Prayer

[CrystalB9]

I feel like I am monopolizing this part of the forum with my requests. You all are so great and I know I can turn to you for my prayer needs. I truly appreciate you all so very much for taking the time to read the prayer request posts and then to pray for them.

My family and I are planning on going to the Mexico mission trip with Jimmie Lu and her husband this spring. We have spent time in prayer and have asked others to pray for us. We feel God wants us to do this and He will provide the way. I would just like to again ask for prayers in regards to this and our family. In another post I wrote how we are having difficulties with our oldest son and now we are in the process of a possible court battle with our youngest who was to be adopted last week. We feel like these are big road blocks that satan is trying to throw our way to keep us from the trip. God is bigger then anything the devil could toss our way, but we would liked to be bathed in prayer right now. If you could remember my family as we work and pray over our son, plead to God to not loose our beautiful daughter and to bless us with the funds to be able to go out on the mission field.
Jer. 29:11
Thank you all very much!

[HeidiPA]

Crystal~
You are in my prayers.
I feel sure that God will make a way for you.
Blessings,
Heidi

[CrystalB9]

Thank you Heidi. I am so glad we have become such good friends.
You're great!!

[Brooke]

Crystal, the Lord brings you to mind whenever I pray of a morning. Thanks for letting us know just how to pray for you and yours. Remember, too, that the Spirit intercedes on our behalf even if we don't know just how to pray.

[Jimmie Lu]

You know Larry and I are praying for you!!! I will also ask the team to pray for you with out sharing alot of details.

[Anne]

I'm praying for you, Crystal!
Blessings,

[CrystalB9]

Thank you Heidi, Brooke, Jimmie Lu and Anne. We appreciate your prayers so very much!!

[Deena]

Crystal,

I hadn't heard the latest on the adoption process for your little girl. I thought it was all said and done. I'm so sorry there are problems!!!

I think it's great that you are going on that mission trip with Jimmie Lu---what a great experience for you and your family! I think you're right---when you decide to make a difference for God, the devil's going to throw things in your way! We all know God is stronger, and can make us strong in our weakness!

Our prayers are with you during this time. God will make good come of this, whatever happens, so hang in there! God is with you always!

[CrystalB9]

Jessie has been with us off and on since she was three weeks old. Her bio mother has some mental health issues and we have always been there to help with Jessie. A year ago we started the process to make Jessie legally ours. The adoption was to be final last week, but the bio father has now stepped forward and would like a "chance" to raise his daughter (his words). Jessie does not know him. He has been gone since she was a baby.
As someone on this forum reminded me - God loves Jessie even more then we do - thats hard to imagine because we love her with all that we are, but He does. I cant imagine God would want her to be moved from the only family and home she has ever truly known to be with a man she doesnt know. I dont mean to sound nasty and I wont go into details, but he is not even a good man.
God is an awesome God and my husband and I are just looking for the lesson to be taught by this happening. I am not scared anymore. I know God has a plan for Jessie. My prayer is that this experience is preparing us for something. I can honestly say I am a different mother with this happening. What if the courts give this man custody and Jessie is taken from me tomorrow?? I want her to remember today and how much we love her and the impact we hopefully had/have on her life. She is a very precious gift to us.
Even with a pending court battle that could costs thousands of dollars, we feel lead to go on this mission trip to Mexico. Ironically, Jessie is half Mexican so maybe that is part of our desire for this trip. We hope and pray God provides the funding so we can have this awesome experience with our family. We are so excited to see how God will use us and excited to see how God will change us.

[Brooke]

Felt like posting this for you.....during my prayer today I was remembering your family and thinking of the scripture that no weapon forged against us will prosper! I've been praying for God to just expose something on the other side that makes the whole thing just be done and decided in favor of your family without a lengthy process......

Eph 3:20 Now unto him that is able to do exceeding abundantly above all that we ask or think, according to the power that worketh in us,

[CrystalB9]

Brooke thank you for that scripture. I am getting my Bible right now to look it up and read it myself. Passages like that ease my heart.

Your prayers are so appreciated.

[becky]

Crystal, does this guy want money?
What's his point?

[CrystalB9]

Becky - I honestly dont know. Someone suggested that it was a pride issue with him, that he didnt like the fact the another man was raising "his" child, doing "his" job. IF that is true it doesnt make any sense since my husband has been her daddy for many years now. Maybe it bothers him now because we are making it final by adopting her.
I just pray God works on this mans heart and opens his mind so he can see how much we love Jessie and how we can provide a loving home for her.

Thanks again everyone for your prayers! You all are so great...

[Deena]

Crystal,

I meant to add this to my meesage above, but somehow forgot....sorry!

My favorite text is John 14:27: Peace I leve with you, My peace I give unto you.....Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid." That gives me comfort in bad times!

We'll pray that God opens the eyes of EVERYONE that's involved, so the true picture (you ARE her "real" parents--more so than he is or has been, pride is not as important as the happiness and well-being of the child) is seen, and things work out for you all!

[CrystalB9]

I have a friend who has been praying for me and my famiy in regards to our situation with Jessie. At the begining I often questioned why this was happening. I am now looking at what I can learn from it. This is what she sent me -

Malachi 3:3 says: "He will sit as a refiner and purifier of silver". This verse puzzled some women in a Bible study and they wondered what this statement meant about the character and nature of God. One of the women offered to find out the process of refining silver and get back to the group at their next Bible Study. That week, the woman called a silversmith and made an appointment to watch him at work. She didn't mention anything about the reason for her interest beyond her curiosity about the process of refining silver. As she watched the silversmith, he held a piece of silver over the fire and let it heat up. He explained that in refining silver, one needed to hold the silver in the middle of the fire where the flames were hottest so as to burn away all the impurities. The woman thought about God holding us in such a hot spot then she thought again about the verse that says: "He sits as a refiner and purifier of silver." She asked the silversmith if it was true that he had to sit there in front of the fire the whole time the silver was being refined. The silversmith answered that yes, he not only had to sit there holding the silver, but he had to keep his eyes on the silver the entire time it was in the fire. If the silver was left a moment too long in the flames, it would be destroyed. The woman was silent for a moment. Then she asked the silversmith, "How do you know when the silver is fully refined?" He smiled at her and answered, "Oh, that's easy - when I see my image in it." If today you are feeling the heat of the fire, remember that God has His eye on you and will keep watching you until He sees His image in you.

P.U.S.H - Pray Until Something Happens!