The Wild Amusement Park

We recently got an email from a friend of ours, a domestic adoptive family from Nebraska, that said the following, "I love roller coaster rides, but the ride you guys are on is a little much sometimes!" Another adoptive mom, waiting on her Ethiopian kids said this today: "You are on the ultimate of life roller coasters. Isn't it cool how God orchestrates life as one big amusement park? We just need to learn to see the joy in all the little things. Who needs 7 flags?! "

We just crept up a tall hill of this roller coaster and now God has sent us sailing down the hill in a wild turn, our hair blowing, our adrenaline rising..a thrill and bone-chilling scare all at once.

As you know, we lost the referral of the five-month-old baby girl that we fell instantly in love with. We grieved that loss and still feel the hint of pain upon thinking about her. We told God we would surrender to whatever His plan, whoever He wanted us to love and embrace, however we could minister to the orphan. We have been praying for a week about a seven-month-old baby boy. We were just trying to find that open door to bring home the second child we knew God had spoken to us about. We truly felt it was a girl, but were willing to love whomever. This morning, I (JoLynn) was praying about this baby and felt prompted in my heart to email our agency and say, "Just checking one last time about a baby girl birth to age 5". The response we got sent us sailing down the hill.

A toddler girl was dropped off at one of our agency's orphanages. Because she was abandoned, her information cannot be released for two months to ensure she is abandoned. Her medical condition is also unknown. Our agency told us we could be referred this baby if all goes well in the next two months.

This will mean we will not bring Israel home this summer, however, his paperwork has been delayed anyway and it was looking like he would not make court before it closes in July. This seems to be God orchestrating an amazing story to bring home the two children He spoke to us about in the January. It breaks our hearts to make Israel wait for four or five more months, but this seems to be God's plan.

Thank you for praying. Here is how you can pray specifically.

* Pray for this baby girl's little life, her health, her status with her family, etc. We need God's best for her life, whatever that may be.

* Pray that if it is God's plan for her to be our little Julianna Kay that God orchestrates both children's court dates together and that we can bring them both home as soon as possible.

* Pray that God would provide for the extra $9000 we need for our second child's adoption along with the remainder of the finances for our travel, now including Bethany's airline ticket.

* Pray for the heart of Joshua to be strong as he waits. Pray that discouragement and disappointment do not overwhelm him as the other children leave before him with their new parents. Pray for God to encompass his heart with peace.

Thank you for your prayers. What a ride, huh? What a story it will be in the end! If only these children knew how deeply God loves them at this very moment, moving heaven and earth for the orphans He so loves.

God has placed the most amazing book into our lives that we highly encourage you all to read. "Dangerous Surrender...What Happens When You Say Yes to God" by Kay Warren (of Saddleback Church). It has rocked my(JoLynn) world and caused me to bend a knee to a God who doesn't always do things the way I want. The Kingdom of Kurt and JoLynn is now crumbling as we truly surrender to the Kingdom of God.

Kay has this prayer pasted on her desk and reads it every day. It's a prayer of death...dying to yourself and dying to everything we insist we deserve, giving our lives completely in surrender to God. There's nothing easy about surrender, nothing easy about dying...but the end result of walking the path God has planned is so amazingly worth it in the end.

Praying for you today as you surrender to what God has in store for you!

Pastor Kurt and JoLynn Coleman

The Covenant Prayer

I am no longer my own, but yours.
Put me to what you will, rank me with whom you will;
Put me to doing, put me to suffering;
Let me be employed for you or laid aside for you;
Exalted for you or brought low for you;
Let me be full, let me be empty;
Let me have all things, let me have nothing;
I freely and heartily yield all things to your pleasure and disposal.
And now, O glorious and blessed God, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit,
You are mine, and I am yours.
So be it.
And the covenant which I have made on earth,
Let it be ratified in heaven.
Amen.
Puritan Prayer of 1600