The changing of seasons...

I always think it is beautiful how Winter melts into Spring. This year we are getting to see it, even in Texas! Ha, that is if it will ever really melt away. I love it. I love Spring. I love it when the bright green blades of grass dare to poke through the hardened dried up dead grass. I love it when the sun comes out and peeks through on a cool day, and reminds me that no matter how cloudy a day is, if the Lord tells the sun to break through, it will.

We have found some amazing people to rent our house. The Lord is so good. I fell in love with them as they walked with me through the house. It was my delight that they fell in love with our house too. It is a great house! The season is changing alright.

I am meeting with a few different people about the business this week. Wow. What a crazy month. Tomorrow, Christian will be 3 weeks old. We have really had some interesting things happen this month. I realized as I was listening to a sermon about Believing God (I can't remember the man's name that was teaching, but he was broadcasting from India), I realized that we were in a bit of a situation like Abram. God told him to go. He told him to go to a place He would tell him about. That is us. We felt certain that we were to put the house on the market. We have renters. We now are headed to a place that we are waiting to see exactly where it is. He told us to sell the business. We are meeting with people to sell the business to, but we don't know who they are (yet), and we don't know what we will do afterwards. He is simply telling us to move on. He is reminding us that He is the God who is in control - with a captial "C". He made all of creation. He knows what is best, and He wants what is good for us. That is the part I find that the enemy wants to steal away. He doesn't want us to remember that God has good intentions towards us. But, Jeremiah 29:11 tells us that He knows the plans He has for us, plans to prosper us and not to harm us, plans to give us hope and a future. That is the God I serve. He has good plans for us. Prosper may not mean financially - but it is so clear that it means better... in His way, whatever that looks like, it is better. He wants to give us hope. I haven't dared let my heart hope for some things in a very long time. I had forgotten how to believe for something I didn't yet have - or something that my circumstances weren't directly pointing to. Bummer. I thought for a while I believed God, really believed Him for things. I did believe Him for Mia. No doubt. I knew that He had the situation entirely taken care of. But, for all of these other things... my hope was not in a person (Jesus), it was in the thing.... the thing that I hoped about. I have a hope. My hope is in Christ. It is one thing to say it, and another entirely to mean it. My hope is not in what Christ has yet for me, it is in what Christ has already given me. My eternity is sealed - forever - and cannot be taken from me. My hope is that I will dwell in the presence of God for all of eternity. And this hope cannot be shaken. This truth cannot be taken from me. Wow.

I believe that He has a promised land for me here on this earth. I believe that if I will believe Him, I could learn a lesson from those who have gone before and enter that land - here on earth. Only by His grace will I have belief like that. Only by His mercy could that not be taken from me. I am asking Him that I would truly love Him wholeheartedly. I am asking Him that I would truly hope in just one thing... in one amazing man, Jesus Christ. He is my hope of glory. He is my righteousness.

Anyway, the seasons are changing for the Simmons'. I feel a fresh wind blowing in, much like that in Mary Poppins, only, this wind is ushering in the very things of God. The God who is at work all around us. We are getting to watch His hands move all around us. That is a season worth celebrating. The uncertainties are really few... though they seem like many, simply because He is never uncertain. He is always doing the right thing, and He is the One who has begun a work. Bring it to completion, Lord. Finish the work you have begun in us. Let us believe you, let us trust you and let us bring you much glory!

Everything changes but God stays the same!

The last several days have been full of emotion for me. Our Birthmother, Candice, delivered a very healthy, very precious baby boy on February the 8th. Candice has drastically changed her lifestyle over the last 5 months and has made every decision in the last two months with regard to the precious little boy growing inside of her. She hasn't missed any doctor's appointments, or wic appointments, or probation appointments. Candice is a new lady. She has completely changed her thinking. She has been doing so well. On February 10th, just minutes before she was supposed to be discharged from the hospital, CPS told Candice that she couldn't take the baby home. They were even telling her that she might not get a chance to find a family for him to go with. That is when we called our adoption agency and Kim came to the rescue! She was literally driving right by the hospital when I called her and she was in the room in less than 2 minutes. Praise God for His timing and His plan. She came in and helped us work out a much better situation. Ken and I were allowed to take Christian home with us and we - because it is all through our adoption agency - are allowed to let Candice see him anytime we want. I just have to be there with them. This was a sweet gift from the Lord. But, I don't think I have to tell you how devastated Candice is. She was so prepared, so ready to begin being a mommy. She has been looking forward to the day she would get to take him home for so long. And, here again she sits with no baby in her arms. However, I am CONVINCED that she will get to raise this little boy. I believe with my whole heart that she is going to work out whatever plan they create for her and take him home and be his mommy. In the meantime, Ken and I have much praying to do. We have many things to consider, and we have a lot of other things on our plate as well. I know that none of this is a surprise to God. I know that He knows every day of Christian's life. I know that He knows exactly when Candice will get to really start being his mommy. In the meantime, I will be taking him to see her several times a week and begging the Lord for favor on her behalf with CPS. Please pray for us all. Please please pray that on Tuesday morning when we meet for them to set her plan, that they will shorten the time they have been saying. They are telling Candice that it could be a year before she could bring him home. That just breaks my heart. He needs her. She wants so badly to parent him. My heart is just aching for both of them. I am praying for a drastic change in their plan, and I am asking the Lord that he be able to go home with her by April 19th - her birthday. Please pray with us for victory in this. I believe it is a battle happening in the heavenlies. Either way, Candice has said that she will fight for him no matter how long it takes. 3 months, 6 months, a year... it doesn't matter. She is ready to be his momma whenever they will let her - no matter what they require of her. So, thank you for your prayers for her. Pray for us too. We need wisdom to know what it is exactly that the Lord desires from us. Pray we will hear Him so clearly. Pray that we will have the strength to do whatever He asks. Thank you for walking through this with us. What a blessing to have friends that will lift up our family and our precious Candice at this time.