The Winding Road

Our last blog entry was dated February 7, 2010. There has been alot that has taken place in our lives in these past 4 months. We have gone through some valleys, but God has faithfully helped us up the mountain. We just wanted to share a little about what has transpired:

February 8- The day prior to our 2 year anniversary, Sheila shared with me an incredible blessing from God, we will be expecting our first child in October of this year. Our first thoughts were excitement as well as shock. We were focused on the adoption journey that God has called us to and have been overwhelmed by our blessings. We notified our agency as soon as we verified the pregnancy with our Doctor. Due to the length of stay in Kazakhstan, our agency suggested that we freeze our application process until the child we are carrying is close to a year in age. This was a hard decision, but one we felt was in the best interest of our family. We were eagerly anticipating the arrival of the child we are carrying as well as the arrival of the child born in our heart as we started this journey. Soon after, Sheila began dealing with several issues due to the pregnancy. Many days off work, several visits to the hospital, and many sleepless nights took a toll on the two of us physically, mentally, as well as spiritually. Rather than drawing closer to God to show us His will, we neglected quiet times and time in the Word. After two months of major sickness, we both questioned how we would handle one child much less two. Satan began to fill our minds with doubt and fear that caused us to look at what we were doing with a cloud of doubt. Over the course of this time, I prayed daily that Sheila would regain strength and energy and that we would be able to enjoy the pregnancy. God answered these prayers, however we neglected to continue our prayers for our call to adopt. God had provided us with a special blessing, so we would just pick up His call for us at a later date. We serve a mighty God, yet we doubted his faithfulness to sustain us in both the pregnancy and adoption.

Over the past few weeks, God has been placing signs before both of us to follow his will. Due to Sheila's illness, her Doctor said it would be in her best interest to step away from teaching her preschool Sunday School class. Sheila and I began attending our young adult Sunday School class together for the first time in our marriage. We are blessed with a very gifted teacher who has taught us about spiritual truths as well as how to study God's word effectively. Sheila was touched by a message from a group at our church. We recently had a group of 11 travel to Africa to work at an orphanage and perform medical clinics. As the group was sharing about their trip at Church, someone stated their amazement at how the people would just cry out to God in the middle of worship. We have a close friend who has been dealing with a spiritual battle and the testimony spoke to us that this was what they needed to do; to cry out to Jesus. However, we neglected to apply this to our own journey. Yesterday as we traveled to a Doctors check-up we were discussing this matter. As we finished and turned the radio up, a song came on that word for word described everything we had been discussing and experiencing; Cry out to Jesus. God can turn simple moments into reaffirming ones in the blink of an eye. As I woke up for work this morning, I just felt tired and didn't jump up for work. I wound up heading to work about an hour later than anticipated. As I pulled out of the driveway, I ejected a CD that I have been listening to endlessly by a group called Casting Crowns. As turned on the radio (I usually listen to ESPN Radio), it was preset on AFR. At that exact moment, the DJ began a taped interview with Mark Hall, lead singer of Casting Crowns, talking with him about his international adoption experience. He talked about waiting 5 years after answering the call until he held his angel. He talked about the burden God had placed on him to respond to the call and love His child. God had used Steven Curtis Chapman to open Mark's heart to adoption. If you read some of our first entries, you will see that our interest in adoption began through Sheila's experience listening to Steven Curtis Chapman's testimony at WOF. I immediately sent Sheila a text message telling her that I cannot wait until our family will be complete. At the same instant, Sheila was recieving a message from a friend telling her to listen to the interview that Mark Hall gave on AFR. Guys, this was "Divine Intervention" if I must say so.

After not updating our blog in 4 months, we want to update everyone on the happenings God is guiding us through. As you may be aware, Kazakhstan has suspended International adoption. Sheila recieved an email about the suspending of International adoption in Kazakhstan last week. The day before she had heard "Heaven is the Face" by Steven Curtis Chpaman.From the very beginning of our journey God used this song to speak to her heart. We knew that it was no coincidence that she heard right before receiving this news. We also know that we serve a faithful God and are continuing to pray that he will direct our path. We have renewed our commitment to daily seek his will for our adoption journey, wherever that path takes us. We are eagerly anticipating the arrival of Jackson Reid Cantrell in October and we also eagerly anticipate the arrival of our angel that God has chosen for us.

We are amazed, thankful, blessed by the way God has provided for us and continue to give Him praise!

For those who would like to continue to follow our journey, we plan to continue the blog and hope for no more 4 month delays between updates. Please keep our family in your prayers. Love you guys!