Adley (our 7 year old) LOVES VeggieTales.  Fortunately for us (and our finances), our church has an amazing video library choc-full of them!!  Each Sunday we go to the library and Adley gets to check out up to 5 DVDs to bring home for the week.  If we forget or don't make it down there on time...well, let's just say hell hath no fury like a 7 yr. old deprived of his VeggieTales.  The lady at the library and Adley have become very attached to one another, so she knows if she sees us in church, but we don't make it right down to the library after SS, she holds it open for us so we can all have a happy day.  When there's a new VeggieTale that comes out, she is sure to point it out or has even been known to put it on "reserve" for her special little friend, Adley.  This week, she pointed out the new VT "Robin Good" to Adley and he quite willingly added it to his stack for the week.  It doesn't take long for him to memorize them and/or to pick up on a phrase and then pepper us with the phrase about, um, I don't know...7,000 times a day.

So, the phrase for this week has been "Watch out for the giants!"  He has told just about everyone he's come in contact with the past 2 days to beware those pesky giants.  And, they all have promised that they will be keeping watch.  As I made my promise last night to "watch out for the giants!" after re-tucking him into bed, I pondered the "giants" in my life.  I thought about them some more on my run this morning.  I came up with quite a list of "giants" that I need to be watching out for, lest they smash me like a bug:

    *  The control giant
    *  The angry giant
    *  The bad attitude giant
    *  The big ugly negative giant
    *  The giant 13 year old   (hee!)
    *  The giant of over-commitment
    *  The make-it-all-look-really-good giant
    *  The I can do it all by myself giant
    *  The giant of fear
    *  The peer pressure giant
    *  The this-adoption-is-too-big giant
...and the list goes on and on...

So, I'm making a commitment to both Adley and myself that I am definitely going to be watching out for these (and other!) giants that may loom "dangerous" in my life.  I know that MY GOD is MUCH bigger than any of those giants who might happen to try to trounce me and will fight them boldly with the armor of God!  (and it might not hurt to watch the VT to see how Robin Good handled them!)

^{Ephesians 6:10 - 18
10} Finally, be strong in the Lord and in his mighty power. ¹¹ Put on the full armor of God, so that you can take your stand against the devil’s schemes. ¹² For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms. ¹³ Therefore put on the full armor of God, so that when the day of evil comes, you may be able to stand your ground, and after you have done everything, to stand. ¹⁴ Stand firm then, with the belt of truth buckled around your waist, with the breastplate of righteousness in place, ¹⁵ and with your feet fitted with the readiness that comes from the gospel of peace. ¹⁶ In addition to all this, take up the shield of faith, with which you can extinguish all the flaming arrows of the evil one. ¹⁷ Take the helmet of salvation and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God.  ¹⁸ And pray in the Spirit on all occasions with all kinds of prayers and requests. With this in mind, be alert and always keep on praying for all the Lord’s people.

Today I went to Shane's office after workout -- directly after workout!!  I stank.  (Miriam Webster says that this is, indeed, a word!)  I went there stinky because our documents were due back by 10am from being apostilled in Austin!!  This was the final step before being able to mail them.  When a document is apostilled, the notary who signed the document is verified by the Apostill-er and then a sheet of paper saying so is stapled to the front of the document.  SO, I spent the morning CAREFULLY removing staples and copying, then re-stapling, each of the documents and their apostille so that we could have copies of them before we sent them to EE for translation and for our team to petition the courts on our behalf to make this thing official!!  Then we carefully organized them in the correct order and they are FedExing as I type to get the show on the road!!

