Can you believe that June is already gone?! We had a wonderful, wonderful time at Bonclarken in the North Carolina mountains worshipping God with middle and high school youth from our denomination. My boys saw and enjoyed time with their "Bonclarken friends" - folks that we get to see only once or twice a year. Despite the infrequency of these visits, these sweet little people have become lifelong friends that I know my boys will always cherish. They also spent time enjoying their passions of fishing, swimming in the pool and running. Here are a few of my favorite pictures from our time in one of the most special places on earth!
John was so proud of this fish that he caught and I was so proud of his "stick to it-ness!" The boy spent hours waiting and trying, all with a good attitude (most of the time). He is truly his Grandpa's grandson with his love of catching fish…and telling the story.
Joseph has found a new passion - running! As my middle child, I struggle to make sure he gets the one on one time that he desperately needs. His love language is most definitely quality time and I am so excited to find an area of life that we can share! He ran both Color Runs (there was one for each of the weeks of camp) and another morning joined me on my run just for fun. This week we're going to start Couch to 5K to make it a bit easier on him and hopefully build him up to running 3 miles straight!
"Enter His gates with thanksgiving and his courts with praise; give thanks to Him and praise His name. For the Lord is good; His lovingkindness is everlasting and His faithfulness to all generations!"
Psalm 100: 4 - 5
While at Bonclarken, we received word from our adoption agency that our dossier documents had been authenticated and submitted to the Minister of Justice. The MOJ has one month to review the documents and let us know whether or not they accept our request to adopt from Bulgaria. If all is complete and they accept, we will be officially "registered" with the MOJ and will wait for the next (and very exciting!!) step of the adoption process - a REFERRAL! Please pray with us that God would lead us to exactly the child that He has for our family!
While we wait, I want to advocate for a program that several families recently started through Reece's Rainbow. It's called 5/5/5 for Families and is a brilliant idea! The thought is that not everyone has a lot of extra money each month to donate to adoption, but when many people give a little, a big difference can be made! This group is asking for people to give $5 on the 5th of each month to help 5 families bring home their children. The families will be chosen from 5 different countries each month and will be bringing home children with special needs. Could you give up one coffee from Starbucks each month? Think of what a difference it would make to the orphans of the world! You can follow the group on Facebook by clicking on this link or you can set up a recurring payment so that you don't even have to think about it by clicking here. In this way, helping the orphan can be easy and painless. Andrew and I have already done it - will you follow?
