2012

As 2012 comes to an end, I want to reflect on its up and downs. It rose up many challenges but ti also had many blessings.

We were finally accepted into Nebraska Children's Home Society in February 2012 which was exactly 6 years after trying to start our family. We started our journey with the agency and came to many roadblocks along, but we finally got approved as a waiting family on November 7, 2012. I am looking forward to what 2013 brings. We have a goal for 2013 to get completely out of debt except for the house and the car. If we stay on our path I think it may actually happen. My prayer is we will also be blessed with a child in 2013. The agency told us that we could be on the list for years but I have faith that it will not take that long. I knew waiting would be hard but it is a lot harder than I thought it would be. You go to a store and you want to look and dream about the day you get to hold your son or daughter. I know only the Lord knows when that will happen.

David has been amazing in this journey. He has always been my shoulder I can lean on and even though I don't always want to hear his words of encouragement at that time. He always knows what to say to make me feel better. I am so grateful he Lord gave him to me. I think we have gotten a lot closer to each other this last year. We have both grown stronger in the Lord and gotten a lot closer to each other.

One of our biggest trials this year was trying to choose a new church. I was perfectly content where we were and happy, but David wasn't growing in the Lord. So we prayed about it and I have to be honest I was praying for the Lord to change David's mind because I had built friendships at our old church and I was afraid that I would lose those friendships if we left. But as we prayed each night The Lord was actually changing my mind and not David's. After all David was our spiritual leader in our house and he needed to be growing in the Lord. So after months and months of praying and searching The Lord brought us to our new family church and in the 4 months we have been attending there David has grown tremendously it is such an answer to prayer. We immediately got involved head first and have been used by God ever since. I am just over joyed that we are where the Lord wants us. Even though I miss my friends at our old church I still get to see them and they are still a great part of my life and never want to lose those friendships, I am starting to build an extension to my friendships and being involved is such a great feeling. I cannot wait to see where they Lord bring us to in 2013. I am excited!

I want to thank-you for taking the time to read and I hope  you and your family have a safe and Blessed New Year

HAPPY 2013!!
The DeHarts

Great News!

After almost 2 years in working with our agency we finally made it on the active list.
Our profile letter is complete and now we just are waiting on the Lord to bring us our precious child. Now is the real test of faith. Up until this point we has some what control on how fast things progressed on how active we were in submitted paperwork and going to classes. Now it is just us putting 100% faith in the Lord he will bring our precious child home to us. It still could be several years yet. I will be OK if it takes that long because I just want the child the Lord has planned. For anyone who knows me knows that patience is never easy for me. I am such a planner in all things I do. At this point I we can do is pray and let the Lord do his work. This is such a big accomplishment thus far knowing the only step we have left is for a birth mother to choose us and bringing our baby home. Please continue to pray the Lord will bring us the right baby in his right timing. I am looking forward to the next step in our lives and meeting and building a close relationship with our birth mother whoever she is. I also ask for you to join me in prayer in praying for her as she has to make this hard decision in her life. I also pray that when she is in our lives David and I can be a witness to her and to win her to the saving knowledge of Jesus Christ. I really don't know what to expect at this point, but until I do I am picturing us having the best relationship with her and our child will know her and love her.

Update

I just wanted to update on where we are pn the adoption process. Alot of people have been asking. So I thought I would blog about it. We submitted all the required paperwork that is needed and our homestudy is complete. I submitted the final draft of our profile letter this last Monday. We are just waiting to hear if we got approved as adoptive parents. Which hopefully we will get that call either this week or next week.

After we are approved we just wait for the phone call to let us know if we have been chosen. They do not share with us that we are being shown because they don't want us getting disappointed every time a mother doesn't choose us. In the mean time we are able to attend the PREPARE meeting put on bu the agency which helps us prepare for our adoption and meeting our birth mother. Our first one is this Tuesday night. So until I hear we are officially been accepted in that is all I have for now. So please continue to keep us in  your prayers as the Lord continues to open his doors for us. All in the Lord's timing.

Our final meeting

I can't believe we are at the end! (well almost). We have our final home-study meeting on Monday! We have our profile letter written and our physical paperwork to turn in on Monday. All our background checks and fingerprints are done. So as long as our reference letters have been turned in I know I have at least 4 of the 7 that was sent out and our background checks are in and clear. We should just about be at the end of this and be ready to be on t he waiting list for a mother to choose us. The final thing that needs to be done is for our profile letter to be approved by the agency. I hope our personality shines through the letter. I found it difficult to write about myself in it.  Thank you so much for the prayers that have been coming they have been felt. Please continue to pray as we reach the next level of our adoption that the Lord will bless us on His timing for our son or daughter who is ready to join our family. I am so excited and ready for this next chapter and pray that the Lord will continue to answer our prayers. Now we are just saving money to put the nursery  together and for our lawyer fees for the finalization. When my mom is here in November we plan on starting the nursery decorating. We are obviously going to have to have a gender neutral themed nursery so I was thinking monkeys. Please check back in a few weeks for the good news that we have been approved and are on the waiting list. 