My heart is about to BUST out of my chest with a roller coaster of emotions!  I am thrilled, anxious, excited, confident, concerned, elated, heart-broken, anticipatory...and the list goes on.  There are so MANY unknowns -- to us but God knows them all already!  The way that this whole crazy ride has come together so miraculously just reassures me that we are doing the EXACT right thing at the EXACT right time.  Why He didn't choose to bring "Yuri" into our lives 14+ years ago or any other time, but chose to do it now, I have NO idea.  Why it's "Yuri" and not another child, I have NO idea.  When this will all transpire, I have NO idea.  Why "Yuri" has had to spend his entire life without parents, I have NO idea...but what keeps getting reinforced is that GOD has laid it out and knows even the minutest of details and is going to make sure that they all happen EXACTLY when they're supposed to.  So, we rest and trust.  And we trust not in ourselves or any other human, but in the Creator of the universe.

One of the devotional books I have, had another "word" that spoke directly to my heart last night.  It was about resting in the Lord.  It talked about how when you're in the will of the Father, you can rest.  When Jesus slept in the middle of the storm when he was on the boat with the disciples on the Sea of Galilee, it was because "He knew without a doubt that they were not going to sink.  The disciples who were with Him were afraid because they didn't yet understand that the God who created the very water their boat sailed in was in the boat with them."  When we know Who is in control, we are able to rest.  I LOVE that. 

And so...we rest.

Not a whole lot to post today except that we know that our papers made it to Austin and the mission was accomplished there and they are headed back to us tomorrow morning!!  We then have to send some other paperwork to CA and OK for those to be apostilled there...this is what you get for moving around a lot -- a messy paper trail!!  (that's me, not Shane, btw)

We will send our papers and our $ tomorrow over to EE to get the ball rolling there.  We got an email from one of our team this morning that I started reading to Shane while he was in the shower.  It was titled something like "now that you're almost done with the paperwork..." and had some descriptions of what will follow.  I was reading and one of the first things was "Step 1" with some bullet points to follow.  I thought the first sentence was Step 1 and the second bullet point was actually Step 2 and so on.  So I read through the first about 12 bullet points under Step 1 and discovered that Step 2 FOLLOWED the 12 bullets!!!  That was ALL Step 1!!!!!  I gave up reading any more (which was a good idea b/c Steps 2 - 8 followed -- each with an equal or greater number of bullets under them!!).  We each read that email later -- independently of one another and were nearly paralyzed/nauseated at all that is still to be done -- and it must all be done exactly to specifications!!

So, all that to say, we have a LONG way to go...the paperwork may actually just be the FIRST trimester of the pregnancy!!!  It's going to be quite a journey, but the anticipation of what the Lord has called us to just makes me nearly giddy!!  That He would lay "Yuri" on both of our hearts and so completely change Shane's heart toward US adopting (he's TOTALLY pro-adoption -- he does it almost every day as part of his law practice!!!  He handled over 70 adoptions last year!  He's just always thought that we would help OTHER people with THEIR adoptions!!) all in about 3 minutes one day a little over a month ago, is just beyond me. That He would work to put people in place to help expedite the mountain of paperwork that has been done in the past 3 weeks is unfathomable.  What plans he must have for this child of His that He has so graciously spared for the past 15 years until his family can find him!!!  I just know that with God, the possibilities for "Yuri" once he gets home are endless and I can't wait to show them to him.  And with God, the sphere of influence "Yuri" might have on others and their families is LIMITLESS.  And with God, THIS is all entirely doable and possible.  Apart from Him, we're going to fall flat on our faces...but nestled in His strong, capable, comforting, way-preparing arms, we are safe on this journey -- ALL of us.

I hope you go to bed tonight knowing how much you are loved by Jesus.  If you don't know Him...please find someone who can help you meet Him and ask them to introduce you.  Start with me if you don't know who else to ask!!  Goodnight!

This is the second trimester of our "paper pregnancy"!!  I have actually LOST weight this time, but I think I'm just as sweaty as I was the first 3 times around!!!  This is what it looked like today as we were compiling paperwork...each of these stacks had anywhere from 1 - 5 copies underneath the top one.  We were glad to get it sent out the door for apostilling!!! (more hoops to jump through for our EE friends!!)