. It may bring you pain and hardship, but it will also bring you JOY and PEACE and HOPE and LOVE! His puzzle for His bride is always beautiful... maybe not in the way that the world sees beauty, but let me assure you, it is the most beautiful thing you will witness this side of eternity. Say yes! Do that something that you can do in the name of the One who will empower you to do it!

If you happen feel that God is leading you to be a part of our puzzle by supporting us through prayer or giving, then please visit our Both Hands Project Page. Soon we will have a video of our project day to share. Everyone who sponsors our team (in a big way or small way) will get their name on the back of one of our puzzle pieces. I can't wait to have it all put together so I can stare at the back. Ha!

Please feel free to share this blog post or our BH page! (((Hugs)))

Until next time! -K

Moving Forward!

I just wanted to give a quick little update for those of you who are praying for our adoption! As of Friday, we were going over Eden's medical files, praying and discussing if we feel the Lord was leading us to move ahead with our pursuit of Eden. On Sunday, we made the decision to move full force ahead.

Now that we have made that decision our next step is waiting on the authorities to approve the match and send us the official documents. As I mentioned in my last post, this step comes with a bit of anxiety considering this is the step we were stuck at when we lost our last referral.

We know that nothing is official until we sign those papers. We are trying to guard our hearts, but I must admit that this is so hard to do. We are falling in love! We feel that Eden is worth putting our hearts on the line again, though. Love is worth the risk!

Please continue to pray with us! We are still burdened to pray very intently for each step that we come to and for Eden as she waits. My desire is for us to be able to point to God's hand all over this process! We want his name glorified every step of the way.

Some other adopting moms and I have joined together in focusing our prayers for specific things at least 3 days out of the week. We use a couple of routine activities like drinking a drink to remind us to pray throughout the day for for these specific things. You are invited to join us in prayer on these days! Of course you can pray everyday if you feel led but on these days you will know what we are praying for specifically and you can join us if you choose!

Document Mondays- On Mondays, we will pray for God to send the documents we need quickly. For us, this is the official referral documents that we must sign.

Wellness Wednesdays- On Wednesdays, we will pray for God to protect, comfort and heal our children both physically and mentally. Of course, we will pray for Eden's health and wellness on this day. 

Favor Fridays- On Fridays, we will ask God to grant us favor with the authorities influencing our process (government workers, judges, lawyers, directors, etc). We will be praying that our family finds favor with the government workers and that they will approve our case pronto!

LET US PRAY!

On a somewhat related note, we are beginning to plan our Both Hand Project which will be February 1st. Here is a short video of our friend's in Texas who are adopting a little girl from Ind*a and just finished up their Both Hands Project. THIS will be our biggest fundraiser for our adoption and we are so thrilled that it not only helps us bring our daughter home but it blesses a widow in need! Please take a moment to watch this video and if you would like more information on how you can be involved in our Both Hands Project please email me at krisogden@hotmail.com and I will be happy to give you more details!


Parmars' Both Hands Project from Eric Baesel on Vimeo.