The power of a single seed

Seeds....there is so much power packed in one tiny seed!  Did you know that the mustard seed is the tiniest seed yet when it grows it is the fastest and biggest of them all and grows into a large tree where birds actually come and build nests?!  It may be TINY but packs a HUGE punch!

We are still waiting to hear some feedback back from our contact about the one African nation we are praying into and as we are still in a "holding pattern" just out of the adoption gate so to speak, the Lord has been talking to my heart about "seeds".

I was on my daily walk last week listening to a sermon and the speaker was talking about seeds oddly enough.  He talked of how the seeds we plant now will have a lasting effect for generations to come.  And how the Lord may be delaying the present to have a greater impact on future generations of our family!  I had never thought of that but made perfect sense to my heart and head.  Last week I must admit I spent a few days wringing my hands and trying to see how " I " could move things along.  A bit OCD maybe?!  Yes, admittedly so.  But as I was walking and listening to this sermon, the tears began to sting my eyes and roll down my cold, wind blown cheeks.  I heard the Master whisper " peace be still" to my worrisome heart.  He said, "do you trust me with your precious flower's seed"?  WOW!!  My "spiritual" answer quickly was Umm, yes Jesus of course...how silly of you to ask!  BUT then my "natural, OCD, control-freak side" kicked in and after some soul searching I gave a slight, silent, gulp whispered yes.  Truth be told we ALL have things and areas where Jesus needs to gently remind us that the issue is really TOTALLY in His control and He's the Master of the waves!  We only need report in for our boat trip, and climb aboard, He will steer the ship!

I do not doubt for a minute that He gave me this seed analogy for nothing!  He knows how much I do enjoy "nurchering" plants and flowers in my yard and watching them grow!  It's calming and relaxing to me.  I can see that Flower is in her incubation time underground.  While we cannot physically "see" the effect of the seed that was planted we know that she's "there" and Jesus is watering her and shining the light on her.  In due time she will peek her precious stem above the soil and we will see her beauty and smell her deep fragrance!  She will be perfect and will be a dynamic force for Jesus!

For now, stay warm for you are being nurtured by the King of Kings!  The creator of the Universe!  Stinking Amazing!

When the WIND shifts directions...

Well, you can never be fully prepared for "life things" when the wind picks up!  It seems when you have just figured out "Boating with Jesus 101" and your sailing along smoothly, the wind picks up,  waters begin to stir and then the crashing waves come!  Just like Jesus to change up the game or is it that the game plan never changed and we just assumed that it had?

So last night we received some disheartening news from the Adoption Agency we had been looking into...it seems with this New Children's Bill being passed, they have suspended their Uganda program.  Wow, the initial emotional WAVE that hit me last night was like a kick to the gut.  Instantly the feelings and emotions of the "yucky" stuff from Malachi's adoption came flooding back, and continued to crash over me for a good while.  But as I received encouraging and uplifting words from my closest gal-friends, Mom, Sisters and then my husband...oh my dear sweet, encouraging, loving husband.  Those worries and fears began to dissolve and I began to re-focus.  I could honestly feel my "shell / skin" toughening again and my head and eyes rise to the "hills" where Jesus is.  You see, we KNOW that our precious "Flower" is already picked for our family.  She's a rare African beauty and since she's rare and ours it's taking her a little longer to "grow".  She's not ready to be picked for our family bouquet yet.  Oh but when she is, she will be radiant and so fragrant!

We ask that you continue to pray for us as we look into a few leads that we have for another Country.  As Kevin and I were talking last night, He gently yet firmly reminded me and my heart that when we "stepped out of this boat" we prayed and asked Jesus to give our precious Flower just as a dynamic story as her older brother's.  So now it's our job as her parents to entrust that to Jesus and keep our eyes fixed on Him, the Master of the waves and storm.  We've stepped out in FAITH and now we will rely on His GRACE to carry us.

We humbly ask that as we have become transparent with you our precious family and friends as we share our story with you, would you please commit to pray for us DAILY?  Like I have said, Adoption is NOT for the faint of heart.  It is a daily necessity to keep our eyes fixed on Jesus for the wind can change in an instant!  But thankfully we know the CREATOR of BOTH the WIND AND WAVES!

Thank you from the bottom of our hearts,
Marissa, Kevin, Malachi and "Flower"

Getting out of the boat....!

