Open Arms

Open Arms
...caring for orphans and adoptive families...

Thursday, April 23, 2009

The Promises of God

Never forget that our capacity and capability in spiritual matters is measured by, and based on, the promises of God. Is God able to fulfill His promises? Our answer depends on whether or not we have received the Holy Spirit. O. Chambers

As I read these words a few days ago, I began to consider…..
What has He promised?
Well, He told us that the children are ours; that we are to go and get them. He told us that he would provide the money to do this very thing. Most of all He has promised to never leave us. It can be so hard sometimes to remember His promises spoken to our heart in the quiet of the night,when the daylight is blaring in our eyes and the amount in the checkbook is not what is needed. However this is where we are and either we believe or we doubt.

Hebrews 11: 1, 3
Now faith is being sure of what we hope for and certain of what we do not see. …By faith we understand that the universe was formed at God's command, so that what is seen was not made out of what was visible.

He alone sustains us. We are so arrogant to think that we can do this or do that...nope it's all about Him...and right now we choose to believe! Please pray with us as we continue the wait for the paperwork to be processed and for the funds to arrive!

We've been doing some additional research on the area where we will be traveling, thinking maybe there is more for us to accomplish while we are there. We've also been trying to catch up with some translators that we met when we traveled to Moscow in the 90's. We have a few leads and are praying the Lord will show us what to act on. It's a busy time of year anyway with graduations and weddings. We just want to stay focused on the task at hand.
Thanks for checking in on us.
Blessings,
Carol and Steve

Sunday, April 19, 2009

ИИСУС ВОСЌРЕС ВОИСТИНУ ВОСКРЕС

JESUS IS RISEN! HE TRULY HAS RISEN!

We celebrated Easter last week, but in Ukraine it was celebrated today. They celebrate Orthodox Easter! We learned this Easter greeting in last week's language class.

We look forward to a letter from the children. Hopefully we will hear from them this week. We received some more great artwork from Galia last week. She is quite the artist. Yes, I know we are already very proud parents.



We spent this weekend in NC taking care of Samuel and Josiah (our 3 year old and 1 year old grandsons) while Rebekah and Tim attended a conference in Greensboro. Even so, we actually had a little time on Saturday while they napped, to study our Russian lessons. For that we were thankful! We also found a great park to enjoy with them also.

Our Russian language study is progressing. We are actually beginning to see concrete improvement. Please pray as we continue to study. We also need prayer for the final immigration form to arrive so we can complete our dossier and of course finances.

Most of all, we really appreciate your prayers.

Have a great week.

Steve & Carol