Julianna!

God is the most amazing, sovereign, creative Father!

Obviously, this blog talks about praying for Joshua, whom you all know about, and Julianna, whom you don't. We began this adoption journey in August of last year as God stirred our hearts toward the orphan and toward Ethiopia. We saw Joshua on a photo list and immediately knew he was the child God had planned for our family. We began the process with him.

In January of this year, God began to speak to us again...stretching our faith a little more. He spoke to us of a daughter we would adopt...at the same time as Joshua. We thought one child and one set of paperwork and one large sum of money to raise was requiring a whole lot of faith, but God wanted us to believe for one more. God spoke to our hearts about a baby girl, gave us her name, Julianna....and even gave us a glimpse of her in a dream.

We immediately contacted our agency about it and they began working on finding a baby girl. Baby girls, for some reason, just weren't coming into the orphanage. Baby boys and many older children were. We prayed about both...a set of older children, and a baby boy. Although it broke our hearts, God had already given the vision...we had a baby daughter in Ethiopia...so we prayed for those children and tearfully declined them.

Thursday night, we got a call from a different orphanage we had talked to. They had a baby girl, five months old, they wanted us to pray about. Our hearts leaped with joy! God had spoken to us in January, five months ago... and so right around this child's birth, God knew who she belonged to and began to speak to us about her. Pictures came by email and only confirmed what our hearts already knew. This was our Julianna!! Today, we sent in the initial paperwork and fees to begin our journey for Julianna.

We cannot tell you how precious and beautiful this child is! We cannot show her picture or share her birth name until after the court date, however, we can promise you this..she is breath-taking!! She looks much like Joshua with big, olive shaped eyes, and a wide beautiful smile. We are absolutely smitten with this baby already. Joshua will have a sister from his homeland and our family will be complete. We are moving paperwork through quickly as the orphanage does not want her delayed. We see the providence of God as He allowed Joshua's case to be delayed in order to make time for Julianna to join him!

We are now praying that God moves along Julianna's paperwork swiftly and that the funds come in miraculously so that we can bring both children home together. What a day that will be!!!

Thank you now for adding Julianna to your prayer list. She needs to come home to her family. Pray for her heart as she is missing her birth mother now and pray for her physical body as she waits for us in Ethiopia. Famine is hitting the country hard and both of our children need prayer over their physical health.

We are overjoyed. God led me (JoLynn) to a book to begin just before we got this call. "Dangerous Surrender...What Happens When You Say Yes to God" by Kay Warren (Rick Warren's wife). It is a life changing challenge...saying yes to God no matter how impossible the task appears, saying yes to God no matter how unequipped we feel, saying yes to God when the future is unknown, the provision is by faith, and the path only lighted with each step taken with dangerous surrender. What an adventure this life with Christ is!! By the end of the summer, we could be a family of eight...with two new amazing children of destiny in our arms. We are blessed beyond words.

Often it is said that those adopting internationally are saving children. That may be true in many ways, but we truly feel these children are just as much saving us....rescuing us from a life of self-centeredness and self-absorption, bringing depth and perspective and utter joy to our journey.

Thank you for praying for both our children on the other side of the globe! Pray for safety, pray for favor, pray for finances. How precious it will be the day they become Colemans and we can show you the faces of the children you have faithfully prayed for.

We love you! Dare to say YES to God today! Whatever He is asking from you is big! He's a big God, needing a big work done on this earth before He returns. Don't run from challenge, don't run from what seems impossible. Just say yes..and watch miracles begin to unfold in and through your life.

We love you!
Pastor Kurt and JoLynn