the prayer list

i'm overwhelmed with thankfulness for you, the precious friends and family who have sent us notes and messages letting us know that you're praying for us and asking how you can continue to be praying from this point on.  there are some very specific things we're putting before the lord for this next week, and we would be honored to have you join with us in these:

• please pray for an overwhelming peace to cover our children's hearts while we're gone.  the longest they've ever been away from us was for a single night, and even then, we were in the same city. 
• pray for safe travels for us to and from ethiopia (via germany) as well as for our families that will be driving our little people around in birmingham.  as we understand all too well, highway 280 can be a dangerous place!
• speaking of the family that will be with our kids, josh's mom is driving over from atlanta in the morning for us to leave.  she'll be at our house with the kids until saturday at which point she and my sister, bethany, will hand the kids off for them to go stay at bethany's house in childersburg.  here's the kicker...bethany has 1, 2, and 4-year-olds of her own so she's going to have an enormous handful.  whereas i tend to be high-strung, bethany is as easy-going as they come so i'm sure they'll be just fine.  but please pray for grandpam and bethany as they're adjusting to caring for three extra little people.
• we'll arrive in ethiopia late wednesday night and thursday morning is when we expect to meet micah for the first time.  i'm practically bursting at the seams with excitement over that moment!  please pray that he's well, we're well, and that we're able to spend some sweet, intimate time with our baby boy.
• on saturday, compassion international has arranged for us to spend the day visiting the child survival program that we partnered with them for after judah died.  while we're incredibly excited about it, i'm a bit anxious as well.  this will be about the time that we're hoping to visit the cemetery where judah is buried, and everything about those two wrapped up together enters a very tender part of my heart.  please pray that god will hold us close but that he will use that time to further open our eyes to the dire need for effective poverty and orphan ministry in countless places around the world.
• please, please be in prayer for us as we appear in court on monday morning, february 7 (which will be the middle of the night-ish on sunday here in the states).  a favorable ruling means that MICAH IS OURS!  we've heard from our agency that cases have about a 50/50 pass rate, and not passing court can be due to anything from a missing signature to the judge's desire for more paperwork.  
• but above all (and in place of everything above, if needed), we are praying that god will continue to write this story in a way that only he receives great glory.  we're not exactly the poster family for an easy or smooth adoption process, but i know this:  over these past 27 months, we have come to know the lord more intimately, we have felt his presence more strongly, and we have learned far more than we thought we could about his love and his grace.  i truly believe that it's all worth it.

for some reason, i thought that rather than write it down, it was a good idea to keep the running prayer list tucked away in my brain.  well, between the 872 other to-do's in there and the cerebral frying pan  known as "the flu", i feel like i've forgotten so much of the things i wanted to mention.  but for now, please pray with us for the situations above, and if the lord impresses something on your heart, please be in prayer for that (and pass in along too!)

much, much love to you all, and we hope to see you soon (as a family of six!)