Christmas Eve

Today began well, up early with Buddy to finish up wrapping gifts. After an hour or so we started hearing a strange gurgling sound in the bathroom. When we checked, we noticed air bubbles coming out of the hole in the toilet bowl. We were confused but, who cares about bubbles? Not us, we're wrapping. Another hour goes by and Buddy goes back to our bathroom and finds water coming up out of the toilet and flooding the bathroom! I mean pouring out of the toilet. We turned the water off, check the next bathroom and the bathtub is completely full of blue, soapy water! We run to the guest bathroom where we find that toilet now overflowing onto the wood floor! Now we realize something is clogging the main drain from the house and all the water is backing up. The washing machine was backing up into the bathtub! Buddy is getting panicky as dollar signs fly in front of his eyes. I'm thinking, "why today? why was everything fine when we went to bed and we wake up today, Christmas Eve, and we have this major problem! Come on, Lord, what is this about? What are you trying to teach us?" I know God is in control of every circumstance so I know there is a reason for even this. We start making calls, finally find a plumber at Hiller and schedule a visit. We filled another couple of hours with searching for the outdoor sewer valve thing in the yard (which we never found), and getting ready to go to the Y for a shower. All of a sudden, Buddy finds me and says, "guess what?, all the water drained out and everything is working!" The plumber was on his way and he came, checked everything out and could find nothing wrong. He stayed an hour, left and we only owed $49.00!!! Wow, God is so good! What I was reminded of through this is, one, God is definitely in control of our finances, comfort, and time. Any other conclusion is only an illusion. And He is good and right and loving, so we can trust Him. Thanks for the reminder, help me live in that knowledge each and every day.
And now, as I write, it is 12:27 a.m. on Christmas Day!!! Merry Christmas, everyone. I'll post tomorrow because in the morning, we are supposed to Skype with Bobby!!!!!

This is a picture of Judah saying goodbye to all his friends at the orphanage just before he got in the car to go to the airport to head to St. Louis and his family. He and Bobby are hugging and Joseph (Oatsvall) is looking on. Bittersweet picture.

Rejoicing today with our friends, Ryan and Lindsey Doyle whose son Judah arrived in the U.S. to join his forever family tonight!! What an amazing story... A little boy, orphaned as a baby, living these past four or so years in an orphanage in Uganda will go to sleep tonight surrounded by his mother and daddy, brother and two sisters in St. Louis, Missouri. He will be able to grow up knowing he matters to someone, and not only that but that he is loved deeply. And not because of anything Judah did, but just because God worked out circumstances and desires and connected a family with a boy. Which is the exact thing Christ does for us...He reaches out to us because He first loved us, draws us to Himself, just because He wants to have a love relationship with us. Nothing more or less. Connecting a human with the Divine.

For wonderful pictures of of Judah's homecoming please click on the link to their blog on the right margin.

Here are more pictures of the day Curry James gave Bobby his photo album and stuffed dog. Stephanie, a lady who is at the orphanage now, told me that Bobby is so proud of the dog and shows it to everyone. In these pictures you can see him going around to the mamas showing all of them his book and dog. Soo sweet.

This video was taken immediately after Bobby received his photo album and stuffed dog we sent to him by way of Curry James. She is now back in Nashville and gave me a CD of photos of Bobby which included this video. It is so sweet, Bobby is embarrassed and shy about telling us hello but he does anyway! We love you too, Bobby!