Well that didn’t take long…

JUST as we climbed out of the boat to begin our journey / walk on the water we were slammed with a huge crushing wave.  It doesn’t take the enemy long to try and drown what God has ordained, so to speak.  Less than 72 hours after we excitedly shared our hearts and plans to pursue our precious “flower” a.k.a., Baby Girl Coke from Uganda we were hit with some pretty LARGE news.  While we knew this was a possiblility, we just did not realize that it would come so soon.  

On Wednesday as Malachi and I (Marissa) were having lunch I received a text from our sweet Attorney/dear family friend Alice in Uganda.  In her words, “parliament had some debate on the New Children’s Bill.  It seems they are now requiring adoptive families to bond with the adoptive child(ren) for one year “in-country” in order to adopt.” (YIKES...this is a HUGE OBSTACLE)... I have to tell you, in that instant I had a divine peace, as did She.    But you know how the Enemy tries to invade your thoughts and cast doubt.  Try as I might to keep the peace, unfortunately I took my eyes off the Master of the waves and quickly  began to sink.

My thoughts ate away at me.  I went from having a supernatural peace to spiriling into crazy thoughts.  My thoughts went anywhere from, “wow, it’s like Rwanda/Uganda all over again” to “I don’t know if I can handle this emotional rollercoaster again” and finally to “well maybe we “mis-heard” and are supposed to adopt from another African Nation”.  Uh, can you say ALL of these thoughts occurred because I forgot “boating with Jesus 101”…NEVER TAKE YOUR EYES OFF THE MASTER once you step out of the boat!

After I pulled myself together with the help of Jesus, my Husband and a few very close awesome gal-friends, I was reminded of this very fact by Jesus.  He spoke quietly to my racing heart and said, “Marissa, don’t forget that you and Kevin asked me to make “flower’s” story JUST as dynamic as Malachi’s.”  Gulp…!  To which I replied…why yes we did Lord, thanks for the reminder…! 

So, with that, We will dig our heels in and NOT BE MOVED.  When the next wave comes, and I’m sure it will, this time lesson learned.  DO NOT TAKE YOUR EYES OFF THE MASTER!

In conclusion, we humbly ask that as we seek Jesus in this that we FIND Him and He brings clarity to this.  President Musovini still will need to sign off on this bill.  So please pray that Jesus moves on His heart and perhaps something different can be done to protect this program of adoption from corruption and give these poor kiddos a chance to belong to a family.

IT'S A GIRL!!!!

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Coke…party of FOUR please?  Eek!  After 4 1/2 LONG years, and MANY requests from Malachi, he is FINALLY getting a little Sister! As we have been talking about this around our house Malachi has decided to name his little Sister, "FLOWER"!  So we know she will be GORGEOUS and RADIANT in EVERY way!

When you ask?  Only Jesus can answer that!  Ha ha ha!  After much prayer and planning we are officially announcing that the Cokes will begin the crazy, wonderful, scary, adventure known as International Adoption again.  While some may say, “oh this will be a breeze since you have already experienced it once.”  May I caution you to not let that fool you!  Each and every “situation and case” has its own challenges.  Things will be somewhat different for us this time around as we will be working with an actual Adoption Agency instead of adopting independently.  How is this different you ask?  Well, through an Agency we do not have as much “control” as to how “FAST” our paperwork flows.  But we also know that we serve a God who we trust completely and order’s our steps!

We (as of now, providing there are no unexpected “surprises” from in-country) will be adopting again from UGANDA!  This beautiful country has captured our hearts in only a way Jesus could orchestrate!  Uganda is known as the pearl of Africa and She definitely lives up to her name! 

As we say yes, and answer the call that Jesus has placed in our hearts, we do it knowing just how much we will have to completely depend on Him again!  As those of you who walked with us through this journey to our Malachi Kirabo Moses, know it is not for the faint of heart.  There are many twists and turns (including unexpected Country changes), however we KNOW that as we in FAITH, “Step out of the boat” and keep our eyes on Him we will walk on water!  Malachi’s adoption taught me (Marissa) one VERY IMPORTANT lesson.  At the beginning of his journey, we prayed that if Jesus were calling us to do this we felt two things needed to happen.  1) That He supply  “EVERY SINGLE PENNY” of our needs and 2) that He would get ALL of the GLORY for this!  And friends, I am here to tell you, BOTH things happened.  Jesus continually exceedingly met our needs and Malachi continues to bless those who hear his incredible story!  (If you do not know his story, please feel free to read…(http://carissashaw.com/2015/11/uganda-adoption-story.html)

