A Helping Hand

Here is a previous e-mail that I thought I would include to catch you up on what's happening.
-Lori :)

Monday, April 10th, 2006
Hello all!
Just wanted to give you an update
I spoke with Mark Johnson - Director of Operations at A Helping Hand (our adoption agency) today. He was able to go to Guatemala at the end of March and visit a couple orphanages and make contact with a wonderful new Christian attorney. :) The 2 orphanages are Prince of Peace and Barnabas. I believe these are the websites for them - http://www.casabernabe.org/ & http://www.princeofpeacegt.com/. Check them out! They seem like wonderful Christian ministries! And the children are well cared for, loved, and taught about Christ! What more could I ask for?! :)

So - Mark is now "officially" on the hunt for our daughter! :) He may find her before we even finish our Dossier & Home study. :) Wouldn't that be awesome! Please keep him in your prayers as he is looking for her. Keep our new daughter and our family in your prayers as well. Thank you guys soooo much! :)

Well - gotta go feed the hungry crew here! Just thought I'd let you in on my excitement! :)

Lori :)

*side note - we decided to go with A Helping Hand (AHH) because of a vision God had given me a week after J's dream.
I was feeling anxious about the adoption process and how to proceed. This is the vision He showed me as I asked Him "What do I do? Where do I go? Who do we use for the adoption? What next? " etc!

I was taken out of the river, by God, that I had been floating down (another vision from a year ago in which I had to "let go" and trust God to take me to where He wanted me to be.) and was led into the woods. I asked God "Do I need to close my eyes or can I open them (it was if He was leading me to a "surprise"). He said "No - keep them open. I don't want you to stumble and trip". So we trapsed through the woods - over the underbrush, logs, etc, my hand in His (A Helping Hand!). We came within about 100 yards of the clearing, and I could see the sunlight shining in the clearing. I let go of God's hand and started to run ahead, but God grabbed my hand again, pulled me back and told me to rest here.
"Why God? I can see the clearing right there. Why "rest" now?"
"I need to go prepare some things first." So he left.
What He showed me was that if I had ran into the clearing, I would have fallen off a deep, sharp cliff that was at the edge of the clearing. He was going to have to navigate us along the edge of the clearing to an open area at the edge of the cliff. It was there that He was setting up rapelling gear - ropes & harness, etc.
I think I will stay put. :) I know nothing about rapelling down cliffs (or adoption) and I decided to trust the "expert" in this adventure!

About a month later I was still struggling to decide which of the many wonderful adoption agencies to use. I had crossed of A Helping Hand early on as they told me they only do infant adoptions from Guatemala. However, about a half a dozen people had recommended them to me, and JoAnna Hunt decided to contact Tony Brewer (the head of AHH) and see if he could help us. To make a long story short - he agreed. I was still hesitant and wondering if this was the way God wanted us to go. Jeremy wasn't comfortable with the thought of using an agency that had not done toddler/preschool age adoptions from GUA before. But after praying one night with both of our parents, God showed Jeremy that going with AHH was like descending that cliff. We would have to completely trust God to guide us in the process! And believe or not - J had a tremendous peace and change of heart about AHH and told me to apply!

So that's the story! :)