UPDATE

Well, our situation seems to always be changing :) Originally we were supposed to leave in February, then May, and now Joe is leaving in July. The girls and I are going to wait until our apartment is done being built sometime in the October time frame. Welcome to Liberian time. Things happen when they happen. No rush. Rarely a plan. Drives me crazy sometimes! But then I have to sit back and realize that yes, the Lord is in control and everything is beautiful in its time Eccl. 3:11. A quote from one of our Liberian friends:

"You Americans have too many watches and never enough time. Me, I have no watch and plenty of time!"

The Acres of Hope website has been updated recently. There is a picture of our apartment being built! Yeah! If you want to see the things we will be involved in (http://www.acresofhope.org/) and click on projects.

Thank you all for your emotional and financial support. We couldn't be doing this without you! The Lord has used you tremendously for our encouragement. Please pray for the following:

--Safe travel for Joe
--Funding/Fundraising
--Health

May He continually be our everything!

Well, our Lipo for Liberia fundraiser is officially over, the drawing was held last week......about 115 tickets sold. I know, I know, most people don't understand the connection of liposuction and Liberia. There isn't one--it was simply a fundraiser idea--and kind of an ironic one at that :) However, I was so fortunate to meet alot of people coming through our office that had such a compassionate heart for those in Africa who live in such desperate need. It's funny sometimes the avenues the Lord takes us on to meet the people we are suppose to meet.....this week Joe speaks at a church and I am beginning to plan a community garage sale--pray that our labor to raise money would be fruitful so we can return to the people that we miss so much......

Chloe was on the news with the doctor she works for promoting a fundraiser. Here is the link to watch the video. http://www.news9.com/global/video/flash/popupplayer.asp?vt1=v&clipFormat=flv&clipId1=2374617&at1=Station&rnd=32012546

You can get a ticket at http://www.firstglancespa.com/

This is a video that was made with Chloe and Dr. Gregory---

Emma Singing

I talked to one of our teachers yesterday about the Literacy program. She assured me that everything was going just fine. I last saw the students in November. It's amazing to see these people so excited about their education and learning about the Lord. Many of these students could not hold a pencil a few months ago and now all of them can write their names and read some.


Emma at Rainbow Town!

I am so ready to get back to Liberia. After talking to Helen (our teacher) I got so excited about returning. She said, "we praying for youooooooo!" I am so thankful that we have had this time here in Oklahoma. We have seen God use us here and know that our extended stay was for His glory and purpose!

Alone in Africa

Its 12:27AM and I don't want to crawl into a lonely bed so I thought that I would start a blog. Chloe and the girls are in Norman right now and I am in Monrovia (rovia, as Emma calls it). Not a lot going on other than finals. I started going to Global University this semester and started finals today. That is my plan for the week. I will spend the mornings at school and the afternoons at the orphanage. I'm going to Gbarnga this Friday to see Joshua and talk to all the people at the orphanage there and pay our teachers at the literacy school.

It is so hard to be here without my family. We are starting to work with an organization called Acres of Hope so Chloe and the girls went home to start fundraising. Shine has been supporting us for the past six months, but that ends at the end of this month. We will have to raise our support now and it seems like such a big task. I keep reminding myself that this is God's work and he can afford it. I really am expecting to see the Lords faithfulness in the coming weeks. I'm excited to watch Him provide for us like He always has.

We are excited to start working for AOH. I will be supervising two orphanages (One for babies and one for the bigger kids). I will also be teaching them and I'm sure playing lots of soccer. It will be a lot of fun. One thing that will be hard about working for AOH is to see all the families adopting their kids. Every single one so far I think about Joshua and wish that it was his turn. I will see him on Friday but I'm not really looking forward to it. The last time I saw him was two weeks ago and he had a fungus on his head and was asking to come with me. He knows we love him so much, but I'm sure he is so confused.

I met Joshua a year and a half ago. The moment I saw him I knew that he was my son and we started to prepare to adopt him. We moved to Gbarnga, Liberia six months ago to work at the orphanage where he lives but for many reasons that did not work out. Now the orphanage says that we cannot adopt him, but we know the Lord has told us he is ours. We will wait for the Lords time for this. Maybe this is how the Lord will get us to stay here longer than we planed. Who knows? We do know that He is perfect and all of His ways are wise.

I hope that in the coming months I will get to write a blog about him coming home.