Merry Christmas!!!!!2011

Thankful that our savior was born this Christmas Season so long ago.

The first pictures we ever saw of you...........

All I want for Chirstmas is.....................Joyce to come home

Less than 1 week and we meet Joyce!!!!

I am so excited to meet our Joyce next Tuesday!!!I am always so nervous before a big trip..It is getting easier to remember the large packing list and the good news is I can wear my Indian clothes in Ghana so I don't have buy anything.   When meeting an older child who has our pictures I always wonder will she think do we look like our pictures, are we what she has been praying for?????It is hard to imagine that we will get to see the little girl in the picture in person.  The good news is she is used to eating Indian food, that I am familiar with.  I will be able to relate to her Sister caregivers.  Only God could place our child in Ghana in a convent run by women from India.  So chances are Joyce probably knows more things culturally about India than she does about Ghana.  We will be able to cook Indian dishes for her to remember her home with the Sisters.  We have a couple of Indian restaurants in our area and they should taste very familiar to her.  God reminds me not to forget about India and her people even when I am taking a trip to Ghana, Africa.

We are going to Ghana!!!

At my favorite time of year the holiday we are so lucky to being going to Ghana in less than two weeks!!!!!We have wanted to adopt from Ghana since 2007.  We had a little girl picked out and she was reunited with extended family so we put these plans on hold.  In 2007 we started on Elijah's adoption in May and then started on Sneha's in September.  Since Sneha had multiple special needs I was required to meet her in India before formally committing to adopt her. November of 2007 turned my world upside down forever upon traveling to India . Elijah came home from China in Feb 2008 and upon our return Brent was laid off from his job. Elijah need major skull reconstruction surgery and thankfully he received this in May, the surgeon knew the time issue with insurance running out and provided for him.  India adoption is a very slow process so we kept plugging away at Sneha's paper work. In the mean time Brent acquired the best job ever to work and help students go to Ch*na to teach English.  This too was short lived with the economic down turn and the loss of a huge donor. So Brent was laid off again and the social worker was coming to do Elijah's last post placement report and then she would find out about the lay off and it would interfere with the India adoption.  Fast forward, we prayed for a miracle and Brent found a job in less than one week and we had to move to Sterling Colorado at the end of school 2009.  Brent went ahead and worked in Sterling until we could come.  The adoption stayed on track, God is so faithful.  Sneha came home in November 2009.  December 2010 we heard about Beacon House and started to think about our adoption through Ghana.  We started the process in January 2011 our third adoption.  A slow start with paper work, and the paper in town is having trouble, could it happen again?  Spring time comes and Brent knows that it is just a matter of time before his job is downsized.  June 2011 it happened again.  The good news is that this time we do not let the stress ruin our time together.  Cast all of your cares upon the Lord for He is faithful !!!!!We knew that if God wanted Joyce to come home he would provide a good job in a time economic down turn.  Our God is bigger than any problem here on earth.  Pray and pray some more, and remember or try to all in good time.  It is such a helpless feeling to know we can do nothing physically to make things happen.  Just because we can do something doesn't always mean that we should.  Brent wanted out of newspapers!!!!!Out of newspaper he is and he works at a public utility district a service everyone needs!!!!!!God is faithful to provide a nice house, beautiful view, and being able to comlete a Ghana adoption.

Remembering past adoption trips-Sneha's first meeting trip

Enter his gates with thanksgiving and his courts with praise; give thanks to him and praise his name. For the LORD is good and his love endures forever; his faithfulness continues through all generations.”

 Psalm 100:4-5 NIV

 

Not one day of my life has ever been the same since I went to India on Nov 9, 2007.  I had prayed for my eyes to be opened.  The harsh truth was that I wasn't yet ready.....I don't think any amount of preparation can prepare one to see what I saw.  I now that I was living in the American cocoon.  I was warm and fuzzy yet something was stirring in my heart for more.  I thought that I knew of hardship, job losses and life.  Little did I know how the rest of humanity copes with everyday life.  How could I know?  I have read book and seen pictures and most definitely identified what I didn't want, but What Did I Want?????I am no longer content to wait in the ordinary.  I want more than the "American Dream", and if felt like a dead end.  I need to look up and see a different sign ahead in the distance.  Well, starting the adventure to India and beyond sent me down a steep hill and up many steep hills.  I know that nothing is in my control, the control and directions are laid out from our Father in Heaven.  I grasp my hands so tightly, but everything slips through.  It is all His, not mine.  I can't save them all, but I have to keep trying to do all I can through His power.  Our life is NOT about having everything in order then to be available.  Be available when there is chaos and too much to possibly accomplish within our own power.  A new home, and not all unpacked, lining up new doctors, dentists, orthodontist, and the list goes on and on.  I guess it comes down to this are we AVAILABLE when it isn't convenient and all together?  Will go to meet the one that  can't ever remember the love of her mother or father.  Are we really available to let the lonely be placed in families.  Our lives are transition and upheaval until the day we meet our Father in heaven above.  I remember the children that lived with Sneha and wonder do they have families or are they alone in the world.  Two brothers in India lost their mother she left the family and so they were left with the love of their father, but he was hit and killed in traffic.  I met these two lovely boys, and I pray they have a family, but the odds of two older boys finding a family is slim to nothing. 

We are hopeful and excited to meet our new daughter Joyce in Ghana. A time filled with excitement and embracing the unknown.  Her world is about to turned upside down and we pray that we can ease this for her.   Brent has always wanted to see Africa since he was little.  We hope we can go before the years end, but waiting to hear.

Can't Wait Until Joy Comes Home Or Atleast Until We Get To Meet Her

The biggest disease today is not leprosy or tuberculosis, but rather the feeling of being unwanted.

