One Month Waiting

As of today, we have officially been "Waiting" for the referral of our child for one month. We were told that the referral process would likely take 3-4 months so we're still on schedule.

Bad News:
There were NO referrals during the month of February. That means that none of the "waiting families" from our adoption agency were matched with their child during February. I don't know what the bottleneck is. Could be the Ethiopian government, changes in the US Embassy in Ethiopia, the blizzards in the DC area (where our adoption agency is located). I'm not sure. There were 17 referrals during the month of January and 0 in February. Strange.

Good News:
One of the families from our adoption agency keeps an unofficial list of all the waiting families and the order in which we will receive the referrals. It's unofficial because not all of the families have "checked in" with the chat group, so there are some mystery families out there. But according to her list, the Wood family is 2nd in line waiting for a toddler boy! We are also on the list for infant boys since we requested a boy 0-30 months. We are number 10 on that list, so it's much more likely that we will get a toddler.

I was so excited to find out that we are #2 (or somewhere around there)!  That means that if our adoption agency receives a handful or referrals, we could very well get matched with our son any day! We just need to pray that some referrals start coming down the pike. Actually, through this chat group that our agency provides, several of the families are joining together to fast and pray one day week for the referrals to pick back up. Believe me, there is no shortage of orphans in Ethiopia! We just need to get the System moving so those orphans can be matched with their Forever Families!

Leaving on a Jet Plane

This is unheard of...I have never left Caedmon overnight twice within a two week time period. Maybe that means I don't get out much or maybe it's just representative of the fact that we don't have any family living within 3,000 miles of us. But nevertheless, I am leaving (AGAIN) on a jet plane and I would be lying to say I'm not excited!

Two weeks ago our staff went to C3 at Fellowship Church in Dallas, Texas. Today my friend/fellow SB pastor's wife, Kendall, and I are flying to Corpus Christi, TX for the Glo Conference at Bay Area Fellowship. The past few months, Andy has been in a coaching network with Bil Cornelius who is the pastor of Bay Area Fellowship. Their church is hosting a women's conference and Bil's wife, Jessica, has invited all of the wives from the coaching network to come.

My husband is THE BEST for working it out for Kendall and me to be able to go to it. I'm really looking forward to hearing Christine Caine as she teaches and getting to meet a lot of other pastor's wives. One really cool benefit to being apart of the coaching network is that we will get to have a "Round Table" discussion with Christine Caine and Jessica Cornelius. I cannot wait to learn all I can from those two incredible women of God. 

So, just in case you missed this line in the previous paragraph: My husband is THE BEST. Thank you, thank you, thank you, Andy! Look forward to sharing my insights with all of you out there in blog-world!

Handling Hopelessness

(These are my reflections on Jentezen Franklin's talk at C3.)

In ancient culture tearing one's clothes symbolized deep grief, overwhelming circumstances, and utter despair. There are many instances in the Bible where people tore their clothes as they faced horrific trials that seemingly could never be reversed or fixed. As some point, I suppose, every human faces suffocating pain from which there appears to be no relief. Though it's uncommon for us to respond by tearing our clothes, we would all be familiar with the desire to crawl in bed and never come out.

But in Leviticus 21:10 the Bible says somthing that seems strange, almost unreasonable and heartless. God instructs the High Priest to never tear his clothes. Not when he faces sickness, not when his child dies, no matter what. How is that possible? Should he just be expected to pretend that all is fine and paste a smile on his face when he has fresh, gaping wounds in his heart? Why is it okay for others to tear their clothes but for the High Priest it is forbidden?

One subtle but significance difference. Once a year, the High Priest had access to the Holy of Holies. He had access to the presence of God. He lived with the annointing of God on his life. He had an intimacy with God to which the other people did not have access.

For the High Priest to tear his clothes would imply that his problems were greater than his God.

The same is true for believers today. The Bible tells us that WE are a royal priesthood, a holy nation. Through Jesus, we have access to the "Holy of Holies", not just once a year but at any moment we call upon Him. So we don't grieve like those without hope. We don't face insurmountable odds like those without faith. We don't endure trials like those without Jesus.

In this life we will face grief and pain and despair. But we face it differently because we know: There is no problem in our lives that is greater than our God!

Chocolate Chip Biscotti

My friend, Marissa, makes biscotti like it is going out of style and it is seriously the best biscotti you've ever tasted. One reason it's so good it because she doesn't overcook it until it's so dry that you choke on it. I needed something sweet tonight, so I attempted to whip some up. While I don't think I got the cooking time quite right, I am making myself sick eating too much of it as I type this. So, I thought I'd share this yummy recipe with you so you can go make yourself sick on it, too!

Chocolate Chip Biscotti (by Marissa Lockett)

1 cup sugar
6 tablespoons butter (room temp)
2 eggs
1 tsp baking powder
2.5 cups flour
as much chocolate chips as you want (I add 1 cup semi-sweet)

Preheat oven to 400. Cream sugar and butter. Blend in eggs until light and fluffy. Blend in baking powder. Then add flour. Fold in chocolate chips.

Form into a loaf and bake until golden brown. (I don't know the exact length of time, but more than 30 minutes.) Place the baking sheet on a lower shelf in the oven so that the top doesn't brown too quickly. Slice while warm.

Sunday Rewind: ONE YEAR ANNIVERSARY!!!

Wow. If you missed South Bay yesterday, you missed out! There is not way this recap could ever do justice to how amazing those services were. There were all kinds of special elements to the service. For example:

1- The guys who parked cars wore birthday hats (kinda cheesy, I know. But it made everyone realize from the time they drove into the parking lot that it was a special day.)

2- The stage was decorated with cardboard boxes representing each month of South Bay's history. On each box was written a number representing the number of people who made first time decisions to follow Christ that month.

3- The staff (mainly Archie) put together this awesome year-in-review video that really captures the whole story of South Bay.

Year in Review from South Bay Church on Vimeo.

4- Andy preached an incredible sermon about the significance of one life. He reminded our church of God's passion for the one lost soul and that we as individuals and as a church need to be about reaching that one person. Andy said, "When we lose our passion for the individual life, we lose touch with the heart of God."

5- We ended the service with "Cardboard Testimonies". Not sure if you've ever seen this done, but there was not a dry eye in the room. It is such a powerful display of God's grace in each individual's life. It was truly a moving and powerful worship experience. I hope to post our video of this soon. It's not available yet.

We praise God for all that He has done in our midst over this past year and we look forward with great expectations for all that He will do in the coming year. The best is yet to come!!!