I once read a book that simply said that God is IMPRESSED by and actually ENCOURAGES us to pray BIG and BOLD prayers!  So our precious family and friends, as we have shared our EXCITING news with you, our hearts are SO full of FAITH and EXCITEMENT!  We simply ask that you PLEASE pray for us and BELIEVE with us that Jesus will meet our EVERY need and use our heart-born daughter’s incredible story (because we have prayed that She too will have one) to give God ALL of the glory!

Much Love,

Kevin, Marissa, Malachi and.........!

UP AND RUNNING

GUESS WHAT???!!!  We are BACK UP AND BLOGGING AGAIN!!!

....EXPECTING JESUS TO DO **LOTS OF CRAZY THINGS** THINGS IN 2015 FOR US "THE COKES"!!!

Declaring 2015 the "YEAR OF INCREASE" in EVERY area of our lives!!!

Like our blog and follow us this year!!!!

YOU WILL NOT BE DISAPPOINTED....JESUS IS "IN THE HOUSE"!!!!

QUICK UPDATE!

Greetings Family and Friends!

Just wanted to give a quick update and "PRAISE THE LORD"..!

As I had mentioned we were going to try and go two weeks EARLY to our i-600a fingerprint appointments yesterday. We were unsure if they would even see us or would we have to wait all day to possibly be "squeezed in". Well, I'm happy to say that once again God has shown "favor" to us and we were able to get our fingerprints done yesterday in about a little over 1 hour!! The trip was about 2.5 hours from our home so we were taking a gamble anyway, but thought hey, why not? The folks there were quite nice and so gracious to allow us to do this 2 weeks ahead of schedule!!

We are SO excited and just practically bursting with excitement and anticipation! As I had mentioned in my last post, I guess a good way to describe it would be to say that we are eagerly anticipating or waiting EXPECTANTLY for "THE CALL" to come anytime....prayerfully SOON!!

I have to say I probably made some Prison Guards laugh yesterday! We came out of the building and I was SOOO happy and relieved that I did a little *LEAP*! Heck, if I was really talented I would have clicked my heels on the jump...but thought better of it! But as we were getting into the car, my dear sweet husband said...you do realize all of those men just saw you do that?! LOL! I just started laughing and said...ya know, I don't care...I'm gonna be a MOM and I'm sure there are going to be LOTS of things that I might embarrass my kids with....but I just don't care...I'm H-A-P-P-Y!!!!!

Okay, I believe that's it for now....stay tuned for more GOOD things to come!!

Blessings,

Kevin, Marissa & Malachi!

CONTRACTIONS...AND SUCH

Greetings Family and Friends,

Just wanted to give you a little update quick! Shortly after I sent out our last post, things started happening! (GOOD THINGS)!

In just two short weeks from mailing our i-600a form out (our form to ask the United States Government permission to bring an orphan into our country), we received our fingerprint cards to go and be fingerprinted by Homeland Security!! This is amazing...and a VERY quick turn-around! Wow, I"m telling you, God is moving and working in ways we are not even seeing! Those mountains are just crumbling! This is the VERY last piece of paperwork we need to do before we are able to package everything up and send it to Uganda! It's such a neat and weird feeling all at the same time. I guess that's why they call it a "paper pregnancy" b/c minus the growing stomach I have all of those same emotions of a pregnancy...believe me! Ha ha ha!

We were able to finish putting Malachi's Nursery together for the most part (pictures are coming soon)...I promise! But as I put the lightbulb in his little elephant lamp last night and turned it on it cast a soft and warm glow about the room. It was comforting and reassuring that God is working everything out, right down to the last tiny detail. I had this comforting feeling and know that He will be in our arms soon. Call it a hunch, or a "Mommy's" intuition, but I just know that I know!! I cannot wait to snuggle him and have "creamy" time with him as my Mom has been able to do with my nephews! It's such a great time and they have always loved it...so needless to say I've been stocking up on Baby Magic (hmmm, my favorite)!!!

We will update you as things progress!!!!

Blessings!

Kevin, Marissa and Malachi!