For the vision is yet for an appointed time and it hastens to the end [fulfillment]; it will not deceive or disappoint. Though it tarry, wait [earnestly] for it, because it will surely come; it will not be behindhand on its appointed day. Habakkuk 2: 3

Update

I was going to wait until we were completely done with our home study for my next post, but we are almost completely done with it. Our last step is to write our profile letter that will be shown to potential birth mothers. At first I was really kind of freaked out about writing this letter but as I sat down today to start it, I realized not only is it there to be shown so we can be "chosen" but when I started writing about my walk with the Lord and how important He is to me. I realized I could use this letter as a testimony to my Faith. So not only will she see it but other birth mothers my see it to who do not choose us to parent their child but it could be used as a tool to maybe one day to win them to Christ.  Because I want to make it known that Christ is at the top of our priorities and without Him we truly have nothing. I want her to know that her baby will be raised not only in a loving home filled with our love but also Christ's love. This child will be a gift from Him that he has used her as a tool to bring him/her to us and I want to be the tool to potentially bring her to Christ. How amazing would that be!!!

 I long for a close relationship with our birth mother. I know not a lot of people understand that. Trust me I didn't either before I started this journey. I realized with an adoption our son or daughter will have questions about their birth families and I want them to have answers to those questions. With an open adoption relationship the birth mother will be there to answer those questions I cannot answer.

We have had 4 of our 5 meetings with our Social Worker who is an amazing person BTW. Our last meeting is on September 24th. After that I think we just need to get our profile letter approved and wait for the fingerprints and backgrounds checks to be approved. Than we are in the next chapter of the process the waiting game and only the Lord can answer how long that process is going to be it could be 12 weeks or a couple of years only He knows.

More to follow in the next couple of weeks.

What a great giveaway

I know the chances of me winning this awesome stroller is really slim but I have to try all avenues.
http://www.combicorner.com/promotionscontest.html. Click the link for your chance to win too.

My Testimony

I got woken up at 3:00 with a heavy heart to truly start living for Christ. I have been living the luke warm Christian life. I prayed and read my Bible but I just went through the emotions of it. Although I know I am a born again believer and I love the Lord with all my heart and soul. I have a hard time talking about it because I hate rejection but the Bible says in John 15:20 "Remember the word that I said unto you, The servant is not greater than his lord. If they have persecuted me, they also persecute you; if they have kept my saying, they will keep yours also." So I know I will get made fun of and persecuted for sharing my faith and not everyone will like me for it but it has been on my heart lately so let me start off by writing how I came to know the Lord as my personal Savior.

I don't have one of those testimonies where the Lord saved me from Alcohol and drugs but he saved me from those things before I had a chance of getting involved with those things. I was blessed enough to be born in a family the truly loves the Lord and my parents had me in church 9 months before I was born. But as we all know just because we are born in a Christian home does not make us a Christian. We all have to come to that point where we realize we are sinners in our lives and need Christ to change us. (Romans 3:23- "For all have sinned and come short of the glory of God;). For me it was one Easter morning when I was in 1st grade so I was around 6 years old. In children's church at the Anchorage Baptist Temple. Being Easter they talked about the death, burial and resurrection of Jesus Christ. (Romans 6:23- For the wages of sin is death; but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.) Because of the fall of man in Genesis the punishment of sin is death but God loved us so so much he sent his one and only Son Jesus Christ to come and take that punishment for us so that we can go to Heaven instead of Hell when we die. (Romans 5:23- But God commandeth his love towards us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.) I believed at just even 6 years old of age that if I prayed to him he could and would change me forever. (Romans 10:13-For whosover shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved.) So that day I chose to say the prayer and have my name written in the Lambs book of life. My story doesn't end there though because even when you accept Christ as your personal savior we are still sinners and yes the Lord does forgive us for our sins we shouldn't use that as a crutch to do wrong. Although I believed Christ saved me that day.

I went on my life to live like a normal 6 year old would. I grew up mostly in Anchorage Alaska but my dad was in the military and we got transferred to New Jersey when I was about 13 or 14 years old. I was so angry with the world and God for making me move away from my friends in Alaska. I completely rebelled. Not in the since where I went out and did bad stuff but in my heart. I was always a people pleaser and did not want anyone to think bad of me. But I had no interest in going to church (than God for parents who forced me to.) I just hated like that 13 months in New Jersey and I wanted my parents to know it too. I acted out with tantrums yes tantrums at 13 years old. I can honestly say I am sorry for that year I acted like that. But we needed that year in New Jersey so my dad could finish his schooling and he had the opportunity to meet with our pastor from Anchorage and was offered a position back at our home church as one of the assistant pastors there. So if we never went to New Jersey I would have missed out on so much on my life now. We did move back to Alaska in September of 1999. Where I started High School at Anchorage Christian Schools.

I was so happy to be at a Christian School. Even though I was in a Christian School I continued to act out at home. It was only at home though because I couldn't let anyone see me acting like this I had to let everyone on the outside believe I was perfect. But right before my 16th birthday my church a revival with Jamie Ragel and he talked about living for Christ all  the  time and not just to say the sinner's prayer as a Fire Insurance. I realized that night that is exactly what I did back in the first grade is I said a life insurance prayer. So that night I went up to the alter which was extremely hard because I led everyone believe I was perfect all the time and this showed them I am not. But I realized I loved the Lord and I didn't care what others think. So on October 31, 2000. I truly rededicated my life to the Lord and was baptized a week later which is the first step of obedience after we are saved. I know this is long but I had to share it because it was on my heart.

I shared it not to boast on me but to boast on the Lord and what He has done for me if he can save me he can save you from anything you are going through. Just read over the verses I have in bold and call on Him and I promise He will come into your life and change you too. This is the one and only way we can be saved and go to Heaven and we never know when we are done here. God can call us home at anytime and we need to be ready. Are you ready?