Ask

And you shall receive. God has blessed us with the earliest start time for Jack's surgery, we will have to be at the hospital tomorrow at 6am.

He is so good to us. God has taught us so much in the past year about trusting Him, His control, and prayer. In my life there has been no better way for me to grow in my understanding and dependence on God than this adoption process. I know I've said it before but I'll say it again, it is by far the most amazing blessing in my life and any good Jack gained from it, we've gained 10 times more.

Pre-op

Jack is having surgery this Wednesday and I would love your prayers for him. Jack was born with a cleft lip and palate, and this surgery is to repair the palate, along with two other minor proceedures. He will have three different surgeons working on him, and God has already worked out so many issues to get them all lined up on the same day. If you would like to pray with us please pray,

*That the surgery would go well, without any complications and would be successful.
*That Jack would recover well, begin eating and drinking well, so that we can be released from the hospital after two days.
*For patience and peace for Jack during the month to follow as he will have on "no-no" arm bands that keep him from putting his hands in his mouth. That nothing will get into his mouth that will break through the repair, causing it to fail.
*For us and our family, for peace and comfort during the procedure and the recovery.
*That they will switch Jack to a 7am surgery time instead of noon, so that he doesn't have to fast all morning long.

Thank you so much for all your prayers. We praise God for friends and family like y'all and how He is controlling all that has and will occur with Jack's surgery.

Prayers

Religion doesn't interest me much. I'm not interested in my children going through the motions, especially when there is nothing behind them.

It is my fervent pray and goal that they will fall madly in love with our God and will become a bit of a prayer nut :). I want them to grow to be in constant prayer with the Lord and to pray about all things.

I am so flawed it's not funny, but Kyle and I have this guide for praying for your children that we've done a month here and there and God has blessed our children because of those prayers.

Kylynn is growing towards someone who really loves God and is praying for, if not everything, a lot of things, even some things I maybe wouldn't have thought to pray for.

Here are some prayers that caused me to laugh in the past couple of days:

"Pray for Goldilocks, that she not get scared"

"Pray for Miss C...help her and the babies. Pray for babies no get out of Miss C's belly. Pray put babies back in Miss C's belly if they get out. Amen"

The path God takes us down

Before I headed out to San Antonio I had the opportunity to go and hear Ron Hall and Denver Moore, authors of Same Kind of Different as Me, speak.

As I listened to their story again I was consumed by the thought that we serve an Awesome God who, if we are willing to follow will take us down paths like the one he took Ron and Denver down. Scary paths, where only the next step is revealed to us, and the only way we are able to take it is out of faith.

When I look around at this world it is clear that most Christians are missing out on the life God wants to give them. A big, full life. Instead, they have settled for the life they have chosen for themselves, full earthly treasures that soon reveal themselves as junk. When God asks us to walk down a path with Him, we politely say no thank you, that doesn't sound fun, it sounds scary and it might even be painful and, frankly God I'd rather play it safe so I'll say no for now and stay right here.

We have been mislead by the world and are confused by what is the "good life". The comfortable life we seek turns out to be filled with stress and emptiness, accompanied by the nagging thought that this cannot be all there is. We find that there is no joy in this luke warm existence.

Without really meaning to Ron and Denver chose to follow God and were forever changed by one of the paradoxes of our walk. When we obey our Master and follow just because He said so, our deepest joy is found in the pain and our deepest peace is found in the middle of a terrible storm. The thrill of living is finally found and it is better than all the things we've tried and have failed us time and again.

We cannot see the end of the paths God wants to lead us down, we must trust that He knows what He is doing. That He is Lord and we are his followers. We must be willing to act like a fool, building an ark when there are no rain clouds, or we will never experience so much of what God has for us in this life. A full, overflowing, abundant life.

"I have come that they may have life and have it abundance" John 10:10
" I came so they can have real and eternal life, more and better life than they ever dreamed of." John 10:10 (The Message translation)

Good Ol' San Antone

We just home from a fun mini-vacation. I decided to have Jack's birthday party in San Antonio since that is where his entire family is located so it was just easier for us to go to them than it was for them to come to us. Plus I could never fit twenty people in my house. And, since it was my mom's spring break the kids and I stayed the week there, while Kyle went home to work and tile some floors in our house.

We had a great time and it was even fun for me, since I had a few extra hands helping me all day. I got to take the kids to do things I would never attempt on my own, we went to the zoo (and rode the train!), got Kylynn's hair cut, got Kylynn new shoes, and ate at many yummy restaurants.

My dad even watched the kids one night so that us girls could go out on our own to a Spur's game. It was so nice to be out without the kids, and it was only the second time I'd ever left Jack with anyone in three months, so it was a much needed break.

When I was growing up I always envisioned myself living in the same town as my family, so that my kids could grow up with a close relationship with them. How wonderful it is that even though we're in different towns my kids get to spend many hours with them most months and are building that close relationship I dreamed of.

Grandpa holding Jack up (and his stroller!) so that he could see the snakes too.

Aunt Jessie and Kylynn posing
with the very photogenic hippo

Jack looking at the bears

Uncle James and Kylynn looking at the giraffe

They had a petting zoo at the zoo, but it only
contained goats :) Here they are brushing a goat

You're One

Jack we celebrated your first birthday this weekend. You sure are loved, everyone came.



We had traditional Korean food. We had a traditional Korean first birthday, Toljabee ceremony, where you have several items to chose from and what you pick "predicts" your future. You will be a scholar and in your free time a chef.


You got lots of fun gifts and had a cake all for yourself (you didn't like it though) :).

We love you so much Jack and thank God everyday for the gift you are to our lives.

Expert Opinion

For Aunt Mary:



What do you think Mary, does she have any talent?

Belated Thanks

For Aunt Jessie:


Thank you so much for the cute!! clothes you sent the kiddos, they love them. I especially love how Jack looks like a little man in the polos. We all love you!

My little man

The other day I was at the doctor's office for Jack, which I think Jack thinks is our second home. And I saw on the wall that a one year old should get between 900 and 1350 calories a day. I thought to myself there is no way that child gets that many calories, with the constant ear infection his cleft palate causes he just doesn't love eating. So I decided to start tracking how many calories he gets a day and it's usually in the 700s.

So I got some advice and have began fattening up his food to help him get enough calories in the small amounts that he eats each day. So all day I'm calculating his calories and doing fun math in my head, for example if he ate 2/3 of a jar of baby food that has 140 calories he ate how many calories? He's doing better now, getting just to 900 every couple of days.

But now the real fun begins, in order for Jack to have his cleft palate repaired, he needs to be off of the bottle (his main source of calories). This is going to be a difficult goal for Jack and I, but I am confident that God will take care of it as He has with every other detail of Jack's life. But I would very much love your prayers, I'll keep it short:

*Jack would transition fully to a cup by his surgery, in one month
*Jack would get enough calories everyday to grow
*His surgery would go well, without complications, and he would recovery quickly

Thank you for praying for us, I know that the Lord will work through your prayers.