Magnolia Heart

Uncovering Beauty, Embracing Brokenness, Discovering Joy.

Adoption

Standing in the Gap

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Family Update: Part One

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You are my hiding place; you will protect me from trouble and surround me with songs of deliverance.”
‭‭Psalm‬ ‭32:7‬ ‭NIV‬‬

We have been in the waiting process for over eight months now. Bulgaria’s average wait time from registration to referral (matching a child with a family) is fourteen months. This time frame is based on the medium wait time for all Bulgarian adoption’s that our adoption agency has completed since 2011. Fourteen months puts us at March 13, 2016. Less than six months from today. In less time than a full term pregnancy, we may finally have the honor of holding our daughter for the first time. To finally have her near to us. To take in her sweet, beautiful face. To feel the cadence of her breathe, her heart beat. Robert and I long for this moment.

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Hope on the Horizon

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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

God first planted the desire to adopt in my heart nearly fourteen years ago in a small village orphanage in Ukraine. I spent only a few hours of a ten day mission trip there. Even so, during this brief encounter, my heart broke and I was left forever changed.
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Abide in Me

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“I am the true vine, and My Father is the vinedresser. Every branch in Me that does not bear fruit He takes away; and every branch that bears fruit He prunes, that it may bear more fruit. You are already clean because of the word which I have spoken to you. Abide in Me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself, unless it abides in the vine, neither can you, unless you abide in Me. John‬ ‭15‬:‭1-4‬

During this season of waiting God is at work. This work is slow but steady and not so easy to see. He is working from the inside out. More on the internal than anything external.

He is pruning, cutting away the dead, unhealthy ideas and patterns rooted deep in my heart. He is revealing areas in my life, in our family life, that need to be removed in order to make room for new growth and abundant life. He continues to cultivate and bring clarity to who He created me to be. Instructing my heart to lean into Him more and live fully into the gifts and strengths He has given me.
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Heart Connections

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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

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Robert and I have been praying that God would begin to create heart connections for each of our children with their soon to be sister. Ways to help them in deeply connecting with and fully accepting her as their own.

Since praying this prayer we have begun to see God at work in each of our children’s hearts in remarkable ways. In our home we refer to her as simply, “sister”. She has no face or name as of yet although she holds a very tender, sweet place in our family.
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Beauty Rising

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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

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