Mercy Girl is Coming Home............

Hey Friends and Family-

We have received the most wonderful news that we are going to be free to fly and go get our girl in the next few weeks. With that I so desperately wanted to sit down and say hello and begin to tell about 200 God stories in one short post if humanly possible. I know once we begin to travel and come home to what I have been jokingly calling “the commotion” (which may be my new nick name for Cross and Mercy girl) it could be a while before I post, at least with any depth. I promise to post pictures and such as soon as possible but for now know that we are beyond honored and humbled to share this journey with you. You have made it so exciting and God has used so many of you in a million ways to push us along even when we couldn’t believe it was all really going to happen for ourselves. So………let’s get to praisin!

PAID IN FULL………That’s where we will begin. I don’t care what you are talking about, “paid in full” just has a nice ring to it. But when it is in regards to an adoption, it is a MIRACLE. I really don’t even know where to begin with this God story but basically, in a nut shell, we owed the agency $7,000 and we were utterly exhausted of fundraising. Even though we had come so far, that last mountain just seemed way too big to climb. Then my man got a phone call from some our dearest friends on earth, and with that…………PAID IN FULL!!!!!!! It brought us to our knees, to tears, and to total speechlessness. HE DID IT! He answered our prayer! He has done exceedingly, abundantly, more than all we could have asked, thought, or imagined. We are still having one last local fundraiser at an awesome place called Swirls Art Studio to raise the final funds for her readoption here in the states https://swirlzart.com/classes/hold/paisley-cross-0312/index.php but there are still no words to say how we feel knowing that God has used HIS PEOPLE to pay for our girl's way home! We are humbled and we thank you all, whether you bought one set of beads or a t-shirt, a plane ticket, or if you gave a gigantic chunk of change, you have paved the way for an orphan to have a chance at life!

Once we get home………That is probably our greatest area of unknowns so I guess basically we are asking for lots of grace and lots of prayers. Our first goal is to try to stay pretty low key and withdrawn for the first two weeks. We are dealing with a very delicate situation because we are adopting a toddler and we know our daughter does something called “mommy shop”. This means that her precious heart will cling to anyone that will put her on their hip and we know there will be a very large line of people that would hip her with the blink of an eye. With that we are asking that once we do reemerge from hiding that people love her, hug her, but that they try to not meet any of her needs and not pick her up, even when her precious arms are open and her big brown eyes melt your heart into an oblivion. This will have to apply even to our closest family members as well so know it is breaking our hearts to even ask. Jeremy and I are going to attempt to be her sole need meeters, at least for the first 6 months or so, or until we see some great progress or have to make some changes to keep sanity. We really pray that if we sow this time into her that she will know that she knows that mommy and daddy aren’t going anywhere and that she can rest assured that her needs will from now on be met. Thank you ahead of time for your understanding and your grace for when we say one thing but end up doing another. We are going to take it one simple day and one simple week at a time. We have no expectations. We are just going to try to pray through this, seek God’s wisdom, and fall forward because we know at times we are certainly going to fall.

Airport Party…Once we get an exact date for travel we are planning on having a “welcoming party” at the airport. Please email me if you would like to get on this detail list for sure. We are praying that this will not traumatize our sweet girl and we are saying ahead of time that we will have been flying for two solid days by that point so we may look and act like we have been hit by a train so please give us lots of grace in that as well. Maybe don’t “rush us” or chant Mercy-Mercy as we walk down the terminal. (That’s what I would do if I were in your shoes.) Also, hugs and holding will certainly be welcomed there as she meets her new family and friends but please give her lots of grace if she “shuns you”. That will actually be a good sign for attachment but maybe a sad moment for those of you who have prayed that baby girl all the way home.

And finally……..Jesus! There are not enough words for me to tell you about the grace Jesus has given us over this past month but specifically over this past week. Sometimes He calls you to hard stuff, way out of your comfort zone, and way out of your experienced realm of faith. But with those callings, He give you a WHOLE lot-a grace and a WHOLE lot of His presence, like to the point where it is t-totally worth it. I have never “felt” God like I have this week. I have never had Him answer SO many prayers, even sometimes before I knew to pray them. I have never seen His hand in EACH AND EVERY detail like I have this week/month and finally I have never ever been so madly in love with my Savior as I am this day. Three years of a wilderness will certainly make you know the taste of living water when it comes rushing in and I have tasted and seen that the Lord is good. He was working through those years, molding two crazy, prideful, naive, Christians, in an attempt to get them to look more like Christ. I have no idea if we really do look more like Him, but what I do know is that He is faithful, trustworthy and working, even when it appears He has left the building. So follow Him gang, follow Him radically until the day you cross over into eternity. He is beyond worthy!!! We love you all!

J, K, C and soon to be in person, M