Numbering Graces

In the last month, I had two friends recommend the same book  -- One Thousand Gifts written by Ann Voskamp. Last week when Brody and I were checking out at the library, that very book was sitting there, behind the desk ready to be re-shelved. So, of course, I had the librarian add it to our already abundant pile. I won't bore you with a whole book review here (if you want that, you'll have to friend me on Goodreads), but one thing this book did was refresh my perspective and encourage me to be totally present in the now. It's a particularly good reminder for me, as there is so much we are anticipating in the future. The book is centered around Voskamp's decision to take note of the little things and write a list of 1,000 things she is thankful for - gifts from God. She has been numbering graces for over a year and half by the conclusion of the book, having passed 1,000 long before. If you like to read, I highly recommend it - just be prepared that she is very poetic, and it may weird you out at times. ;) Regardless, Sydney and I have decided to embark on a similar exercise this summer....and I cannot wait to actually start putting ink to the page. We plan to pass all this waiting time by numbering some of God's infinite graces to us! 

Our biggest news lately was that our dossier was sent to China on May 13th!! Get ready for a whole bunch of crazy adoption acronyms...the first of which is DTC = Dossier to China. We are now waiting and praying for LID = Log-In Date. In the meantime, we had our first matching grant interview, and we should have much more news a few weeks from now -- as far as both funding and paperwork progress!!

We are absolutely thrilled to be surrounded by a church family who is so supportive of adoption, and part of our church family/sweet friends, the Brannon family, is hosting a garage sale fundraiser for us on Saturday June 1st!! I can't tell you how encouraging that has been to us...God is using this experience to show us what a burden is lifted when the Body of Christ comes together on mission. We also just finished up our Pampered Chef fundraiser today, and we raised $240!! Thank you, ladies!! Lastly, we are working on our final (what a blessed word that is!!) fundraiser - a benefit dinner, silent auction and scavenger hunt - which will take place on June 22nd! Please pray that God would smooth out all the details - there are so many graces to count surrounding this event already...more on this to come. As for the quilt, I only have the label left to stitch on, and I recently found out that it's going to be in an upcoming quilt show called "Georgia Celebrates Quilts!" It's my personal prayer that this may create opportunities for gospel conversations among friends attending the show!! Another wonderful support we've been blessed with is our local children's hair salon, Pigtails & Crewcuts. They have been collecting change for our adoption (and sharing our story) throughout the month of May! Too many graces to count...seriously, all the cups we own are running over at the Wolfe home. If you are ready to order more coffee from Just Love, use the coupon code "MEM10" now through Memorial Day and get 10% off your order!

I pray you would not miss God's graces to you today...SLOW DOWN and watch a child play, listen to the birds and the wind in the trees, savor the taste of the food He has provided, feel a drop of rain on your skin, take in the sweet smells around you...and give thanks to the Creator and Sustainer of all things. No doubt there are times we become blind to God and His graces to us, but we have a God who turns ashes into beauty. Miracles surround if we just open our eyes to see His goodness and glory. I'd like to close by sharing two quotes from the book I mentioned above; these I found especially meaningful, because these are graces that have been given to all who follow Christ, regardless of what circumstances surround you: "He washed our grime with the bloody grace. He drove the iron ore through His own vein...Need there be anything more?" and "Anywhere - in the kitchen scrubbing potatoes, in the arching cathedrals, in the spin of laundry and kids and washing toilets - anywhere I can have intimate communion with Maker of heaven and earth." Believers, as children who have been adopted into the family of God, we have the unfathomable graces of redemption, reconciliation and relationship with God...praise Jesus!!

"Therefore, since we have been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. Through Him, we have also obtained access by faith into this grace in which we stand, and we rejoice in hope of the glory of God. Not only that, but we rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, and endurance produces character, and character produces hope, and hope does not put us to shame, because God's love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us." - Romans 5:1-5 ESV