It Is Finished!

Well, I never intended to leave that last post lingering out there so long. I haven't disappeared. I'm just spread a little thinner than usual these days, if that's possible. Before I get back to work, though, I wanted to share here what the Lord is doing at the amazing fellowship where our family worships with truly some of the most amazing people I've ever met, or not met, as is sometimes the case in a plus-size church. (I never liked the term "megachurch".)

It is my pleasure to tell you once again that we were once lost, sinners separated from our loving Creator, who out of love for us and desiring to demonstrate His own Glory sent His one perfect son to be an ultimate sacrifice to die in our place and pay the penalty we would never be able to pay fully, that we might be reconciled to Him. Believe it, and partake of the eternal banquet. The work is done; it is finished!

Watch this recap of what the Lord has done here in our city, as accompanied by the ridiculously talented Matt Papa, who leads worship for our newest worship venue. Love this video; it pumps me up. Oh, and I got to be a baptism counselor. I was so excited, I literally jumped and dropped the diaper bag when I was asked. I managed to not cry all over the darling girl who was professing to me her love and devotion to Jesus. Precious!

Summit Church Easter Experience from The Summit Church on Vimeo.

The Starting Blocks, and 7335 miles to go...

I've composed this first post in my head too many times to count, so I hope for your patience with my posts as I try to explain something bigger than we can wrap our minds around.  The purpose of this blog is for Curt and me to share the hope that we have within us and bring glory to our Father and Creator, who adopted us and gave us an inheritance beyond compare.  We want to share about our family's heart for adoption, why we chose to adopt, and how you can be a part of it.  If you are also adopting, we want to encourage you.  If you think we're crazy, we want to tell you why.  And if you want to join us in caring for orphans, we want to tell you how.

We are so grateful for the encouragement and prayers we have received so far.  We are in the very early stages of our adoption and are excited to share the ups and downs and God's certain faithfulness throughout.

Adoption can be expensive.  In this marathon, we have to raise funds.  We are starting out by selling the T-shirts in the sidebar.  Since we anticipate an international adoption from Africa, we designed this shirt with that in mind.  We want to be a picture of the gospel in this process, and the shirt is a part of that.  Please let me know if you have questions about ordering or anything else here.  And if you're local and can pay me directly, I'd be happy to deliver your shirt with a smile!  :)  The shirts are $20 each (feel free to give more!) with 100% of the proceeds going directly to our adoption fees and expenses (we've already seen the generosity of the body of Christ at work in amazing ways)!

To our friends we didn't get to tell personally, I apologize.  This ball rolled faster than I thought it would, and here we are.  One final note of gratitude to Stacey Simeone for her selfless work on our T-shirt and this blog.  Without her, we would not be at this point.  I'm truly grateful for her loving my family and that she is my sister in Christ.

Edited to add this pic of our shirt: