For nearly four weeks now I have been trying to figure out how to write a post that consists of the words..
 WE ARE MOVING TO AFRICA!!!!

As it turns out, this is a plan 5 years in the making. May 22, 2005, I'm invited to church by a new friend who says that if I am to be friends with her I must go to church. Really? Really. So I showed up. I walked in to Ricardo Sanchez leading what I now know as worship. It was an Assemblies of God church, so when I walked in my first response was not worship, rather wierd. I couldn't tell you a single thing about the Word on that day, but I recall Pastor Friend asking at the end if their was anyone who didn't know Jesus. He went on to say that today was the day (and then a whole bunch more stuff that was just killing me). I couldn't keep my emotions in check. I remember him saying that someone was having an urging inside, and it was then that I just completely broke down. My hands went up and I cried for a long time. I didn't know what I was doing, or what to say. At one point I questioned if I was just trying to fit it. I was a basket case, so I'm pretty sure that wasn't it! A lady came and prayed with me and on this day I gave my heart to Jesus. It was also on this day The Lord gave me a vision.

There were black faces as far as my eyes could see.  I suppose it could have been Haiti, but I left the Scottsdale First Assembly Dream Center that day with Africa on my heart.

I got home and listened to my tape (yes it was a tape, and am I the only one or do newly saved people really listen to the tapes they give you?!?). Pastor Friend said that I had made the most important decision in my life, and that now I would spend eternity with God because of what Christ had done. I felt that a place inside of me had been filled that had been forever empty. I well up now just typing this. He said that everything may not make sense now but that I had entered into a relationship that would change everything, and that I needed to talk to God and read my bible. So that is what I did.

Immediately "the least of these" and the orphan took hold of my soul and I began to dream of going and to them. I'm not sure when my focus went from Africa to Guatemala, but I now can look back and see His Hand so perfectly in it all. Four months later as I plan a short term mission trip to Guatemala, I saw this face on the internet.

I had an internal shift, and I knew without a thought that this baby was my son. There are truly no other words. I just knew. Change in plan again, now I am not going to Guatemala to serve the orphans, I am going to Guatemala to adopt an orphan. Thirteen months later [after numerous trips, brain damage and cerebral palsey diagnosis, agency-gone-wrong, Guate adoptions closing any second, and lots of Jesus] with my miracle child in my arms we touched down on American soil.

Insert a lot of life from then until now. There are a billion things I could write here, but the point truly is that I have been seeking God since May 22, 2005, and he has convicted me of my sins over and again and loved me through it all.