Daniel 10:19

"Don't be afraid" he said "for you are very precious to God. Peace.

Be encouraged!

Be strong!"

As he spoke these words to me I suddenly felt stronger and said to him,

"Please speak to me my lord, for you have strengthened me."

Looking Past The Gloom

Thank you all for praying for Haiti and our kids in the past week. As far as we understand the rioting in Haiti has stopped, but things are still not good for the Haitian people. Please continue to pray for their hunger and political strife.

We heard that an employee of the Orphanage was in route to find our children's family (not by our request, but by the loving heart of Three Angels) and the riots started around him so he couldn't make it. Thankfully he's OK. That just goes to show you though... what awesome dedicated people Three Angels has working for them. We're so thankful that the staff and Gretchen are hanging in there and helping us press on as we wait on the Lord.

I wanted to share an awesome word God shared with us a few days ago. Rob and I were sitting on the porch on Sunday, enjoying a GREAT spring day when we heard a sound we never heard before. We couldn't figure out WHAT the sound was and we were prompted to look straight above our heads into the sky. What we saw were three gloomy crows flying and gliding in a circle almost like vultures would. I have never seen crows do that before, or make such weird noises. It was interesting to watch. As we glanced upwards again we wondered what spurred all the commotion, then, something else caught our eyes. About 20-100 feet above the crows, was a beautiful free soaring hawk. Most likely the crows were scheming up a plan to pick on the hawk.

The word God gave us in that situation was that we need to push past the gloom to see the glory and experience freedom. We could have just focused on the crows (the doom and gloom of life) but focusing on the hawk (unwaveringly victory, freedom and confidence) was much more pleasing!

And isn't that just the way crows and hawks are too!!? Later on we saw one of the crows dive bombing the hawk, but the hawk had such confidence and such good focus on what he was hunting that the dive bombing didn't hardly phase him a bit. When we are truly focused on the Lord, we will be unchanged by the enemies dive bombing.

PLEASE PRAY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

We are in desperate need for your prayers! Although the media seems to revolve around the olympic torch right now, there is other chaos going on. Our God is strong enough to work in this! PLEASE pray for Haiti and pray for our kids who very well may be in the midst of this...

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080408/ap_on_re_la_am_ca/haiti_food_protests

Hope Rising

What an interesting season we're in! No news on the kids yet!!!!!! It's hard to understand God... it's hard when we don't see the big picture. But ... God always blesses us and gives us strength to get through the odd seasons, the in between seasons. His hope always rises.

At this point... I praise God for giving me my horse Blaze. And I praise God for putting Kim Meeder in my life. They are two ways God has caused Hope to Rise in my waiting season. You see one day a few years ago... I wandered into the local Christian bookstore and saw a book called "Hope Rising". It caught my eye because it had my name on it... PLUS a picture of two of my favorite things... a child laying on the bare back of a horse. I thought "OK God... what do you want me to read this for?" Not only is this a book (I love to read) but it has too many coincidences on the front cover... and it was too odd that it was sitting right there when I walked in the door... so I read it... and I was changed. www.crystalpeaksyouthranch.org

I often wondered why I felt called by God to go to college to be a vet and then changed my mind to be a teacher... the two things don't go hand in hand at all if you ask me, was I sensing God all wrong?? That has confused the daylights out of me for years!!!! Once I read Kim's book, I understood. You see, Kim works with children and animals together! She witnesses to Children about God while using horses. Horses!!??? Yes.... my favorite animal, and not in a "mommy I want a pony for my birthday" type pf way.... it's serious... I can barely breath without horses... I'm surprised I lived this long without them!!!

So... I read this book... and I knew God wanted me to do the same thing as Kim. =) Looking around, this seems impossible... we don't have the money... we don't have the land... the list goes on... not to mention we didn't have a HORSE!

My heart is for abused horses by the way. I respect people that get into horses for show and what not.... that takes a lot of work... but me... I could care less if I got on the back of a horse... I just want to love a horse and care for it and give it the confidence it needs to be around people. I want to bless the least of the horses.

Well...one day.... I get a phone call from one of our friends. "My grandpa has this horse..." THE REST WAS HISTORY!!!

Well, as you may already know, I went over to my friends grandpa's house one day to check out his horse... I thought I actually would just go over and help care for his horse... but Mr. Eastman wanted me to buy him... HA! I KNEW that was not going to happen...we don't have the money... and Rob would not be happy with his hunting grounds turning into pastures! But "I'll pray about it" I said. I got into my car after seeing a man about his horse and prayed "God, if this is of you, when I call Rob, let this be totally ok with him" SO I called Rob... "Rob... Mr. Eastman wants me to BUY his horse...." Rob says "Well...what do you think!" "Seriously, I want this horse for sure!" Rob says "Well, ok, if you really think this is what we should do, it's your passion and I support you."

So a few months later after making some room... we brought Blaze home on Memorial Day. That in and of itself was a miracle. You see, Mr. Eastman was a GREAT horse owner... but his neighbors were "abusive" toward Blaze, punching him in the face, shooting beebees at him. Blaze was so afraid of humans that the first time I touched him... his entire body trembled. I didn't even know that horses trembled. But this was my heart... to preserve and help a less fortunate horse. If you want to keep up to date on Blaze... you can go to http://blazespage.blogspot.com

So around Christmas time... Rob and I went to a party at a friend's house. As we were casually sitting down around the table, our friend Brian asked about Blaze. I shared about Blaze's progress and my vision of reaching kids with horses out on our property some day. Brian mentioned HopeWell ranch in Wiedman, Michigan. A ranch that does the exact thing I was talking about.

Well ok it's not...

I went to church the day after the party and sought out one of the board members from HopeWell, we immediately went out to lunch after church. I am committing my summer to this place. I cannot even explain to you, what a miracle this is in my life. During this season of waiting and longing for our kids, God is making another dream come true. The board at the ranch, plus their volunteer staff, have befriended me and Rob so quickly. They treat Rob and I like family. I cannot wait to see what this summer brings! I will keep you all posted with the miracles God will be doing in the life of children out at the Ranch this summer. I am honored to be part of it!

I encourage you all (whether you're a horse lover or not) to purchase the book "Hope Rising" by Kim Meeder. You will be tremendously blessed... and you may never look at horses the same again! Please read it and let me know what you think!!!!!!