           Mother Teresa

On the adoption front we are waiting for our case to go to court.  Then we get to go meet our dear one in Ghana.  Since the move is all done, I can focus on something fun our trip to Ghana to meet Joyce.  Then I will get post real pictures of her.  It is hard to believe that at on the 25th Sneha will have been home for 2 years.  The waiting is so slow and the busy time at home goes by so fast.  We have experienced so many trials since our Sneha has been home, but we are thankful that God led us to her and down this path we are on. Special needs, can sound scary yes, but they deserve a chance at life as much as we do.  So many children waiting across the world and people are waiting for God to say go. The truth is He has already told us His truth and complete instructions of His will....The Holy Bible.

James 1:27
Religion that is pure and undefiled before God, the Father, is this: to visit orphans and widows in their affliction, and to keep oneself unstained from the world

.John 14:18
"I will not leave you as orphans; I will come to you.

Hosea 14:3

Assyria shall not save us; we will not ride on horses;and we will say no more, 'Our God,' to the work of our hands. In you the orphan finds mercy."




Matthew 25:40

And the King will answer them, 'Truly, I say to you, as you did it to one of the least of these my brothers, you did it to me.

'Psalm 9:18

For the needy shall not always be forgotten, and the hope of the poor shall not perish forever.

Happy 12th birthday............Elise

Happy Halloween

He is ever lending generously, and his children become a blessing. Psalm 37:26

All I can say is children are a blessing from above!

One week in Wahington........Lots of changes once again

First day of school and last day of family out here.  Trying to get back into the groove of a normal life, what ever that is.  Every thing is so different here.  We feel like we are on an island in a sea of people that we don't know.  For some reason God keeps moving our family.  Change is hard, and not my choice.  Our only constant is our Faith in Christ.  Nothing else lasts forever.  Not our homes in Fort Collins, Montana, Julesburg, or Sterling.  I am so thankful that we will see so many good friends from near and far in heaven our true home forever.  This eases the sadness in my heart, the longing for familiar faces and surroundings.  Honestly ever thing feels numb.   We are so thankful for Brent's new job in this economic down turn and for the blessings the Lord has bestowed on our family.  We are so thankful that family could help us move and make this all possible.  I miss work and everyone there.  All in good time adjustment will take place.

“For I know the plans I have for you, declares the LORD, plans for welfare and not for evil, to give you a future and a hope.” Jeremiah 29:11 ESV

Not Everyone is Called to Adopt, but everyone is called to care for the orphans and widows of the world

Although the world is full of suffering it is also full of the overcoming it.  Helen Keller

Love our neighbor as ourselves............

If we are loving our neighbors why is Africa dying?  If children in US, Canada, or England were starving to death and dying of preventable diseases they would have texting and what ever else available  to save the children.  Some-how Africa doesn't count to most.  These are God's people and children dying.  Suffering horrible deaths from preventable diseases.  The great trick of Satan is to say one doesn't make a difference.  The difference to that one can be life or death.

Less than $2 a day                    2.6 billion people                 40 percent of the world people

Less than $1 a day                    1.0 billion people                  15 percent of the world's people

$105 a day USA                         0.3 billion people                  4.5 percent of the world's people

Then the King will say, "I'm telling the solemn truth:  Whenever you did one of these things to someone overlooked or ignored, that was me-you did it to me"Matthew 25:40

The top 20 percent of the world's population consumes 86% of the world's goods:(

So let us say that each person in USA sponsored just one child for $25 dollars a month.  That small amount of money would almost double a poor families income for the year.  Just imagine the change in situation of doubling our own income in a year?  Now imagine that in county that makes only $1 dollar a day for an entire family this would be the difference between enough food and not enough to eat.

Here is a chart comparison of where our Aminat lives in Ethiopia:

                                                           Ethiopia                             USA

pop                                                     81 million                            295.4 million

life expectancy                                   49 years                              78 years

literacy                                                 36%                                    97%

access to safe H20                               22%                                    100%

average annual  income                         $180                                    $41,400

So actually where Aminat lives her family makes .49 cents a day...................

I am ashamed to say this year we just started child sponsorship.  I had always wanted to, but good intentions add up to absolutely nothing without action.  Everyone could do this, one child at time, feed one.

In the end, we will remember not  the worlds of our enemies, but the silence of our friends. 

 Dr. Martin  Luther King JR.

To learn more about child sponsorship visit http://www.worldvision.org/

A wonderful book to read to understand the plight of the poor and our responsibility is:

"The Hole In Our Gospel"  by Richard Stearns president of world vision USA.

'He defended the cause of the poor and needy, and so all went well.  Is that what it means to know the Lord.  Jeremiah 22:16

August 26, 2011

41, 41,41,41 and counting!!!!!It is good to know that 1/2 of the people I work with I could be their mother.  Talk about strange.....I have to say I do feel better than I did in my 20's and life goes on.  Our time on earth is but a fleeting moment so we must make every day count and make the most of it.

August 6, 2011

Summer is flying by at the Arnold house.  The count down to school is on and change is in the air.  What a hot summer, but we have made it through what I think are the absolute longest months of the year.  Sneha is finally settling into summer right about the time when school is coming very soon.  The good news is we have worked on much needed paperwork.  We finally filed with Logan county courts to get Sneha's adoption completed so she can become a citizen, get a birth certificate, and an SS card.  On the new adoption front the State of Colorado approved our home-study for Ghana.  We just have to wait for our social workers license to be renewed and our I600A goes to Texas to be processed.  Then we wait to receive our finger print invite to be printed in Denver.  While waiting for Joy in this process we are hoping and praying that another young child will becomes available at Beacon House for us.  We are hoping for a healthy younger than six years little boy or girl.  Only time will tell and we are willing to wait.

The Fab Four

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